" It was a despair in his heart. Slowly, a numbness began in his feet and crept upward, but his thoughts became more intense. Men were born alone; they lived alone. But most terrible of all, they died alone. And died impotent. The impotence was worse, in the last hour, when a man realized that his life had been one endless insult against life and nature and his fellows. Then there was no consolation. There was only the looking down into the abyss. For this loneliness, there was no hope. "

― Taylor Caldwell , Never Victorious, Never Defeated