Chiamo principio della morte tutto il corso della vita cominciando al nostro nascimento, dal quale cominciamo a morire, e per momenti di tempo andiamo ogni giorno al nostro fine.
Della Morte, p. 529.
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 275.
“Life is a disease, brother, and death begins already at birth. Every breath, every heartbeat, is a moment of dying - a little shove toward the end.”
Source: Three Comrades
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Erich Maria Remarque 63
German novelist 1898–1970Related quotes

Vol. 2, Ch. 2: Our Relation To Ourselves http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/s/schopenhauer/arthur/counsels/chapter2.html
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851), Counsels and Maxims
Context: Do not shorten the morning by getting up late, or waste it in unworthy occupations or in talk; look upon it as the quintessence of life, as to a certain extent sacred. Evening is like old age: we are languid, talkative, silly. Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death.

“Every moment of life is a step toward the grave.”
Chaque instant de la vie est un pas vers la mort.
Tite et Bérénice, I, 5.
Variant: Each instant of life is a step toward death.

“Every thought about death takes a moment of life away.”
Death http://www.poetrysoup.com/famous/poem/21379/Death
From the poems written in English

“… [they] believe that life begins at conception and ends at birth…”
Speaking of anti-abortion legislators
[Charles P., Pierce, http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2005/10/02/to_be_frank/?page=4, To Be Frank, The Boston Globe, p. 4, October 2, 2005, 2008-03-05]