Whenever any affliction assails me, I have the keys of my prison in mine own hand, and no remedy presents it selfe so soone to my heart, as mine own sword. Often meditation of this hath wonne me to a charitable interpretation of their action, who dy so: and provoked me a little to watch and exagitate their reasons, which pronounce so peremptory judgments upon them.
—John Donne (1572–1631) English Poet, Cleric
I look upon indolence as a sort of suicide; for the man is efficiently destroyed, though the appetite of the brute may survive.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
One said of suicide, “As long as one has brains one should not blow them out.” And another answered, “But when one has ceased to have them, too often one cannot.”
—F. H. Bradley (1846–1924 ) British Idealist Philosopher
Against self-slaughter there is a prohibition so divine that cravens my weak hand.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
He who does not accept and respect those who want to reject life does not truly accept and respect life itself.
—Thomas Szasz (1920–2012) Hungarian-American Psychiatrist, Psychoanalyst
To die, to sleep—
To sleep, perchance to dream, ay there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause; there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
I don’t break the law* made for crooks, when I take away my own property – thus I am not obliged to conform to the law made for murderers when I deprive myself of my own life.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
It is the part of cowardliness, and not of virtue, to seek to squat itself in some hollow lurking hole, or to hide herself under some massive tomb, thereby to shun the strokes of fortune.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest—whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories—comes afterwards. These are games; one must first answer.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
Sometimes I wonder if suicides aren’t in fact sad guardians of the meaning of life.
—Vaclav Havel (1936–2011) Czech Dramatist, Statesman
Better to die, and sleep
The never-waking sleep, than linger on
And dare to live when the soul’s life is gone.
—Sophocles (495–405 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
It is always consoling to think of suicide: in that way one gets through many a bad night.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
However great a man’s fear of life, suicide remains the courageous act, the clear-headed act of a mathematician. The suicide has judged by the laws of chance—so many odds against one that to live will be more miserable than to die. His sense of mathematics is greater than his sense of survival. But think how a sense of survival must clamor to be heard at the last moment, what excuses it must present of a totally unscientific nature.
—Graham Greene (1904–91) British Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
Nowadays not even a suicide kills himself in desperation. Before taking the step he deliberates so long and so carefully that he literally chokes with thought. It is even questionable whether he ought to be called a suicide, since it is really thought which takes his life. He does not die with deliberation but from deliberation.
—Soren Kierkegaard (1813–55) Danish Philosopher, Theologian
Human life consists in mutual service. No grief, pain, misfortune, or “broken heart,” is excuse for cutting off one’s life while any power of service remains. But when all usefulness is over, when one is assured of an unavoidable and imminent death, it is the simplest of human rights to choose a quick and easy death in place of a slow and horrible one.
—Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) American Feminist, Writer
They tell us that suicide is the greatest piece of cowardice… that suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in the world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
The dread of something after death puzzles the will, and makes us rather bear the ills we have, than fly to others that we know not of.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
When one does away with oneself one does the most estimable thing possible: one thereby almost deserves to live.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
He is not valiant that dares to die; but he that boldly bears calamity.
—Philip Massinger (1583–1640) English Playwright
Here take back the stuff that I am, nature, knead it back into the dough of being, make of me a bush, a cloud, whatever you will, even a man, only no longer make me.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
When all the blandishments of life are gone the coward sneaks to death; the brave lives on.
—Martial (40–104) Ancient Roman Latin Poet
Razors pain you; rivers are damp; acids stain you; and drugs cause cramp. Guns aren’t lawful; nooses give; gas smells awful; you might as well live.
—Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American Humorist, Journalist
Not a single star will be left in the night. The night will not be left. I will die and, with me, the weight of the intolerable universe. I shall erase the pyramids, the medallions, the continents and faces. I shall erase the accumulated past. I shall make dust of history, dust of dust. Now I am looking on the final sunset. I am hearing the last bird. I bequeath nothingness to no one.
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine Writer, Essayist, Poet
Man is a prisoner who has no right to open the door of his prison and run away … A man should wait, and not take his own life until God summons him.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
The prevalence of suicide, without doubt, is a test of height in civilization; it means that the population is winding up its nervous and intellectual system to the utmost point of tension and that sometimes it snaps.
—Havelock Ellis (1859–1939) British Essayist, Physician
No one ever lacks a good reason for suicide.
—Cesare Pavese (1908–50) Italian Novelist, Poet, Critic, Translator
Suicide sometimes proceeds from cowardice, but not always; for cowardice sometimes prevents it; since as many live because they are afraid to die, as die because they are afraid to live.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Suicide is not abominable because God prohibits it; God prohibits it because it is abominable.
—Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) Prussian German Philosopher, Logician
Suicide may also be regarded as an experiment—a question which man puts to Nature, trying to force her to answer. The question is this: What change will death produce in a man’s existence and in his insight into the nature of things? It is a clumsy experiment to make; for it involves the destruction of the very consciousness which puts the question and awaits the answer.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
And one of his partners asked “Has he vertigo?” and the other glanced out and down and said “Oh no, only about ten feet more.”
—Ogden Nash (1902–71) American Writer of Sophisticated Light Verse
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