Milan Kundera, Fragment from Ignorance (On the dead woman)

For the woman who is dead is a woman with no defense; she has no more power, she has no more influence; people no longer respect either her wishes or her tastes; the dead woman cannot will anything, cannot aspire to any respect or refute any slander. Never had he felt such sorrowful, such agonizing compassion for her as when she was dead.

-Milan Kundera