On the morning of what should have been Amelia Ashley's birthday, the river valley that had once housed High Bridge changed for Joshua Mayhew. For the first time in many years, it seemed beautiful to him. For the first time in many years, it was beautiful.

Other than the promise of life after death, nothing consoles the poor better than the fact that rich people are also subject to death.

Death would not surprise us as often as it does, if we let go of the misbelief that newborns are less mortal than the elderly.

You need to be greedy or ignorant to truly want to live forever.

Attending a funeral would leave the average person insane, if they truly believed that sooner or later they are also going to die.

Even those who want to go to heaven would rather kill than be killed.

Death would be an extremely bad thing like most of us paint it, if being dead were painful.

We the living are to blame for the painfulness of being dead.

But forever was a useless term, relevant only for the dead.