I don't often quote the bible but, when I do, it's the apocrypha.

This is from the Wisdom of Solomon Chapter 2 and it's intended to be a condemnation of "ungodly" people's reasoning about their lives. But I actually think it's beautiful (as long as you cut it off before it gets dark at the end). Please read this at my funeral some day.

"Short and sorrowful is our life,
and there is no remedy when a man comes to his end,
and no one has been known to return from Hades.

Because we were born by mere chance,
and hereafter we shall be as though we had never been;
because the breath in our nostrils is smoke,
and reason is a spark kindled by the beating of our hearts.

When it is extinguished, the body will turn to ashes,
and the spirit will dissolve like empty air.

Our name will be forgotten in time
and no one will remember our works;
our life will pass away like the traces of a cloud,
and be scattered like mist
that is chased by the rays of the sun
and overcome by its heat.

For our allotted time is the passing of a shadow,
and there is no return from our death,
because it is sealed up and no one turns back.

Come, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that exist,
and make use of the creation to the full as in youth.

Let us take our fill of costly wine and perfumes,
and let no flower of spring pass by us.

Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither.

Let none of us fail to share in our revelry,
everywhere let us leave signs of enjoyment,
because this is our portion, and this our lot."

---

And at this point, he wanders off to talk about how ungodly people want all godly people to die in shame in order to vilify them to make his point about how his wisdom is important. Such is the Wisdom of Solomon.

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