Selected death quotes

1. I bet the worst part about dying is the part where your whole life passes before you.

2. The irrevocable Hand That opes the year's fair gate, doth ope and shut The portals of our earthly destinies; We walk through blindfold, and the noiseless doors Close after us, for ever. Pause, my soul, On these strange words - for ever - whose large sound Breaks flood-like, drowning all the petty noise Our human moans make on the shores of Time. O Thou that openest, and no man shuts; That shut'st, and no man opens - Thee we wait!

3. Immortality alone could teach this mortal how to die.

4. An author departs, he does not die.

5. Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.

6. If they had said that the sun or the moon had gone out of the heavens, it could not have struck me with the idea of a more awful and dreary blank in creation than the words: 'Byron is dead!'

7. And silence sounds no worse than cheers After earth has stopped the ears.

8. Hope lies to mortals And most believe her, But man's deceiver Was never mine.

9. We now to peace and darkness And earth and thee restore Thy creature that thou madest And wilt cast forth no more.

10. Life is an incurable disease.

11. I've been accused of every death except the casualty list of the World War.

12. A living man can be enslaved and reduced to the historic condition of an object. But if he dies in refusing to be enslaved, he reaffirms the existence of another kind of human nature which refuses to be classified as an object.

13. I had only a little time left and I didn't want to waste it on God.

14. Outside of that single fatality of death, everything, joy or happiness, is liberty.

15. The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.

16. Let us love the passing hour, let us hurry up and enjoy our time.

17. What is our life but a succession of preludes to that unknown song whose first solemn note is sounded by death?

18. Accordingly, death is a harbor of peace for the just, but is believed a shipwreck for the wicked.

19. Casting the body's vest aside, My soul into the boughs does glide.

20. Dying is the most embarrassing thing that can ever happen to you, because someone's got to take care of all your details.

21. I always wished I had died, and I still wish that, because I could have gotten the whole thing over with.

22. I never think that people die. They just go to department stores.

23. Any time you are with anyone or think of anyone you must say to yourself: I am dying and this person too is dying, attempting the while to experience the truth of the words you are saying. If every one of you agrees to practice this, bitterness will die out, harmony will arise.

24. Whatever is truly alive must die. Look at the flowers; only plastic flowers never die.

25. The fetus, in many cases, dies just as a human adult or child would: It bleeds to death as it is torn from limb from limb. The fetus can be alive at the beginning of the dismemberment process and can survive for a time while its limbs are being torn off.

26. Time crumbles things; everything grows old under the power of Time and is forgotten through the lapse of Time.

27. Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.

28. To run away from trouble is a form of cowardice and, while it is true that the suicide braves death, he does it not for some noble object but to escape some ill.

29. After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive.

30. The task I've been given seems absurd: To wait here on earth until I no longer exist.

31. The entire universe will eventually disintegrate but by then I hope to be in a safer place.

32. Dying is a part of living, but only a very small part.

33. If I can survive death, I can probably survive anything.

34. I've learned to accept birth and death . . . but sometimes I still worry about what lies between.

35. Why does a person even get up in the morning? You have breakfast, you floss your teeth so you'll have healthy gums in your old age, and then you get in your car and drive down I-10 and die. Life is so stupid I can't stand it.

36. Don't be afraid of death so much as an inadequate life.

37. The slave is doomed to worship time and fate and death, because they are greater than anything he finds in himself, and because all his thoughts are of things which they devour.

38. So long as there is death there will be sorrow, and so long as there is sorrow it can be no part of the duty of human beings to increase its amount, in spite of the fact that a few rare spirits know how to transmute it.

39. I'm so old they've cancelled my blood type.

40. A man must live like a great brilliant flame and burn as brightly as he can. In the end he burns out. But this is far better than a mean little flame.

41. I'm always relieved when someone is delivering a eulogy and I realize I'm listening to it.

42. There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.

43. The idea of enemies is awful it makes one stop remembering eternity and the fear of death. That is what enemies are. Possessions are the same as enemies only less so, they too make one forget eternity and the fear of death.

44. The wise soul feareth not death; rather she sometimes striveth for death, she goeth beyond to meet her. Yet eternity maintaineth her substance throughout time, immensity throughout space, universal form throughout motion.

45. We real cool. We Left school. We Lurk late. We Strike straight. We Sing sin. We Thin gin. We Jazz June. We Die soon.

46. It is good to be a cynic - it is better to be a contented cat - and it is best not to exist at all. Universal suicide is the most logical thing in the world - we reject it only because of our primitive cowardice and childish fear of the dark. If we were sensible we would seek death - the same blissful blank which we enjoyed before we existed.

47. And all the trips you know you missed And all the lips you never kissed Cut through you like a knife. And now you see stretched out before thee Just another story of a life.

48. And while blood's the only language that your deaf old ears can hear And still you will not answer with that message coming clear Does it mean there's no more ripples in your tired old glory stream And the buzzards own the carcass of your dream?

49. People who don't know how to keep themselves healthy ought to have the decency to get themselves buried, and not waste time about it.

50. Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live.

51. Dear, beauteous death, the jewel of the just! Shining nowhere but in the dark; What mysteries do lie beyond thy dust, Could man outlook that mark!

52. Man, like a light in the night, is kindled and put out.

53. When is death not within ourselves?... Living and dead are the same, and so are awake and alseep, young and old.

54. Corpses are more fit to be thrown out than is dung.

55. Immortal mortals, mortal immortals, one living the others death and dying the others life.

56. Sirs, I have tested your machine. It adds a new terror to life and makes death a long-felt want.

57. Nature has not implanted any power in man that was not meant to be exercised at times, though too often our powers have been abused. The privilege, inborn and inalienable, that every man has of dying himself, and inflicting death upon another, was not given to us without a purpose. These are the last resources of an insulted and unendurable existence.

58. My character and good name are in my own keeping. Life with disgrace is dreadful. A glorious death is to be envied.

59. Most of the avoidable suffering in life springs from our attempts to escape the unavoidable suffering inherent in the fragmentary nature of our present existence. We expect immortal satisfactions from mortal conditions, and lasting and perfect happiness in the midst of universal change. To encourage this expectation, to persuade mankind that the ideal is realizable in this world, after a few preliminary changes in external conditions, is the distinguishing mark of all charlatans, whether in thought or action.

60. God is indeed dead. He died of self-horror when He saw the creature He had made in His own image.

61. Five to six thousand people die every year waiting for organs, but nobody cares.

62. Not one has shown an iota of fear of death. They want to end this agony.

63. My grandfather for example only died twice, once during the war and once in the 1980s.

64. Ye come and go incessant; we remain Safe in the hallowed quiets of the past; Be reverent, ye who flit and are forgot, Of faith so nobly realized as this.

65. Death calls ye to the crowd of common men.

66. Finality is death. Perfection is finality. Nothing is perfect. There are lumps in it.

67. Cruel as death, and hungry as the grave.

68. There's nothing in the middle of the road but a yellow stripe and dead armadillos.

69. A hero is someone who rebels or seems to rebel against the facts of existence and seems to conquer them. Obviously that can only work at moments. It can't be a lasting thing. That's not saying that people shouldn't keep trying to rebel against the facts of existence. Someday, who knows, we might conquer death, disease and war.

70. People fear death even more than pain. It's strange that they fear death. Life hurts a lot more than death. At the point of death, the pain is over. Yeah, I guess it is a friend.

71. The appeal of cinema lies in the fear of death.

72. When I die, just keep playing the records.

73. Death, death. Now I won't be able to write my beautiful memoirs.

74. Biography is one of the new terrors of death.

75. Death has shaken out the sands of thy glass.

76. Let the world slide, let the world go; A fig for care, and a fig for woe! If I can't pay, why I can owe, And death makes equal the high and low.

77. O fairest flower! no sooner blown but blasted, Soft silken primrose fading timelessly.

78. Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil.

79. I never have held death in contempt, though in the course of my explorations I have oftentimes felt that to meet one's fate on a noble mountain, or in the heart of a glacier, would be blessed as compared with death from disease, or from some shabby lowland accident. But the best death, quick and crystal-pure, set so glaringly open before us, is hard enough to face, even though we feel gratefully sure that we have already had happiness enough for a dozen lives.

80. Let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life.

81. Care to our coffin adds a nail, no doubt, And every grin so merry draws one out.

82. In church your grandsire cut his throat; to do the job too long he tarried: he should have had my hearty vote to cut his throat before he married.

83. To die for a religion is easier than to live it absolutely.

84. Life and death have been lacking in my life.

85. Death (or its allusion) makes men precious and pathetic. They are moving because of their phantom condition; every act they execute may be their last; there is not a face that is not on the verge of dissolving like a face in a dream.

86. Death is an eternal sleep.

87. Death borders upon our birth, and our cradle stands in the grave.

88. You don't even live once.

89. As you can see, I'm in good health. I have no message; just tell them, please, that I went to my death quietly and in good health.

90. The public health authorities never mention the main reason many Americans have for smoking heavily, which is that smoking is a fairly sure, fairly honorable form of suicide.

91. If I should ever die, God forbid, I hope you will say, 'Kurt is up in heaven now.' That's my favorite joke.

92. It is a very mixed blessing to be brought back from the dead.

93. Well, you know, Hubbard had a bunch of people sworn to commit suicide when he died. So of course he never officially died...

94. My troubles are many They're deep as a well I swear there ain't no Heaven And I pray there ain't no hell But I'll never know by living only my dying will tell. And when I die and when I'm gone There'll be, one child born And a world to carry on, to carry on.

95. Give me my freedom for as long as I be All I ask of livin' is to have no chains on me All I ask of livin' is to have no chains on me And all I ask of dyin' is to go naturally... And when I die, and when I'm gone There'll be one child born, in our world To carry on, to carry on...

96. Death is a challenge. It tells us not to waste time... It tells us to tell each other right now that we love each other.

97. Don't brood. Get on with living and loving. You don't have forever.

98. Even in the valley of the shadow of death, two and two do not make six.

99. Realizing that life is precious the natural tendency is to trample on it, like laughing at a funeral.

100. Farewell! if ever fondest prayer For other's weal avail'd on high, Mine will not all be lost in air, But waft thy name beyond the sky.