Aphorism No. 500

Think not of the dead as dead. Think of them instead as simply somewhere else. Not here. Not in your presence. But somewhere else, somewhere safe, somewhere untouched by time. Distant, absent always, but waiting — waiting with hope, waiting with patience, waiting for the day when destiny will reunite us all, perhaps for one final journey.

Aphorism No. 498

If Death had visited Shakespeare in 1596 and given him two options — die in 20 years and be praised for centuries or die in 25 years and be lost to history — Shakespeare would have chosen the former. But if Death had come to Shakespeare on the day of his passing in 1616 with a similar offer — die now and be remembered or live another five years and be forgotten — he might have chosen the latter.