Man sees his own superiority
in his ideas, and will fight for them; but herein I perceive his
folly, for this warlike idealism is a disease peculiar to him, and its
effects are similar to those of alcoholism; they add enormously to
wickedness and criminality. This sort of intoxication deteriorates
the brain, filling it with hallucinations, to which the living are
sacrificed.
What an extraordinary spectacle, seen from the interior of our skulls!
A throng of phantoms rising from our overexcited brains: Justice,
Liberty, Right, Country.... Our poor brains are all equally honest,
but each accuses the other of insincerity. In this fantastic shadowy
struggle, we can distinguish nothing but the cries and the convulsions
of the human animal, possessed by devils.... Below are clouds charged
with lightnings, where great fierce birds are fighting; the realists,
the men of affairs, swarm and gnaw like fleas in a skin; with open
mouths, and grasping hands, secretly exciting the folly by which they
profit, but in which they do not share....
O Thought! monstrous and splendid flower springing from the humus
of our time-honoured instincts!... In truth, thou art an element
penetrating and impregnating man, but thou dost not spring from him,
thy source is beyond him, and thy strength greater than his.
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