Less than total control is no control at all. You will obey my instructions, Mr. Ravel. In every detail. Or I will scrap the project. - Keith Laumer

It's a failing of your culture, Foster said, that hypothesis becomes dogma almost overnight. You're too close to your Neolithic, when the blind acceptance of tribal lore had survival value. Having learned to evoke the fire god from sticks, by rote, you tend to extend the principal to all 'established facts.'

Quelius—you're nuts—did you know that?
"Of course. That's quite all right. Better embarked on an exciting insanity than moldering away in dull normality. One thing you can't deny: we psychotics lead interesting lives."

I was still alive, but that was a mere detail, subject to change. (p. 13)