Epitaph, n. An inscription on a tomb, showing that virtues acquired by death have a retroactive effect.

It is noble to die before doing anything that deserves death.

Nobody, sir, dies willingly.

To desire immortality for the individual is really the same as wanting to perpetuate an error forever.

Those from whom we were born have long since departed, and those with whom we grew up exist only in memory. We, too, through the approach of death, become, as it were, trees growing on the sandy bank of a river.

Imagine a number of men in chains, all under sentence of death, some of whom are each day butchered in the sight of the others; those remaining see their own condition in that of their fellows and, looking at each other with grief and despair, await their turn. This is an image of the human condition.

You are dust, and to dust you shall return.

A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest.

I looked and there was a pale green horse! Its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed with him.

Death renders all equal.

In dealing with the dead, if we treat them as if they were entirely dead, that would show a want of affection and should not be done; or, if we treat them as if they were entirely alive, that would show a want of wisdom and should not be done.

Is this dying? Is this all? Is this all that I feared when I prayed against a hard death? Oh, I can bear this! I can bear it!

The play is the tragedy “Man,” And its hero the conqueror worm.