Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve continuation of the species. - William Somerset Maugham

...we learn resignation not by our own suffering, but by the suffering of others.

"I don't believe in the god of the Christians who gave his son in order to save mankind. That's a myth. But why should it have arisen if it didn't express some deep-seated intuition in men? I don't know what I believe, because it's instinctive, and how can you describe an instinct with words? I have an instinct that the power that rules us, human beings, animals and things, is a dark and cruel power and that everything has to be paid for, a power that demands an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and that though we may writhe and squirm we have to submit, for the power is ourselves."

...you know what the critics are. If you tell the truth they only say you're cynical and it does an author no good to get a reputation for cynicism.