Spirituality: From "Practical Mysticism" by Evelyn Underhill

We know a thing only by uniting with it; by assimilating it; by an interpenetration of it and ourselves. It gives itself to us, just in so far as we give ourselves to it; and it is because our outflow toward things is usually so perfunctory and so languid, that our comprehension of things is so perfunctory and languid too. The great Sufi who said "Pilgrimage to the place of the wise, is to escape the flame of separation" spoke the literal truth. Wisdom is the fruit of communion; ignorance is the inevitable portion of those who "keep themselves to themselves," and stand apart, judging, analyzing the things which they have never truly known.