"I found reflected in myself all the world's lust for war and murder, all its cowardice; I had to lose first my self-respect and then my self-contempt; I had no less a task than to carry through to the end my scrutiny of chaos, with the now soaring, now sinking hope of rediscovering beyond chaos nature and innocence. Every human being who has been awakened and really has achieved consciousness has on one or more occasions walked this narrow path through the wilderness--to try to talk to others about it would be a fruitless effort."

(Hermann Hesse, Life Story Briefly Told)