In spiritual terms the human being does not arrive over the years and as a matter of course at anything. No idea could be more directly opposed to spirit. (p. 90)

What afflicts the adult is not to much the illusion of hope as, no doubt among other things, the grotesque illusion of looking down from some supposedly higher…

Purely philosophically it could be a subtle question whether it is possible both to be in despair and to be quite clear what one despairs of. (p. 92)

What characterizes despair is just this - that it is ignorant of being despair. (p. 75)