CATO: How beautiful is death, when earn’d by virtue!
Who would not be that youth? What pity is it
That we can die but once to serve our country!

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman

Cato, Act 4, sc. 4, l. 79ff (1713)
    (Source)

On being presented with the corpse of his son. This line is thought to have inspired Nathan Hale.