Full circle. A new terror born in death, a new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever. I am legend.
Richard MathesonRead
…They think of suicide as a quick route to oblivion, an escape. Far from it. It merely alters a person from one form to another. Nothing can destroy the spirit. Suicide only precipitates a darker continuation of the same conditions from which escape was sought. A condition under circumstances so much more painful.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Suicide is not an escape but a transformation that leads to deeper suffering.
In this quote, Richard Matheson emphasizes that suicide is often viewed as a solution to pain, but in reality, it is merely a change in existence that perpetuates suffering rather than alleviating it. He argues that the spirit cannot be destroyed and that choosing suicide may lead to even harsher realities than those one seeks to escape, suggesting that enduring and confronting life's challenges is essential for true resolution and understanding.
Themes
SuicideSpiritSufferingEscapePain
In practice
Example use cases
In a mental health seminar discussing the importance of seeking help rather than considering drastic measures.
More from Richard Matheson
All quotes →Similar quotes
For what can war, but endless war, still breed?
John MiltonRead
This melancholy London - I sometimes imagine that the souls of the lost are compelled to walk through its streets perpetually. One feels them passing like a whiff of air.
William Butler YeatsRead
In order to arouse sympathy, the aristocracy was obliged to lose sight, apparently, of its own interests, and to formulate its indictment against the bourgeoisie in the interest of the exploited working class alone. Thus, the aristocracy took their revenge by singing lampoons on their new masters and whispering in his ears sinister prophesies of coming catastrophe.
Karl MarxRead
In the real world in which we live, you always have to choose between evils. And in choosing between evils, you have to have moral criteria for how to make those choices.
Alan DershowitzRead
A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier.
H. L. MenckenRead
Indignation must always be the answer to indignity. Reality is not destiny.
Eduardo GaleanoRead