Sublime

That moment – the young man later wrote – changed his life. It gave him a sense of belonging where there was none before. It made him realise, at a time when race relations in the United States were still fraught, that a black family could feel at home in a white area and that there could be relationships that were colour-blind. Over the years, he

Wise people don’t just possess information; they possess a compassionate understanding of other people. They know about life.

A truly wise man can be characterized in three respects: firstly in the way he himself behaves as he advises others to behave; secondly, in never acting unjustly; and, thirdly, in tolerating the weaknesses of those around him. Tolstoy

I consider conviviality to be individual freedom realized in personal interdependence and, as such, an intrinsic ethical value.

To live a spiritual life is to seek to grow in love and kindness—and to persevere even when love as a perfect integration of emotion and action seems daunting or out of reach.

Thus, while religion deals only with fancies, theorems, and beliefs, the initiates of the Ancient Wisdom go straight to the fountainhead of wisdom and, learning the will of the gods, make that will the law of their lives. The initiate does not guess, wonder or soliloquize; he labors with facts for he is one with the truths of Nature.

I did not, however, aim at gaining his favor by paying any servile respect to him, but, after some time, took this other method. Having heard that he had in his library a certain very scarce and curious book, I wrote a note to him, expressing my desire of perusing that book, and requesting he would do me the favor of lending it to me for a few days

feeling of love leads us to act lovingly, and loving acts, in turn, elicit (or reinforce) feelings of love, thus creating a virtuous circle.