Voices

Voice

Miroslav Krleza, On the Edge of Reason

Human Flourishing Literature Psychology

A personal doodle illustration selected for this voice.
Drawing by Greg Conrad Smith, 2026.

Had I not come to a turn in this account that could be described as a fatal one, according to a mysterious law of human folly, in all probability I would have spent my whole life overwhelmed by my own contradictions: inert, lazy, slightly embittered, and fairly stupid, as life is when talking in taverns to silly babblers, or even to friends, discussing the migration of peoples, battles, religions, books, crocodiles, and especially the healing effects of mallow tea and sharks.

In the life of every individual human being there is a time termed by novelists “fatal,” and I had such a fatal experience that fall. It was about two years ago.

–Miroslav Krleza, On the Edge of Reason

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