"Death is an endless night so awful to contemplate that it can make us love life and value it with such passion that it may be the ultimate cause of all joy and all art.“


-Paul Theroux

posted in death


Death is an endless night so awful to contemplate that it can make us love life and value it with such passion that it may be the ultimate cause of all joy and all art.

Other Quotes You Might Like

Discover more inspiring quotes from our collection

"Mark Twain was a great traveler and he wrote three or four great travel books. I wouldn't say that I'm a travel novelist but rather a novelist who travels - and who uses travel as a background for finding stories of places."

-Paul Theroux

travelView Quote
"A travel book is about someone who goes somewhere, travels on the ground, sees something and spends quite a lot of time doing it, and has a hard time, and then comes back and writes about it. It's not about inventing."

-Paul Theroux

travelView Quote
"Travel works best when you're forced to come to terms with the place you're in."

-Paul Theroux

travelView Quote
"The amount of hassle involved in travel can be overwhelming."

-Paul Theroux

travelView Quote
"Extensive traveling induces a feeling of encapsulation, and travel, so broadening at first, contracts the mind."

-Paul Theroux

travelView Quote
"Travel is glamorous only in retrospect."

-Paul Theroux

travelView Quote

More Quotes About death

Explore other inspiring quotes in this category

"When we are dealing with death we are constantly being dragged down by the event: Humor diverts our attention and lifts our sagging spirits."

-Allen Klein

deathView Quote
"I start thinking about life after death. I've got to quit thinking about it because it's very deep. Very deep. Sometimes you start thinking about it, and you don't feel like you want to be alive, so I don't like to get all quiet."

-David Ortiz

deathView Quote
"What we think of as our sensitivity is only the higher evolution of terror in a poor dumb beast. We suffer for nothing. Our own death wish is our only real tragedy."

-Mario Puzo

deathView Quote
"So here is one of my theories on happiness: we cannot know if we have lived a truly happy life until the very end. This view of life and death was reinforced by my close witnessing of the buildup to the death of Philip Gould. Philip was without doubt my closest friend in politics. When he died, I felt like I had lost a limb."

-Alastair Campbell

deathView Quote
"I'm not on the run from anything and I'm not at all clear about what I'm running towards. But as some great writer put it, I want to be certain that when I arrive at death, I'm totally exhausted."

-Fiona Shaw

deathView Quote
"Planning to play: that's what saving for retirement is today - and it is antithetical to the nature of play, fully within the definition of work, and blissfully ignorant of the reality of death."

-John Thorn

deathView Quote