The Magus

by John Fowles

The truth was I was not a cynic by nature; only by revolt. I had got away from what I hated, but I hadn’t found where I loved, and so I pretended that there was nowhere to love.

all dandyism and eccentricity is more or less unnatural in a world dominated by the desperate struggle for economic survival.

Even a Marxist world must have some destination, must develop into some higher state, which can only mean a higher pleasure and richer happiness for the human beings in it.