One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand

by Luigi Pirandello

we are ready enough to note the faults of others, while all the time unconscious of our own.

What does being alone mean to you? Keeping your own company, without any stranger about.

Reflections: 1. That I was not to others what up to then I had believed that I was to myself; 2. That I could not see myself living; 3. That, not being able to see myself living, I remained a stranger to myself, that is, one whom others believed they saw and knew, each after his own fashion, but not I;

There is in me and for me a reality that is mine: that which I confer upon myself; a reality that is yours, in you and for you: that which you confer upon yourself; and these are never the same, either for me or for you.”

I mean to say: 1) Dida as she was to herself; 2) Dida as she was to me; 3) Dida as she was to Quantorzo; 4) Quantorzo as he was to himself; 5) Quantorzo as he was to Dida; 6) Quantorzo as he was to me; 7) Dida’s dear Gengè; 8) Quantorzo’s dear Vitangelo. What a charming conversation there was going to be, here in this drawing-room, among these eight who believed themselves three!