NASTYA [lifting her head from the table and throwing up her hands] Go on! Yell! Let them listen to you!
THE BARON. Where is the sense, my lady?
SATINE. Leave them alone, Baron! To hell with the lot! Let them yell—let them knock their damned heads off if they feel like it! There’s a method in their madness! Don’t you go and interfere with people as that old fellow did! Yes—it’s he—the damned old fool—he bewitched the whole gang of us!
KLESHTCH. He persuaded them to go away—but failed to show them the road . . .
THE BARON. That old man was a humbug!
NASTYA. Liar! You’re a humbug yourself!
THE BARON. Shut up, my lady!
KLESHTCH. The old man didn’t like truth very much—as a matter of fact he strongly resented it—and wasn’t he right, though? Just look—where is there any truth? And yet, without it, you can’t breathe! For instance, our Tartar Prince over there, crushed his hand at his work—and now he’ll have to have his arm amputated—and there’s the truth for you!
SATINE [striking the table with his clenched fist] Shut up! You sons of bitches! Fools! Not another word about that old fellow! [To the Baron] You, Baron, are the worst of the lot! You don’t understand a thing, and you lie like the devil! The old man’s no humbug! What’s the truth? Man! Man—that’s the truth! He understood man—you don’t! You’re all as dumb as stones! I understand the old man—yes! He lied—but lied out of sheer pity for you . . . God damn you! Lots of people lie out of pity for their fellow-beings! I know! I’ve read about it! They lie—oh—beautifully, inspiringly, stirringly! Some lies bring comfort, and others bring peace—a lie alone can justify the burden which crushed a workman’s hand and condemns those who are starving! I know what lying means! The weakling and the one who is a parasite through his very weakness—they both need lies—lies are their support, their shield, their armor! But the man who is strong, who is his own master, who is free and does not have to suck his neighbors’ blood—he needs no lies! To lie—it’s the creed of slaves and masters of slaves! Truth is the religion of the free man!
THE BARON. Bravo! Well spoken! Hear, hear! I agree! You speak like an honest man!