Know thy nullity

 

 

 Thou art not thyself,
For thou exists on many a thousand grains
That issue out of dust.     

-- William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act 3, scene 1

Death makes these odds all even

 

If thou art rich, thou'rt poor;

For, like an ass whose back with ingots bows,

Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey,

And death unloads thee.

-- William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act 3, Scene 1

To Die Is To Become A Kneaded Clod

 

Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;

To lie in cold obstruction and to rot;

This sensible warm motion to become

A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit

To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside

In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice;

To be imprison'd in the viewless winds,

And blown with restless violence round about

The pendent world; or to be worse than worst

Of those that lawless and incertain thought

Imagine howling: 'tis too horrible!

The weariest and most loathed worldly life

That age, ache, penury and imprisonment

Can lay on nature is a paradise

To what we fear of death.

-- Claudio, Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, Act 3, Scene 1

 

 

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Is "To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice" the source for Robert Frost's "Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice"?

Cold Obstruction

 

 

 

Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;

To lie in cold obstruction and to rot;

-- Claudio, William Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, Act 3, Scene 1