Sextus Empiricus

“If Socrates was born, then Socrates was generated either when Socrates did not exist or when Socrates already existed. But if he is said to have been generated when he already existed, he will have been generated twice; and if when he did not exist, then at the same time Socrates both existed and did not exist – he existed insofar as he had been generated and he did not exist by hypothesis. And if Socrates died, he died either when he was alive or when he was dead. He did not die, when he was alive – for then the same man would have been both living and dead. Nor when he was dead; for then he would have been dead twice. Therefore Socrates did not die.”5 [It is implicit from the beginning that there is a time at which Socrates existed. Sextus chose not explicitly to draw, though they do follow, the additional conclusions that Socrates was not born, that Socrates existed always, and will always exist, and that it is the same for everyone, that is, that for every x, if x ever exists, then x existed always and will always exist.]“

Zaza

” Quelle ardeur de vie dans vos deux lettres! Vous me faites presque peur, la peur qu’on a devant une belle auto lancée à pleine vitesse en imaginant un instant ce qui arriverait si le moindre boulon venait à lâcher. Je comprends bien cette joie totale d’exister, bien que je ne l’éprouve jamais que passagèrement; très vite je vois le but de cette course, cela n’enlève pas pour moi leur prix aux choses, cela m’empêche de m’y abandonner complètement : que sert à l’homme de gagner l’univers ?… C’est toujours cela qui revient. Mais ne croyez pas que je veuille maintenant diminuer votre bonheur, j’y prends au contraire une part si grande qu’après avoir lu votre lettre je suis prise, moi aussi, par la douceur de la vie, même par un certain désir d’être plus activement heureuse que je ne suis, de donner, de recevoir, d’agir, d’aimer, de vivre.”

Association Zaza