...surely I could give him--a sort of contentment... That isn't enough to give. Not for the giver.
Dodie Smitha loss of sensibility follows a loss of innocence, at once a penalty and a compensation.
Dodie SmithHe stood staring into the wood for a minute, then said: "What is it about the English countryside โ why is the beauty so much more than visual? Why does it touch one so?" He sounded faintly sad. Perhaps he finds beauty saddening โ I do myself sometimes. Once when I was quite little I asked father why this was and he explained that it was due to our knowledge of beauty's evanescence, which reminds us that we ourselves shall die. Then he said I was probably too young to understand him; but I understood perfectly.
Dodie Smith