We are born to exist, not to know, to be, not to assert ourselves.
Emil Cioran
...we admitted that everything living is born of the dead. For if the soul existed before birth, and in coming to life and being born can be born only from death and dying, must she not after death continue to exist, since she has to be born again?
Socrates
Within one linear centimeter of your lower colon there lives and works more bacteria (about 100 billion) than all humans who have ever been born. Yet many people continue to assert that it is we who are in charge of the world.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Many variants on this exist, notably “Great lovers are made, not born.” and “(Great) leaders are made, not born.”
Tertullian
To be alive is to feel the joy of being./ In spite of the sorrows and joys of life/ The primary joy is that of being./ That of my existence. / That I exist is the most fundamental experience is joy for me!/ I, who do not deserve to, really exist./ I, who need not, do exist!/ I, who may not, do exist.
Kuruvilla Pandikattu
Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea?—how did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea.
Sydney Smith
Cioran, Emil
Cistulli, Carson
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