All the jokes about men sitting down on their hats are really theological jokes; they are concerned with the Dual Nature of Man. They refer to the primary paradox that man is superior to all the things around him and yet is at their mercy.

“¡Queremos abolir a Dios! —declaró Gregory abriendo los ojos con fanatismo—.”

“What is the good of telling a community that it has every liberty except the li…”

“It is always simple to fall; there are an infinity of angles at which one falls…”

“This very pride in keeping his word was that he was keeping it to miscreants. I…”