Holderlin, Hyperion.

"Do you know, then, do you know what you are starving for, the one thing that you lack? It is a better age that you are seeking, a more beautiful world. It was that world alone that you embraced in your friends. . . It was no man that you wanted; believe me, you wanted a world. The loss of all the golden centuries. . . the spirit of all spirits of a better age--you wanted a single person, one man, to take their place for you."