“You know,” he said, “now that I’ve got used to the idea, I think I’d rather have it this way. We’ve all got to die one day, some sooner and some later. The trouble always has been that you’re never ready, because you don’t know when it’s coming. Well, now we do know, and there’s nothing to be done about it. I kind of like that. I kind of like the thought that I’ll be fit and well up till the end of August and then—home. I’d rather have it that way than go on as a sick man from when I’m seventy to when I’m ninety.”
From Nevil Shute’s, On the Beach.I found all of the ‘stiff upper lip’ stuff in “On the Beach” hopelessly dated. If this happened in today’s world there would be shrieking hysteria. Our society wouldn’t be able to cope with it….