We no longer long to go back and see the land where more flowers bloom. It is just the unsurprising past. People cannot return to life. If we had known from the beginning that what we came to see was nothing more than this we might not have set out on the road. So we thank God for having concealed the purpose for us and pushing it so far that the very effort to reach it has brought us a certain joy, the only sure joy. We thank God for so great a pain that we hope for an end so glorious.
We have spent our whole life without seeing life
Gide's "Journey to Ulian"