Coincidentia oppositorum

I don't think much of Jung (or Jungianism) but this quote is surely golden:

It is a bewildering thing in human life that the thing that causes the greatest fear is the source of the greatest wisdom. One’s greatest foolishness is one’s biggest stepping stone. No one can become a wise man without being a terrible fool. Through Eros one learns the truth, through sin we learn virtue. Meister Eckhart says one shouldn't repent too much, that the value of sin is very great. In Thaïs, Anatole France says that only a great sinner can become a great saint, the one cannot be without the other. How can man deal with the terrible paradox? He cannot say: “I will commit a sin and then shall I be a saint,” or: “I will be a fool in order to become a wise man.” The question is, what to do when put into a complete impasse. Then the dream says, in the cauldron things are cooked together, and out of the things strange to each other, irreconcilable, something new comes forth. This is obviously the answer to the paradox, the impossible impasse.