Good-bye to All That

by Robert Graves

determined to shake itself free of illusions. To withdraw a little from ‘literature’ and even from the experience of all and sundry, in order to give itself breathing space and announce that mankind is irredeemably foolish, that good sense is likely to be disbelieved, that death and destruction, along with hurtfulness and stupidity, are as strong, if not stronger, than love and kindness.