Once you fall, Septimus repeated to himself, human nature is on you.

“I cannot remember my past, my nose, or the colour of my eyes,or what my general…”

“I have sought happiness through many ages and not found it; fame and missed it;…”

“They know what to say if spoken to. They laugh really; they get angry really; w…”

“Nothing thicker than a knife's blade separates happiness from melancholy.”