It is easy to love people in memory; the hard thing is to love them when they are there in front of you.

It is not difficult to deceive the first time, for the deceived possesses no antibodies; unvaccinated by suspicion, she overlooks lateness, accepts absurd excuses, permits the flimsiest patching to repair great rents in the quotidian.

It comes to him: growth is betrayal. There is no other route. There is no arriving somewhere without leaving somewhere.

john updike

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