Death, like the sun, cannot be looked at steadily.
Old age is a tyrant, who forbids, under pain of death, the pleasures of youth.
Death and the sun are not to be looked at steadily.
Few people know death, we only endure it, usually from determination, and even from stupidity and custom; and most men only die because they know not how to prevent dying.
Very few people are acquainted with death. They undergo it, commonly, not so much out of resolution as custom and insensitivity; and most men die because they cannot help it.
We often see malefactors, when they are led to execution, put on resolution and a contempt of death which, in truth, is nothing else but fearing to look it in the face--so that this pretended bravery may very truly be said to do the same good office to their mind that the blindfold does to their eyes.
Neither the sun nor death can be looked at steadily.
