We love being mentally strong, but we hate situations that allow us to put our mental strength to good use.

The place suggested a convent with the modern improvements—an asylum in which privacy, though unbroken, might be not quite identical with privation, and meditation, though monotonous, might be of a cheerful cast.

An odd thing about beauty, however, is that it's absence tends not to arouse our sympathy as much as other forms of privation do.