“Life would have been quite another matter for them both if they hadlearned in time that it was easier to avoid great matrimonialcatastrophes than trivial everyday miseries. But if they had learnedanything together, it was that wisdom comes to us when it can nolonger do any good.”

“wisdom comes to us when it can no longer do any good.”

“Together they had overcome the daily incomprehension, the instantaneous hatred, the reciprocal nastiness, and fabulous flashes of glory in the conjugal conspiracy. It was time when they both loved each other best, without hurry or excess, when both were most conscious of and grateful for their incredible victories over adversity. Life would still present them with other moral trials, of course, but that no longer mattered: they were on the other shore.”

“It was the time when they loved each other best, without hurry or excess, when both were most conscious of and grateful for their incredible victories over adversity. Life would still present them with other mortal trails, of course, but that no longer mattered: they were on the other shore. ”

“[A]nd both of them remained floating in an empty universe where the only everyday and eternal reality was love.”

“Over the years they both reached the same wise conclusion by different paths: it was not possible to live together in any other way, or love in any other way, and nothing in this world was more difficult than love.”

“In that way the long-awaited visit, for which both had prepared questions and had even anticipated answers, was once more the usual everyday conversation.”