Gather the Fragments

I'm re-reading Alan Ecclestone's `Gather the Fragments' an anthology he made in his retirement and the two pieces that had the most impact upon me this month (but I suppose there's a couple of days left yet) are both of Julien Green I'd been meaning to quote the first here for some time then I read yesterday's piece thought "that's good" and then noticed the author! I see that these two are the only Green pieces in the book

So the first, a dark one:

There are time when I think that hopes of spiritual freedom are the saddest delusion that can torment the human brain. ... Perhaps the important thing does not lie in conquering but in fighting on to the end.

and the second

As long as something inside us protests against ourselves, there is room for hope. It is when one accepts oneself as one is and gives up, that the game is in danger of being lost. In other words. . . .one can set one's mind at rest so long as one feels uneasy!

those two seem to span a vast space between hopelessness and the determination that one can make a difference - to oneself? to others?
To redress these inner thoughts, I'll reference the banner and accompanying meditation that Joy Kewney read in church two weeks ago.