“I understood that Death wasn’t the one to be feared. War was the one that laid waste to lives. Death was just the cleanup guy, the janitor, the final act.”
“Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.”
“Honor from death,” I snap, “is a myth. Invented by the war torn to make sense of the horrific. If we die, it will be so that others may live. Truly honorable death, the only honorable death, is one that enables life.”
“Death is not a tragedy to the one who dies; to have wasted the life before that death, that is the tragedy.”
“How does he do it? Live. With the fear of death every day. I don't fear death as much as I fear the thought of living.”
“One wants to live, of course, indeed one only stays alive by virtue of the fear of death, but I think, as I thought then, that it is better to die violently and not too old.”