What a lesson, indeed, is all history and all life to the folly and fruitlessness of pride! The Egyptian kings had their embalmed bodies preserved in massive pyramids, to obtain an earthly immortality. In the seventeenth century they were sold as quack medicines, and now they are burnt for fuel! The Egyptian mummies, which Cambyses or time hath spared, avarice now consumeth. Mummy is become merchandise.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Edwin Percy Whipple (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.