“The important business of man is life, and the important business of life is death.”
“It taught that the business of this life was to prepare for death.”
A Thanksgiving Sermon (1897)
Context: It taught that the business of this life was to prepare for death. It insisted that a certain belief was necessary to insure salvation, and that all who failed to believe, or doubted in the least would suffer eternal pain. According to the church the natural desires, ambitions and passions of man were all wicked and depraved. To love God, to practice self-denial, to overcome desire, to despise wealth, to hate prosperity, to desert wife and children, to live on roots and berries, to repeat prayers, to wear rags, to live in filth, and drive love from the heart—these, for centuries, were the highest and most perfect virtues, and those who practiced them were saints. The saints did not assist their fellow-men. Their fellow-men assisted them. They did not labor for others. They were beggars—parasites—vermin. They were insane. They followed the teachings of Christ. They took no thought for the morrow. They mutilated their bodies—scarred their flesh and destroyed their minds for the sake of happiness in another world. During the journey of life they kept their eyes on the grave.
Source: Songs of the Soul (1971)
Context: War forgets peace. Peace forgives war. War is the death of the life human. Peace is the birth of the Life Divine. Our vital passions want war. Our psychic emotions desire peace.
Source: Intuitions and Summaries of Thought (1862), Volume I, p. 82.
“War is a bloody business, a killing business.”
Source: George S. Patton's speech to the Third Army https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_S._Patton%27s_speech_to_the_Third_Army
Source: Parable of the Talents (1998), Chapter 5 (p. 90)
“Life isn't just fair. It's just fairer than death, that's all. -William Goldman”
Source: The Second Summer of the Sisterhood
