"It is eerie being all but alone in Westminster Abbey. Without the tourists, there are only the dead, many of them kings and queens. They speak powerfully and put my thoughts into vivid perspective."

Death

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Insight & Reflection

This reflection on death by A. N. Wilson resonates across generations. It highlights a fundamental truth about human nature: our continuous search for meaning in death is what ultimately defines our character and our path forward.

About A. N. Wilson

Andrew Norman Wilson is an English writer and newspaper columnist known for his critical biographies, novels and works of popular history. He has written more than 30 books of non-fiction and more than 20 works of fiction. He is an occasional columnist for the Daily Mail, and a former columnist and literary editor for the London Evening Standard. He has been an occasional contributor to The Times Literary Supplement, New Statesman, The Spectator and The Observer.

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Editorial Note: This quote is curated and fact-checked by the Quotes Archive Editorial Team. Verified Literature Specialist.

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"I am shy to admit that I have followed the advice given all those years ago by a wise archbishop to a bewildered young man: that moments of unbelief 'don't matter,' that if you return to a practice of the faith, faith will return."

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"Like many people in Britain, I have an affectionate respect for the Queen, and am surprised that I should be having such republican thoughts."

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More about Death

"It is a unyielding truth that peace of heart is the greatest luxury life can bestow upon the mortal traveler — an essential principle for the reflective life."

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"Our criminal justice system is fallible. We know it, even though we don't like to admit it. It is fallible despite the best efforts of most within it to do justice. And this fallibility is, at the end of the day, the most compelling, persuasive, and winning argument against a death penalty."

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"Only a humanity to whom death has become as indifferent as its members, that has itself died, can inflict it administratively on innumerable people."

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