yet we drop them away

In a right inventory, every man that ascends to a true value of himself, considers it thus; First, His Soul, then His life; after his fame and good name: And lastly, his goods and estate; for thus their own nature hath ranked them, and thus they are (as in nature) so ordinarily in legal consideration preferred before one another. But for our souls, because we know not, how they came into us, we care not how they go out; because, if I aske a Philosopher, whither my soul came in, by propagation from my parents, or by an immediate infusion from God, perchance he cannot tell, so I think, a divine can no more tell me, whither, when my soul goes out of me, it be likely to turn on the right, or on the left hand, if I continue in this course of sin. And then, for the second thing in this inventory, Life; the Devil himself said true, skin for skin, and all that a man hath, will he give for his life; indeed we do not easily give away our lives expresly, and at once; but we do very easily suffer our selves to be cousened of our lives: we pour in death in drink, and we call that health, we know our life to be but a span, and yet we can wash away one inche in ryot, we can burn away one inch in lust, we can bleed away one inch in quarrels, we have not an inch for every sin; and if do not pour out our lives, yet we drop them away.

John Donne, "A Sermon Preached at Greenwich, Aprill 30. 1615"