We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here. We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred?.Richard Dawkins
About This Quote
I think that the best thing that we can do to make the world a better place is to be optimistic and believe that everything will turn out for the best. I often think that I am incredibly lucky to be alive and to have all of the things that I have. Whenever I feel sorry for myself, I remember how lucky I am to be alive and how lucky my family is to have me.
Source: Unweaving The Rainbow: Science, Delusion And The Appetite For Wonder
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