Those who are faithful know only the trivial side of love: it is the faithless who know love’s tragedies.” And Lord Henry struck a light on a dainty silver case and began to smoke a cigarette with a self-conscious and satisfied air, as if he had summed up the world in a phrase. There was a rustle of chirruping sparrows in the green lacquer leaves of the ivy, and the blue cloud-shadows chased themselves across the grass like swallows. How pleasant it was in the garden! And how delightful other people’s emotions were!–much more delightful than their ideas, it seemed to him. One’s own soul, and the passions of one’s friends–those were the fascinating things in life.

From “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde

With his characteristic elegance, Oscar Wilde exposes one of the painful truths of human relationships: “It is the faithless who know love’s tragedies.” The unfaithful carries the weight of his infidelity all the day long, day after day, and sometimes year after year, when the illicit behavior lingers on.  The affair might fulfill some physical or emotional need for a while, but in the end, lying and hiding will catch up with the cheaters and end up eroding the happiness that they want to achieve in the first place.  Some might defend the benefits and excitement of a temporary relation as if humans could shut the lid upon their emotions and control the consequences of their acts.  Passion can be as explosive as dynamite and one never knows when it is going to blow up.  And if it is true love what bonds both lovers, nothing will block the river of feelings from reaching the sea of truth.