...it's Indifference

The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.

The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference.

The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference.

And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.


--- Elie Wiesel

What Saves Us...

Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime...
...Therefore, we are saved by hope.


Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history...

...Therefore, we are saved by faith.


Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone...
...Therefore, we are saved by love.


No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as from our own...
...Therefore, we are saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.


--- Reinhold Niebuhr

A Life Worth Living

"Three passions have governed my life:

The longings for love, the search for knowledge, And unbearable pity for the suffering of [humankind]. Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness. In the union of love I have seen In a mystic miniature the prefiguring vision Of the heavens that saints and poets have imagined.

With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of [people]. I have wished to know why the stars shine. 

Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens, But always pity brought me back to earth; Cries of pain reverberated in my heart Of children in famine, of victims tortured And of old people left helpless. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, And I too suffer. 

This has been my life; I found it worth living."

--- Bertrand Russel