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About this quote

What does it mean?
The speaker suggests that death arrives quietly during the night while the living are asleep.
In plain terms
Death comes quietly while we are sleeping.
What can you take from it?
Life's end often happens unexpectedly without fanfare.

Where it applies

  • end of life
  • late night thoughts
  • memories

Putting it to work

  • funeral planning
  • comforting the dying
  • writing elegies

Questions to consider

  • When did you first realize time passes quietly?
  • How do you accept loss?

Another view

It romanticizes the timing of death which can be painful or sudden.

More from Henry van Dyke

  1. A tear that trembles for a little while Upon the trembling eyelid, till the world Wavers within its circle like a dream, Holds more of meaning in its narrow or…

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  2. What we do belongs to what we are; and what we are is what becomes of us.

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  3. So in the heart, When, fading slowly down the past, Fond memories depart, And each that leaves it seems the last; Long after all the rest are flown, Returns a …

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