“The gentleman of the criminal type ground his teeth:

‘What you’re accused of and you’ve committed proves you’ve got all your wits about you.’

And now he proceeded to enumerate to Svejk a whole series of different crimes, beginning with high treason and ending with abuse of His Majesty and members of the Imperial Family. The central gem of this collection was Svejk’s approval of the murder of the Archduke Ferdinand, from which there branched out a string of fresh crimes, among which the shining light was the crime of incitement, as it had all happened in a public place.

‘What do you say to that?’ the gentleman with features of bestial cruelty asked triumphantly.

‘There’s a lot of it,’ Svejk replied innocently. ‘You can have too much of a good thing.’”

—Jaroslav Hasek (1883-1923), The Good Soldier Svejk and His Fortunes in the World War, translated from the Czech by Cecil Parrot, 1973.