.If he had ever been brought to trial for the murder, or the manslaughter, or whatever the government chose to call his crime, would probably have pleaded temporary insanity

.If he had ever been brought to trial for the murder, or the manslaughter, or whatever the government chose to call his crime, would probably have pleaded temporary insanity. He would have claimed that his big brain simply wasn't working right at the time. There wasn't a person alive a million years ago who didn't know what that was like. Apologies for momentary brain failures were the staple of everybody's conversations: «Whoops,» «Excuse me,» «I hope you're not hurt,» «It happened so fast I didn't have time to think,» «I have insurance against this kind of thing,» and «How can I ever forgive myself?» and «I didn't know it was loaded,» and on and on.

Kurt Vonnegut, Galapagos