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

Article (1859-11), “The Professor at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
    (Source)

Sometimes misquoted as "Many persons ...."

Collected in The Professor at the Breakfast-Table, ch. 11 (1859).