Labyrinth

The love of our neighbor in all its fullness simply means being able to say: “What are you going through?”

It is a recognition that the sufferer exists, not only as a unit in a collection, or a specimen from the social category labeled “unfortunate,” but as a person, exactly like us, who was one day stamped with aspecial mark by affliction.

For an adolescent, capable of grasping this truth and generous enough to desire this fruit above all others, studies could have their fullest spiritual effect, quite apart from any particular religious belief.

Simone Weil