Grenouille no longer wanted to go somewhere, but only to go away, away from human beings. - Patrick Süskind

Constantly before his eyes now was a river flowing from him; and it was as if he himself and his house and the wealth he had accumulated over many decades were flowing away like the river, while he was too old and too weak to oppose the powerful current.

What had civilized man lost that he was looking for out there in jungles inhabited by Indians or Negroes?

The odour of humans is always a fleshly odour—that is, a sinful odour.