Let's choose executors and talk of wills:
And yet not so, for what can we bequeath
Save our deposed bodies to the ground? [ William Shakespeare ]

We rise by things that are 'neath our feet,
By what we have mastered of good and gain,
By the pride deposed, and passion slain,
And the vanquished ills that we hourly meet. [ J. G. Holland, Pseudonym: Timothy Titcomb ]

When I look upon the tombs of the great, every motion of envy dies; when I read the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate desire forsake me: when I meet with the grief of parents upon a tombstone, my heart melts with compassion; when I see the tombs of the parents themselves, I reflect how vain it is to grieve for those whom we must quickly follow; when I see kings lying beside those who deposed them, when I behold rival wits placed side by side, or the holy men who divided the world with their contests and disputes, I reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the frivolous competitions, factions, and debates of mankind. [ Addison ]