Isilmë

“When was you the happiest, Call?” Augustus asked.
“Happiest about what?” Call asked.
“Just about being a live human being, free on the earth,” Augustus said.
“Well, it’s hard to single out any one particular time,” Call said.
“It ain’t for me,” Augustus said. “I was happiest right back there by that little creek. I fell short of the mark and lost the woman, but the times were sweet.”
It seemed an odd choice to Call. After all, Gus had been married twice.
“What about your wives?” he asked.
“Well, it’s peculiar,” Augustus said. “I never was drawn to fat women, and yet I married two of them. People do odd things, all except you. I don’t think you ever wanted to be happy anyway. It don’t suit you, so you managed to avoid it.”
“That’s silly,” Call said.
“It ain’t, either,” Augustus said. “I don’t guess I’ve watched you punish yourself for thirty years to be totally wrong about you. I just don’t know what you done to deserve the punishment.”
“You’ve got a strange way of thinking,” Call said.”
― Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove

“If you want one thing too much it’s likely to be a disappointment. The healthy way is to learn to like the everyday things, like soft beds and buttermilk—and feisty gentlemen.”
― Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove