We seek pitifully to convey to others the treasures of our heart, but they have not the power to accept them, and so we go lonely, side by side but not together, unable to know our fellows and unknown by them.
 W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence (1919). copy citation

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Author W. Somerset Maugham
Source The Moon and Sixpence
Topic power heart
Date 1919
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/222/222-h/222-h.htm

Context

“Each one of us is alone in the world. He is shut in a tower of brass, and can communicate with his fellows only by signs, and the signs have no common value, so that their sense is vague and uncertain. We seek pitifully to convey to others the treasures of our heart, but they have not the power to accept them, and so we go lonely, side by side but not together, unable to know our fellows and unknown by them. We are like people living in a country whose language they know so little that, with all manner of beautiful and profound things to say, they are condemned to the banalities of the conversation manual.” source