“We are never so defenseless against suffering as when we love.”

“It is that we are never so defenseless against suffering as when we love, never so helplessly unhappy as when we have lost our loved object or its love.”

“The human race’s prospects of survival were considerably better when we were defenseless against tigers than they are today when we have become defenseless against ourselves.”

“suffering occurs when we want other people to love us in the way we want to be loved.”

“It's going to be a hard time; we can count on that. But with all the misery, what opportunities to show mercy and brotherly love in our land, which has sinned so greatly against love. And patience! For now is the time when the victors, in the blind triumph of their victory, are likely to make mistakes. But that's not our concern, for we shall only be the sufferers, not the agents of suffering. What a power for peace will lie in our own powerlessness if we can only glimpse in it the sign of grace!”

“Analysis, when seen as limited and never final, helps force thequestion of human responsibility, human judgment, and the suffering thataccompanies the assumption of the burden they impose. It is our willingness to assume this burden of suffering that is the only salvation we have,in the end, against evil.”