" But (we stopped ourselves short) was this not just wishful thinking? Weren't we, in order to enable ouselves to go on, positing from our boy a blessing we could not possibly verify?
Yes.
Yes we were.
But we must do so, and believe it, or else we were ruined.
And we must not be ruined.
But must go on. "

― George Saunders , Lincoln in the Bardo