Finitude’s only consolation is having had experience at all

Evidence

Unfortunately, this is the deal we get. We can taste phenomenology only because, one day, it will be taken from us. We clear our space, then the forest reclaims it again. The only consolation is to have had the beauty of seeing light through the leaves at all: to have had something, rather than nothing. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 936

Categorization

• CANDY: ‘We clear our space, then the forest reclaims it again’ is a lovely, tweetable image.
• APHORISMS: The consolation that having had something beats having had nothing is a genuinely timeless way to live with mortality.