The Cost of Knowing

It costs so much to be a full human being that there are very few who have the enlightenment or the courage to pay the price…

One has to abandon altogether the search for security and reach out to the risk of living with both arms. One has to embrace the world like a lover. One has to accept pain as a condition of existence. One has to court doubt and darkness as the cost of knowing. One needs a will stubborn in conflict, apt always to total acceptance of every consequence of living and dying.

— Morris L. West, The Shoes of the Fisherman