We must have done something very wicked before we were born, or else we must be going to be very happy indeed when we are dead, for God to let this life have all the tortures of expiation and all the sorrows of an ordeal.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the struggles of life and suggests that suffering may be a form of punishment or a precursor to eventual happiness after death.
Alexandre Dumas-Fils highlights the paradox of life where suffering and torment are part of human existence. He implies that the struggles we face may be a consequence of our past actions or perhaps a way to lead us to a greater happiness after death, raising deep questions about morality, purpose, and the nature of existence.
In practice
In a philosophical discussion about the nature of suffering and happiness.
They all think any minute I'm going to commit suicide. What a joke. The truth of course is the exact opposite: suicide is the only thing that keeps me alive. Whenever everything else fails, all I have to do is consider suicide and in two seconds I'm as cheerful as a nitwit. But if I could not kill myself -- ah then, I would. I can do without nembutal or murder mysteries but not without suicide.
Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed by them.
If you could pack for heaven, this was how you'd do it, touching everything, taking nothing.
Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought
The oppressors do not perceive their monopoly on having more as a privilege which dehumanizes others and themselves. They cannot see that, in the egoistic pursuit of having as a possessing class, they suffocate in their own possessions and no longer are; they merely have.
My respect for human beings is based not on the colour of a man’s skin nor authority he may wield, but purely on merit.
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