The Parable of the Arrogant Man

By Andrew Gaulke


There was once a man who enjoyed writing poetry, but he was often depressed. He was depressed because no-one seemed able to understand how perfectly he crafted his poems, how subtly he would add his imagery. No-one else seemed able to experience the true depth of emotion or the true fire of the passion that lay behind his work.

One day, a demon came to him while he was working in his study. This demon, seeing that the man was depressed, decided to convince him to kill himself and so be damned forever. After thinking for a moment the demon whispered to him the following words:

“You believe you are the only one on earth who thinks with this depth, who can think with real clarity, you think you alone are independent and real, who has real and pure emotion, who is capable of true and unsullied opinions, who has real insight into human nature. But all the world thinks this of themselves. Every man, woman and child believes that no-one else knows what it is like to be real, to have true free will, to have emotions that are genuine and beautiful in their fury. All your life you have thought that to be unique was to be alone and so you have convinced yourself you are alone, and that this makes you unique, when all your loneliness really does is make you the commonest creature on earth.”

The man thought on the demons words for some time. Later that night, he took his life.