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)

People react predictably, especially when they don't have time to think.

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.

Human empathy, while not found on any chart of human anatomy, is the reason we instinctively hurt for our children... it is the reason that one human being's intensely personal tests and triumphs can be harnessed to the good of countless others.

There's no original evil left in the world. Everyone's just recycling pain. (257)

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

People blush when one of their core truths is revealed.