Everything he admired or loved had been the product of intense individualism. ...when had mass philosophies ever brought benefit or wisdom? - John le Carré

Waking and sleeping she had demanded to know where she belonged in a white man's world, and how and where she should invest her ambition and her humanity

Our power knows no limits, yet we cannot find food for a starving child, or a home for a refugee. Our knowledge is without measure and we build the weapons that will destroy us. We live on the edge of ourselves, terrified of the darkness within. We have harmed, corrupted and ruined, we have made mistakes and deceived.

It was from us they learnt the secret of life: that we grow old without growing wise. They realised that nothing happened when we grew up: no blinding light on the road to Damascus, no sudden feeling of maturity.