Silenus

• "What wound was I seeking to heal, what thorn was I seeking to draw from the flesh of existence when I became what is called a 'philosopher'?" It may be...that a philosopher only ever develops one idea. In any case, there is no doubt that the philosopher is born of a single question, the question which arises at the intersection of thought and life at a given moment in the philosopher's youth; the question which one must at all costs find a way to answer." [Badiou]
• Now, then, Silenus, since you are so wise, come, tell me, is it really the best fate for a man to be drunk always?" ... "Not at all. Drunkenness is a joy reserved for the Gods : so do men partake of it impiously, and so are they very properly punished for their audacity. For men, it is best of all never to be born;but,being born, to die very quickly ."..."Ah, yes! but failing either?"..."The third best thing for a man is to do that which seems expected of him," -Silenus.
• "Sophocles in Oedipus at Colonus...wrote the famous and frightening lines: 'Not to be born prevails over all meaning uttered in words; by far the second best for life, once it has appeared, is to go as swiftly as possible whence it came.' There he also let us know through the mouth of Theseus, the legendary founder of Athens and hence her spokesman, what it was that enabled ordinary men, young and old, to bear life's burden: it was the polis, the space of men's free deeds and living words, which could endow life with splendour..." [Arendt, On Revolution, final lines]
• "An old legend has it that King Midas hunted a long time in the woods for the wise Silenus, companion of Dionysos,without being able to catch him. When he finally had caught him the king asked him what he considered man's greatest good. The daeomon remained sullen and uncommunicative until finally, forced by the king, he broke into a shrill laugh and spoke: 'Ephemeral wretch, begotten by accident and toil, why do you force me to tell you what it would be your greatest boon not to hear? What would be best for you is quite beyond your reach: not to have been born, not to be, to be nothing. But the second best is to die soon." [Nietzsche, Birth of Tragedy]
• "If you could edit your past, what would you change?"
"My birth. I agree with Sophocles: the greatest luck is not to have been born - but, as the joke goes on, very few people succeed in it. [Zizek, interview]"
• "A god could save man by simply wishing it-from the farthest shore in the world...Though as for death, of course all men must suffer it: the gods may love man, but they can't help him when cold death comes to lay him on his bier" [Athena, Illiad, Bk III]
• If you imagine, in so far as it is approximately possible, the sum total of distresses, pain and suffering of every kind which the sun shines upon in its course, you will have to admit it would have been much better if the sun had been able to call up the phenomenon of life as little on earth as on the moon...[Schopenhauer, On the Suffering of the World]

"The conviction that the world, and therefore man too, is something which really ought not to exist is in fact calculated to instill in us indulgence towards one another; for what can be expected of beings placed in such a situation as we are?...the appropriate form of address between man and man ought to be, not monsieur, sir, but fellow sufferer, compagnon de miseres...reminds us of what are the most necessary of all things: tolerance, patience, forbearance and charity...[Schopenhauer, On the Suffering of the World]

"...does it not look as if existence were an error the consequences of which gradually grow more and more manifest?"[Schopenhauer, On the Vanity of Existence]
"Does existence have a sense?-this question required several centuries even to be understood completely and in all its profundity" [Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science]