“We weep when we are born, not when we die!”

— Thomas Bailey Aldrich, The Metempsychosis, The Poems of Thomas Bailey Aldrich, 1882

About Thomas Bailey Aldrich

1836 – 1907

American poet and editor, author of "Ponkapog Papers".

“To keep the heart unwrinkled, to be hopeful, kindly, cheerful, reverent—that is to triumph over old age.”

“All the best sands of my life are somehow getting into the wrong end of the hourglass.”

“Those are the ghosts of the robins and blue-birds that sang upon the bough when it was in blossom last Spring.”

“Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!”

“There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.”

“It is old age, rather than death, that is to be contrasted with life.”

“There are but three events in a man's life: birth, life and death.”

“Death, like generation, is a secret of Nature.”

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