" Why, Neph, do they live on? Isn’t it better to be dead, to die quickly and with some honour than to be worked and beaten to death like a beast?”
“No,” Neph answered shortly.
“I don’t understand. I would die and welcome the dark lord Osiris.”
“No, you wouldn’t,” Neph said.
“But I tell you I would!”
“Ah, yes, you tell me that. When life is full and sweet and young, as it is with a prince of the Great House, then the thought of surrendering it becomes an easy abstraction. You have so much life that you can be prodigal with it, Moses. But when life hangs by a thread, then by all the gods that be, it is nothing you give up easily! Life is the reason for life, as you will some day learn, and reason enough, you may be sure. "

― Howard Fast , Moses: Prince of Egypt