The doctors tell us of a physical disease called fatty degeneration of the heart… there is a moral malady—fatty degeneration of the soul; sooner or later it attacks every man, however noble his career, who puts self forward in his aims; who values fame because a personal possession. – Frank Lee Benedict, The Price She Paid, 1882

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

O poor mortals, how ye make this earth bitter for each other. – Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution

Man talks about everything, and he talks about everything as though the understanding of everything were all inside him. – Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin