If wishes were filet mignon, we'd always eat well at dinner

You won't find the truth of life in morbidity, only in hope.

Is rule of thumb in writing game: if story requires many long descriptions of smells so vile that will give reader nausea, is not likely to find publisher.

Or maybe they were just doing it for fun. A lark. Their religion is tolerant of extreme forms of recreation. Boys will be boys, after all, and sociopathic boys will be sociopathic.

What looks tragic might be comic on second consideration, and what is comic might bring tears in time.

Civilization rests on the fact that most people do the right thing most of the time.

When we don't allow ourselves to hope, we don't allow ourselves to have purpose. Without purpose, without meaning, life is dark. We've no light within, and we're just living to die.