--Charity, Mr. Soares, certainly enters into my procedure, but enters as seasoning, as the salt of things, which is how I interpret the saying of St. Paul to the Corinthians: "If I know as much as can be known, and do not have charity, I am nothing." The main thing in this my work of the Green House is to study madness deeply, its various grains, to classify the cases, to discover, in short, the cause of the phenomenon and the universal remedy. This is the mystery of my heart. I believe that with this I render a good service to humanity.

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Creator: Machado de Assis
Nationality / cultural background: Brazilian
Work / edition: 1882

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In the source: O ALIENISTA; paragraph 21 in the selected body section

Selected for the Brief on 20 Sep 2026. This date records our selection, rather than when the work was created.