In this book, I aim to extol cigarettes, but not to encourage smoking - not at all. Nonetheless, I am not trying to discourage it either. If I had wanted to do such a thing, I would not have gone out to say it so directly (I would not have, in other words, tried to discourage it by explicitly stating that I discourage it), believing that this is one of the conclusions of this book: that the open condemnation of smoking cigarettes often fails to achieve the desired effect - it often achieves the opposite of what it aims for, sometimes reinforcing and legitimizing this habit, or possibly even motivating the initiation of it.

For many, regarding cigarettes, their disrepute is a way to ensure that they will stubbornly continue to smoke. For some, it may even be the motivation to start smoking.

[Excerpt from the text of the introduction of the edition]