The belief that we shall never die is the foundation of our dying well.
—Francis Turretin (1623–87) Swiss Scholastic Theologian
Our dissatisfaction with any other solution is the blazing evidence of immortality.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Immortality is what nature possesses without effort and without anybody’s assistance, and immortality is what the mortals must therefore try to achieve if they want to live up to the world into which they were born, to live up to the things which surround them and to whose company they are admitted for a short while.
—Hannah Arendt (1906–75) German-American Philosopher, Political Theorist
Deathlessness should be arrived at in a… haphazard fashion. Loving fame as much as any man, we shall carve our initials in the shell of a tortoise and turn him loose in a peat bog.
—E. B. White (1985–99) American Essayist, Humorist
I do not believe in the immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern without any superhuman authority behind it.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Those who hope for no other life are dead even for this.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
The first condition of immortality is death.
—Stanislaw Jerzy Lec (1909–1966) Polish Aphorist, Poet
Faith in the hereafter is as necessary for the intellectual, as for the moral character; and to the man of letters, as well as the Christian, the present forms but the slightest portion of his existence.
—Robert South (1634–1716) English Theologian, Preacher
Nothing short of an eternity could enable men to imagine, think, and feel, and to express all they have imagined, thought and felt.—Immortality, which is the spiritual desire, is the intellectual necessity.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
He had decided to live forever or die in the attempt.
—Joseph Heller (1923–99) American Novelist
It is immortality, and that alone, which amid life’s pains, abasements, the soul can comfort, elevate, and fill.
—Edward Young (1683–1765) English Poet
Without a belief in personal immortality religion is like an arch resting on one pillar, or like a bridge ending in an abyss.
—Max Muller (1823–1900) German-Born British Philologist, Orientalist
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
Still seems it strange, that thou shouldst live forever? Is it less strange, that thou shouldst live at all? This is a miracle; and that no more.
—Edward Young (1683–1765) English Poet
Prepare thyself in the antechamber that thou mayest worthily enter the throne-room.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
The spirit of man, which God inspired, cannot together perish with this corporeal clod.
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
The best argument I know for an immortal life is the existence of a man who deserves one.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
When I consider the wonderful activity of the mind, so great a memory of what is past, and such a capacity of penetrating into the future; when I behold such a number of arts and sciences, and such a multitude of discoveries thence arising, I believe and am firmly persuaded that a nature which contains so many things within itself cannot but be immortal.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
A special mansion will be given in Heaven to every pious man.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
He who lays up no store of good deeds during the working days of life can never enjoy the eternal Sabbath.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
The only thing wrong with immortality is that it tends to go on forever.
—Herb Caen (1916–97) American Columnist
We are born for a higher destiny than that of earth.—There is a realm where the rainbow never fades, where the stars will be spread before us like islands that slumber on the ocean, and where the beings that now pass over before us like shadows, will stay in our presence forever.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
For the great hereafter I trust in the infinite love of God as expressed in the life and death of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
—Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819–81) American Editor, Novelist
Higher than the question of our duration is the question of our deserving. Immortality will come to such as are fit for it, and he would be a great soul in future must be a great soul now.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The thought of being nothing after death is a burden insupportable to a virtuous man; we naturally aim at happiness, and cannot bear to have it confined to our present being.
—John Dryden (1631–1700) English Poet, Literary Critic, Playwright
It is the divinity that stirs within us.—‘Tis heaven itself that points out an hereafter, and intimates eternity to man.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
Perhaps nature is our best assurance of immortality.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American First Lady, Diplomat, Humanitarian
How gloomy would be the mansions of the dead to him who did, not know that he should never die; that what now acts, shall continue its agency, and what now thinks, shall think on forever.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Immortality is the condition of a dead man who doesn’t believe he is dead
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
We are much better believers in immortality than we can give grounds for.—The real evidence is too subtle, or is higher than we can write down in propositions.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
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