- 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."