"One evening, she said without preamble: 'Petey, I think you should get married. I think it would be much better if you were married.' He found no answer, and while he groped for something gay to utter, she added: 'Petey, why don't you... why don't you marry Catherine Halsey?' He felt anger filling his eyes, he felt pressure on his swollen lids, while he was turning slowly to his mother; then he saw her squat little figure before him, stiff and defenseless, with a kind of desperate pride, offering to take any blow he wished to deliver, absolving him in advance--and he knew that it had been the bravest gesture she had ever attempted. The anger went, because he felt her pain more sharply than the shock of his own, and he lifted one hand, to let it fall limply, to let the gesture cover everything, saying only: 'Mother, don't let's...'"

The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand