Gnawing

"One should never direct people towards happiness, because happiness too is an idol of the market-place. One should direct them towards mutual affection. A beast gnawing at its prey can be happy too, but only human beings can feel affection for each other, and this is the highest achievement they can aspire to."
--Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn,
Shulubin, in "Cancer Ward" (1968)