André Malraux, novelist: “Death only matters insofar as it makes us reflect on the value of life”
The French politician invites us to make the most of every second of existence
Human beings have always reflected on life and death , in the many forms and schools of thought that lead us to make the most of every second. The French novelist André Malraux is one of the great names who, in his time, wanted to share an interesting phrase about existence, the role of death, how people interpret it, and the approach it should have.
“The only importance of death lies in the extent to which it makes us reflect on the value of life ,” said this politician, who wanted to explain how human beings should understand death not as the end of everything and something after which there is only emptiness. For him, it should mean the urgency of making the most of every second of existence , since time is limited.
Making the most of life without forgetting death
Malraux argues that each individual must see death as something inevitable and, therefore, the limit for giving meaning to life , for making the most of every second and lending greater urgency to something that is not valued as it should be: time, leisure, and happiness. Every experience teaches us , and after death there will be no more.
Malraux's thinking is not necessarily pessimistic, but rather an invitation to action, as others such as Stefan Zweig or Norman Cousins had already done, advocating for a call to give greater importance to life, to what we have before us, to the present, without forgetting that one day we are going to die.
It is a way of forgetting how death has become, for many, a taboo subject that is nothing more than a denial of the end of life. For many, accepting the outcome of things makes fear disappear, and it is then that they begin to truly live.
