To examine the causes of life, we must first have recourse to death.

I became acquainted with the science of anatomy, but this was not sufficient; I must also observe the natural decay and corruption of the human body.
In my education my father had taken the greatest precautions that my mind should be impressed with no supernatural horrors.

I do not ever remember to have trembled at a tale of superstition or to have feared the apparition of a spirit.

Darkness had no effect upon my fancy, and a churchyard was to me merely the receptacle of bodies deprived of life, which, from being the seat of beauty and strength, had become food for the worm.

Now I was led to examine the cause and progress of this decay and forced to spend days and nights in vaults and charnel-houses.