from steppenwolf

Now with our Steppenwolf it was so that in his conscious life he lived now as a wolf, now as a man, as indeed the case is with all mixed feelings.

But, when he was a wolf, the man in him lay in ambush, ever on the watch to intefere and condemn, while at those times that he was a man the wolf did just the same.

For example, if he, as man, had a beautiful thought, felt a fine and noble emotion, or performed a so-called good act, [walking past a beggar feeling compassion and an impulse to help?], then the wolf bared his teeth at him and laughed and showed him with bitter scorn how laughable this whole pantomime was in the eyes of a beast, of a wolf who knew well enough in his heart what suited him, namely, to trot alone over the Steppes and now and then to gorge himself with blood or pursue a female wolf. Then, wolfishly seen, all human activities became horribly absurd and misplaced, stupid and vain.

But it was exactly the same when he felt and behaved as a wolf and showed others his teeth and felt hatred and enmity against all human and their lying and degenerate manners and customs. For then the human part of him lay in ambush and watched the wolf, and spoiled and embittered for him all pleasure in his simple an healthy and wild wolf's being.

Of course, he's not really a wolf. But what is a man? A animal that invents and alters his lifestyle through society and culture, a phenomenon of influence comparable to the evolutionary baggage accumulated over the millions of years if true, but achieved and changing in a relative blinking of eyes. And what is man; is he just an ape? No. Maybe relatives, maybe divine. But even if a relative of monkeys and chimpanzees, measuring ourselves according to them isn't necessary, no more than it is to compare ourselves to cabbage. And so in attempting to understand who we are, we redefine ourselves, and do we get confused? Perhaps it is this confusion, this potential misfitting and nagging consciousness that differentiates man from animal.
Anyhow, I'm confused. Is there really this dual nature in man?

Well, if you feel it, then you have it. And it may not be dual. It may be a singular. Or maybe it is a million things, maybe nothing. Holy cows. Too confusing...