The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas

by Machado de Assis

Hence there is truly only one misfortune in life: never being born.”

O que não tem remédio, remediado está—what can’t be cured must be endured.

Nature is a fickle maid and History is an inveterate flirt.

For you, great hedonist, there await all the sensual pleasures of nothingness.”

Time cares not for the passing minute, only that which is to come. The minute ahead is strong, merry, believes it is the bearer of eternity, and it, too, bears death and perishes like the one before it—but time remains.