Status Updates From The Lifted Veil

"I felt a sort of pitying anguish over the pathos of my own lot: the lot of a being finely organised for pain, but with hardly any fibres that responded to pleasure––to whom the idea of future evil robbed the present of its joy, and for whom the idea of future good did not still the uneasiness of a present yearning or a present dread. "

"What if I saw into the heart of Bertha, the matured woman - Bertha, my wife? Bertha, the girl, was a fascinating secret to me still: I yearned to be assured of her love. The fear of poison is feeble against the sense of thirst."