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Quote by Arthur Koestler

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Dialogue with Death: The Journal of a Prisoner of the Fascists in the Spanish Civil War

This book is a first-hand narrative detailing the author's time as a prisoner during the tumultuous Spanish Civil War, offering an intimate look into the hardships and resilience of individuals caught in the conflict's turmoil. more

Author

Arthur Koestler
Arthur Koestler

Arthur Koestler was a Hungarian-British author, journalist, and political activist. He is renowned for his novel 'Darkness at Noon' and his involvement in the Spanish Civil War. Koestler's writings frequently delved into the themes of totalitarianism and the individual's resistance to oppression. more

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“To will the obligatory in relation to death is to fall in line with the major immutable cycles of Nature, especially human nature, and to understand that (whether or not there is a purpose or meaning to life or a life of the spirit beyond the life of the body) no one, absolutely no one, escapes being finite and mortal. And knowing this, and then to accept it, to will it, and not to be in an unnecessary state of angst or rebellion or terror over it.”

“Death tripped down the corridor, changing step, struck out here and there, danced pirouettes; often I felt his breath on my face when he was miles away; often I fell asleep and dreamed while he stood leaning over my bed.”

“Death cannot touch the higher consciousness of man ... it can only separate those who love each other so far as their lower vehicles are concerned; the man living on earth, blinded by matter, feels separated from those who have passed onwards, but ... there is no such thing as Death at all.”

“Death is not earnest in the same way the eternal is. To the earnestness of death belongs precisely that remarkable capacity for awakening, that resonance of a profound mockery which, detached from the thought of the eternal, is an empty and often brash jest, but together with the thought of the eternal is just what it should be, utterly different from the insipid solemness which least of all captures and holds a thought with tension like that of death.”