Most persons have died before they expire — died to all earthly longings, so that the last breath is only, as it were, the locking of the doors of the already deserted mansion.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar

The Professor at the Breakfast-Table, ch. 11 (1860)
    (Source)

Sometimes misquoted as "Many persons ...."

The chapter originally appeared as "The Professor at the Breakfast-Table: What He Said, What He Heard, and What He Saw," Atlantic Monthly (1859-11).