"Mankind has become loathsome to me. I need rest and solitude. Greatness bores me to death. The fount of feeling is dried up. At twenty-nine years of age, I find that fame is vanity. I've got to the end of everything. Only one resource is left to me, to become an absolute egoist... I have come into the world too late. There is nothing great left for me to do. I do not deny that I have a fine career, but what a difference between me and the heroes of antiquity. Look at Alexand