from gombrowicz's ferdydurke.

"you have a headache, bobkowski? excellent! here before us we have an interesting maxim de malis capitis which most aptly fits the situation. what? you feel an imperious need to leave the room? but, my dear bobkowski, why? for that too we find a precedent among the ancients. i refer you to the famous passage in book V in which caesar's whole army, having eaten bad meat, found itself in the same predicament. the whole army, bobkowski! why do you wish to do the same when you have at hand such a classic description? these books, gentlemen, are life, life!"