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When specially occupied, other things do not exist for him; it is a sort of chase from which nothing diverts him." And this hot pursuit, which nothing arrests save capture, this tenacious hunt, this headlong course by one to whom the goal is never other than a fresh starting-point, is the spontaneous gait, the natural, even pace which his mind prefers.
"I am always at work," says he to Roederer.[1148] "I meditate a great deal.

If I seem always equal to the occasion, ready to face what comes, it is because I have thought the matter over a long time before undertaking it.

I have anticipated whatever might happen.

It is no spirit which suddenly reveals to me what I ought to do or say in any unlooked-for circumstance, but my own reflection, my own meditation.

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I work all the time, at dinner, in the theatre.