“How much does a man live, after all?/ Does he live a thousand days, or one only?
For a week, or for several centuries?/ How long does a man spend dying?/ What does it mean to say 'for ever'?”

“How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.”

“How unhappy does one have to be before living seems worse than dying?”

“If a man does not have an ideal and try to live up to it, then he becomes a mean, base, and sordid creature, no matter how successful.”

“That man lives badly who does not know how to die well.”

“A violent wind does not outlast the morning; a squall of rain does not outlast the day. Such is the course of Nature. And if Nature herself cannot sustain her efforts long, how much less can man!”

“How does he do it? Live. With the fear of death every day. I don't fear death as much as I fear the thought of living.”

“Man is the result of slow growth; that is why he occupies the position he does in animal life. What does a pup amount to that has gained its growth in a few days or weeks, beside a man who only attains it in as many years.”

“It does not matter how long you live, but how well you do it.”

“What odds does it make to the man who lives within Nature's bounds, whether he ploughs a hundred acres or a thousand?”