Steppenwolf (1927)
Context: He gained strength through familiarity with the thought that the emergency exit stood always open and became curious, too, to taste his suffering to the dregs. If it went too badly with him he could feel sometimes with a grim malicious pleasure: “I am curious to see all the same just how much man can endure. If the limit of what is bearable is reached, I have only to open the door to escape.” There are a great many suicides to which this thought imparts a common strength.
“The thought of suicide is a great consolation: by means of it one gets through many a dark night.”
“It is time which imparts strength to all things and brings them to maturity.”
3.
The Law
“There are a great many ways to commit suicide you know.”
The Stand (Uncut), Chapter 55 p. 799
The Stand (1978)
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 420.
Source: The Esoteric Tradition (1935), Chapter 11
Tragedy and Triumph of Reason (1985)
Context: Nuclear war, unless it is prevented, would lead to the extinction of life on Earth and possibly in the Universe. Can we take such a risk?
In our medical practice when we deal with a critical patient in order to save him, we mobilize all our energies and knowledge, sacrifice part of our hearts and enlist the cooperation of our most experienced colleagues. Today we face a seriously ill humanity, torn apart by distrust and fear of nuclear war. To save it we must arouse the conscience of the world's peoples, cultivate hatred for nuclear weapons, repudiate egoism and chauvinism, and create favorable atmosphere of trust. In the nuclear age we are all interdependent. The Earth is our only common home which we cannot abandon. The new suicidal situation calls for the new thinking. We must convince those who take political decisions.
Our professional duty is to protect life on Earth. True to the Hippocratic Oath, physicians will dedicate their knowledge, their hearts and their lives to the happiness of their patients and the well-being of the peoples of the world.
“There is something great and terrible about suicide.”
Il existe je ne sais quoi de grand et d'épouvantable dans le suicide.
The Wild Ass’s Skin (1831), Part I: The Talisman
