6 Quotes by N. Daniel

What were numbers other than abstract concepts we used to describe reality? I felt that using numbers to describe people was as silly as using technical language to describe spinach dip. Humans, I imagined, were not meant to be predictable, and if they were, nothing new or innovative would ever be accomplished.

During the past few years I had come to understand that there were two kinds of perfection. The first was the natural cycle in which we live, where things rise and fall like the changing of the tides; a perfection which nevertheless contained death, putrefaction and filth. The second, an imaginary place that was created perfect and sentenced to remain so in an impermanent world, as clear and brittle as glass, for the ideal was a place, a locus, even when its template applied to living beings.

Confessing sins, if you believe in Jesus, the power of God will come over you. Confession of sin by itself will not bring you salvation; it only prepares your heart for the gift of God.

As a race, humans have existed for thousands of years without psychiatry, therapy or medications. Why now is it more important than in previous decades when we were fine without them? America survived the Great Depression without Prozac.

What we needed was a transition from a world where the rule is “It's us or them,” to a world where “us” and “them” are no longer separated by a conjunction. To take it one step further, a world where there is no them. Just us.

The most beautiful thing about humanity is that we have the power to transmute our pain into wisdom. The most tragic thing about humanity is that we are so unwilling to be hurt.