Oh, gentlemen, perhaps I really regard myself as an intelligent man only because throughout my entire life I've never been able to start or finish anything. Granted, granted I'm a babbler, a harmless, irksome babbler, as we all are. But what's to be done if the sole and express purpose of every intelligent man is babble--that is, a deliberate pouring from empty into void. Fyodor Dostoyevsky
About This Quote

It was in the seventeenth century when Descartes (1596-1650) popularized the story of the Madman who walks into a bar and orders a beer. He says to the bartender, “Ere I drink, I'll tell you what I will do.” And he proceeds to order beer after beer, without drinking any of them. After a while, the Madman gets quite drunk and is finally ready to start telling his plan. He turns to the bartender and says, “I will go into your house tonight and kill your children, one by one, as they come out of their bedrooms. And then I will go into your barber shop, er, hairdresser's shop, er…” The bartender stops him mid-sentence with one question: “What will you do with the bodies?” The Madman looks at him for a moment… His mouth opens… He takes his last sip of beer… “I will lay them on your doorstep, one by one, in their nightclothes!” And then he closes his mouth for good.

Source: Notes From Underground, White Nights, The Dream Of A Ridiculous Man, And Selections From The House Of The Dead

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