MacBeth by William Shakespeare

1.3

lines 122-125

:Banquo to MacBeth

“…oftentimes, to win us to our harm,

The instruments of darkness tell us truths;

Win us with honest trifles, to bretay us

In deepest consequence.”

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Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Part Eight

Chapter 19

:Levin talking to himself (thinking)

“This new feeling has not changed me, has not made me happy and enlightened all of a sudden, as I dreamed it would. It is like the way it was with my feeling for my son. There was no surprise about this either. But be it faith or not - I don’t know what it is - through suffering this feeling has crept just as imperceptibly into my heart and has lodged itself firmly there.

I shall still lose my temper with Ivan the coachman, I shall still embark on useless discussions and express my opinions inopportunely; there will still be the same wall between the sanctuary of my inmost soul and other people, even my wife; I shall probably go on scolding her in my anxiety and repenting of it afterwards; I shall still be as unable to understand with my reason why I pray, and I shall still go on praying - but my life now, my whole life, independently of anything that can happen to me, every minute of it is no longer meaningless as it was before, but has positive meaning of goodness with which I have the power to invest it.”

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The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Book IV Torment

Chapter I Father Ferapont

:Father Paisii speaking to Alexei

“Remember, young man, unceasingly,” Father Paisii began, without preface, “that the science of this world, which has become a great power, has, especially in the last century, analysed everything divine handed down to us in the holy books. After this cruel analysis the learned of this world have nothing left of all that was sacred of old. But they have only analysed the parts and overlooked the whole, and indeed their blindness is marvellous. Yet the whole still stands steadfast before their eyes, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Has it not lasted nineteen centuries, is it not still a living, a moving power in the individual soul and in the masses of people? It is still as strong and living even in the souls of atheists, who have destroyed everything! For even those who have renounced Christianity and attack it, in their inmost being still follow the Christian ideal, for hitherto neither their subtlety nor the ardour of their hearts has been able to create a higher ideal of man and of virtue than the ideal given by Christ of old. When it has been attempted, the result has been only grotesque. Remember this especially, young man, since you are being sent into the world by your departing elder. Maybe, remembering this great day, you will not forget my words, uttered from the heart for your guidance, seeing you are young, and the temptations of the world are great and beyond your strength to endure. Well, now go, my orphan.”

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Can a Smart Person Believe in God by Michael Guillen

“Still, off the top of my head, I’d say the chances of star dust accidentally coming together to form even a simple creature are akin to the odds of a raw chunk of marble accidentally being carved by wind and rain into Michaelangelo’s Pieta.”

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