Suggestions from a friend:

My favourite quote is Dag Hammarskjold’s

“The day you were born, everyone was happy, you cried alone. Make your life such that in your last hours, when all around you are crying, you alone are left without a tear to shed. Then you may calmly face death whenever it comes.”

I may not have quoted it exactly. I wrote it out years ago so am writing it from memory.

Desiderata http://www.healtalk.com/public/43.shtml is a very common poem

Another one I found is by John Oxenham

HOW—WHEN—WHERE — John Oxenham

It is not so much WHERE you live, As HOW, and WHY, and WHEN you live, That answers in the affirmative, Or maybe in the negative, The question, “Are you FIT to live?”

It is not so much WHERE you live, As HOW you live, and whether good Flows from you through your neighborhood.

And WHY you live, and whether you Aim high and noblest ends pursue, And keep LIFE brimming full and true.

And WHEN you live, and whether Time Is at its nadir or its prime, And whether you descend or climb.

IT is not so much WHERE you live, As Whether WHILE YOU LIVE you LIVE And to the world your highest give, And so make answer positive That you are truly FIT TO LIVE.

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