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
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
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
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
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
There are many who dare not kill themselves for fear of what the neighbors will say.
—Cyril Connolly (1903–74) British Literary Critic, Writer
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
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
O deaf to nature and to Heaven’s command, against thyself to lift the murdering hand!—Oh, damned despair, to shun the living light, and plunge thy guilty soul in endless night!
—Lucretius (c.99–55 BCE) Roman Epicurean Poet, Philosopher
Sometimes I wonder if suicides aren’t in fact sad guardians of the meaning of life.
—Vaclav Havel (1936–2011) Czech Dramatist, Statesman
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
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
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
Then is it sin to rush into the secret house of death. Ere death dare come to us?
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
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 all the blandishments of life are gone the coward sneaks to death; the brave lives on.
—Martial (40–104) Ancient Roman Latin Poet
Suicide is not abominable because God prohibits it; God prohibits it because it is abominable.
—Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) Prussian German Philosopher, Logician
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
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
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
No one ever lacks a good reason for suicide.
—Cesare Pavese (1908–50) Italian Novelist, Poet, Critic, Translator
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 Sexologist, Physician, Social Reformer
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
He is not valiant that dares to die; but he that boldly bears calamity.
—Philip Massinger (1583–1640) English Playwright
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
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
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
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
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