Plenty of people who survive tragedies end up ambivalent about danger--frightened by it, yet strangely drawn to it.

But insight doesn't necessarily produce self-control. Sometimes you just see your destructiveness more clearly.

My throat tightened, but I held back the tears and reminded myself that withdrawing from a woman is no different than kicking a drug; you feel shaky and you want it, but eventually the need passes, and you feel restored.

The bad things don't seem to happen to bad people.' That's because they already did. There's no original evil left in the world.

When people can do something simple to avoid conflict--say, hit a button or unlock a latch--they'll generally do it.

Plenty of people who survive tragedies end up ambivalent about danger--frightened by it, yet strangely drawn to it.

God is not attracted to mountaintops or church steeples. God is drawn to suffering, and the dark places it surfaces, which is why sharing pain freely feels very much like love, and may be the same thing. (207)