An Epitaph All Readers Can Relate To

There have been few people as wise, eloquent, and humorous as Benjamin Franklin. Evidence: the epitaph he wrote for himself when he was but a young printer in 1729 (Alas, it was not, in the end, used on his gravestone.):

The Body
of
Benjamin Franklin, Printer
(Like the cover of an old book,
Its contents torn out
And stript of its lettering and gilding,)
Lies food for worms:
Yet the work itself shall not be lost,
For it will (as he believed) appear once more
In a new
And more beautiful edition,
Corrected and amended
by
The Author.

As quoted in A Passion for Books, edited by Harold Rabinowitz and Rob Kaplan