The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.

--JRR Tolkein, The Fellowship of the Ring

attentiveness

This is the first, the wildest and the wisest thing I know: that the soul exists and is built entirely out of attentiveness.

- Mary Oliver

beauty

People often say that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder. This empowers us to find beauty in places where others have not dared to look, including inside ourselves.

--Salma Hayek

"I believe in the God of Spinoza."

 http://yesteethatsme.com/2019/09/substance-of-god.html

There's a post that's been floating around facebook with muddled attribution--some people make it sound like either Spinoza told people to pat their dogs, or that Einstein did so quoting Spinoza. The whole piece is lovely but it's 100% recent.

When I stand before thee at the day's end, thou shalt see my scars and know that I had my wounds and also my healing. 

 - Rabindranath Tagore