One may be strengthened & fed without the aid of Joy, & no one knows it better than I do; & I believe I know the only cure, which is to make one's centre of life inside of one's self, not selfishly or excludingly, but with a kind of unassailable serenity -- to decorate one's inner house so richly that one is content there, glad to welcome any one who wants to come & stay, but happy all the same in the hour when one is inevitably alone.
- Edith Wharton to Mary Berenson, July 1918 letter
descensus Averno facilis est