" But how nothingness invades us! We are scarcely born ere decay begins for us, in such a way that the whole of life is but one long combat with it, more and more triumphant, on its part, to the consummation, namely, death; and then the reign of decay is exclusive. "

― Gustave Flaubert , The Correspondence of Gustave Flaubert George Sand: Flaubert - Sand