Steve Jobs 1955 - 2011

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it... It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

~ Steve Jobs, from his 2005 Stanford Commencement Address.

"In all you do, remember the end of your life, and then you will never sin."
~ Wisdom of Sirach 7:36

In his advise to his friend Philagrios: "...live instead of [in] the present, [in] the future and to make this life a meditation and practice of death...Our cares and our attention are concentrated on one thing only our departure from this world. And for this departure we prepare ourselves and gather our baggage as prudent travelers would do."
~ St Gregory the Theologian

"Recall your exodus every hour; keep death before your eyes on a daily basis. Remember before whom you must appear."
~ St Athanasios

"Let the memory of death sleep and awake with you."
~ St John of Sinai

Relevant Reading
The Wisdom of Sirach
The Memory of Death
Writings of the Early Church