Despair

"For many years I looked at life like a case at law, a series of proofs. When you're young you prove how brave you are, or smart; then, what a good lover; then, a good father; finally, how wise or powerful. But underlying it all, I see now, there was a presumption. That I was moving on an upward path toward some elevation, where I would be justified, or even condemned. I think now that my disaster really began when I looked up one day, and the bench was empty. No judge in sight. And all that remained was the endless argument with oneself, the pointless litigation of existence before an empty bench. Which, of course, is another way of saying, despair."

- Quentin in After the Fall by Arthur Miller

Tim Keller used this in a sermon and I thought it was so powerful in showing that outward works will never grant an inward peace.