威廉·哈茲裏特/William Hazlitt
Perhaps the best cure for the fear of death is to reflect that life has a beginning as well as an end. There was a time when we were not: this gives me no concern.
Why then should it trouble us that a time will come when we shall cease to be? I have no wish to have been alive a hundred years ago, or in the reign of Queen Anne. Why should I regret and lay it so much to heart that I shall not be alive a hundred years hence, in the reign of I cannot tell whom?
To die is only to be as we were born; yet no one feels any remorse, or regret, or repugnance, in contemplating this last idea. It is rather a relief and disburthening of the mind; it seems to have been a holiday time with us then: we were not called to appear upon the stage of life, to wear robes or tatters, to laugh or cry, be hooted or applauded; we had lain perdu all this while, snug out of harm's way; and had slept out our thousands of centuries without wanting to be waked up; at peace and free from care, in a long nonage, in a sleep deeper and calmer than that of infancy, wrapped in the softest and finest dust. And the worst that we dread is, after a short fretful, feverish being, after vain hopes, and idle fears, to sink to final repose again, and forget the troubled dream of life!
也許擺脫死亡恐懼的最佳療法是思考生命的開始與終結。曾經我們對此沒有給予關注。
為什麽走到生命的盡頭時，這個問題卻會困擾我們？我不希望生活在一百年前，或者安妮女王時代，為什麽還要為未能生活在一百年前，說不出是誰的統治時代而感到遺憾？
死亡就像我們的出生。思考這一永恒的主題，無人會自責、悔恨，或質疑，相反我們可以釋放心靈，緩解憂愁。我們仿佛在度假一般：我們沒有被傳喚至人生的舞台上，穿著華麗的衣服或破舊的衣衫，大笑不止或痛哭流涕，被人訓斥或者讚美，然而對此，我們卻隱藏了許久，安詳悠閑，而遠離傷害。我們仿佛沉睡了千百個世紀而不願被人喚醒，安逸而無憂慮，總處於孩童時期，而且比嬰兒睡得還要深沉，還要平靜，被裹挾於最輕柔、最細密的灰塵之中。我們最怕的是經過瞬間的狂熱、徒勞的希望、沒有緣由的恐懼，又沉浸到熟睡狀態，而忘記生命中困擾我們的夢想！