Can anyone help me explain, describe, or translate this quote by ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE?

It is odd to watch with what feverish ardour americans pursue prosperity, ever tormented by the shadowy suspicion that they may not have chosen the shortest route to get it. They cleave to the things of this world as if ured that they will never die and yet rush to snatch any that comes within their reach, as if they expected to stop living before they had relished them. death steps in, in the end, and stops them, Before they have grown tired of this futile pursuit of that complete felicity which always escapes them." -Alexis de Tocqueville