V

“Les grands artistes n'ont pas de patrie.

Great artists have no country.”
― Alfred de Musset, Lorenzaccio

“Meurs ! tu es l'ennemi de tout ce qui aime ; affaisse-toi sur ta solitude, n'attends pas la vieillesse ; ne laisse pas d'enfant sur la terre, ne féconde pas un sang corrompu ; efface-toi comme la fumée, ne prive pas le grain de blé qui pousse d'un rayon de soleil !”
― Alfred de Musset, La confession d'un enfant du siècle

“But that's crazy, " George said. "How can I be the Average American Man? I'm only five foot eight and my name is Blaxter spelled with an "l", and I'm of Armenian and Latvian ancestry and I was born in Ship's Bottom, New Jersey. What's that average of, for Chrissakes? They better recheck their results. What they're looking for is some Iowa farmboy with blond hair and a Mercury and 2.4 children."
"That's the old, outdated stereotype," the reporter said. "America today is composed of racial and ethnic minorities whose sheer ubiquity precludes the possibility of choosing an Anglo-Saxon model. The average man of today has to be unique to be average, if you see what I mean."

The Shaggy Average American Man Story”
― Robert Sheckley

“Very well, you possess free will; but now you must use your free will to enslave yourself to God and to us.”
― Robert Sheckley, Dimension of Miracles