The great majority of men are but tangled skeins, imperfect keyboards, so many specimens of restless or stagnant chaos--and what makes their situation almost hopeless is the fact that they take pleasure in it. There is no curing a sick man who believes himself in health.

Amiel's Journal: The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel; Tr., with an Introduction and Notes (ed. 1893)