Break the silence

It is true that, at the same moment as this strange inhibition affects me, I know that such self- chastisement is stupid and pointless. I know there is no sense in denying myself a pleasure because it is denied to others, forbidding myself enjoyment because someone else is unhappy. I know that, in every second when we are laughing and cracking silly jokes ,somewhere or the other human being is breathing stertorously on his deathbed, I know that misery lies hidden behind thousands of windows and men and women go hungry, that there are hospitals, stone quarries and coal mines, that countless drudges work themselves to the bone in factories and offices, countless prisoners do forced labour at every hour of the day, and it does none of them any good in their hour of need for another man to torment himself for no good reason. I realise that if you were to begin thinking in detail of all the misery present in the world at one and the same time, you would never be able to sleep, and all laughter would die in your throat. But theoretical, imagined suffering is not what distress a man and destroys his peace of mind. Only what you have seen with pitying eyes can really shake you.