Life, life, life. What are we to make of it? The most illusive, the most puzzling, the most mysterious question mankind has ever asked itself: what’s it all about, Alfie?

The greatest intellects in the history of civilization have pondered this question and most of us lesser mortals have asked ourselves the same question too: what on earth are we here for?

We humans are smart enough to contemplate our own mortality, but are we clever enough to understand or even accept the answers? Maybe there is not one obvious meaning to life but rather several meanings, which we have not grasped yet.

If we all knew the meaning of life anyway, wouldn’t it make life far less intriguing, far less predictable, far less exciting than it is now? Because invariably, once we start to understand something, we seem preconditioned to criticize it. That’s the human condition.

In passing from this life into another, we may discover the ultimate truth, but for those of you who prefer not to wait for the cold finger of the grim reaper to touch your shoulder, you can always find some answers on the Internet.

I recently typed the phrase ‘the meaning of life’ into Google and received 240,000 replies. If was as if some sort of internet god was telling me “Okay smartass, if you really think you can handle the truth, shift through this lot and see how you get on.”

A cursory glance at the vast wealth of material available reveals some real wisdom, which if nothing else will stimulate the mind and help shed a little light on the impenetrable subject.

For example, philosopher Julian Baggini has written a book on the subject called ‘What’s It All About?’

“The only sense we can make of the idea that life has meaning is that there are some reasons to live rather than to die, and those reasons are to be found in the living of life itself.”

Here are some thoughts from some of the greatest minds who ever lived.

I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time. Jack London– ‘Jack London’s Tales of Adventure’

A baby is God’s opinion that life should go on. Carl Sandburg

The moment a man questions the meaning and value of life, he is sick, since objectively neither has any existence; by asking this question one is merely admitting to a store of unsatisfied libido to which something else must have happened, a kind of fermentation leading to sadness and depression. Sigmund Freud to Marie Bonaparte

The web of our life is of mingled yarn, good and ill together. William Shakespeare– ‘All’s Well That Ends Well’

Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think. Jean de la Bruyere
Not to be born is best. Sophocles

There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning. Thorton Wilder– ‘The Bridge of San Luis Rey’

Try being nice to people, go for the occasional walk, and avoid eating fatty foods, read a good book every now and then. Try also to live together with people and creeds of all nations in peace and harmony. Monty Python– ‘The Meaning Of Life’