On Work

"Baron Munchausen's post horn was more beautiful than our canned music, the Seven-League Boots more beautiful than a car, Oberon's kingdom lovelier than a railway tunnel, the magic root of the mandrake better than a telegraphed image, eating of one's mother's heart and then understanding birds more beautiful than an ethologic study of birds' vocalisations.  We have gained reality and lost dream.  No more lounging under a tree and peering at the sky between one's big and second toes; there's work to be done.  To be efficient, one must be hungry and dreamy but eat steak and keep going.  It is exactly as if the old, inefficient breed of humanity had fallen asleep on an anthill and found, when the new breed awoke, that the ants had crept into its bloodstream, making it move frantically ever since, unable to shake off that antlike feeling of industry." (p. 36)