Ilse’s Reviews > Madonna in a Fur Coat > Status Update

The pain of losing something precious - be it happiness or material wealth – can be forgotten over time. But our missed opportunities never leave us, and every time they come back to haunt us, we ache. Or perhaps what haunts us is that nagging thought that things might have turned out differently. Because without that thought, we would put it down to fate and accept it.

If a person truly has the ability to love, then he can never monopolize his beloved. And neither can his beloved monopolize him. The more he spreads his love, the more he adores his one and only true love. When love spreads, it does not diminish.

People somehow manage to accustom themselves to what they first think insufferable.

Even the most wretched and simple-minded man could be a surprise, even a fool could have a soul whose torments were a constant source of amazement.Why do we assume that it is the easiest thing in the world to know and judge another?Why,when we are reluctant even to describe a wedge of cheese we are seeing for the first time,do we draw our final conclusions from our first encounters with people, &happily dismiss them?

Our longings, our disappointments, our fits of rage - we succumb to them when something unexpected happens to us, something that seems to make no sense. Is it even possible to shock a man who is ready for anything, and who knows exactly what to expect from anyone?