One Hundred Years of Solitude

Úrsula thought more than once that all the splendor she had in her life, in the end, needed to be repaid with loneliness. She remembered the passionate vitality and dreams of her husband José Arcadio Buendía when he was young, and the efforts and sacrifices he made in pursuit of those ideals.

She realized that although they had had some good times, all the splendor and glory would eventually bring only loneliness and emptiness. She was old, her face was full of wrinkles, she was no longer surprised by anything, and she was often tired, but she never stopped thinking about everything. She had understood that all the splendor she had in her life, in the end, needed to be repaid with loneliness. She also understood that loneliness was the fate of the Buendía family. It was never accidental, but an eternal fate.