"The final element of the new chivalric religion, having replaced a celibate and misogynist priesthood with a new elite brotherhood of warriors, was to introduce the honour due to women. Women were pure by nature and not, as the priests claimed, corrupted vessels of the flesh pulling men down to punishment and death. Part of chivalry was not only the respect due to good women but also the task of protecting them from slander and danger."

- Ian Dallas, The Interim is Mine, Cape Town: Madinah Press

"I cannot wash away your negativities and sins with water, nor can I remove your pain and suffering by my hand, nor can I transfer my realizations to you."

"The only way I can help you is through giving teaching, and you should strive to liberate yourself."

- Buddha Shakymuni

"The origin of all demons is in mind itself.

When awareness holds on and embraces any outer object, it is in the hold of a demon."

- Maching Labdron

"Mantenha este pensamento à mão quando você sentir a aproximação de um ataque de raiva — não é sábio ficar enfurecido. Em vez disso, a gentileza e a civilidade são mais humanas e, portanto, mais maduras. Um homem de verdade não dá lugar à raiva e ao descontentamento, e tal pessoa tem força, coragem e resistência — ao contrário dos zangados e reclamadores. Quanto mais perto um homem chega de uma mente calma, mais perto ele está da força."
— Marco Aurélio

"Let go of the past, let go of the future.
Let go of present. Having gone beyond becoming, with mind completely freed, you will never again come to birth and aging."

Dhammapada 24:348

"Enquadre seus pensamentos assim — você é uma pessoa velha, você não vai mais se deixar escravizar pelas coisas, não mais será puxada como um fantoche por cada impulso, e você vai parar de reclamar sobre seu presente ou temer o futuro."
— Marco Aurélio

"But look at what the universal laws decree. Suppose that you have devoted your mind to higher things. You would not then need a judge to give you some kind of prize. It is you yourself who have achieved this excellent state. And suppose you turn to the bad. You don't need someone else to say that this must be punished, because you have done this to yourself."

-- Boethius

“Enemy-occupied territory—-that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.” - C. S. Lewis

>Buddhist legends relate that Buddha was given the true Buddhism by the king of the serpents (often seen as the cobra), and Buddhists also revere the regenerative powers the snake exhibits.

https://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/religion/other/general/snake-worship

"The Birth of a Star" by contemporary American symbolist artist Michael Divine. (c. 2010)