“The ultimate meaning to which all stories refer has two faces: the continuity of life, the inevitability of death.”
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Italo Calvino44
Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels 1923–1985Related quotes
Will Durant book The Story of Philosophy
Here, clearly, the old pagan joy of life is gone, and an almost exotic spirit touches a broken lyre. History, which is nothing if not humorous, was never to facetious as when she gave to this abstemious and epic pessimist the name of Epicurean.
The Story of Philosophy (1926)
“That is the ultimate power, to stare death in the face and be unafraid.”
Orson Scott Card (1951) American science fiction novelist
Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, The Crystal City (2003), Chapter 11 “Flood” (p. 214).
“Ultimate explanation no longer means only a story that encompasses everything.”
John D. Barrow (1952–2020) British scientist
New Theories of Everything (2007), Ch. 1, p. 6
“Life is nothing unless death has been faced down.”
David Gemmell book Legend
Source: Drenai series, Legend, Pt 1: Against the Horde, Ch. 18
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States
Letter to Cecil Spring-Rice (12 March 1900)
1900s
“Our ultimate goal, after all, is not a good death but a good life to the very end.”
Atul Gawande book Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End
Source: Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892–1973) British philologist and author, creator of classic fantasy works
Tolkien in Oxford (1968) http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/writers/12237.shtml, a BBC 2 television documentary (at 21:49)