[英國]威廉·哈茲裏特/William Hazlitt
威廉·哈茲裏特（1778-1830），英國散文家、評論家、畫家。他曾從事過繪畫，但是在柯爾雷基的鼓勵下寫出《論人的行為準則》，隨後又寫了更多的散文作品。1812年在倫敦當記者，並為《愛丁堡評論》撰稿。從其作品來看，他熱衷爭論，擅長撰寫警句，謾罵和諷刺性的文字。他最著名的散文集是《席間閑談》和《時代精神》。
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？