Oh, for the time when I shall sleep
Without identity.
—Emily Bronte (1818–48) English Novelist, Poet
The idea is to die young as late as possible.
—Ashley Montagu (1905–1999) British-American Anthropologist
When the body sinks into death, the essence of man is revealed. Man is a knot, a web, a mesh into which relationships are tied. Only those relationships matter. The body is an old crock that nobody will miss. I have never known a man to think of himself when dying. Never.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900–44) French Novelist, Aviator
Dying is a troublesome business: there is pain to be suffered, and it wrings one’s heart; but death is a splendid thing—a warfare accomplished, a beginning all over again, a triumph. You can always see that in their faces.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
All say, “How hard it is that we have to die” — a strange complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
He who always waits upon God, is ready whensoever he calls.—He is a happy man who so lives that death at all times may find him at leisure to die.
—Owen Feltham (1602–1668) English Essayist
Now, a corpse, poor thing, is an untouchable and the process of decay is, of all pieces of bad manners, the vulgarest imaginable. For a corpse is, by definition, a person absolutely devoid of savoir vivre.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
Death be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so. For, those, whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow. Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
—John Donne (1572–1631) English Poet, Cleric
I’d rather die while I’m living than live while I’m dead.
—Jimmy Buffett (b.1946) American Musician, Author
There is nothing which at once affects a man so much and so little as his own death.
—Samuel Butler
He who dies with the most toys is, nonetheless, still dead.
—Anonymous
The grave’s a fine and private place, but none, I think, do there embrace.
—Andrew Marvell (1621–78) English Metaphysical Poet
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
—Epicurus (c.341–270 BCE) Greek Philosopher
Death is life’s way of telling you you’re fired.
—Unknown
All sentient beings, whether young or old, foolish or wise, are to go to the power of death, which is their destination.
—Buddhist Teaching
The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
If man were immortal he could be perfectly sure of seeing the day when everything in which he had trusted should betray his trust, and, in short, of coming eventually to hopeless misery. He would break down, at last, as every good fortune, as every dynasty, as every civilization does. In place of this we have death.
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914) American Philosopher, Logician, Mathematician
Once you have been confronted with a life-and-death situation, trivia no longer matters. Your perspective grows and you live at a deeper level. There’s no time for pettiness.
—Happy Rockefeller (1926–2015) American Philanthropist
To himself everyone is an immortal. He may know that he is going to die, but he can never know that he is dead.
—Samuel Butler
The good die first; and they whose hearts are dry as summer dust burn to the socket.
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Poet
He was exhaled; his great Creator drew His spirit, as the sun the morning dew.
—John Dryden (1631–1700) English Poet, Literary Critic, Playwright
Every man goes down to his death bearing in his hands only that which he has given away.
—Persian Proverb
Everyone is so afraid of death, but the real sufis just laugh: nothing tyrannizes their hearts. What strikes the oyster shell does not damage the pearl.
—Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207–73) Persian Muslim Mystic
Be of good cheer about death, and know of a certainty, that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.
—Socrates (469BCE–399BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
The words of a dead man are modified in the guts of the living.
—W. H. Auden (1907–73) British-born American Poet, Dramatist
He has outsoared the shadow of our night; envy and calumny and hate and pain, and that unrest which men miscall delight, can touch him not and torture not again; from the contagion of the world’s slow stain, he is secure.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
To die will be an awfully big adventure.
—J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) Scottish Novelist, Dramatist
Pale death with an impartial foot knocks at the hovels of the poor and the palaces of king.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me.
The Carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet
Men must endure, their going hence even as their coming hither. Ripeness is all.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Just as a cowherd drives out his cattle to pasture with a stave, so do old age and death drive out the life of man.
—Buddhist Teaching
All that live must die, passing through nature to eternity.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Though lovers be lost love shall not; And death shall have no dominion.
—Dylan Thomas (1914–53) Welsh Poet, Author
All work and no play makes one the wealthiest man in the cemetery.
—Unknown
I answer the heroic question Death where is thy sting?. It is here in my heart and mind and memories
—Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American Poet
Refuse to let the thought of death bother you: nothing is grim when we have escaped that fear.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Death, the sable smoke where vanishes the flame.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval. The dark background which death supplies brings out the tender colors of life in all their purity.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
The final hour when we cease to exist does not itself bring death; it merely of itself completes the death-process. We reach death at that moment, but we have been a long time on the way.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity.
—William Penn (1644–1718) American Entrepreneur, Political leader, Philosopher
For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun? And what is it to cease breathing but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?
—Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-born American Philosopher, Poet, Painter, Theologian, Sculptor
O eloquent, just, and mighty Death! whom none could advise, thou hast persuaded; what none hath dared, thou hast done; and whom all the world hath flattered, thou only hath cast out of the world and despised. Thou hast drawn together all the far-stretched greatness, all the pride, cruelty, and ambition of man, and covered it all over with these two narrow words, Hic jacet!
—Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) English Courtier, Navigator, Poet
I hope and trust to meet you in Heaven, both white and black-both white and black.
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845) American Head of State
How frighteningly few are the persons whose death would spoil our appetite and make the world seem empty.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
The pride of dying rich raises the loudest laugh in hell.
—John W. Foster
Our every action is a battle cry against imperialism, and a battle hymn for the people’s unity against the great enemy of mankind: the United States of America. Wherever death may surprise us, let it be welcome, provided that this, our battle cry, may have reached some receptive ear, that another hand may be extended to wield our weapons, and that other men be ready to intone our funeral dirge with the staccato singing of the machine guns and new battle cries of war and victory.
—Che Guevara (1928–67) Argentine-Cuban Revolutionary
Each departed friend is a magnet that attracts us to the next world.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Humorist
Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Death is the wish of some, the relief of many, and the end of all.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
This world is the land of the dying; the next is the land of the living.
—Tryon Edwards American Theologian