Hopelessly poignant because hopelessly infinite

The concept of a limit is simple. It is the definition that is complex. The concept involves nothing more obscure than the idea of getting closer and closer to something. It suggests the attempt by one human being to approach another: and the inexpungeable thing in love as in mathematics is that however the distance decreases, it often remains what it always was, which is to say, hopelessly poignant because hopelessly infinite.

David Berlinski, A Tour of the Calculus