Many a doctrine is like a window pane. We see truth through it but it divides us from truth.

For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst?

Solitude has soft, silky hands, but with strong fingers it grasps the heart and makes it ache with sorrow.

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.

It is wrong to think that love comes from long companionship and persevering courtship. Love is the offspring of spiritual affinity and unless that affinity is created in a moment, it will not be created for years or even generations.

My Soul gave me good counsel, teaching me never to delight in praise or to be distressed by reproach. Before my Soul taught me, I doubted the value of my accomplishments until the passing days sent someone who would extol or disparage them. But now I know that trees blossom in the spring and give their fruits in the summer without any desire for accolades. And they scatter their leaves abroad in the fall and denude themselves in the winter without fear of reproof.

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.