"Depression is the flaw of love. To be creatures who love, we must be creatures who can despair at what we lose and depression is the mechanism of that despair. When it comes, it degrades one's self and ultimately eclipses the capacity to give or receive affection. It is the aloneness in us made manifest and it destroys not only connection to others but also the ability to be peacefully alone with oneself. Love, though it is no prophylactic against depression, is what cushions the mind and protects it from itself."

Section 1: Depression, page 15

"Large depression is the stuff of breakdowns. If one imagines a soul of iron that weathers with grief and rusts with mild depression, then major depression is the startling collapse of a whole structure."

Section 1: Depression, page 17

"The worst of depression lies in a present moment that cannot escape the past it idealizes or...