Speaking of ‘failure’, as I was, I particularly like what Boris Pasternak has Zhivago say on the subject to Lara:
I don’t think I could love you so
much if you had nothing to complain of and nothing to regret. I don’t like
people who have never fallen or stumbled. Their virtue is lifeless and it isn’t
of much value. Life hasn’t revealed its beauty to them.
What a great novel is Doctor Zhivago, one of the very best
of the twentieth century, I feel ‒
somewhat underrated now. Time to read it again...

