“... it was possible sometimes to observe very strange manifestations of theirs, that is, from time to time they did something which was never done by three-brained beings on other planets, namely, they would suddenly, without rhyme or reason, begin destroying one another’s existence. ...  from this horrible process of theirs their numbers rapidly diminished ... .”  (Beelzebub's Tales, 1950, p. 91)

“I understood at the end of my investigations ... that this abnormality there proceeds exclusively owing only to one remarkable aspect of the chief particularity of their strange psyche, namely that particularity which has become completely crystallized and is an inseparable part of their common presences and which serves as a factor for the periodic arising in them of what is called the ‘urgent need to destroy everything outside of themselves.’ ... (and) when they begin to carry out on some part of the surface of their planet the process of reciprocal destruction, then, at the same time, without any deliberate aim, and even without what is called ‘organic need,’ they also destroy everything which chances to come within the sphere of the perception of their organ of sight.   During the periods of this ‘phenomenal psychopathic apogee,’ they destroy also all the objects in the given  place ....”  (pp. 312-3)

 “... I saw this time that, without moving from their place, they did with a certain thing something which resulted in a tiny puff of smoke, whereupon a being from the opposite side immediately fell down either totally destroyed or with one or other part of his planetary body mutilated or destroyed forever. ... 
 “Such a means of reciprocal destruction I had never seen before ...”  (pp. 525-526)

“... I must tell you that thanks to the abnormally established conditions of being-existence there, the ‘waking psyche’ as it is expressed there, of each one of them gradually becomes from the very beginning of responsible existence such that he can ‘think sincerely’ and see things in the true light exclusively only if his stomach is so full of the first being-food that it is impossible for what are called ‘wandering nerves’ in it to move, or, as they themselves say, he is ‘stuffed quite full;’ and besides, all his needs already inherent in him which are unbecoming to three-brained beings and which had become the dominant factors for the whole of his presence, are fully satisfied, of course, only for that given moment. ... 
 “When these three-brained beings of your planet, particularly of the present time, who have the means of gorging to satiety and of fully satisfying all their other needs and who perhaps could do something for the struggle against this phenomenal evil prevailing on their planet, are satiated, and their mentioned needs are satisfied, and they are seated on what are called their ‘soft English divans’ in order, as is said there, ‘to digest it all’–they do not profit, even during this time so suitable for sincere thinking ... but indulge instead in the maleficent self-calming. ...
 “For instance, when after gorging and satisfying themselves these important and power-possessing beings of the Earth are seated on their said divans, the associative thoughts which ought inevitably to flow in them receives shocks from the reflexes of their stomach and sex organs and wander freely in all directions, as they say there, ‘to their hearts content,’ and so pleasantly free and easy, as if they, that is these thoughts of theirs, were ‘strolling of an evening in Paris along the Boulevard des Capucinus.’
 “When these power-possessing beings of your planet are seated on their soft divans, subjects like the following a-think in them.
 “For instance, how to get his revenge on that acquaintance of his, John Smith, who a few days before looked at a woman he ‘liked,’ not with his right eye but with his left.
 “Or this ‘digesting’ terrestrial power-possessing or important being thinks: ‘Why did not my horse come in first yesterday at the races as I expected, but some other?’
 “Or, ‘Why do those stocks which are in fact quite worthless, go up every day on the market, higher and higher?’
 “Or, finally, he thinks something of this kind: ‘If I were in John Smith's shoes who invented a new method of breeding flies for making ivory from their skeletons, then from the profits obtained I would do this, that, and the other, and not as that fool, who, like a dog in the manger, will neither himself eat nor let others eat,’ and so on in the same strain.
 “Still, it does occasionally happen there, that some power-possessing or important being of the Earth suddenly chances to think not under the influences of the reflexes of his stomach and sex organs, but thinks sincerely and quite seriously about these or other questions, with particular regard to this terrifying terrestrial question.  (pp. 1057-61)