As for Socialists, I have never cared to have anything to do with them.
One of the most offensive things about Socialists, which is more
offensive than their pedantry, than their charlatanry, than their
hypocrisy, is their inquisitorial instinct for prying into other
people's lives. Whether Pablo Iglesias travels first or third class, has
been for years one of the principal topics of dispute between Socialists
and their opponents.
Fifteen years ago I was in Tangier, where I had been sent by the
_Globo_, and, upon my return, a newspaper man who had socialistic
ideas, reproached me:
"You talk a great deal about the working man, but I see you were living
in the best hotel in Tangier."
I answered: "In the first place, I have never spoken of the workingman
with any fervour. Furthermore, I am not such a slave as to be too
cowardly to take what life offers as it comes, as you are. I take what I
can that I want, and when I do not take it, it is because I cannot get
it."