Nothing is more curious and awkward than the relationship of two people who only know each other with their eyes – who meet and observe each other daily, even hourly and who keep up the impression of disinterest either because of morals or because of a mental abnormality. Between them there is listlessness and pent-up curiosity, the hysteria of an unsatisfied, unnaturally suppressed need for communion and also a kind of tense respect. Because man loves and honors man as long as he is not able to judge him, and desire is a product of lacking knowledge. Thomas Mann
About This Quote

Portia is able to understand her prospective husband, Bassanio, so well through only seeing him through her eyes and not through his. She knows what he looks like and how he behaves, but she does not know him.

Source: Death In Venice And Other Tales

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