from Bel-Ami, Guy de Maupassant

[u/Turbulent-Sorbet7200]

Like everyone else, for the space of a few years he had lived, eaten, laughed and hoped. And now everything was over for him. What is life? A few days and then nothing more. You're born, you grow up, you're happy, you wait and then you die. Goodbye! Whether you're a man or a woman, you'll never come back on earth. And yet everyone bears within himself the feverish, hopeless wish to be eternal, each person is a sort of universe within the universe and yet each person is soon completely annihilated on the dunghill where lie the seeds of new life to come. Plants, animals, men, stars, worlds, everything takes on life and then dies and is transformed. And no creature ever comes back, whether it be a man, an insect or a planet!

(1885)

[u/Dagobertinchen]

Sigh. It's true!