Truth is a pain which will not stop. And the truth of this world is to die. You must choose: either dying or lying. Personally, I have never been able to kill myself
Interpretation
This quote illustrates the anguish of facing harsh truths, particularly mortality, and the struggle between accepting reality or escaping it with deceit.
Louis-Ferdinand Celine's quote confronts the painful nature of truth, particularly the truth of our own mortality. It highlights the existential dilemma of choosing between the discomfort that comes with acknowledging life's realities and the temptation to evade those truths through lies. Celine suggests a deep personal struggle with the concept of death, revealing a preference for honesty, even if it brings suffering, over the false comfort of denial.
In practice
During a philosophical debate, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of confronting uncomfortable truths.
Not much music left inside us for life to dance to. Our youth has gone to the ends of the earth to die in the silence of the truth. And where, I ask you, can a man escape to, when he hasn't enough madness left inside him? The truth is an endless death agony. The truth is death. You have to choose: death or lies. I've never been able to kill myself.
To travel is very useful, it makes the imagination work, the rest is just delusion and pain. Our journey is entirely imaginary, which is its strength.
In the kitchens of love, after all, vice is like the pepper in a good sauce; it brings out the flavor, it’s indispensable.
Reason died in 1914, November 1914 ... after that everybody began to rave.
Poor people never, or hardly ever, ask for an explanation of all they have to put up with. They hate one another, and content themselves with that.
To hell with reality! I want to die in music, not in reason or in prose. People don't deserve the restraint we show by not going into delirium in front of them. To hell with them!
When one rows it is not the rowing which moves the ship: rowing is only a magical ceremony by means of which one compels a demon to move the ship.
Be good and you will be lonely.
Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature.
So let me tell you what I think about gods. I think a real god is not going to be so scared or angry that he tries to keep other people down…A real god doesn’t care about control. A real god already has control of everything that needs controlling. Real gods would want to teach you how to be just like them.
To practice virtue is to selflessly offer assistance to others, giving without limitation one's time, abilities, and possessions in service, whenever and wherever needed, without prejudice concerning the identity of those in need.
Prejudice, not being founded on reason, cannot be removed by argument.
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