“Am doing what you see - lying under a rick. The space occupied by my body is small indeed compared with the surrounding immensity in which it has neither part nor lot, and the portion of time allotted to me here on earth is insignificant indeed compared with the eternity which I have never known, and shall never enter! Yet in the same atom, in this same mathematical point which I call my body, the blood circulates, and the brain operates at will. A fine discrepancy for you - a fine futility!"
"I would remark that what you have just said applies to every human being in creation."
"True. What I mean is that my parents know not a single tedious moment, nor are in the least distressed with the thought of their insignificance - it is a thought which never stinks in their nostrils, whereas I - well, I feel nothing but weariness and rancour in my breast.”