We are continually dying; I while I am writing these words, you while you are reading them, others when they hear them or fail to hear them. I shall be dying when you read this, you die while I write, we both are dying, we all are dying, we are dying forever.

letter to Philippe de Cabassoles c.1360; Letters on Familiar Matters bk. 24, no. 1 (translated by Morris Bishop)