"I know all human beings will be successful. How do I know? They all die"
About this Quote
The intent is less nihilism than exposure. By calling death "success", Evans shows how elastic, even absurd, the word has become. If "successful" can mean anything, it can mean the last thing. That turns the reader back on their own assumptions: Are we chasing success because it has substance, or because it functions as a social password? The joke lands because it weaponizes optimism against itself. You can hear the rhetorical trap closing: the first sentence invites agreement; the second makes agreement uncomfortable.
Subtextually, it's also a jab at the moralizing baked into conventional success narratives. If everyone dies, then the hierarchy we build around winners and losers starts to look like a temporary administrative fiction - useful for selling books, running companies, policing status, but ultimately unable to outrun the body. The line's cynicism is clean, not sloppy: a reminder that the only guaranteed finish line doesn't care about your grindset.
Quote Details
| Topic | Dark Humor |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Evans, Stephen. (2026, January 16). I know all human beings will be successful. How do I know? They all die. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-know-all-human-beings-will-be-successful-how-do-123459/
Chicago Style
Evans, Stephen. "I know all human beings will be successful. How do I know? They all die." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-know-all-human-beings-will-be-successful-how-do-123459/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I know all human beings will be successful. How do I know? They all die." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-know-all-human-beings-will-be-successful-how-do-123459/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.





