my mother, poor fish, wanting to be happy, beaten two or three times a week, telling me to be happy: "Henry, smile! why don't you ever smile?" and then she would smile, to show me how, and it was the saddest smile I ever saw

Long ago, among other lies they were taught that silence was bravery.

Why do you insist upon destroying yourself?

There's a light somewhere. It may not be much light but it beats the darkness.

‎"she’ mad but she’ magic. there’ no lie in her fire.

mercy, I think, doesn't the human race know anything about mercy?

the history of melancholia includes all of us.