Death is the veil which those who live call life; They sleep, and it is lifted.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
We understand death for the first time when he puts his hand upon one whom we love.
—Anne Louise Germaine de Stael (1766–1817) French Woman of Letters
I have a piece of great and sad news to tell you: I am dead.
—Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French Poet, Playwright, Film Director
Death never takes the wise man by surprise; he is always ready to go.
—Jean de La Fontaine (1621–95) French Poet, Short Story Writer
There is no better armor against the shafts of death than to be busied in God’s service.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
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
Like Confucius of old, I am so absorbed in the wonder of earth and the life upon it that I cannot think of heaven and the angels. I have enough for this life. If there is no other life, then this one has been enough to make it worth being born, myself a human being.
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American Novelist, Human Rights Activist
When a man has died, he wants you to know about it.
—Stephen King (b.1947) American Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Screenwriter, Columnist, Film Director
Nothing can happen more beautiful than death.
—Walt Whitman (1819–92) American Poet, Essayist, Journalist, American, Poet, Essayist, Journalist
And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
Doctor, as I believe you would not choose to tell any thing but the truth, you had better tell him, that I am dying as fast as my enemies, if I have any, could wish, and as easily and cheerfully as my best friends could desire.
—David Hume (1711–76) Scottish Philosopher, Historian
The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
The infant runs toward it with its eyes closed, the adult is stationary, the old man approaches it with his back turned.
—Denis Diderot (1713–84) French Philosopher, Writer
The end of birth is death; the end of death
Is birth: this is ordained! and mournest thou,
Chief of the stalwart arm! for what befalls
Which could not otherwise befall?
—The Bhagavad Gita Hindu Scripture
Every parting gives a foretaste of death; every coming together again a foretaste of the resurrection.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
The soul is pure when it leaves the body and drags nothing bodily with it, by virtue of having no willing association with the body in life but avoiding it…….Practicing philosophy in the right way is a training to die easily.
—Socrates (469BCE–399BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
The grave’s a fine and private place, but none, I think, do there embrace.
—Andrew Marvell (1621–78) English Metaphysical Poet
How wonderful is death! Death and his brother sleep.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
It helps a lot looking at life from the perspective of one’s certain death. Try to visualize yourself at the hour of death. Just a couple of minutes each day. It’s basic Buddhist beginners practice.
—Hans Taeger
To die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly. Death of one’s own free choice, death at the proper time, with a clear head and with joyfulness, consummated in the midst of children and witnesses: so that an actual leave-taking is possible while he who is leaving is still there.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Death is a distant rumor to the young.
—Andy Rooney (b.1919) American Writer, Humorist, TV Personality
The course of my long life hath reached at last in fragile bark over a tempestuous sea the common harbor, where must rendered be account for all the actions of the past.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
But we are so fond of life that we have no leisure to entertain the terror of death. It is a honeymoon with us all through, and none of the longest. Small blame to us if we give our whole hearts to this glowing bride of ours, to the appetities, to honour, to the hungry curiosity of the mind, to the pleasure of the eyes in nature, and the pride of our own nimble bodies.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
One has to pay dearly for immortality; one has to die several times while one is still alive.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Every man is born as many men and dies as a single one.
—Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) German Existential Philosopher
Death, so called, is a thing which makes men weep, and yet a third of life is passed in sleep.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life.
—Steve Jobs (1955–2011) American Entrepreneur, Businessperson
If you treat every situation as a life and death matter, you’ll die a lot of times.
—Dean Smith (1931–2015) American Basketball Coach
Folly, thou conquerest, and I must yield!
Against stupidity the very gods
Themselves contend in vain. Exalted reason,
Resplendent daughter of the head divine,
Wise foundress of the system of the world,
Guide of the stars, who are thou then, if thou,
Bound to the tail of folly’s uncurb’d steed,
Must, vainly shrieking, with the drunken crowd,
Eyes open, plunge down headlong in the abyss.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
Life is the jailer, death the angel sent to draw the unwilling bolts and set us free.
—James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic