I have never known anyone else," Egwene said to him, "who will work so hard to avoid hard work, Matrim Cauthon.

She understood his eyes, colder than winter's heart. A man who knew he was dead and couldn't make himself care; you are spared that. Mashiara. His lost love.

I doubt you can understand the magnitude of the stupidity in your statement

A spoonful of hope and a cup of despair

From the time an Aiel boy becomes a man he will not sing anything but battle chants, or their dirge for the slain. I have heard them singing over their dead, and over those they have killed. That song is one to make the stones weep.

Sometimes, pain is all that lets you know you're alive.

He was swimming in a sea of other people’s expectations. Men had drowned in seas like that.