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).