Death is certain, replacing both the siren-song of Paradise and the dread of Hell. Life on this earth, with all its mystery and beauty and pain, is then to be lived far more intensely: we stumble and get up, we are sad, confident, insecure, feel loneliness and joy and love. There is nothing more; but I want nothing more.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

The Portable Atheist

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hirsi Ali, Ayaan. "How (and Why) I Became an Infidel." The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever, edited by Christopher Hitchens. Da Capo Press, 2007, ch. 47.