If life is an illusion, then so is death—the greatest of all illusions. If life must not be taken too seriously—then so neither must death.
 Samuel Butler, The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912). copy citation

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Author Samuel Butler
Source The Note-Books of Samuel Butler
Topic death illusion
Date 1912
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6173/6173-h/6173-h.htm

Context

“So that, even for the most wretched and most guilty, there is a heaven at last where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal. To himself every one is an immortal: he may know that he is going to die, but he can never know that he is dead.
vi
If life is an illusion, then so is death—the greatest of all illusions. If life must not be taken too seriously—then so neither must death.
vii
The dead are often just as living to us as the living are, only we cannot get them to believe it. They can come to us, but till we die we cannot go to them. To be dead is to be unable to understand that one is alive.
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