“Death, my son, is a good thing for all men; it is the night for this worried day that we call life. It is in the sleep of death that finds rest for eternity the sickness, pain, desperation, and the fears that agitate, without end, we unhappy living souls.”

“There is never but one pleasant side to this human life. Like the globe on which we turn, our own rapid rotation is but one day, and a part of this day cannot receive light, so that the other part will not be delivered into darkness.”

“If life is a punishment, one should wish for an end; if life is a test, one should wish it to be short.”

“La vie de l'homme, avec tous ses projets, s'élève comme une petite tour dont la mort est le couronnement.”

“It is a matter of life and death for us; for the lead we gain by day on ships and railways is lost each night.”

“La diète des aliments nous rend la santé du corps, et celle des hommes la tranquillité de l'âme. ”

“And yet, and yet, in these our ghostly lives,Half night, half day, half sleeping, half awake,How if our waking life, like that of sleep,Be all a dream in that eternal lifeTo which we wake not till we sleep in death”