The geometric shape of the universe reflects the scheme of life.
You’ve been taught that they are the same.
You’ve been taught that the universe is bounded by five sides and that life has but five stages.
Primum: The pain of birth.
Secundum: The labour of maturing.
Tercium: The guilt of living.
Quartum: The terror of aging.
Quintum: The finality of death.
But this is not complete, for five sides demand a sixth space!
A centre. And that is what you have to look forward to.
What is the sixth space? It’s empty, it’s blackness. Void!
In other ages, equally ignorant, it was said an eternal fire would follow death. But I tell you (…) there is no fire!
I tell you fire is not enough punishment. No, no my sons.
The emptiness I speak of is the total horror of madness, the awareness of nothing.
So, Your wretched lifes are in fact supremely happy. It is your reward.
You must cherish your tortured life because it is a pause, an interruption of the void preceeding and following it.
Don’t fight. Don’t struggle. Accept!
When you think of the number five, remember it is sixth.
And if you look for an answer, look far beyond the facts you have and add one more: the unknown.
Because only when you consider the unknown you have a hope, a chance, to solve the dilemma.

Quintet (dir. Robert Altman)