Curious,' the Prince continued, after a deep silence, 'is it possible never to have known something, never to have missed it in its absence -- and a few moments later to live in and for that single experience alone? Can a single moment make a man so different from himself? It would be just as impossible for me to return to the joys and wishes of yesterday morning as it would for me to return to the games of childhood, now that I have seen object, now that image dwells here -- and I have this living, overpowering feeling within me: from now on you can love nothing other than , and in this world nothing else will ever have any effect on you.