We

by Yevgeny Zamyatin

One must remember that mathematics, like death, never makes mistakes, never plays tricks.

Human history moves upward in circles, like an aero. The circles are at times golden, sometimes they are bloody, but all have 360 degrees. They go from 0° to 10°, 20°, 200°, 360°—and then again 0°. Yes, we have returned to zero.

Moreover, the unknown is naturally the enemy of man. And Homo sapiens only then becomes man in the complete sense of the word, when his punctuation includes no question marks, only exclamation points, commas, and periods.

Who is ignorant of the simple fact that pains are negative items that reduce that sum total we call happiness?

“How do I know? Man is like a novel: up to the last page one does not know what the end will be. It would not be worth reading otherwise.”

“And why then do you think there is a last revolution … their number is infinite.… The ‘last one’ is a child’s story. Children are afraid of the infinite, and it is necessary that children should not be frightened, so that they may sleep through the night.”

Do you believe that you will die? Oh, yes, “Man is mortal; I am a man; consequently …” No, not that; I know that; you know it. But I ask: Has it ever happened that you actually believed it? Believed definitely, believed not with your reason but with your body, that you actually felt that someday those fingers which now hold this page will become yellow, icy? … No, of course you cannot believe this. That is why you haven’t jumped from the tenth floor to the pavement before now; that is why you eat, turn over these pages, shave, smile, write.