Today I was asked for the source of
That which is so universal as Death, must be a blessing.
Several sites claimed Friedrich Schiller said it (replacing "blessing" with "benefit'), and maybe he did say something like that in German. I did a lot of searches in various places just using "universal as death." It turns out Jonathan Swift said something similar: "It is impossible that any thing so natural, so necessary, and so universal as death, should ever have been designed by Providence as an evil to mankind."
- Thoughts on Religion (1765), published posthumously
In 1765 Schiller was only 6 years old. Even if he read Swift and came up with a shorter version, Swift had the idea first! See: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Friedrich_Schiller
The Woodlawn Cemetary in Palm Beach, FL has
"That which is so universal as Death, must be a blessing" inscribed on its gate, and as of 2006 the inscription was unsourced
http://historicpalmbeach.blog.palmbeachpost.com/2006/02/01/inscriptions-origin-still-a-mystery/
