"Oh, that I had learned to fail sooner! Indeed, tomorrow I must pursue something I am bound to fail. Only one who has learned to play the cuckold can be free from derision—for how can one hold in contempt the man who has already disparaged his own worth?"

The wrong lessons are always learned a day too late.

What an obscene thing is disposable income. We label it superfluous to convince ourselves that we don't need it, then live through it by means of onanistic consumerism. And when we are reminded of the hollowness therein, we pause only long enough to shiver and declaim our good fortune; for how much worse off must be the rabble?