Yang Zhu - Death

Death

Yang Zhu agreed with the search for happiness, but he felt one should not strive for life beyond one’s allotted span, nor should one unnecessarily shorten one’s life. Death is as natural as life, Yang Zhu felt, and therefore should be viewed with neither fear nor awe. Funeral ceremonies are of no worth to the deceased. “Dead people are not concerned whether their bodies are buried in coffins, cremated, dumped in water or in a ditch; nor whether the body is dressed in fine clothes. What matters most is that before death strikes one lives life to the fullest” (Liu: 1967: 358).

Read more about this topic:  Yang Zhu

Famous quotes containing the word death:

    “After my death I wish no other herald,
    No other speaker of my living actions
    To keep mine honor from corruption,
    But such an honest chronicler as Griffith.”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    “From the very nature of progress, all ages must be transitional. If they were not, the world would be at a stand-still and death would speedily ensue. It is one of the tamest of platitudes but it is always introduced by a flourish of trumpets.”
    —Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)

    “The child who enters life comes not with knowledge or intent,
    So those who enter death must go as little children sent.
    Nothing is known. But I believe that God is overhead;
    And as life is to the living, so death is to the dead.”
    —Mary Mapes Dodge (1831–1905)