To my age first of all. Your sympathy makes it shine like the last burst of light from a lamp on the point of being extinguished in eternal night! The respect that humanity pays to the aged is the expression of the binding force that unites the present generations with those that have preceded us, and with those that are to follow.

In: Camille Matignon, Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, 1907 - Marcellin Berthelot (p. 684)