Idealism is what precedes experience; cynicism is what follows. – David T. Wolf

When we are born, we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools. – William Shakespeare, King Lear

[M]an is a machine made expressly for sorrow; he has only five senses with which to receive pleasure, and suffering comes to him through the whole surface of his body…. The man who does not suffer is an ill-made machine, an imperfect creature… – Claude Tillier (1801–1844), My Uncle Benjamin: A Humorous, Satirical, and