Habent sua fata libelli et balli [Books and bullets have their own destinies]
Law and custom are becoming the subjects of a new field of learning. The anarch endeavors to judge them ethnographically, historically, and also _ I will probably come back to this _ morally. The State will be generally satisfied with him; it will scarcely notice him In this respect he bears a certain resemblance to the criminal _ say, the master spy _ whose gifts are concealed behind a run-of-the-mill occupation.
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Law and custom are becoming the subjects of a new field of learning. The anarch endeavors to judge them ethnographically, historically, and also _ I will probably come back to this _ morally. The State will be generally satisfied with him; it will scarcely notice him In this respect he bears a certain resemblance to the criminal _ say, the master spy _ whose gifts are concealed behind a run-of-the-mill occupation.
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Today only the person who no longer believes in a happy ending, only he who has consciously renounced it, is able to live. A happy century does not exist; but there are moments of happiness, and there is freedom in the moment.
I spit on your happiness! I spit on your idea of life--that life that must go on, come what may. You are all like dogs that lick everything they smell. You with your promise of a humdrum happiness--provided a person doesn't ask much of life. I want everything of life, I do; and I want it now! I want it total, complete: otherwise I reject it! I will not be moderate. I will not be satisfied with the bit of cake you offer me if I promise to be a good little girl. I want to be sure of everything this very day; sure that everything will be as beautiful as when I was a little girl. If not, I want to die!
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The anarch's study of the history of the caesars has more of a theoretical significance for him - it offers a sampling of how far rulers can go. In practice, self-discipline is the only kind of rule that suits the anarch. He, too, can kill anyone (this is deeply immured in the crypt of his consciousness) and, above all, extinguish himself if he finds himself inadequate.