“Low comedy, empty heroics and pointless death”

“The bounties of space, of infinite outwardness, were three: empty heroics, low comedy, and pointless death.”

“With mind distracted, never thinking, "Death is coming,"To slave away on the pointless business of mundane life,And then to come out empty--it is a tragic error. (116)trans by Robert Thurman”

“We live in an age in which there is no heroic death.”

“Applaud my friends, the comedy is over...[on his death bed]”

“They understood, as few have understood before or since, how fleeting life is and how pointless to try to hold on to things or people. They pursued the wondrous deed, the heroic gesture: fighting, fucking, drinking, art - poetry for intense emotion, the music that accompanied the heroic drinking with which each day ended, bewitching ornament for one's person and possessions.”