life and death

When a man tries to realize himself through the gifts with which nature has endowed him, he does the best and only meaningful thing he can do.

There is no beyond. The dried-up tree is dead forever; the frozen bird does not come back to life, nor does a man after he has died.

-Narcissus and Goldmund, Herman Hesse, Bantam, New York: 1971 [p278&306].