"So long as a man leads a normal, ordered life among his own kind,
such details of his curriculum vitae represent important phases and
significant turning points in his life; but as soon as chance, illness,
or an assignment separate and isolate him, these highlights begin
suddenly to fade and gutter, to wither and shrivel like so many
papier-mâché masks that one has no use for any more. And from underneath
there begins to emerge our other life, known to only ourselves, the
"true" story of our spirit and body, one that has not been set down
anywhere and which no other person can begin to guess at, a story that
has no visible connection with our successes in society but which, in
the final tally of good and evil in our existence, is the only concrete
and decisive one."

Adapted from the english translation of "The Travnik Chronicle" by
Ivo Andriĉ