Journey To The End Of The Night - pg. 48

She bothered me with her things of the spirit, which she never stopped talking about. The soul is the body's pride and pleasure when in health, but it is also a desire to be rid of the body when one is ill or things are going badly. You choose either the one attitude or the other, whichever suits you best at the particular moment, and that's all there is to it! While you are free to choose between both, all is well. But for me there was no choice; my course was settled. I was up to the neck in reality and could see my own death following me, so to speak, step for step. I found it very difficult to think of anything except a fate of slow assassination which the world seemed to consider the natural thing for me.
During this sort of protracted death agony, in which your brain is lucid and your body sound, it is impossible to comprehend anything but the absolute truths. You need to have undergone such an experience to have knowledge forever after of the truth or falsity of the things you say.