“ Because, once alone, it is impossible to believe that one could ever have been otherwise. Loneliness is an absolute discovery. When one looks from inside at a lighted window, or looks from above at the lake, one sees the image of oneself in a lighted room, the image of oneself among trees and sky— the deception is obvious, but flattering all the same. When one looks from the darkness into the light, however, one sees all the difference between here and there this and that.
Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping
