"What evil spirit obsesses you?
"Fantômas"
Pierre Souvestre Marcel Allain
Oh, I have never seen him-but the mere thought that a person exists who is waiting for my misfortune to arrive, who is daily calling down curses on my head, who will roar with laughter when I perish-the mere idea of it obsesses me, drives me nearer to you, fascinates me, paralyses me!
"Plays by August Strindberg, Second series"
August Strindberg
But it is not good when a message obsesses us to the exclusion of all else.
"An Interpretation of Friends Worship"
N. Jean Toomer