We're all going to die. And we have that in common with all these great men of the past that are staring down at us.

The remark underscores mortality as the great human equalizer: regardless of fame, power, or historical stature, every person shares the same end. By invoking “great men of the past” who seem to “stare down at us” (suggesting portraits, statues, or memorials), the speaker collapses the distance between ordinary lives and celebrated history. The effect is both humbling and clarifying: if death is inevitable for all, then the urgent question becomes how one lives—what one values, believes, and does with the time available. In Graham’s typical moral register, the line functions as a memento mori meant to prompt spiritual seriousness and ethical reflection rather than pride in worldly achievement.