S. Austin Allibone, comp. Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay. 1880.
Thomas Moore
Whatever may be thought of particular faiths and sects, a belief in a life beyond this world is the only thing that pierces through the walls of our prison-house and lets hope shine in upon a scene that would be otherwise bewildered and desolate. The proselytism of the atheist is, indeed, a dismal mission. That believers, who have each the same heaven in prospect, should invite us to join them on their respective way to it, is at least a benevolent officiousness; but that he who has no prospect or hope himself should seek for companionship in his road to annihilation, can only be explained by that tendency in human creatures to count upon each other in their despair as well as their hope.