“Death is in the nature of the universe, Barker. Death is only the operation of a mechanism. All the universe has been running down from the moment of its creation. Did you expect a machine to care what it acted upon? Death is like sunlight or a falling star; they don’t care where they fall. Death cannot see the pennants on a lance, or the wreath of glory in a dying man’s hand. Flags and flowers are the inventions of life. When a man dies, he falls into enemy hands—an ignorant enemy, who doesn’t merely spit on banners but who doesn’t even know what banners are. No ordinary man could stand to find that out. You found it out today. You sat in the laboratory and were speechless at the injustice of it. You’d never thought that justice was only another human invention.”
Source: Rogue Moon (1960), Chapter 5, Section 6 (p. 117)
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Algis Budrys 44
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Lyrics
“So that in death your enemies
See your triumph and our glory!”
Que tes ennemis expirants
Voient ton triomphe et notre gloire!
Verses of La Marseillaise written by Masclet https://books.google.fr/books?id=tAtItyiK9ywC&pg=PA17&dq=%22Que+tes+ennemis+expirants%22%2B%22Voient+ton+triomphe+et+notre+gloire+!%22&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi6sKvNu_vOAhWCthoKHY12BFQQ6AEIHDAC#v=onepage&q=%22Que%20tes%20ennemis%20expirants%22%2B%22Voient%20ton%20triomphe%20et%20notre%20gloire%20!%22&f=false (in French). English translation by Iain Patterson ( marseillaise.org http://www.marseillaise.org/english/english.html).
“For joys fall not to the rich alone, nor has he lived ill, who from birth to death has passed unknown.”
Nam neque divitibus contingunt gaudia solis,
nec vixit male, qui natus moriensque fefellit.
Book I, epistle xvii, line 9
Epistles (c. 20 BC and 14 BC)