"And having heard, or more probably read somewhere, in the days
when I thought I would be well advised to educate myself, or amuse myself, or
stupefy myself, or kill time, that when a man in a forest thinks he is going
forward in a straight line, in reality he is going in a circle, I did my best
to go in a circle, hoping in this way to go in a straight line. For I stopped
being half-witted and became sly, whenever I took the trouble. And my head was
a storehouse of useful knowledge. And if I did not go in a rigorously straight
line, with my system of going in a circle, at least I did not go in a circle,
and that was something. And by going on doing this, day after day, and night
after night, I looked forward to getting out of the forest, some day."
