We take for granted the need to escape the self. Yet the self can also be a refuge. In totalitarian countries the great hunger is for private life. Absorption in the minutiae of an individual existence is the only refuge from the apocalyptic madhouse staged by maniacal saviors of humanity.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman

Reflections on the Human Condition, Sec. 55 (1973)