Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyts New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Mortality
O Charidas, what of the underworld? Great darkness. And what of the resurrection? A lie. And Pluto? A fable; we perish utterly. Callimachus. Trans. by Macnail in Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology. See also CallimachusEpigrams. XIV. L. 3. Anthologia Palatina. VII. 524.
To smell to a turf of fresh earth is wholesome for the body; no less are thoughts of mortality cordial to the soul. FullerHoly and Profane States. Bk. IV. The Court Lady.
That flesh is but the glasse, which holds the dust That measures all our time; which also shall Be crumbled into dust. HerbertThe Temple. Church Monuments.
The immortal could we cease to contemplate, The mortal part suggests its every trait. God laid His fingers on the ivories Of her pure members as on smoothèd keys, And there out-breathed her spirits harmonies. Francis ThompsonHer Portrait. St. 7.
At thirty, man suspects himself a fool, Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan; At fifty, chides his infamous delay, Pushes his prudent purpose to resolve, In all the magnanimity of thought; Resolves, and re-resolves, then dies the same. And why? because he thinks himself immortal, All men think all men mortal but themselves. YoungNight Thoughts. Night I. L. 417.