ordeals

The ordeals of others . . .prepare us, andlater become the compass . . .in our time of ordeal.

Never permit your negative past to come in-between you and the possibilities and opportunities that lie in your present and future.

Let your strength from the pastprovide proof of your abilities to . . .conquer the difficulties of the present.

Through all this ordeal his root horror had been isolation, and there are no words to express the abyss between isolation and having one ally. It may be conceded to the mathematicians that four is twice two. But two is not twice one; two is two thousand times one. That is why, in spite of a hundred disadvantages, the world will always return to monogamy.

I do strongly feel that among the greatest pieces of luck for high achievement is ordeal. Certain great artists can make out without it, Titian and others, but mostly you need ordeal. My idea is this: the artist is extremely lucky who is presented with the worst possible ordeal which will not actually kill him. At that point, he's in business: Beethoven's deafness, Goya's deafness, Milton's blindness, that kind of thing.

Be grateful for all ordeals, they are the shortest way to the Divine.