If I am so clearly unfitted for my post,' the Prince asked; 'if my friends admit it, if my subjects clamour for my downfall, if revolution is preparing at this hour, must I not go forth to meet the inevitable?
should I not save these horrors and be done with these absurdities?
in a word, should I not abdicate?
O, believe me, I feel the ridicule, the vast abuse of language,' he added, wincing, 'but even a principulus like me cannot resign; he must make a great gesture, and come buskined forth, and abdicate.' 'Ay,' said Gotthold, 'or else stay where he is.

What gnat has bitten you to-day?
Do you not know that you are touching, with lay hands, the very holiest inwards of philosophy, where madness dwells?
Ay, Otto, madness; for in the serene temples of the wise, the inmost shrine, which we carefully keep locked, is full of spiders' webs.

All men, all, are fundamentally useless; nature tolerates, she does not need, she does not use them: sterile flowers! All--down to the fellow swinking in a byre, whom fools point out for the exception--all are useless; all weave ropes of sand; or like a child that has breathed on a window, write and obliterate, write and obliterate, idle words! Talk of it no more.

That way, I tell you, madness lies.' The speaker rose from his chair and then sat down again.

He laughed a little laugh, and then, changing his tone, resumed: 'Yes, dear child, we are not here to do battle with giants; we are here to be happy like the flowers, if we can be.