What a pity that the only way to heaven is in a hearse.

Stanisław Jerzy Lec (1909–1966) was a Polish satirist and aphorist whose work, shaped by war, totalitarianism, and postwar political pressures, often skewers moral hypocrisy and institutional pieties. This line is widely circulated in English as one of his mordant aphorisms and fits the tone of his best-known collection of epigrams, in which he uses paradox and dark humor to puncture conventional consolations. The remark reflects Lec’s broader preoccupation with how lofty ideals—especially religious or moral promises—can be invoked in ways that feel detached from lived human flourishing.

The aphorism satirizes a worldview in which “heaven” (reward, salvation, ultimate meaning) is effectively reachable only through death—symbolized by the hearse. It can be read as a critique of religious or ideological systems that postpone fulfillment to an afterlife while leaving earthly life impoverished, constrained, or joyless. The “pity” is double-edged: it sounds sympathetic but functions as an indictment of doctrines and social arrangements that make death the main gateway to promised happiness. More broadly, it questions any ethic that treats suffering now as the necessary price of a better elsewhere.