The Summing Up Not to be born is best. Sophocles Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy old man. William Shakespeare King John III Life is one long process of getting tired. Most men live lives of quiet desperation. Henry David Thoreau Life is a disease from which sleep gives us relief every sixteen hours.
Sleep is a palliative, death is a remedy.
The enjoyments of this life are not equal to its evils. The lure of happiness and the fear of pain are fundamental qualities possessed by all living things and are the two forces which have through untold millenniums kept what we usually call life from destruction by the ever encroaching outside forces of destruction. If there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life as in hoping for another life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life. Albert Camus Summer in Algiers Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards. The whole life of the philosopher is a preparation for death.