What is it, between the Jew and Gentile, the swine eater, the crustacean eater, the vegetarian, the Israeli, the Palestinian, the wealthy and the poor, the honest, the kind-hearted, the idolater, the Catholic and the Protestant, the murderer, the liar, the hardworking, the loving, the king and the peasant, the Sunday keepers and the Sabbath keepers, the adulterer, the prostitute, the nobleman, the thief, the male and the female?
It is the brutal relationship of constant judgement between us all.
Upon looking at a harlot, the common eye sees that harlot, unclean and immoral, yet not a woman. When it sees the black man, it sees the black man, yet not a man! The tax collector? It sees the tax collector, yet also not a man!
The black, the harlot, the poor, the peasant, the tax collector; are they not all human? Are they not men and women, likewise yourself?
You are a person because of other persons. One can never develop themselves without humanly interaction. From the way we lay judgement on others, it can presume more about ourselves than it can to the one we judge.
Fellowship is necessary. Though solitude is also necessary, what good will a man do if he is all alone, without motive or knowledge that there is a chance to be loved somewhere along the paths of his life?
What shall you think of when stranded in a lost land? Is it your material, the things you owned, the titles you have achieved, or is it the excitement within a relationship that you once had with a special somebody at twenty-two? Is it the comfort that you felt when your mother read to you at night, past the hour of midnight?
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It is characteristic of fanatics who read the holy scriptures to tell themselves: God killed, so I must kill; Abraham lied, Jacob deceived, Rachel stole: so I must steal, deceive, lie. But, wretch, you are neither Rachel, nor Jacob, nor Abraham, nor God; you are just a mad fool, [...]
The utmost devil's advocate, Voltaire.
Though my religious and spiritual beliefs are different than his, I can appreciate with great sincerity his undeniable wit.
Voltaire had been a man of reason, not of faith; he states the existence of a Creator is fact, not superstition.
I am (longing to be) a girl of faith.
