How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Naked to the waist, his body a little green, like that of a dead man, the bachelor was lying on an unmade bed. The disorder of sheets and blankets attested to a long death agony. (21.6)
When he checks out a painting called "The Bachelor's Death," Antoine realizes that the world is condemning him for not getting married and settling down. Basically, the paint's message is: get married and have children or else no one will care when you die.
Quote #5
I had not gone far enough the other day: experience was much more than a defence against death; it was a right; the right of old men. (21.22)
In a moment of flickering hope, Antoine looks at some portraits of respectable old men and realizes how brave they would have been to make meaning of their lives even in old age. In this case, he believes that experience isn't just a state of not-being-dead. It's actually something you can make meaningful if you live with freedom, dignity, and purpose.
Quote #6
Suddenly they existed, then suddenly they existed no longer: existence is without memory; of the vanished it retains nothing—not even a memory. (25.12)
For Antoine, death totally erases an entire person's life. You either exist or you don't, and when you die, it doesn't matter whether you've had kids or written a bunch of books. There's no such thing as living on after you're dead. Once you die, it's as if you never existed to begin with.