Hermann Hesse

On Art and War:

'Yes,' said I, 'what we are doing is probably mad, and probably it is good and necessary all the same. It is not a good thing when man overstains his reason and tries to reduce to rational order matters that are not susceptible of rational treatment. Then there are ideals such as those of the Americans or of the Bosheviks. Both are extraordinarily rational, and both lead to a frightful oppression and impoverishment of life, because they simplify it so crudely. The likeness of man, once a high ideal, is in process of becoming a machine-made article. It is for madmen like us, perhaps, to ennoble it again.'

With a laugh Gustav replied: 'You talk like a book, my boy. It is a pleasure and a privilege to drink at such a fount of wisdom. And perhaps there is even something in what you say. But now kindly re-load your piece. You are rather too dreamy for my taste. Any moment may bring a few buck, and we cannot kill them with philosophy. We must have bullets in our barrels.'