You Could Leave Life Right Now

In comparing sins
The way that people do
Theophrastus says
Those done out of desire
Are worse than those
Done out of anger

(Which is good philosophy)

The angry man
Seems to turn his back
On reason out of a kind of pain and inner convulsion
But the man motivated by desire
Who is mastered by pleasure
Seems somehow more self-indulgent, less manly in his sins
Theophrastus is right
And philosophically sound
To say the sin committed out of pleasure
Deserves a harsher rebuke
Than the one committed out of pain
The angry man is more like a victim
Of wrongdoing
Provoked by pain to anger
The other man rushes into wrongdoing
On his own
Moved to action by desire

[Chorus]
You could leave life right now
Let that determine what you do and say and think
You could leave life right now
You could leave life right now
You could leave life right now
Let that determine what you do and say and think
You could leave life right now
You could leave life right now

If the gods exist
Then to abandon human beings is not frightening
The gods would never subject you to harm

And if they don’t exist
Or don’t care what happens to us
What would be the point
Of living in a world
Without gods or Providence?

But they do exist
They do care what happens to us
And everything a person needs to avoid real harm
They have placed within him
If there were anything harmful on the other side of death
They would have made sure that the ability to avoid it was within you
If it doesn’t harm your character
How can it harm your life?

Nature would not overlook such dangers
Through failing to recognize
Or because it saw them but was powerless to prevent or correct them
To prevent or correct them
(Ey)
Nor would it ever
Through inability or incompetence
Make such a mistake as to let good and bad things happen indiscriminately to good and bad alike
Good and bad alike
Good and bad alike

But death and life
Success and failure
Pain and pleasure
Wealth and poverty
All these happen to good and bad alike
Good and bad alike
Good and bad alike
Good and bad alike

But death and life
Success and failure
Pain and pleasure
All these happen to good and bad alike
And they are neither noble nor shameful and hence neither good
Nor bad

[Chorus]
You could leave life right now
Let that determine what you do and say and think
You could leave life right now
You could leave life right now
You could leave life right now
Let that determine what you do and say and think
You could leave life right now
You could leave life right now