Death is for many of us the gate of hell

To die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly. Death of one's own free choice, death at the proper time, with a clear head and with joyfulness, consummated in the midst of children and witnesses: so that an actual leave-taking is possible while he who is leaving is still there. - Friedrich Nietzsche, Expeditions of an Untimely Man
Death is for many of us the gate of hell; but we are inside on the way out, not outside on the way in. -George Bernard Shaw
I knew a man who once said, "death smiles at us all; all a man can do is smile back." -From the movie Gladiator
Our birth is nothing but our death begun. -Edward Young, Night Thoughts
I want a priest, a rabbi, and a Protestant clergyman. I want to hedge my bets. -Wilson Mizner