The Sorrows of Young Werther
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (translated by R.D. Boylan)
November 22
I cannot pray, “Leave her to me !” and yet she often seems to belong to me. I cannot pray, “Give her to me!” for she is another’s. In this way I affect mirth over my troubles; and, if I had time, I could compose a whole litany of antitheses.