Death is a delightful hiding place for weary men.
—Herodotus (c.485–425 BCE) Ancient Greek Historian
Come he slow or come he fast. It is but death who comes at last.
—Walter Scott (1771–1832) Scottish Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Lawyer
To a father, when a child dies, the future dies; to a child when a parent dies, the past dies.
—Red Auerbach (1917–2006) American Basketball Coach
A considerable percentage of the people we meet on the street are people who are empty inside, that is, they are actually already dead. It is fortunate for us that we do not see and do not know it. If we knew what a number of people are actually dead and what a number of these dead people govern our lives, we should go mad with horror.
—Georges Gurdjieff (1877–1949) Armenian Spiritual Leader, Occultist
Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
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 (Ruth Crowley/Eppie Lederer)
But life is sweet, though all that makes it sweet. Lessen like sound of friends departing feet; And death is beautiful as feet of friend. Coming with welcome at our journey’s end.
—James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic
Death gives us sleep, eternal youth, and immortality.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Philosopher
And what the dead had no speech for, when living, they can tell you, being dead: the communication of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
To die is but to leave off dying and do the thing once for all.
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902) British Victorian Novelist, Essayist, Critic
No motion has she now, no force; she neither hears nor sees; rolled around in earth’s diurnal course, with rocks, and stones, and trees.
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Poet
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
The pride of dying rich raises the loudest laugh in hell.
—John W. Foster
Die, v.: To stop sinning suddenly.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
Do you know that disease and death must needs overtake us, no matter what we are doing? … What do you wish to be doing when it overtakes you? If you have anything better to be doing when you are so overtaken, get to work on that.
—Epictetus (55–135) Ancient Greek Philosopher
I warmed both hands before the fire of life; It sinks, and I am ready to depart.
—Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) English Writer, Poet
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
A person doesn’t die when he should but when he can.
—Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927–2014) Colombian Novelist, Short-Story Writer
God’s finger touched him and he slept.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92) British Poet
Be the green grass above me, with showers and dewdrops wet; and if thou wilt, remember, and if thou wilt, forget.
—Christina Rossetti (1830–94) English Poet, Hymn Writer
There is no such thing as death. In nature nothing dies. From each sad remnant of decay, some forms of life arise so shall his life be taken away before he knoweth that he hath it.
—Charles Mackay (1814–89) Scottish Poet, Journalist, Songwriter
Death is a punishment to some, to some a gift, and to many a favor.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
I submit to you that if a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
To die is poignantly bitter, but the idea of having to die without having lived is unbearable.
—Erich Fromm (1900–80) German-American Psychoanalyst, Social Philosopher
Every moment of our lives we are either growing or dying—and it’s largely a choice, not fate. Throughout its life cycle, every one of the body’s trillions of cells is driven to grow and improve its ability to use more of its innate yet untapped capacity. Research biologist Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, who was twice awarded the Nobel Prize, called this syntropy, which he defined as the “innate drive in living matter to perfect itself”. It turns conventional thinking upside down…As living cells—or as people—there is no staying the same. If we aim for some middle ground or status quo, it’s an illusion—beneath the surface what’s actually happening is we’re dying, not growing. And the goal of a lifetime is continued growth, not adulthood. As Rene Dubos put it, “Genius is childhood recaptured”. For this to happen, studies show that we must recapture—or prevent the loss of—such child-like traits as the ability to learn, to love, to laugh about small things, to leap, to wonder, and to explore. It’s time to rescue ourselves from our grown-up ways before it’s too late.
—Robert K. Cooper (b.1957) American Author, Psychologist
I am not more gifted than the average human being. If you know anything about history, you would know that is so—what hard times I had in studying and the fact that I do not have a memory like some other people do… I am just more curious than the average person and I will not give up on a problem until I have found the proper solution. This is one of my greatest satisfactions in life—solving problems—and the harder they are, the more satisfaction do I get out of them. Maybe you could consider me a bit more patient in continuing with my problem than is the average human being. Now, if you understand what I have just told you, you see that it is not a matter of being more gifted but a matter of being more curious and maybe more patient until you solve a problem.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
We say that the hour of death cannot be forecast, but when we say this we imagine that hour as placed in an obscure and distant future. It never occurs to us that it has any connection with the day already begun or that death could arrive this same afternoon, this afternoon which is so certain and which has every hour filled in advance.
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922) French Novelist
So that he seemed not to relinquish life, but to leave one home for another.
—Cornelius Nepos (c.99–c.24 BCE) Roman Historian
Death is a distant rumor to the young.
—Andy Rooney (b.1919) American Writer, Humorist, TV Personality
For those who live neither with religious consolations about death nor with a sense of death (or of anything else) as natural, death is the obscene mystery, the ultimate affront, the thing that cannot be controlled. It can only be denied.
—Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American Writer, Philosopher
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