Life as it is? I’ve lived for over forty years, and I’ve seen life “as it is”! Pain. Misery. Cruelty beyond belief! I’ve heard all the voices of God’s noblest creature: moans from bundles of filth in the streets!

I’ve been a soldier and a slave. I’ve seen my comrades fall in battle or die more slowly under the lash in Africa. I’ve held them at the last moment. These were men who saw life as it is, but they died despairing! No glory; no brave last words. Only their eyes filled with confusion, questioning “Why?” I do not think they were asking why they were dying, but why they had ever lived.

When life itself seems lunatic! Who knows where the madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness! To surrender dreams; this may be madness! To seek treasure where there is only trash! Too much sanity may be madness!

But maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be! – Man of La Manch