The Sistine Chapel

“One by one, through human effort aided by God, souls are distilled, precious drops, — and the nectar which comes at the end has not the same savour as that which flowed first. Each has its own exquisite value. In that lies the meaning of human work, of the desperate search to master the secrets and energies (good and bad) of the world: to perfect, to purify, psychic life (individual and collective) so that types of perfection [in God’s image] may ultimately be seen. . . “

– Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Making of a Mind; Letters from a Soldier-Priest (p. 180)