Love in the Time of Cholera

by Gabriel García Márquez

“I understood this man was a saint,” he said. “Something even rarer,” said Dr. Urbino. “An atheistic saint. But those are matters for God to decide.”

From youthful enthusiasm he had moved to a position that he himself defined as fatalistic humanism: “Each man is master of his own death, and all that we can do when the time comes is to help him die without fear of pain.”

Dr. Urbino, prepared for a confidential visit, realized too late that there was no innocence more dangerous than the innocence of age.