Sterile not only means clean, it also means dead.

Church is a good antidote for God.

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.
~ Krishnamurti

But to be forgiven we must first believe in sin.
~Jewel

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.
~ Douglas Adams

quiet desperation

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.

~ Thoreau, Walden

http://simplymerry.blogspot.com/2007/06/price-of-life.html

of modesty

"...Ay, ay," continued he... "M. Frankenstein is modest, an excellent quality in a young man. Young men should be diffident of themselves, you know, M. Cherval: I was myself when young; but that wears out in a very short time."

~ Mary Shelley, Frankenstein