[0033]

"I've seen life as it is. Pain, misery, cruelty. I've heard all the voices of God's noblest creatures. Moans from the bundles of filth in the street. I've been a soldier and a slave. I've seen my comrades fall in battle or die, more slowly, under the lash in Africa. I've held them at the last moment. These were men who saw life as it is, and died despairingly. No glory. No brave last words. Their eyes filled with confusion; questioning why. I do not think they were asking why they were dying, but why they had ever lived. When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? To surrender dreams -- this may be madness; to seek treasure where there is only trash. Too much sanity may be madness. But maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be."
-- Cervantes