Death puts an end to rivalship and competition. The dead can boast no advantage over us, nor can we triumph over them.

No one ever approaches perfection except by stealth, and unknown to themselves.

No man would, I think, exchange his existence with any other man, however fortunate. We had as lief not be, as not be ourselves.

The most insignificant people are the most apt to sneer at others. They are safe from reprisals. And have no hope of rising in their own self esteem but by lowering their neighbors.

Or have I passed my time in pouring words like water into empty sieves, rolling a stone up a hill and then down again, trying to prove an argument in the teeth of facts, and looking for causes in the dark, and not finding them?

Like a rustic at a fair, we are full of amazement and rapture, and have no thought of going home, or that it will soon be night.

Perhaps the best cure for the fear of death is to reflect that life has a beginning as well as an end.