I

People spend their whole lives chasing after money and fame and gain; they clutch at these straws, treating them like their only means of support, as if by having them they could live on, exempt from death. But only when they are about to die do they realize how distant these things are from them, and, in the face of death, how weak and powerless they are, how vulnerable they are, and how lonely and helpless they are, with nowhere to turn. They realize that life cannot be bought with money or fame and gain, that no matter how wealthy a person may be, no matter how lofty their position, all are equally poor and insignificant in the face of death.

II

They realize that money cannot buy life, that fame and gain cannot erase death, that neither money nor fame and gain can lengthen a person’s life by a single minute, a single second. The more people feel this way, the more they yearn to keep on living; the more people feel this way, the more they dread the approach of death. Only at this point do they truly realize that their lives do not belong to them, are not theirs to control, and that one has no say over whether one lives or dies—it is beyond anyone’s control.

from The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique III