If you are freezing on a winter night, it is a warm couch.
If you are hungry, it is a place where hunger is never felt.
If you are persecuted, it is a kind-hearted overlord who welcomes you at the open door.
If you are alone and forgotten, it is a hall where your dearest kinsmen are expecting you.
If you are a sinner, then it is for you a period of pain and shame.
If you are a slave, it is your liberty.
A slave came daily to a noisy brook and, sitting down, listened in silence. "Why do you come every day to me?" asked the brook. "I am condemned to silence by my tyrants, and I come to voice my complaints through your clamorous babbling."
A slave listened every night to a nightingale. "Why are you listening to me?" said the bird. The answer was: "My ears are denied all day by the curses of my master, and I listen all night to your voice so that my ears may be purified."