It is necessary to die

It is necessary to die, but nobody wants to; you don't
want to, but you are going to, willy-nilly. A hard necessity
that is, not to want something which cannot be avoided. If it
could be managed, we would much rather not die; we would
like to become like the angels by some other means than
death. . . . We want to reach the kingdom of God, but we
don't want to travel by way of death. And yet there stands
Necessity saying: "This way, please." Do you hesitate, man,
to go this way, when this is the way that God came to you?
- St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), "Exposition II, Sermon I on
Psalm 30"