It Was Better, He Thought, To Fail

It Is All Nonsense, To Be Sure; And So Much The Greater Nonsense Inasmuch As The True Interpretation Of Many Dreams - Not By Any Means Of All Dreams - Moves, It May Be Said, In The Opposite Direction To The Method Of Psycho-analysis.

The Saint Endeavors To Recover A Gift Which He Has Lost; The Sinner Tries To Obtain Something Which Was Never His. In Brief, He Repeats The Fall.

It Appears To Me That It [sin] Is Simply An Attempt To Penetrate Into Another And Higher Sphere In A Forbidden Manner. You Can Understand Why It Is So Rare. There Are Few, Indeed, Who Wish To Penetrate Into Other Spheres, Higher Or Lower, In Ways Allowed Or Forbidden. Men, In The Mass, Are Amply Content With Life As They Find It. Therefore There Are Few Saints, And Sinners (in The Proper Sense) Are Fewer Still.

For, Contrary To The Common Opinion, It Is The Wealthy Who Are Greedy Of Wealth; While The Populace Are To Be Gained By Talking To Them About Liberty, Their Unknown God. And So Much Are They Enchanted By The Words Liberty, Freedom, And Such Like, That The Wise Can Go To The Poor, Rob Them Of What Little They Have, Dismiss Them With A Hearty Kick, And Win Their Hearts And Their Votes For Ever, If Only They Will Assure Them That The Treatment Which They Have Received Is Called Liberty.

Every Branch Of Human Knowledge, If Traced Up To Its Source And Final Principles, Vanishes Into Mystery.