“… I have always lived on contrasts! To me the only death is monotony. Beware of monotony; it's the mother of all the deadly sins.”

“Of all the seven deadly sins, only Envy is no fun at all.”

Joseph Epstein (1937–1944) American essayist, short story writer and editor

“The only deadly sin I know is cynicism.”

Henry L. Stimson (1867–1950) United States Secretary of War

“Now behoveth me to tell in what manner I saw sin deadly in the creatures which shall not die for sin, but live in the joy of God without end.”

Julian of Norwich (1342–1416) English theologian and anchoress

“There is one thing that makes life mighty in its veriest trifles, worthy in its smallest deeds, that delivers it from monotony, that delivers it from insignificance. All will be great, nothing will be overpowering, when, living in communion with Jesus Christ, we say as He says, "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me."”

Alexander Maclaren (1826–1910) British minister

“Beloved, you that have faith in the fountain, frequent it. Beware of two errors which are very natural and very disastrous; beware of thinking any sin too great for it; beware of thinking any sin too small.”

James Hamilton (1814–1867) Scottish minister and a prolific author of religious tracts

“Let us beware of saying that death is the opposite of life. The living being is only a species of the dead, and a very rare species.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist

“Yet now despair itself is mild,
Even as the winds and waters are;
I could lie down like a tired child,
And weep away the life of care
Which I have borne and yet must bear,
Till death like sleep might steal on me,
And I might feel in the warm air
My cheek grow cold, and hear the sea
Breathe o'er my dying brain its last monotony.”

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Romantic poet

“I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

“There is no death, daughter. People die only when we forget them,' my mother explained shortly before she left me. 'If you can remember me, I will be with you always.”

Isabel Allende book Eva Luna