Nowadays every private individual takes a personal insult to be an insult against society at large. (Merlin Press, 1961, 1956, trans. by David Magarshack, p. 5)

A kind of unseen power made him keep away from his colleagues whom at first he had taken for decent, well-bred men. And for long afterwards, in his happiest moments, he would see the shortish Civil Servant with the blad patch on his head, uttering those pathetic words, :Leave me along! Why do you pester me?" And in those pathetic words he seemed to hear others: "I am your brother." (Merlin Press, 1961, 1956, trans. by David Magarshack, p. 9)