To die is only to be as we were before we were born; yet no one feels any remorse, or regret, or repugnance, in contemplating this last idea.
Popularity is neither fame nor greatness.
The player envies only the player, the poet envies only the poet.
If we are long absent from our friends, we forget them; if we are constantly with them, we despise them.
A life of action and danger moderates the dread of death.
Without life there can be no action — no objects of pursuit — no restless desires — no tormenting passions. Hence it is that we fondly cling to it — that we dread its termination as the close, not of enjoyment, but of hope.