He is not valiant that dares to die; but he that boldly bears calamity.
—Philip Massinger (1583–1640) English 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
At great periods you have always felt, deep within you, the temptation to commit suicide. You gave yourself to it, breached your own defenses. You were a child. The idea of suicide was a protest against life; by dying, you would escape this longing for death.
—Cesare Pavese (1908–50) Italian Novelist, Poet, Critic, Translator
Suicide is not abominable because God prohibits it; God prohibits it because it is abominable.
—Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) Prussian German Philosopher, Logician
To die in order to avoid anything that is evil and disagreeable, is not the part of a brave man, but of a coward; for it is cowardice to shun the trials and crosses of life, not undergoing death because it is honorable, but to avoid evil.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
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
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
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, Novelist
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
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
I have always thought the suicide should bump off at least one swine before taking off for parts unknown.
—Ezra Pound (1885-1972) American Poet, Translator, Critic
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
Sometimes I wonder if suicides aren’t in fact sad guardians of the meaning of life.
—Vaclav Havel (1936–2011) Czech Dramatist, Statesman
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
The stigma of self-inflicted death is for some people a hateful blot that demands erasure at all costs.
—William Styron (1925–2006) American Novelist, Essayist
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
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
Against self-slaughter there is a prohibition so divine that cravens my weak hand.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Oh! snatched away in beauty’s bloom,
On thee shall press no ponderous tomb;
But on thy turf shall roses rear
Their leaves, the earliest of the year.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
If you must commit suicide… always contrive to do it as decorously as possible; the decencies, whether of life or of death, should never be lost sight of.
—George Borrow (1803–81) English Writer, Traveler
Suicide is a crime the most revolting to the feelings; nor does any reason suggest itself to our understanding by which it can be justified. It certainly originates in that species of fear which we denominate poltroonery. For what claim can that man have to courage who trembles at the frowns of fortunes? True heroism consists in being superior to the ills of life in whatever shape they may challenge him to combat.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
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
When all the blandishments of life are gone the coward sneaks to death; the brave lives on.
—Martial (40–104) Ancient Roman Latin 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) Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
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
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
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
No one ever lacks a good reason for suicide.
—Cesare Pavese (1908–50) Italian Novelist, Poet, Critic, Translator
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
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