the whole thing is absurd

"I think we must have a faith, and if we haven't we must find one.

Because if we don't, life is empty and senseless.

We must have some explanation why cranes fly south, why children are born, why there are stars in the sky.

Some system of belief.

Because either you know what you are living for or else nothing matters - the whole thing is absurd."

Masha speaking to Baron and Vershinin (with whom she enters into an affair) in Act 2. of Three Sisters, by Chekhov. (Brian Freil translation.)