For his book “On the Meaning of Life”, Will Durant asked a number of people “What is the meaning of life?” Amongst the replies he got, one was from H.L. Mencken:
“You ask me, in brief, what satisfaction I get out of life, and why I go on working. I go on working for the same reason that a hen goes on laying eggs. There is in every living creature an obscure but powerful impulse to active functioning. Life demands to be lived. Inaction, save as a measure of recuperation between bursts of activity, is painful and dangerous to the healthy organism—in fact, it is almost impossible. Only the dying can be really idle […]
When I die I shall be content to vanish into nothingness. No show, however good, could conceivably be good for ever.”