“The thought of death deceives us; for it causes us to neglect to live.”

— Vauvenargues, Reflections and Maxims (1746), tr. E. Lee (1903)

About Vauvenargues

1715 – 1747

French moralist, author of "Reflections and Maxims" (1746).

“Patience is the art of hoping.”

“Necessity relieves us from the embarrassment of choice.”

“Those who continually slander, rarely do injury: they imagine more evil than they can accomplish.”

“The universe is flux, life is opinion.”

“No hour of life is lost that is spent in the saddle.”

“A living dog is better than a dead lion.”

“The life of the dead is in the memory of the living.”

“We think a happy life consists in tranquility of mind.”

“A useless life is an early death.”