“Life is always uncertain,'he said with a shrug. 'We cannot let the fear of what might happen stop us living as we choose.”

“We live what God wants when He wants us to. He withholds joy for a time, then lavishes it all around. He shelters us from pain until He knows we'll live through it. The point is, what matters is this moment. How precious, precious time is. The past had to happen, and we cannot stop the future. Why, then, should we live with a spirit of fear and regret?”

“We should enjoy and make the most of life, not because we are in constant fear of what might happen to us in a mythical afterlife, but because we have only one opportunity to live.”

“We cannot stop what Heaven chooses.”

“If a man feared defeat, he would never give battle... Every victory is inevitably succeeded by defeat. It is the nature of our lives. A man might fight a thousand battles and emerge triumphant from every one; still, he will suffer defeat in the end, for we die and we are forgotten. If we cannot face defeat, we must live always, throughout our lives, in fear. For it awaits us all.”

“Your leaving will not be solved by your coming back. But one does not preclude the other. And maybe that is always what there is to fear, in everything that happens-what we choosee to love to will choose to forsake us.”