The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. … To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms—this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong in the ranks of devoutly religious men.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Death most resembles a prophet who is without honor in his own land or a poet who is a stranger among his people.
—Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-born American Philosopher, Poet, Painter, Theologian, Sculptor
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
This dust was once the man,
Gentle, plain, just and resolute, under whose cautious hand,
Against the foulest crime in history known in any land or age,
Was saved the Union of these States.
—Walt Whitman (1819–92) American Poet, Essayist, Journalist, American, Poet, Essayist, Journalist
I have seen a thousand graves opened, and always perceived that whatever was gone, the teeth and hair remained of those who had died with them. Is not this odd? They go the very first things in youth and yet last the longest in the dust.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
All sentient beings, whether young or old, foolish or wise, are to go to the power of death, which is their destination.
—Buddhist Teaching
Only the young die good.
—Oliver Herford (1863–1935) American Writer, Artist, Illustrator
A cemetery is the only place where people don’t try to keep up with the Joneses.
—Unknown
Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
I balanced all, brought all to mind, the years to come seemed waste of breath, a waste of breath the years behind, in balance with this life, this death.
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) Irish Poet, Dramatist
Just as clay-pots made by potters are to be broken at last, so are the lives of sentient beings.
—Buddhist Teaching
And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
People do not die for us immediately, but remain bathed in a sort of aura of life which bears no relation to true immortality but through which they continue to occupy our thoughts in the same way as when they were alive. It is as though they were traveling abroad.
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922) French Novelist
There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval. The dark background which death supplies brings out the tender colors of life in all their purity.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
A fiction about soft or easy deaths is part of the mythology of most diseases that are not considered shameful or demeaning.
—Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American Writer, Philosopher
Soon is the struggle past, and to the earth,
To the eternal sun, I render back
These atoms, joined in me for pain and pleasure.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
In the works of Lucretius, we find two reasons why we shouldn’t worry about death. If you have had a successful life, Lucretius tell us, there’s no reason to mind its end. And, if you haven’t had a good time, “Why do you seek to add more years, which would also pass but ill?”
—Alain de Botton (b.1969) Swiss-born British Philosopher, Author
Death is the end of life; ah why
Should life all labour be?… .
All things have rest, and ripen toward the grave
In silence – ripen, fall, and cease;
Give us long rest or death, dark death, or dreamful ease.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92) British Poet
Every day, therefore, should be regulated as if it were the one that brings up the rear, the one that rounds out and completes our lives.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
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
Except for the young or very happy, I can’t say I am sorry for anyone who dies.
—William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–63) English Novelist
It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
So love the thought of death, love it.
—Anthony de Mello (1931–87) Indian-born American Theologian
I have a piece of great and sad news to tell you: I am dead.
—Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French Poet, Playwright, Film Director
Death twitches my ear. “Live,” he says, “I am coming.”
—Virgil (70–19 BCE) Roman Poet
Mild is the slow necessity of death;
The tranquil spirit fails beneath its grasp,
Without a groan, almost without a fear,
Resigned in peace to the necessity;
Calm as a voyager to some distant land,
And full of wonder, full of hope as he.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
For those who seek to understand it, death is a highly creative force. The highest spiritual values of life can originate from the thought and study of death.
—Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (1926-2004) American Psychiatrist
‘Tis very certain the desire of life prolongs it.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
How frighteningly few are the persons whose death would spoil our appetite and make the world seem empty.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
Most people would rather die than think, in fact, most do.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
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