Novel With Cocaine, M. Ageyev

During the long nights and long days I spent under the influence of
cocaine in Yag's room I came to see that what counts in life is not the
events that surround one but the reflection of those events in one's
consciousness. [ Reflections, 2 p173 ]

Of course everything I have said thus far about cocaine must be understood
only as the opinion of someone who has only just begun to take the drug
and not as a general statement.  The neophyte does indeed believe that the
main property of cocaine is its ability to make him feel happy, much as
the mouse, before it is caught, believes that the main property of
mousetraps is to provide him with lard. [ Reflections, 3 p177 ]