I have seen greatness and power, wealth, prosperity and incomparable development. I was never sad that we are a small and unfinished part of the worl… - Karel Čapek

To je báječná výhoda, že my nemáme žádné mořské břehy, víš? Kdo má dnes moře, je chudák.” “Ale když teď jde moře až k Drážďanům – –” “Tam jsou Němci,” prohlásil starý pán odmítavě. “To je jejich věc. Ale k nám Mloci nemůžou, to dá rozum. To by museli nejdřív odklidit ty skály; a nemáš ponětí, jaká by to byla práce!

A já vám něco povím: To, čemu říkáme náš život, to není všecko, co jsme prožili; je to jen výběr. Toho, co prožíváme, je příliš mnoho, víc než nač stačí náš rozum. Proto si jen vybíráme to a ono, co se nám hodí, a jaksi z toho upleteme takový zjednodušený děj; a tomu výrobku říkáme náš život. Ale co odpadků přitom necháváme, co divných a strašných věcí pomíjíme, kristepane, kdyby to si člověk uvědomil! Ale my můžeme žít jen jeden jednoduchý život. Bylo by nad naši sílu prožít víc. Neměli bychom sílu nést život, kdybychom nepoztráceli cestou většinu života.

The newspapers, according to their political colour, urged punishment, eradication, colonisation or a crusade against the newts, a general strike, resignation of the government, the arrest of newt owners, the arrest of communist leaders and agitators and many other protective measures of this sort. People began frantically to stockpile food when rumours of the shores and ports being closed off began to spread, and the prices of goods of every sort soared; riots caused by rising prices broke out in the industrial cities; the stock exchange was closed for three days. It was simply the more worrying and dangerous than it had been at any time over the previous three or four months. But this was when the minister for agriculture, Monsieur Monti, stepped dexterously in. He gave orders that several hundred loads of apples for the newts should be discharged into the sea twice a week along the French coasts, at government cost, of course. This measure was remarkably successful in pacifying both the newts and the villagers in Normandy and elsewhere. But Monsieur Monti went even further: there had long been deep and serious disturbances in the wine-growing regions, resulting from a lack of turnover, so he ordered that the state should provide each newt with a half litre of white wine per day. At first the newts did not know what to do with this wine because it caused them serious diarrhoea and they poured it into the sea; but with a little time they clearly became used to it, and it was noticed that from then on the newts would show a lot more enthusiasm for sex, although with lower fertility rates than before. In this way, problems to do with the newts and with agriculture were solved in one stroke; fear and tension were assuaged, and, in short, the next time there was another government crisis, caused by the financial scandal around Madame Töppler, the clever and well proven Monsieur Monti became the minister for marine affairs in the new cabinet.