Inspirational quotes or concepts....got any goodies?

I like the piece below. It comes from a book by Julian Barnes , entitled 'A History of the World in 10 1/2 days .'

"The materialist argument attacks love , of course; it attacks everything. Love boils down to pheromones, it says . This bounding of the heart, this clarity of vision, this energizing , this moral certainty, this exultation, this civic virtue, this murmured I love you, are all caused by a low-level smell emitted by one partner and subconsciously nosed by the other ....
Do we believe this ?
Well , let's believe it for the moment , because it makes love's triumph the greater.
What is a violin made of ? Bits of wood and bits of sheep intestine. Does its construction demean and banalize the music? On the contrary , it exalts the music further."

I think that this text can also help us to think about other aspects of what it is to be human .