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
One night awaits all, and death’s path must be trodden once and for all.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
There will be no lasting peace either in the heart of individuals or in social customs until death is outlawed.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
But what is all this fear of and opposition to Oblivion? What is the matter with the soft Darkness, the Dreamless Sleep?
—James Thurber
Life and death are balanced on the edge of a razor.
—Homer (751–651 BCE) Ancient Greek Poet
But the man who dares to live his life with death before his eyes, the man who receives life back bit by bit and lives as though it did not belong to him by right but has been bestowed on him as a gift, the man who has such freedom and peace of mind that he has overcome death in his thoughts—such a man believes in eternal life because it is already his, it is a present experience, and he already benefits from its peace and joy. He cannot describe this experience in words. He may not be able to conform his view with the traditional picture of it. But one thing he knows for certain: Something within us does not pass away, something goes on living and working wherever the kingdom of the spirit is present. It is already working and living within us, because in our hearts we have been able to reach life by overcoming death.
—Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French Theologian, Musician, Philosopher, Physician
The undiscovered country form whose born no traveler returns.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
God himself took a day to rest in, and a good man’s grave is his Sabbath.
—John Donne (1572–1631) English Poet, Cleric
Death always comes too early or too late.
—English Proverb
Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
In the works of Lucretius, we find two reasons why we shouldn’t worry about death. If you have had a successful life, Lucretius tell us, there’s no reason to mind its end. And, if you haven’t had a good time, “Why do you seek to add more years, which would also pass but ill?”
—Alain de Botton (b.1969) Swiss-born British Philosopher, Author
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
If some persons died, and others did not die, death would be a terrible affliction.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
Death is not, to the Christian, what it has often been called, “Paying the debt of nature.” No, it is not paying a debt; it is rather like bringing a note to a bank to obtain solid gold in exchange for it. You bring a cumbrous body which is nothing worth, and which you could not wish to retain long; you lay it down, and receive for it, from the eternal treasures, liberty, victory, knowledge, and rapture.
—John Foster Dulles (1888–1959) American Republican Public Official, Lawyer
As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up: so man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
Death is as sure for that which is born, as birth is for that which is dead. Therefore grieve not for what is inevitable.
—The Bhagavad Gita Hindu Scripture
When I die, I want people to play my music, go wild and freak out and do anything they want to do.
—Jimi Hendrix (1942–70) American Musician, Songwriter, Singer
Don’t die without embracing the daring adventure your life is meant to be.
—Steve Pavlina (b.1971) American Motivational Speaker
For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity.
—William Penn (1644–1718) American Entrepreneur, Political leader, Philosopher
Death doesn’t affect the living because it has not happened yet. Death doesn’t concern the dead because they have ceased to exist.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
When mortals are alive, they worry about death. When they’re full, they worry about hunger. Theirs is the Great Uncertainty. But sages don’t consider the past. And they don’t worry about the future. Nor do they cling to the present. And from moment to moment they follow the Way.
—Buddhist Teaching
It was once said that if you took all of the people who fell asleep in church and laid them end to end they would be more comfortable.
—Indian Proverb
Death is the king of this world: ‘Tis his park where he breeds life to feed him. Cries of pain are music for his banquet
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
Healthy children will not fear life if their elders have integrity enough not to fear death.
—Erik Erikson (1902–94) German-born American Developmental Psychologist
Annihilation has no terrors for me, because I have already tried it before I was born—a hundred million years—and I have suffered more in an hour, in this life, than I remember to have suffered in the whole hundred million years put together. There was a peace, a serenity, an absence of all sense of responsibility, an absence of worry, an absence of care, grief, perplexity; and the presence of a deep content and unbroken satisfaction in that hundred million years of holiday which I look back upon with a tender longing and with a grateful desire to resume, when the opportunity comes.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
I look upon death to be as necessary to our constitution as sleep. We shall rise refreshed in the morning.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
I intend to live forever. So far, so good.
—Steven Wright (b.1955) American Comedian, Actor, Writer
We need not fear life, because God is the Ruler of all and we need not fear death, because He shares immortality with us.
—Ask Ann Landers (1918–2002) American Advice Columnist
Our repugnance to death increases in proportion to our consciousness of having lived in vain.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
After your death you will be what you were before your birth.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher