Basilisk

“I died for beauty, but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.

He questioned softly why I failed?
“For beauty,” I replied.
“And I for truth,—the two are one;
We brethren are,” he said.

And so, as kinsmen met a night,
We talked between the rooms,
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names.”
― emily dickinson, The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson

“While I thought I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.”
― Leonardo da Vinci

“You are a little soul carrying around a corpse”
― Epictetus

“Earthly things must be known to be loved; heavenly things must be loved to be known.”
― Blaise Pascal