There is but one thing needful—to possess God

There is but
one thing needful—to possess God. All
our senses, all our powers of mind and soul,
all our external resources, are so many ways
of approaching the Divinity, so many modes
of tasting and of adoring God, "We must
learn to detach ourselves from all that is
capable of being lost, to bind ourselves absolutely
only to what is absolute and eternal,
and to enjoy the rest as a loan, a usufruct.
... To adore, to understand, to receive,
to feel, to give, to act : there is my law, my
duty, my happiness, my heaven. Let come
what come will — even death. Only be at
peace with self, live in the presence of God,
in communion with Him, and leave the
guidance of existence, to those universal
powers against whom thou canst do noth-
Iing ! — If death gives me time, so much the
better. If its summons is near, so much
the better still ; if a half-death overtake
me, still so much the better, for so the path
of success is closed to me only that I may
find opening before me the path of heroism,
of moral greatness and resignation. Every
life has its potentiality of greatness, and as
it is impossible to be outside God, the best,
is consciously to dwell in Him

Henry Amiel