We do not know the ultimate purpose of God; in the most we can do here is to see and to now “in part” (1 Corinthians xiii. 9, A.V.). But we can see the out-working in time and space of a vast plan whose roots are in eternity. It is something far greater, more far-reaching, more noble, more generous than most of our forefathers could imagine. We cannot shut our eyes to the breadth and depth of that purpose. The highest, the best and the most satisfying thing that we can do is to ask to be allowed to co-operate with God’s infinite patience in making men whole.

J.B. Phillips. MAKING MEN WHOLE.

There are those who ... [think] that the novel is somehow less "real" than a more didactic book. The reality of fiction, however, lies on a deeper plane than mere "factness." Reality is a function of truth. And truth--however conveyed is real....
"Do good to your neighbor" was not a teaching that originated with Jesus; it had been set forth by hundreds of great men before. But it was Jesus who penetrated clearly and incisively to the very heart of the matter with his parables of the Good Samaritan, immortalizing the truth as no one before or since has ever done... Through the nonfactual, but highly real, genre of the parable--of fiction--Jesus brought spiritual principles to life. 

Michael Phillips. Introduction to KNOWING THE HEART OF GOD by George MacDonald.

...the chief work actuating man's whole life is not done by his hands, his feet, or his back, but by his consciousness. Before a man can do anything with his feet or hands, a certain alteration has first to take place in his consciousness...these alterations are always minute and almost imperceptible.

Bryullóv one day corrected a pupil's study. The pupil, having glanced at the altered drawing, exclaimed: “Why, you only touched it a tiny bit, but it is quite another thing.” Bryullóv replied: “Art begins where the tiny bit begins.”
That saying is strikingly true not only of art but of all life.... True life is not lived where great external changes take place...it is lived only where these tiny, tiny, infinitesimally small changes occur.

Leo Tolstoy. WHY DO MEN STUPEFY THEMSELVES.

A man who has lived in many place is not likely to be deceived by the local errors of his native village; the scholar has lived in may times and is therefore in some degree immune from the great cataract of nonsense that pours from the press and the microphone of his own age.

C.S. Lewis. LEARNING IN WARTIME.