Life is the gathering of waves to a head, at death they break into a million fragments each one of which, however, is absorbed at once into the sea of life and helps to form a later generation which comes rolling on till it too breaks.
 Samuel Butler, The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912). copy citation

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

Context

“Birth and Death i They are functions one of the other and if you get rid of one you must get rid of the other also. There is birth in death and death in birth. We are always dying and being born again. ii Life is the gathering of waves to a head, at death they break into a million fragments each one of which, however, is absorbed at once into the sea of life and helps to form a later generation which comes rolling on till it too breaks. iii What happens to you when you die? But what happens to you when you are born? In the one case we are born and in the other we die, but it is not possible to get much further. iv We commonly know that we are going to die though we do not know that we are going to be born.” source