regret and resentment, a human strategy, aphorism 404

404


I gain always at the expense of innocence, and I feel the loss as I feel all losses ... with regret and resentment.  But let me learn how to be ashamed of this innocence and not its loss ... as the boy learns after his first hunt, that the kill raises the hair on his nape, that there is exhilaration behind the guilt ... and that this exhilaration is older and stronger.

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