― Gabor Mate, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction

“Above everything, he aches for unity with the external feminine caritas—blessed, soul-saving, divine love. Divine here refers to not a supernatural deity above us, but to the immortal essence of existence that lives in us, through us, beyond us. A search for the external extends far beyond formal religious concepts. One consequence of spiritual deprivation is addiction.”