What will men do when they see things as they are?
For men who fail to claim their freedom there is the sudden catastrophe, the nausea, the trial and the execution, the slipping to a lower form of life.
…the woman is always more instinctively well adjusted, less susceptible to the abstract than the man.
The descent into the dark world is not necessarily evil; it may be the necessary expression of boldness and intelligence.
You cannot escape chaos by refusing to look at it.
I want to be God, and therefore I try to change myself. I want to dance, to draw, to play the piano, to write verses, to love everybody. That is the object of my life.
The sober hour carries continuous demands on the energy; sense-impressions, thoughts, uncertainties, suck away the vital powers minute by minute.
The self-surmounter can never put up with the man who has ceased to be dissatisfied with himself.
Men do evil because they attach importance to the wrong things, because they are 'grown-up'
Clearly, the lesson here is the same as in *Demian*: childlike innocence is no solution of the Outsider's problems.
There will always be those few who strive to realise the ideal of freedom by being their own judge; these will know the agony of standing alone.