"There is an ancient story that King Midas hunted in the forest long time for the wise Silenus, the companion of Dionysus, without capturing him. When Silenus at last fell into the hands, the king asked what was the best and most desirable of all things for man. Fixed and immovable, the demigod said not a word, till at last, urged by the king, he gave a shrill laugh and broke out into these words: 'Oh wretched ephemeral race, children of chance and misery, why do you compel me to tell you what it would be most expedient for you not to hear? What is best of is utterly beyond your reach: not to be born, not to be, to be nothing. But the second best for is - to die soon.'"
Sophocles
Oedipus at Colonus
From The Birth of Tragedy
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