“ Alack, alack the day!”

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  Lear .  If thou wilt weep my fortunes, take my eyes.  I know thee well enough; thy name is Gloucester.  Thou must be patient; we came crying hither. Thou know’st, the first time that we smell the air,  We wawl and cry.  I will preach to thee; mark.  Glou .    Alack, alack the day!  Lear .  When we are born, we cry that we are come  To this great stage of fools . . .  ____________ Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King Lear. Act 4, Scene 6 (Shakespeare died April 23, 1616.)

Living Life Over — The Value of Reflection

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 “ . . . were it offered to my choice, I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the advantages authors have in a second edition to correct some faults of the first. So I might, besides correcting the faults, change some sinister accidents and events of it for others more favorable. But though this were denied, I should still accept the offer. Since such a repetition is not to be expected, the next thing most like living one’s life over again seems to be a recollection of that life, and to make that recollection as durable as possible by putting it down in writing.”

— Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790) “Autobiography” in The Harvard Classics 

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