“I swear to you, sirs, that excessive consciousness is a disease--a genuine, absolute disease.”

“I swear to you that to think too much is a disease, a real, actual disease.”

“It's precisely their diseases that people pride themselves on, and I do-more perhaps than anybody else. Let's not argue; my objection was absurd. But that aside, I am firmly convinced that not only excess of consciousness, but any consciousness at all is a disease.”

“But yet I am firmly persuaded that a great deal of consciousness, every sort of consciousness, in fact, is a disease.”

“A member of Parliament to Disraeli: 'Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease.'That depends, Sir,' said Disraeli, 'whether I embrace your policies or your mistress.”

“If you take good care of any disease by eating well, sleeping well, being aware of your health, consciously wanting to be well, not smoking, et cetera, you are doing all the things you should be doing anyway, but somehow having a disease makes them easier to do. A human without a disease is like a ship without a rudder.”