"What is terrible is that after every one of the phases of my life is finished, I am left with no more than some banal commonplace that everyone knows."

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If mankind were all intellect, they would be continually changing, so that one age would be entirely unlike another. The great conservative is the heart, which remains the same in all ages; so that commonplaces of a thousand years' standing are as effective as ever.

— Nathaniel Hawthorne