O sleepers! what a thing is slumber! Sleep resembles death. Ah, why then dost thou not work in such wise as that after death thou mayst retain a resemblance to perfect life, when, during life, thou art in sleep so like to the hapless dead?

Death is close enough at hand so we do not need to be afraid of life.

Death. The certain prospect of death could sweeten every life with a precious and fragrant drop of levity-and now you strange apothecary souls have turned it into an ill-tasting drop of poison that makes the whole of life repulsive.

Death and life have their determined appointments; riches and honors depend upon heaven.

We cannot hope to die peacefully if our lives have been full of violence, or if our minds have mostly been agitated by emotions like anger, attachment, or fear. So if we wish to die well, we must learn how to live well: Hoping for a peaceful death, we must cultivate peace in our mind, and in our way of life.

To be, or not to be, that is the question.