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...When they were not arguing, the boredom was so fierce that one day the old woman ventured to say, "I should like to know which is worse, being raped a hundred times by negro pirates, having a buttock cut off, running the gauntlet in the Bulgar army, being flogged and hanged in an auto-da-f, being dissected, and rowing in the galleys - experiencing, in a word, all the miseries through which we have passed - or else just sitting here and doing nothing?" "It's a hard question", said Candide. These words gave rise to new reflections, and Martin in particular concluded that man was bound to live either in convulsions of misery or in the lethargy of boredom.