I pity animals and I pity people, because they're thrown into this life without being consulted. Maybe people are more deserving of pity, because they have just enough intelligence to resist the natural course of things. It has made them wicked and desperate, and not very lovable. All the same, life could have been lived differently. There is no impulse more rational than love. It makes life more bearable for the lover and the beloved. We should have recognized in time that this was our only chance, our only hope for a better life. For an endless army of the dead, mankind's only chance has vanished forever. I keep thinking about that. I can't understand why we had to take the wrong path. I only know it's too late. - Marlen Haushofer, The Wall