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....but there are some men of to-day whom it is impossible to move. So that I feel now what I formerly did not understand--the meaning of the proverb, "A fool you can neither persuade nor break."  God forbid that I should ever have for a friend a wise fool!  There is nothing harder to handle. "I have decided," he says! Why yes, and so have madmen; but the more firm their decision is about what is false, the more hellebore they need.   Will you not act like a sick man, and summon a physician? "I am sick, sir; help me. Consider what I ought to do; it is my part to obey you."

So also in the present instance. "I know not what I ought to be doing, but I have come to find out." Thus one should speak.  No, but this is what one hears, "Talk to me about anything else, but on this point I have made my decision."  "Anything else" indeed! Why, what is more important or more to your advantage than to be convinced that it is not sufficient for a man merely to have reached decisions, and to refuse to change? These are the sinews of madness, not health.  "If you force me to do this, I would gladly die."  What for, man? What has happened? "I have decided"! It was fortunate for me that you did not decide to kill me!