2 Esdras 7:61-63

Common English Bible

⁶¹ I will have no regrets over the multitude who perish, for they are even now like vapor, the equivalent of flame or smoke; they burn and flare up and are quenched.”

⁶² I replied: “Earth, what have you brought to birth? If consciousness is made of dust like other creatures, ⁶³ it would have been better that the dust itself had never been born, so that consciousness shouldn’t be made from it.