We are all serving a life sentence, and good behavior is our only hope for a pardon.

Horton frames human existence as a kind of incarceration: we are “sentenced” simply by being born into time, limitation, and mortality. In that metaphor, “good behavior” stands for ethical living—self-discipline, decency toward others, and responsibility for one’s choices—suggesting that character is the only leverage we have against the inevitability of judgment or death. The “pardon” can be read religiously (divine forgiveness or salvation), socially (the verdict of history or one’s community), or existentially (inner reconciliation at life’s end). The line’s power lies in its bleak realism—no one escapes the sentence—paired with a modest hope: conduct still matters.