Be her and be yourself, simultaneously. Be outrageous. Being pious is easy and pleasant, go ahead and make yourself hated.

And so I, my love, am going to the very center of the earth. I am going to the point that is closest of all to Heaven. If my words are destined to fly all the way to Heaven, then it will happen there. And all my words will be about you.

A little bird hops happilyAlong disaster's fences,As it does, it can't foreseeAny consequences.

I do know what suffering is. It is terrible, not because it torments the body but because you no longer dream of ridding yourself of pain: you are prepared to rid yourself of your body. To die. You simply are not in a condition to think about matters such as the meaning of life and you see ridding yourself of suffering as the only meaning of death.

They embraced in parting. There were tears in the merchant’s eyes:“I do not like parting.”“Life consists of partings,” said Arseny. “But you can rejoice more fully in companionship when you remember that.”“But I would (the merchant Vladislav blew his nose) gather up all the good people I’ve met and never let them go.”“I think then they would quickly become mean,” smiled Ambrogio. (p. 238)

An abundance of discoveries befogged the heads of my former contemporaries who made atheism a fashion, too. Even then, they were reminiscent of a ladybug on the highway who's charmed by her own motion and crawls a dozen meters. The ladybug seems to think she's learned and grasped everything. She will never find out, though, where the highway begins and where it leads.

So you say faith is not enough for you and you want knowledge, too. But knowledge does not involve spiritual effort; knowledge is obvious. Faith assumes effort. Knowledge is repose and faith is motion.