It is often said that before you die your life passes before your eyes. It is in fact true. It's called living.

Pratchett’s line plays on a familiar cliché about the “life flashing before your eyes” at the moment of death, then undercuts it with a deadpan reversal: the real flashback is simply the ongoing experience of being alive. The joke carries a serious nudge toward attentiveness—life is already the continuous reel of memories, sensations, and choices that people only romanticize at the end. By reframing the saying, the quote also mocks sentimental narratives about death while affirming the value of ordinary days. Its compact structure—setup, confirmation, punchline—typifies Pratchett’s comic philosophy: humor as a way to state a practical, humanist truth without preaching.