... Is stubbornly persisting in being, encumbering the planet with one's presence for centuries, really necessary? One cannot help thinking of Odysseus' paradox: taken in by the nymph Calypso after a shipwreck on his way back to Ithaca, he is cared for, fed and loved for seven years by his hostess, whose lover he becomes. Then Calypso proposes to make him immortal. But Odysseus, weeping on the seashore, dreams of returning to his family. Calypso is tiring him out, forcing him to make love to her every night. Even if his Penelope is not as splendid as the goddess, he wants to go home, to see his native land and people again. The attraction of the familiar is stronger than the seductiveness of the unknown. (p. 161)
... It is the brevity of existence that is the true miracle, not the phantasmagorical construction of religions promising us beatitude -- that is, from our point of view, an endless dullness... If there is an eternity, it is here and now, where we live. (p. 162)