Charlie Gordon

"Intelligence gave me the clarity to see my own ending."

"They used me to advance science, but left me behind in the process."

"To be pitied is worse than to be mocked."

"My brilliance was a borrowed light that was never meant to last."

"In becoming smart, I learned to recognize my own loneliness."

"The greatest tragedy is understanding exactly what you're losing."

"I was a boy who became a man who became a boy again."

"Science gave me wings, then clipped them before I could fly."

"I existed in three states: ignorance, enlightenment, and loss."

"My only wish is that they learn from what they did to me."

"The mind is beautiful and terrible in equal measure."

"I loved Algernon more than I loved myself."

"The progress reports are all I have left to prove I once was more."

"Ignorance would have been a mercy I was never offered."

"The real experiment was determining if I could endure the truth."

"In the end, even Algernon and I found peace in oblivion."

"I'm afraid of the dark places in my mind where the shadows of my past still linger"

"I want to understand what it means to be human before I forget how to be one"

"The cruelty of intelligence is that it shows you exactly what you've lost"

"They celebrated my achievement but mourned the loss of the person I was before"

"I was happier when I didn't know how unhappy I was"

"Algernon knew something we didn't—that brilliance is a burden no creature should bear"

"I climbed so high only to fall into an abyss of my own understanding"

"Fay saw only who I became, never who I was or who I'm becoming"

"The greatest tragedy is knowing exactly how you're falling apart"

"Ignorance might not be bliss, but it's certainly less painful"

"I loved her when I couldn't understand love, and lost her when I understood it too well"

"My only choice now is how I face what's coming"

"I am the experiment and the experimenter both"

"They gave me the gift of knowledge and cursed me with the wisdom to understand it"