Notes from underground

i want to tell you, gentlemen, whether you wish to hear it or not, why i was unable to become even so much as an insect. I, ll tell you solemnly that i have often wanted to become an insect. But that wasn,t granted me. I swear to you, sirs that excessive consciousness is a disease_ a genuine , absolute disease. For everyday human existence it would more than suffice to have the ordinary share of human consciousness. -Mir Zahid