“Nothing persists without changing its outward appearance,
for Nature is always engaged in acts of renewal,
creating new forms everywhere out of the old ones;
nothing in all of the cosmos can perish, believe me,
but takes on a different shape; and what we call birth is
when something first changes out of its former condition,
and what we call death is when its identity ceases;
things may perhaps be translated hither and thither;
nevertheless, they stay constant in their sum total.”