Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. The snail on the slope (№ 20646)

I only know that they are capable of any extreme, to the extreme degree of stupidity and wisdom, cruelty and pity, of rage and endurance. They have only one thing: understanding. They always substitute for understanding what some surrogates: faith, disbelief, indifference, neglect. Somehow it always turned out that this is the easiest. Easier to believe than to understand. Easier to be disappointed than to understand. It is easier to spit than to understand.