Aphorism
Living is a sickness to which sleep provides relief every sixteen hours. It's a palliative. The remedy is death.
— Nicolas Chamfort
Maximes et Pensées
In The Margin
The precision of “every sixteen hours” makes the sentence unsettling. An ordinary bedtime becomes part of a bleak argument about existence. You need not agree with its conclusion to notice how differently it makes the familiar look.
Source & Translation
French passage quoted in Chamfort, Moraliste, II (opens in a new tab)
English translation: translator unverified.