“How difficult it is to be content with someone!” This severe statement by La Bruyère should already make us prudent. For common sense demands that everyone adapt to the real conditions of life in society, and it is not right to condemn the average man; that is the folly of misanthropy. Therefore, without seeking causes, I refrain from considering my fellow men as if I were a spectator who has paid for his seat and who wants to be pleased. But on the contrary, reviewing within myself the ordinary course of this difficult existence, I assume the worst in advance ; I suppose that my interlocutor has an upset stomach or a migraine, or perhaps money worries, or domestic quarrels. Uncertain sky, I tell myself, March sky, gray and blue mixed, flashes of sun and bitter north wind ; I have my fur coat and my umbrella.

– Alain, Propos sur le bonheur