It is an incredibly exciting thing, this one meaningless life of yours.
Tim Minchin
University of Western Australia Commencement, 2013, 2013
Video starts at 11:47 — the moment this quote was spoken
The Story Behind This Quote
Minchin closed his speech with what he called his idea of romance: 'You will soon be dead.' He laid it out plainly — life will sometimes seem long and tough, you will sometimes be happy and sometimes sad, and then you'll be old, and then you'll be dead. Rather than nihilism, he offered this as liberation. There is only one sensible thing to do with this empty existence: fill it. Life is best filled by learning as much as you can, taking pride in whatever you're doing, having compassion, sharing ideas, running, being enthusiastic. The line landed as both a philosophical provocation and a genuine benediction — finding the exhilaration precisely in the absence of cosmic meaning.