Proust: “Ils pensaient, en effet, à ces hécatombes de régiments anéantis, de passagers engloutis, mais une opération inverse multiplie à tel point ce qui concerne notre bien être et divise par un chiffre tellement formidable ce qui ne le concerne pas, que la mort de millions d’inconnus nous chatouille à peine et presque moins désagréablement qu’un courant d’air. ”
Andreas Mayor: “They thought certainly of these hecatombs of regiments annihilated and passengers swallowed by the waves; but there is a law of inverse proportion which multiplies to such an extent anything that concerns our own welfare and divides by such a formidable figure anything that does not concern it, that the death of unknown millions is felt by us as the most insignificant of sensations, hardly even as disagreeable as a draught.”
.i`` * ^ / . . . . . ` `~ 