"Many people experience the dying and rebirth-- which is our fate-- only this once during their entire life. Their childhood becomes hollow and gradually collapses, everything they love abandons them and they suddenly feel surrounded by the loneliness and the mortal cold of the universe. Very many are caught forever in this impasse, and for the rest of their lives cling painfully to an irrevocable past, the dream of the lost paradise-- which is the worst and most ruthless of dreams."
Demian, by Herman Hesse
