If the first death be the mistress of mortals, and the mistress of the universe, reflect then on the brevity of life. "I have been, and that is all," said Saladin the Great, who was conqueror of the East. The longest liver had but a handful of days, and life itself is but a circle, always beginning where it ends.—Henry Mayhew.
Why all this toil for the triumphs of an hour?—Young.
The cradle and the tomb, alas! so nigh.—Prior.
Life's short summer—man is but a flower.—Johnson.
Man lives only to shiver and perspire.—Sydney Smith.
O frail estate of human things!—Dryden.
Many think themselves to be truly God-fearing when they call this world a valley of tears. But I believe they would be more so, if they called it a happy valley. God is more pleased with those who think everything right in the world, than with those who think nothing right. With so many thousand joys, is it not black ingratitude to call the world a place of sorrow and torment?—Richter.
Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.—Johnson.
We never live: we are always in the expectation of living.—Voltaire.
Life does not count by years. Some suffer a lifetime in a day, and so grow old between the rising and the setting of the sun.—Augusta Evans.