Literature and Life in Of Human Bondage In the novel Of Human Bondage, the reader comes across a truly magnificent quote on page 627. This quote is: "He had always lived in the future, and the present always, always slipped through his fingers." In itself, this is a very powerful quote. However, it can have even more power and meaning if a person can connect this quote to their own life and experiences. I myself, after reading this quote, was immediately able to identify with it. This quote almost perfectly describes the middle school years and early high school years. Many nights I found myself staying at home, watching TV, doing one thing or another in my house. I almost never left the house and had nothing that could even remotely be called a social life. The reason I behaved like this was that I spent most of my time thinking about my future and wishing for it to come. I felt almost no happiness whatsoever about where I was or what I was doing in the present. I cut myself off from the outside world. I was quite shy around other people (still am, I admit) and had very few friends. It wasn't long before I discovered the flaws in my errant life. I finally realized, and truly not a moment too soon, that if I didn't start living for the present, my future would soon become my neglected present. I would have wasted my life doing meaningless things and would have no experience to share with anyone who might be interested in the peaceful life I had led. After coming to this startling revelation, I became even more apathetic in my depression. I really felt like there was nothing I could do to remedy this situation and I was completely out of solutions. Soon, however, I concluded that there was no alternative to hard work to change the current state of affairs in my life. That's when I truly embarked on the hardest journey of my life thus far. This is the journey of self-altering and successfully changing my behavioral patterns. The changes I have made in myself have been quite noticeable to those people who have known me for a large number of years.