The amount of death terror experienced is closely related to the amount of life unlived.

The life of our bodies is only a constantly prevented dying, an ever deferred death…Every breath we draw wards off death that constantly impinges on us, in this way we struggle with it every second…Death is far more familiar than we generally think. Not only have we a taste of death daily in our sleep or in states of unconsciousness, but we have all passed through an eternity of nonbeing before we existed.

Death anxiety is the mother of all religions, which, in one way or another, attempt to temper the anguish of our finitude.

Life can be compared to a piece of embroidered material of which, every-one in the first half of his time, comes to see the top side, but in the second half, the reverse side. The latter is not so beautiful but it is more instructive because it enables one to see how the threads are connected together.

Despair is the price one pays for self-awareness. Look deeply into life, and you'll always find despair.

I think my quarry is illusion. I war against magic. I believe that, though illusion often cheers and comforts, it ultimately and invariably weakens and constricts the spirit.