I've Loved And Lost For More Than One Lifetime

What do you imagine you're doing on this Earth?

I want to look back and say that I didn't turn my back, that I was happy.

Whether by fate or the divine ironies of some higher power, I find myself returned once more to Brideshead. Did I want too much? Did my own hunger blind me to the ties that bound them to their faith? Am I only now, shadowed by war, all moorings gone, alone enough to see the light?

I take it you're not religious, Hooper? 

Me? God, no. Can't see the point in it. You're born, you live, then you die. 

Do you have any hope for the future, Hooper? 

Hopes? Oh, aye, plenty. It's our time now. You watch. The old ways, all this, they're gone. Future belongs to us, so long as we don't get shot.

How about you, sir? You got someone special waiting for you?

Me? No. I've loved and lost for more than one lifetime.

... Charles Ryder, Brideshead Revisited