Those who say that life is only a combination of misfortunes mean that the life itself is a misfortune. If it is a misfortune, then death is a happiness. Such purple did not write on good health, with their purses stuffed with money, and contentment in their souls from having held Cecilias and Marinas in their arms and being sure that there were more of them to come. Such men are a race of pessimists which can have existed only among ragged philosophers and rascally and atrabilious theologians. If pleasures exists, and we can only enjoy it in life, then life is a happiness. There are misfortunes, of course, as I should be the first to know. But the very existence of these misfortunes proves that the sum of good is greater. I'm infinitely happy when I am in dark room and see the light coming through a window which opens in a vast horizon.
Giacomo Casanova - History of my life (2, 1)
