To eradicate mankind, yes

Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge died on July 25, 1834.

"A man may devote himself to death and destruction to save a nation;" Coleridge wrote, "but no nation will devote itself to death and destruction to save mankind."

Only the worms care

July 23, 1880: American mystery writer Raymond Chandler was born. In The Big Sleep, he wrote:

"Where did it matter where you lay once you were dead? In a dirty sump or in a marble tower on top of a high hill? You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered with things like that. Oil and water were the same as wind and air to you."

Chandler also wrote:

"Woe, woe, woe... in a little while we shall all be dead. Therefore let us behave as though we were dead already."

And so on

Poet Carl Sandburg died on July 22, 1967. He wrote:

"A man may be born, but in order to be born he must first die, and in order to die he must first awake."

Writing is next to Godliness

The Italian poet and scholar Francesco Petrarch died on this day in 1374. He wrote:

"I desire that death find me ready and writing, or if it please Christ, praying and in tears."

Also on this day, in 1897, the American writer Jean Ingelow died. Never heard of her? Neither have I, but she wrote something apropos to this day. (Man first landed on the moon on July 20, 1969.)

"You Moon! Have you done something wrong in heaven,
That God has hidden your face?"