Half our days we pass in the shadow of the earth; and the brother of death exacteth a third part of our lives.

There is nothing strictly immortal, but immortality. Whatever hath no beginning may be confident of no end.

They that endeavour to abolish vice destroy also virtue, for contraries, though they destroy one another, are yet the life of one another.

To make an end of all things on Earth, and our Planetical System of the World, he (God) need but put out the Sun.

To ruminate upon evils, to make critical notes upon injuries, and be too acute in their apprehensions, is to add unto our own tortures, to feather the arrows of our enemies, to lash ourselves with the scorpions of our foes, and to resolve to sleep no more.

Gold once out of the earth is no more due unto it; what was unreasonably committed to the ground, is reasonably resumed from it; let monuments and rich fabricks, not riches, adorn men's ashes.

I believe the world grows near its end, yet is neither old nor decayed, nor will ever perish upon the ruins of its own principles.