“Pulvis et umbra sumus. (We are but dust and shadow.)”

“Pulvis et umbra sumus. It's a line from Horace. 'We are dust and shadows'. Appropriate, don't you think?" Will said. "It's not a long life, killing demons; one tends to die young, and then they burn your body - dust to dust, in the literal sense. And then we vanish into the shadows of history, nary a mark on the page of a mundane book to remind the world that once we existed at all.”

“Ode 4.7Diffugere niues, redeunt iam gramina campis arboribus comae;mutat terra uices et decrescentia ripas flumina praetereunt;Gratia cum Nymphis geminisque sororibus audet ducere nuda chorus.Inmortalia ne speres, monet annus et almum quae rapit hora diem.Frigora mitescunt Zephyris, uer proterit aestas, interitura simul pomifer autumnus fruges effuderit, et mox bruma recurrit iners.Damna tamen celeres reparant caelestia lunae: non ubi decidimusquo pater Aeneas, quo diues Tullus et Ancus, puluis et umbra sumus.Quis scit an adiciant hodiernae crastina summae tempora di superi?Cuncta manus auidas fugient heredis, amico quae dederis animo. Cum semel occideris et de te splendida Minos fecerit arbitria,non, Torquate, genus, non te facundia, non te restituet pietas;infernis neque enim tenebris Diana pudicum liberat Hippolytum,nec Lethaea ualet Theseus abrumpere caro uincula Pirithoo.”

“Cedes coemptis saltibus et domouillaque flauus quam Tiberis lauit,cedes et exstructis in altumdiuitiis potietur heres.”

“Finxerunt animi, raro et perpauca loquentis. (To action little, less to words inclinded.)”

“What we read with pleasure we read again with pleasure.”

“But alas! my Lord, what is blood! what is nobility! We are all reptiles, miserable, sinful creatures. It is piety alone that can distinguish us from the dust whence we sprung, and whither we must return.”