““He was dead. he lived no longer and would never live again. They had found him down there in the river, pale and bloodless, bereft of life's color, with a twig of the god's own tree in his hand. Thus it was. Thus it would be forever.
Man's destiny is but one. When it is accomplished nothing remains.
Only the gods have many destinies and need never die. They are filled with everything and experience everything. Everything - except human happiness. That they can never know and therefore they grudge it to men. Nothing makes them so evil and cruel as that men should presume to be happy and forget them for the sake of their earthly happiness. Then they claim their revenge. And put a twig of their tree in their victim's hand.”
