The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

Men must be decent first and brilliant later, otherwise you’re not helping people, just servicing the machine

I recalled our discussions on the very nature of kalachakra. What are we, how do we live? Are we, in fact, little more than consciousnesses flitting between an endless series of parallel universes, which we then alter by our deeds?

“The question you must ask yourself is this: will the good you do the other man by helping him overcome his problem–whatever that may be–gout, let’s say–will the help you do to the other man in overcoming his gout exceed the harm, exhaustion and general sense of distaste that you incur to yourself in helping him? I know it doesn’t sound very noble, Harry, but then neither does damaging yourself for the sakes of others, as you will then require fixing, and others will be damaged in the attempt, and so it goes on and on and on, and frankly everyone ends up a worse mess than they were to begin with.”