quotations about death
A man's dying is more the survivors' affair than his own.
THOMAS MANN
The Magic Mountain
Death is part of who we are. It guides us. It shapes us. It drives us to madness. Can you still be human if you have no mortal end?
CHRISTOPHER PAOLINI
Brisingr
I have a certainty about eternity that is a wonderful thing, and I thank God for giving me that certainty. I do not fear death. I may fear a little bit about the process, but not death itself, because I think the moment that my spirit leaves this body, I will be in the presence of the Lord.
BILLY GRAHAM
Newsweek, Aug. 14, 2006
Death takes no bribes.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Poor Richard's Almanack, 1742
Only on the edge of the grave can man conclude anything.
HENRY ADAMS
The Education of Henry Adams
When combat brings death close you realise you never thought you'd die. Not this time, you tell yourself, before you go in. This time is always not the time. Has to be, otherwise, you'd never go in.
GLEN DUNCAN
By Blood We Live
Death, however, does itch. It itches all the time. It is always with us, scratching at some inner door. Mirroring, softly, barely audibly, just under the membrane of consciousness. Hidden in disguise, leaking out in a variety of symptoms. It is the wellspring of many of our worries, stresses, and conflicts.
IRVIN D. YALOM
interview, Wise Counsel
Our life dreams the Utopia. Our death achieves the Ideal.
VICTOR HUGO
Intellectual Autobiography
There is no more desire to live past one's time than to die before it.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Foundation's Edge
At the morgue, people were so desensitized that they would eat lunch in the glass walled room adjacent to the autopsy room. A viewing room. Because it had the best air conditioning in the building. So they would eat in there and maybe somebody would come in who had been found after being dead for three days and they would say: That is the exact purple I want for those drapes in the study. They didn't miss a beat. They could eat through anything.
DAVID SEDARIS
January Magazine, June 2000
Death is the end of time, of individual time at least, and the switching to an eternal instant where differences no longer hold, choices no longer need to be made, and before and after are no longer relevant.
ERMANNO BENCIVENGA
The Discipline of Subjectivity
The human animal is a beast that dies but the fact that he's dying don't give him pity for others, no sir.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
But a death is a death. It's a thing you can't get around. It just sits there like a fat arsehole in black pyjamas, eats all your food, drinks all your wine, and demands you call it mister for the privilege.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE
Radiance
All that lives must die,
Passing through nature to eternity.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Hamlet
What the bad man most fears is certain to come to him--that is death. It is just as certain to the good man, but to him it is welcome.
GEORGE BERKELEY
A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge
Before me now there is only one real fact -- Death. The truth I have been seeking -- this truth is Death. Yet Death is also a seeker. Forever seeking me. So -- we have met at last. And I am prepared. I am at peace. Because I will conquer death with death.
BRUCE LEE
The Warrior Within: The Philosophies of Bruce Lee
Chanting aloud in realms below
The dead are wroth;
Against their slayers yet their ire doth glow.
AESCHYLUS
The Libation Bearers
Death can come at any moment. You could die this afternoon; you could die tomorrow morning; you could die on your way to work; you could die in your sleep. Most of us try to avoid the sense that death can come at any time, but its timing is unknown to us. Can we live each day as if it were our last? Can we relate to one another as if there were no tomorrow?
JOAN HALIFAX
Being with Dying
We are all born in the same way but we all die in different ways.
JAMES JOYCE
Ulysses
Some people die, others just run out of fuel.
CARMEN BOULLOSA
Cleopatra Dismounts