William Rawle

William Rawle (April 28, 1759 – April 12, 1836) was an American lawyer from Philadelphia, who served as United States district attorney in Pennsylvania from 1791 to 1800.

Quotes

• Is it lawful to wish for death—merely to wish—without doing anything to accelerate it? Such wishes may proceed rather from the pressure of affliction, from a sense of the vanities of the world, or from an earnest desire to partake, as soon as possible, of the joys of immortality. The two latter form my case. There is very little indeed to bind me to this world—nothing except my beloved children. To them my departure, whenever it may happen, will no doubt be cause of grief; but time assuages sorrow, and in a little while the memory of me will perhaps be a pleasing melancholy, succeeding to the first violent emotions. For my transition, I hope I am not wholly unprepared. I endeavor every day to increase my readiness to go. Thou, O God! knowest how often I think of thee, how often I pray thee to increase my love for thee, and to enable me to steer clear of giving thee offence. Adieu, then, my earthly friends! adieu, my beloved children! Weep not for me!
  • In the last of his journals, in a treatise upon life; as quoted by David Paul Brown in Eulogium upon William Rawle (1836), p. 39, and The Forum; or, Forty Years Full Practice at the Philadelphia Bar, Vol. 1 (1856), p. 525