"I should like to know which is..." - Quote by Voltaire
I should like to know which is worse: to be ravished a hundred times by pirates, and have a buttock cut off, and run the gauntlet of the Bulgarians, and be flogged and hanged in an auto-da-fe, and be dissected, and have to row in a galley -- in short, to undergo all the miseries we have each of us suffered -- or simply to sit here and do nothing?' That is a hard question,' said Candide.
More by Voltaire
More on Suffering
“Have pity, Lord, on those who love and are separated.”
“Everything is as it is at any moment. There's no way of arguing, because you are arguing with reality - the isness of this moment. You can argue with it, but that's suffering.”
“So long as space remainsSo long as sentient beings'Suffering remainsI will remainIn order to help,In order to serve.”
More on Existence
“This noble body, equipped with everything necessary, almost to the point of bursting, also appeared to carry freedom around with it.”
“The question, O me! so sad, recurring - What good amid these, O me, O life? That you are here - that life exists and identity, that the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”
“To be is to do.”