"Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched." [<i>My Uncle Sosthenes</i>] - Guy de Maupassant

Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched.

The secret is not to betray your ignorance. Just maneuver, avoid the quicksands and obstacles, and the rest can be found in a dictionary.

There were some children round him playing in the dust on the paths. They had long fair hair, and with very earnest faces and solemn attention were making little mountains of sand so as to stamp on them and squash them underfoot.
Pierre was going through one of those gloomy days when one looks into every corner of one's soul and shakes out every crease.
'Our occupations are like the work of those kids,' he thought. Then he wondered whether after all the wisest course in life was not to beget two or three of these little useless beings and watch them grow with complacent curiosity. And he was touched by the desire to marry. You aren't so lost when you're not alone any more. At any rate you can hear somebody moving near you in times of worry and uncertainty, and it is something anyway to be able to say words of love to a woman when you are feeling down.
He began thinking about women.
His knowledge of them was very limited, as all he had had in the Latin Quarter was affairs of a fortnight or so, dropped when the month's money ran out and picked up again or replaced the following month. Yet kind, gentle, consoling creatures must exist. Hadn't his own mother brought sweet reasonableness and charm to his father's home? How he would have loved to meet a woman, a real woman!
He leaped up, determined to go and pay a little visit to Mme Rosémilly.
But he quickly sat down again. No, he didn't like that one!

Un barbat indragostit e sters de pe lista celor vii. Devine idiot, nu numai idiot, dar primejdios. Intrerup, cu barbatii indragostiti de mine sau care, cel putin, pretind ca sunt, orice relatie apropiata, mai intai pentru ca ma plictisesc, apoi, pentru ca devin suspecti, ca un caine turbat care poate avea o criza. Ii trec, asadar, in carantina morala, pana cand se vindeca. Sa nu uiti asta. Stiu foarte bine ca, la tine, dragostea e doar un soi de pofta, in timp ce la mine ar fi, dimpotriva, un soi de comuniune a sufletelor, care nu face parte din religia barbatilor. Tu ai intelege litera, iar eu spiritul...