A Monomaniac Is A Sick Person Whose

A Social Fact Is Every Way Of Acting, Fixed Or Not, Capable Of Exercising On The Individual An External Constraint; Or Again, Every Way Of Acting Which Is General Throughout A Given Society, While At The Same Time Existing In Its Own Right Independent Of Its Individual Manifestations.

Man's Characteristic Privilege Is That The Bond He Accepts Is Not Physical But Moral; That Is, Social. He Is Governed Not By A Material Environment Brutally Imposed On Him, But By A Conscience Superior To His Own, The Superiority Of Which He Feels. Because The Greater, Better Part Of His Existence Transcends The Body, He Escapes The Body's Yoke, But Is Subject To That Of Society.

Faith Is Not Uprooted By Dialectic Proof; It Must Already Be Deeply Shaken By Other Causes To Be Unable To Withstand The Shock Of Argument.

A Mind That Questions Everything, Unless Strong Enough To Bear The Weight Of Its Ignorance, Risks Questioning Itself And Being Engulfed In Doubt.

A Monomaniac Is A Sick Person Whose Mentality Is Perfectly Healthy In All Respects But One; He Has A Single Flaw, Clearly Localized. At Times, For Example, He Has An Unreasonable And Absurd Desire To Drink Or Steal Or Use Abusive Language; But All His Other Acts And All His Other Thoughts Are Strictly Correct.