Александрийский квартет: Маунтолив. Клеа

Город становится миром, когда ты любишь одного из живущих в нем людей.

Правда — столь горькая настойка, что знание вкуса ее — своего рода роскошь.

Она знала, что красота ее — всего лишь вывеска, презирала ее, но освежить не забывала.

Он не ответил. Он думал яростно.

But now, then, tell me — which of us was the greater liar? I cheated you, you cheated yourself.

And here his sense of duty, like ill-fitting shoes, began to pinch him at every step.

Could anything as rich as memory be a cheat? He never asked himself the question.

‘ “You are tipsy” cried Liza again.
‘ “No. I am happy.” He said it seriously. “And happiness can’t be induced. You must wait and ambush it like a quail or a girl with tired wings. Between art and contrivance there is a gulf fixed!”

And then, like all the inexperienced lovers since the world began, he was not content to let things be; he must explore and evaluate them in his conscious mind.

He felt he was slipping, losing so to speak the contours of himself. Is this the real meaning of education? He had begun transplanting a whole huge intact world from his imagination into the soil of his new life.