Always look on the bright side of life

Why do we waste so much time trying to complete things that can't be realistically completed?

We have a limit, a very discouraging, humiliating limit: death. That's why we like all the things that we assume have no limits and, therefore, no end.

We like lists because we don't want to die: Entrevista a Umberto Eco, Susanne Beyer e Lothar Gorris, Spiegel, 11 Nov. '09