“If a man could understand all the horror of the lives of ordinary people who are turning around in a circle of insignificant interests and insignificant aims, if he could understand what they are losing, he would understand that there can be only one thing that is serious for him—to escape from the general law, to be free. What can be serious for a man in prison who is condemned to death? Only one thing: How to save himself, how to escape: nothing else is serious.”
P.D. Ouspensky, “In Search of the Miraculous”, ch.17
P.D. Ouspensky, “In Search of the Miraculous”, ch.17