“My patients taught me not how to die, but how to live.”

My Mother's Bible, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

In Memory of the Rev. Mr. Moore, line 21.

On the Death of Mr. Addison (1721), line 81. Compare: "He who should teach men to die, would at the same time teach them to live", Michel de Montaigne, Essay, book i. chap. ix.; "I have taught you, my dear flock, for above thirty years how to live; and I will show you in a very short time how to die", Sandys, Anglorum Speculum, p. 903; "Teach him how to live, And, oh still harder lesson! how to die", Beilby Porteus, Death, line 316; "He taught them how to live and how to die", Somerville, In Memory of the Rev. Mr. Moore.
Context: There patient show'd us the wise course to steer,
A candid censor, and a friend severe;
There taught us how to live; and (oh! too high
The price for knowledge) taught us how to die.

“Poetry in War and Peace”, p. 129
Kipling, Auden & Co: Essays and Reviews 1935-1964 (1980)

2010-, The City: Beijing, 2011

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Agnes Grey

Tuesdays with Morrie (1997)

Gem of the Ocean