Pottscamp felt nothing; he was, of course, a machine without feeling. He had no conscience or compassion. This would not bother him at all. It wouldn… - R. A. Lafferty

But time heals all wounds. That is a proverb, an untrue proverb. There wounds unhealed by time enough to fill every lazare from the beginning. All time can do is to give a little time, to achieve composure, to make a mask. You build it out of textured wax, and if you are skilful it looks just like your face, just like your face will look ten years from now. But it doesn’t fit right. You never saw one that fit right.

But the world goes on. That’s another thing that people say. It doesn’t. It jolts a little bit and bumps; and then it comes to a stop. The scenery unrolls backwards and gives the impression that the world goes on. Bit it does not go.

Aye, a man’d be a fool to lose his head twice over the same thing,” Thomas mused, still looking more than half stubborn. “Of course I’ll sign.”
“He’d have to feel himself a little better than those around him to take up a challenge like that,” Foreman put in hurriedly as Thomas had already touched magnetic stylus to the form.
“He’d have to be a man of some pride.”
“I am a man of some pride,” Thomas said. “I do feel myself a little better than those around me, now that I really look at them.”
“He’d have to be a man who couldn’t be pushed and couldn’t be scared,” said Foreman.
“I say I’m such a man, even if it’s a lie. But I scare a little,” Thomas said.
“He’d have to be a man who’d stand his ground even if he were scared,” Foreman needled.
“He’d have to be quite a man to die for a point, even if he understood it only at the last minute, and then dimly. He’d have to be such a man-“
“Foreman, you fool, what are you up to?” Proctor demanded.
“Who pushed me into the corner the other time, Fabian?” Thomas asked softly. “Who required my head of me for his point?”
“If you’re granted another life, Thomas, you try to figure it out. Will he be writ as friend or enemy of you, do you think? On which side did he seem?

Odd planet! The bipeds talked from their heads and only saw what lay before them. In short, they were pathetic — and deadly!