- The amount of comfort. All love and friendship is based in the end on that. When the
quantum of solace stands at zero, you've got to get away to save yourself. From
Ian Fleming's short story of the same name in the Bond collection
For Your Eyes Only.
The Governor paused and looked reflectively over at Bond. He said: "You're not married, but I think it's the same with all relationships between a man and a woman. They can survive anything so long as some kind of basic humanity exists between the two people. When all kindness has gone, when one person obviously and sincerely doesn't care if the other is alive or dead, then it's just no good. That particular insult to the ego - worse, to the instinct of self-preservation - can never be forgiven. I've noticed this in hundreds of marriages. I've seen
flagrant infidelitiespatched up, I've seen crimes and even murder forgiven by the other party, let alone bankruptcy and every other form of social crime.
Incurable disease, blindness, disaster - all these can be overcome. But never the death of common humanity in one of the partners. I've thought about this and I've invented a rather high-sounding title for this basic factor in human relations. I have called it the Law of the Quantum of Solace."
