Quote#Death
But mankind—the race would perish did they cease to aid each…
Quote byWalter Scott · 1771–1832
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Black Dwarf (1816), Ch. 17..
English (original)
But mankind—the race would perish did they cease to aid each other.—From the time that the mother binds the child's head, till the moment that some kind assistant wipes the death-damp from the brow of the dying, we cannot exist without mutual help. All, therefore, that need aid, have the right to ask it of their fellow-mortals; no one who has the power of granting can refuse it without guilt.
— Walter Scott
More from Walter Scott
Time will rust the sharpest sword, Time will consume the strongest cord; That which molders hemp and steel, Mortal arm and nerve must feel.
Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife! To all the sensual world proclaim, One crowded hour of glorious life Is worth an age without a name.
Where lives the man that has not tried, How mirth can into folly glide, And folly into sin!
Come as the winds come, when Forests are rended, Come as the waves come, when Navies are stranded.
War's a fearsome thing. They'll be cunning that catches me at this wark again.
Vacant heart, and hand, and eye, Easy live and quiet die.