Sounds like . . .
Posted by R. Berg on May 30, 2003
In Reply to: In the midst of life posted by ESC on May 29, 2003
: : : : I first heard this in a Clint Eastwood movie-The Outlaw
Josie Wales. The character says "Like the good book says in the
midst of life we are in debt..."
: : : : I can't find it in the Bible.
: : : : It also pops up on a Morrisey song.
: : : It's death. It's meant to mean that death is part of life.
: : "In the midst of life we are in death." Book of Common Prayer, The Burial of the Dead, First Anthem. ("Oxford Dictionary of Quotations," Fifth Edition, edited by Elizabeth Knowles,Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 2001).
: In the midst of life we are in death;
: from whom can we seek help?
: From you alone, O Lord,
: who by our sins are justly angered.
If the movie character says "debt," it's a play on the line from the Book of Common Prayer.