Intolerable

The poor man's conscience is clear; yet he is ashamed. He feels himself out of the sight of others, groping in the dark. Mankind takes no notice of him: he rambles and wanders unheeded.

In the midst of a crowd, at church, in the market...he is in as much obscurity as he would be in a garret or a cellar.

He is not disapproved, censured or reproached: he is only not seen. To be overlooked and, to know it, are intolerable. If Crusoe on his island had the library of Alexandria, and a certainty that he should never again see the face of man, would he ever open a volume?

--John Adams