Paula

“While he washed his hands in spirits he took a look at Querry over his shoulder. The dispenser was shepherding the lepers out and they were alone. He said, ‘Are you wanted by the police? You needn’t be afraid of telling me–or any of us. You’ll find a leproserie just as safe as the Foreign Legion.’ ‘No. I’ve committed no crime. I assure you there’s nothing of interest in my case. I have retired, that’s all. If the fathers don’t want me here, I can always go on.’ ‘You’ve said it yourself–the boat goes no farther.’ ‘There’s the road.’ ‘Yes. In one direction. The way you came. It’s not often open though. This is the season of rains.’ ‘There are always my feet,’ Querry said. Colin looked for a smile, but there was none on Querry’s face.”
― Graham Greene, A Burnt Out Case

“Imaginative literature is otherness, and as such alleviates loneliness”
― Harold Bloom, How to Read and Why

“Given the fantastic forms of the mythology of the time, it all seems exotically remote. In fact, when we look more closely, we can see that we are dealing with a confrontation which has never ended and is constantly assuming new forms. The confusion mentioned above between the spirit of man and the Spirit of God characterizes all of mankind’s more ambitious religious and philosophical speculations and mysticisms. It constantly devalues the sensible world, visible organization, the flesh, matter: these are mere ‘appearances’, either a deception or something to be seen through and overcome. Concealed behind them lies the only truth, the spirit, which must be set free and brought out into the open. This is the central axiom of all the religions of the East—from their ancient beginnings to their present-day posterity in this allegedly ‘post-Christian age’. We shall see how hard it was for the Fathers after Irenaeus to ward off Gnostic infiltration. In the Middle Ages, from the remote Calabrian monastery of Fiore, the doctrine of Abbot Joachim was to exert an incalculable influence on later generations which has lasted to the present day. He thought that the age of the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity (together with the organized structure of His Church) would eventually ‘dissolve’ into an age of Pure (Holy!) Spirit.”
― Irenaeus of Lyons, The Scandal of the Incarnation: Irenaeus Against the Heresies

“Once you turn against yourself, it’s hard not to believe that everyone else is against you, too”
― Paul Auster, Leviathan