Come to me any one who wills--thou shalt meet no
denial, therein is my service. But for a second of this sensuality
in haste--thou shalt pay in money, revulsion, disease and
ignominy.' And that is all. There is not a single phase of human
life where the basic main truth should shine with such a
monstrous, hideous, stark clearness, without any shade of human
prevarication or self-whitewashing."
"Oh, I don't know! These women lie like the very devil. You just
go and talk with her a bit about her first fall. She'll spin you
such a yarn!"
"Well, don't you ask then. What business is that of yours? But
even if they do lie, they lie altogether like children. But then,
you know yourself that children are the foremost, the most
charming fibsters, and at the same time the sincerest people on
earth. And it's remarkable, that both they and the others--that
is, both prostitutes and children--lie only to us--men--and grown-
ups. Among themselves they don't lie--they only inspiredly
improvise. But they lie to us because we ourselves demand this of
them, because we clamber into their souls, altogether foreign to
us, with our stupid tactics and questionings, because they regard
us in secret as great fools and senseless dissemblers.
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