zoe olesker’s Reviews > Notes from Underground > Status Update

“we’re stillborn”

“they won’t let me… i can’t be… good!”

“she understood from it all what a woman, if she loves sincerely, always understands before anything else — namely, that i myself was unhappy”

“she had light brown eyes, beautiful eyes, alive, capable of reflecting both love and sullen hatred. […]
poor little thing, she […] had run to fetch her only treasure, not wishing me to leave without knowing that she, too, was loved honestly and sincerely, that she, too, was spoken to respectfully. […]
i said nothing, pressed her had, and walked out.”

“i lived — but saw nothing of life, my life was used up”

“i had indeed become excited towards the end of my speech, and now my vanity somehow suffered”

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“he would make his fate hers”

“isn’t this the whole of happiness, when they’re all there together, husband, wife, and child? a lot can be forgiven for those moments”

“one need only love and have courage”

“man only likes counting his grief, he doesn’t count his happiness”

“and where there is no love, there is no reason”