As you say, DeWar, our shame comes from the comparison. We…
““As you say, DeWar, our shame comes from the comparison. We know we might be generous and compassionate and good, and could behave so, yet something else in our nature makes us otherwise." She smiled a small, empty smile. "Yes, I feel something I recognise as love. Something I remember, something I may discuss and mill and theorise over." She shook her head. "But it is not something I know. I am like a blind woman taking about how a tree must look, or a cloud. Love is something I have a dim memory of, the way someone who went blind in their early childhood might recall the sun, or the face of their mother. I know affection from my fellow whore-wives, DeWar, and I sense regard from you and feel some in return. I have a duty to the Protector, just as he feels he has a duty to me. As far as that goes, I am content. But love? That is for the living, and I am dead.””
About This Quote
This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation.
The narrator struggles to understand love, likening it to a blind woman's vague memory of a tree, feeling duty yet recognizing love as a living experience beyond her dead state.
In simple terms: Struggles to grasp love, feels duty, sees love as for the living.
Key Takeaway
Accept limits of understanding love; honor duty.
Themes
love
identity
existence
Mood
melancholic
contemplative
Type
literary
philosophical
When to use this quote
- relationships
- self‑reflection
- spiritual duty
Key Concepts
philosophy
empathy
duty
Questions to Reflect On
- How do we relate to emotions we cannot fully comprehend?
- What does duty mean when love feels distant?
A Different Perspective
Love may remain unknowable for some.