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Capital punishment and life-imprisonment are equally immoral; but if I were offered the choice between them, I would certainly choose the second. It's better to live somehow than not to live at all.
This statement is the lawyer’s initial argument during the debate about capital punishment. According to the lawyer, life itself has value, no matter the quality of life. Although the lawyer takes the bet in part due to greed, his conviction that any life is worth living underpins his optimism. He believes he can survive captivity because he doesn’t think it inherently diminishes the meaningfulness of his life. Instead, he is convinced that life itself will be enough for him and that he can make do.
And I despise your books, despise all worldly blessings and wisdom. Everything is void, frail, visionary and delusive like a mirage.
The lawyer comes to this conclusion when he decides to abdicate the bet. Here, he renounces the material world as completely illusory, a prison of delusion, as part of his renunciation of the value of life itself. Notably, despite blaming books as part of the delusion of life, the lawyer has come to these conclusions by reading books, which have provided him images, not real experiences, of life and humanity. This aspect adds ambiguity to the story’s conclusion, suggesting that perhaps neither man has succeeded in finding meaning in their lives.
