Teresa (Saint Teresa of Avila) herself was starved for such companionship, especially when her mystical experiences of God reached a cosmic level to which no one else could relate. If is a great comfort to be understood by others who trust and believe in the personal experiences that we share with them, especially those for which there are no witnesses....When Teresa was fifty-two years old, she met John of the Cross, who was then only twenty-five. After they exchanged their experiences of God, they recognized each other as soul companions. In John, Teresa finally found someone with whom she could share the mystery of her life with God. After they met, she no longer needed to prove or defend her experiences of the soul. (Sadly, John burned all their correspondence shortly before his death.)
Teresa emphasized the need for companions on the spiritual journey. No one should travel through her Castle alone, she wrote again and again. Teresa knew firsthand the difficulty of inner work required of the soul pilgrim, who was as likely to experience a dark night of the soul, to borrow a phrase from John of the Cross, as she was to experience the light and grace of liberation.

A house that has a library in it has a soul.

Mais, ma soeur, au nom de Dieu, qui nous éclaire, recevez ce livre sacré que je vous porte; c'est le livre de notre législateur Zoroastre; lisez-le sans prévention; recevez dans votre coeur les rayons de lumière qui vous éclaireront en le lisant;

...the adventure of the soul among the masterpieces.

Los hijos, como los libros, son viajes al interior de una misma en los cuales el cuerpo, la mente y el alma cambian de direccion, se vuelven hacia el centro mismo de la existencia.

Encontrar a Fedro guiando a Sócrates casi al mismo sitio, quizá lo era, le había impresionado profundamente. El árbol de amplia copa, la verde ladera en que recostarse, el agua fría al pie; sólo faltaban las ofrendas votivas y el santuario. «Concededme ser hermoso por dentro — había suplicado Sócrates — y haced que las cosas exteriores e interiores se reconcilien».

To be holy is to be home, to be able to rest in the house of belonging that we call the soul.

Me dijo que se pasó toda la representación recibiendo de ella más sensaciones y más información sobre las profundidades del alma humana de las que jamás había recibido de fuera de sí misma a través de ningún medio conocido como la literatura, la pintura o la música.

Direct your eye inward, and you'll find / A thousand regions in your mind / Yet undiscovered. Travel them, and be / Expert in home-cosmography

<b>MARSYAS:</b>
There are seven keys to the great gate,
Being eight in one and one in eight.
First, let the body of thee be still,
Bound by the cerements of will,
Corpse-rigid; thus thou mayst abort
The fidget-babes that tease the thought.
Next, let the breath-rhythm be low,
Easy, regular, and slow;
So that thy being be in tune
With the great sea's Pacific swoon.
Third, let thy life be pure and calm
Swayed softly as a well-to-live be bound
To the one love of the Profound.
Fifth, let the thought, divinely free
From sense, observe its entity.
Watch every thought that springs; enhance
Hour after hour thy vigilance!
Intense and keen, turned inward, miss
No atom of analysis!
Sixth, on one thought securely pinned
Still every whisper of the wind!
So like a flame straight and unstirred
Burn up thy being in one word!
Next, still that ecstasy, prolong
Thy meditation steep and strong,
Slaying even God, should He distract
Thy attention from the chosen act!
Last, all these things in one o'erpowered,
Time that the midnight blossom flowered!
The oneness is. Yet even in this,
My son, though shalt not do amiss
If thou restrain the expression, shoot
Thy glance to rapture's darkling root,
Discarding name, form, sight, and stress
Even of this high consciousness;
Pierce to the heart! I leave thee here:
Thou art the Master. I revere
Thy radiance that rolls afar,
O Brother of the Silver Star!

Every book is a journey, a map into the complexities of the human mind and soul.

Be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul.

Her soul belongs ​to words and​ books. Every time she ​reads she ​is home

The most beautiful of altars, he said, is the soul of an unhappy creature consoled and thankfing God.