Without a family, man, alone in the world, trembles with the cold.

Maurois’s line treats “family” less as a mere social unit than as a primary shelter against existential exposure. The “cold” is metaphorical: isolation, insecurity, and the emotional chill of a world faced without intimate bonds. By picturing the solitary person as physically trembling, the quote suggests that human vulnerability is not only psychological but embodied, and that belonging provides warmth in the form of care, continuity, and mutual obligation. The statement also implies a critique of radical individualism: autonomy without sustaining relationships can become a kind of homelessness, leaving the individual unprotected against life’s hardships and indifferent public spaces.