The arrogance of wanting to be loved had emerged only now it was unreciprocated — I was left alone with my desire, defenseless, beyond the law, shock… - Alain de Botton

We do our sulking lovers the greatest possible favor when we are able to regard their tantrums as we would those of an infant. We are so alive to the idea that it’s patronizing to be thought of as younger than we are; we forget that it is also, at times, the greatest privilege for someone to look beyond our adult self in order to engage with — and forgive — the disappointed, furious, inarticulate child within.

Insofar as we appreciate order, it is when we perceive it as being accompanied by complexity, when we feel that a variety of elements has been brought to order — that windows, doors and other details have been knitted into a scheme that manages to be at once regular and intricate. (p184)

"One's doing well if age improves even slightly one's capacity to hold on to that vital truism: "This too shall pass.