It is the will of God and Nature that these mortal bodies be laid aside, when the soul is to enter into real life; ’tis rather an embrio state, a preparation for living; a man is not completely born until he be dead: Why then should we grieve that a new child is born among the immortals? – Benjamin Franklin, 22 February 1756

We are living at a time when creeds and ideologies vary and clash. But the gospel of human sympathy is universal and eternal. – Samuel Hopkins Adams

The delicate and infirm go for sympathy, not to the well and buoyant, but to those who have suffered like themselves. – Catharine Esther Beecher