“Life is a predicament which precedes death.”

“There are many predicaments in life that one must be a bit crazy to escape from.”

“A minor essay, but an unduly neglected document of Clare's predicament in 1824, a crucial year in his life as a poet.”

“Who knows but life be that which men call death,
And death what men call life?”

“When love exists, nothing else matters, not life’s predicaments, not the fury of the years, not a physical winding down or scarcity of opportunity.”

“Reality prior to my language exists as an unthinkable thought.... life precedes love, bodily matter precedes the body, and one day in its turn language shall have preceded possession of silence.”

“It is not death; but a bad life, which destroys the soul.”

“To the last moment of his breath
On hope the wretch relies;
And e'en the pang preceding death
Bids expectation rise.”

“I entirely differ with the Government as to the value of precedents. In this case, as in others, precedents are not mere dusty phrases, which do not substantially affect the question before us. A precedent embalms a principle.”

“Life inspires more dread than death — it is life which is the great unknown.”