“Man’s life is but a jest,
A dream, a shadow, bubble, air, a vapor at the best.”

— George Walter Thornbury

The Jester’s Sermon. Compare: "Life is a jest and all things show it; I thought so once, but now I know it", John Gay, My own Epitaph; "Life is an empty dream", Robert Browning, Paracelsus, ii.; "Life ’s but a series of trifles at best", Anonymous.

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George Walter Thornbury2

British writer 1828–1876

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