“There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.”
This is the last line of the book. The Abbess effectively ties together all the ideas of the book and make a more convincing argument than Brother Juniper ever attempted in his interpretation of the accident. She governs her life according to this belief that love is the only purpose in a random chain of life and death.
“Some say that we shall never know, and that to the gods we are like the flies that the boys kill on a summer's day, and some say, to the contrary, that the very sparrows do not lose a feather that has not been brushed away by the finger of God.”
The Abbess in her years of study has learned enough to recognize that life sometimes seems random and at other divinely ordained. She presents these two perspectives as contradictory, but she allows for belief in both of them. Regardless of which school of thought a person falls into, she urges them to focus on their inability to control their death. If death is inevitable, then love for its the only worthwhile pursuit.
"The public for which masterpieces are intended is not of this earth.”
Uncle Pio has a unique view of art because he has seen so much death in his lifetime. He was not made to feel precious from birth but as an accident. He uses this to interpret the undeserving nature of people. He firmly believes that the purpose of art is to entertain gods, not mankind.
“Esteban fell face downward upon the floor. "I am alone, alone, alone," he cried. The Captain stood above him, his great plain face ridged and gray with pain; it was his own old hours he was reliving. He was the awkwardest speaker in the world apart from the lore of the sea, but there are times when it requires a high courage to speak the banal. He could not be sure the figure on the floor was listening, but he said, "We do what we can. We push on, Esteban, as best we can. It isn't for long, you know. Time keeps going by. You'll be surprised at the way time passes.”
Alvarez successfully convinces Esteban to stand up and continue living. He does so by explaining that nobody knows when their time will be up, but they should press on until such a time as they aren't allowed to anymore. Someone who believes in divine intervention could make the case that Esteban is allowed to die on the bridge because he said yes to life in this scene. In his case, his death is a merciful one.
