Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.
—Norman Cousins (1915–90) American Journalist, Author, Academic, Activist
If we really think that home is elsewhere and that this life is a “wandering to find home,” why should we not look forward to the arrival?
—C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) Irish-born British Academic, Author, Literary Scholar
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
Dying is the most embarrassing thing that can ever happen to you, because someone’s got to take care of all your details.
—Andy Warhol (1928–87) American Painter, Printmaker, Film Personality
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
Some dying men are the most tyrannical; and certainly, since they will shortly trouble us so little for evermore, the poor fellows ought to be indulged.
—Herman Melville (1819–91) American Novelist, Short Story Writer, Essayist, Poet
I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was two things I had a right to, liberty and death. If I could not have one, I would have the other, for no man should take me alive.
—Harriet Tubman (c.1820–1913) American Abolitionist, Social Reformer
The grave’s a fine and private place, but none, I think, do there embrace.
—Andrew Marvell (1621–78) English Metaphysical Poet
I’m trying to die correctly, but it’s very difficult, you know.
—Lawrence Durrell (1912–90) British Biographer, Poet, Playwright, Novelist
Death is as sure for that which is born, as birth is for that which is dead. Therefore grieve not for what is inevitable.
—The Bhagavad Gita Hindu Scripture
I am going to seek a great purpose, draw the curtain, the farce is played.
—Francois Rabelais (1494–1553) French Humanist, Satirist
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
I am not the least afraid to die.
—Charles Darwin (1809–82) English Naturalist
Land and sea, weakness and decline are great separators, but death is the great divorcer for ever.
—John Keats (1795–1821) English Poet
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
Death is the gate of life.
—Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) French Catholic Religious Leader
Is death the last step? No, it is the final awakening.
—Walter Scott (1771–1832) Scottish Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Lawyer
Death is a distant rumor to the young.
—Andy Rooney (b.1919) American Writer, Humorist, TV Personality
Let death be daily before your eyes, and you will never entertain any abject thought, nor too eagerly covet anything.
—Epictetus (55–135) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Either he’s dead or my watch has stopped.
—Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American Actor, Comedian, Singer
As virtuous men pass mildly away, and whisper to their souls to go, whilst some of their sad friends do say, the breath goes now, and some say no.
—John Donne (1572–1631) English Poet, Cleric
Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
Death is nature’s way of saying, Your table’s ready.
—Robin Williams (b.1951) American Actor, Comedian
I think of death as some delightful journey that I shall take when all my tasks are done.
—Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) American Poet, Journalist
Man is a noble animal, splendid in ashes, and pompous in the grave.
—Thomas Browne (1605–82) English Author, Physician
Life is not lost by dying; life is lost minute by minute, day by dragging day, in all the thousand small uncaring ways.
—Stephen Vincent Benet (1898–1943) American Poet
Die when I may, I want it said of me by those who know me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower when I thought a flower would grow.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
The gods conceal from men the happiness of death, that they may endure life.
—Lucian (c.120–c.200 CE) Greek Satirist, Rhetorician, Writer
Man has the possibility of existence after death. But possibility is one thing and the realization of the possibility is quite a different thing.
—Georges Gurdjieff (1877–1949) Armenian Spiritual Leader, Occultist
The call of death is a call of love. Death can be sweet if we answer it in the affirmative, if we accept it as one of the great eternal forms of life and transformation.
—Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) German-born Swiss Novelist, Poet
If I had my life over again I should form the habit of nightly composing myself to thoughts of death. I would practice, as it were, the remembrance of death. There is no other practice which so intensifies life. Death, when it approaches, ought not to take one by surprise. It should be part of the full expectancy of life. Without an ever-present sense of death life is insipid. You might as well live on the whites of eggs.
—Muriel Spark (1918–2006) Scottish Novelist, Short-story Writer, Poet
Death never takes the wise man by surprise; he is always ready to go.
—Jean de La Fontaine (1621–95) French Poet, Short Story Writer
Death destroys a man, the idea of Death saves him.
—E. M. Forster (1879–1970) English Novelist, Short Story Writer, Essayist
Madam, Life’s a piece in bloom death goes dogging everywhere: She’s the tenant of the room he’s the ruffian on the stair.
—William Ernest Henley (1849–1903) English Poet, Critic, Editor
The pride of dying rich raises the loudest laugh in hell.
—John W. Foster
The Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea are made of the same water. It flows down, clean and cool, from the heights of Herman and the roots of the cedars of Lebanon. the Sea of Galilee makes beauty of it, the Sea of Galilee has an outlet. It gets to give. It gathers in its riches that it may pour them out again to fertilize the Jordan plain. But the Dead Sea with the same water makes horror. For the Dead Sea has no outlet. It gets to keep.
—Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969) American Baptist Minister
It hath often been said that it is not death but dying that is terrible.
—Henry Fielding (1707–54) English Novelist, Dramatist
A person doesn’t die when he should but when he can.
—Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927–2014) Colombian Novelist, Short-Story Writer
Just like those who are incurably ill, the aged know everything about their dying except exactly when.
—Philip Roth (1933–2018) American Novelist, Short-story Writer
Only the young die good.
—Oliver Herford (1863–1935) American Writer, Artist, Illustrator
A man’s death makes everything certain about him. Of course, secrets may die with him. And of course, a hundred years later somebody looking through some papers may discover a fact which throws a totally different light on his life and of which all the people who attended his funeral were ignorant. Death changes the facts qualitatively but not quantitatively. One does not know more facts about a man because he is dead. But what one already knows hardens and becomes definite. We cannot hope for ambiguities to be clarified, we cannot hope for further change, we cannot hope for more. We are now the protagonists and we have to make up our minds.
—John Berger (1926–2017) English Art Critic, Novelist
Distance of time and place generally cure what they seem to aggravate; and taking leave of our friends resembles taking leave of the world, of which it has been said, that it is not death, but dying, which is terrible.
—Henry Fielding (1707–54) English Novelist, Dramatist
We begin to die as soon as we are born, and the end is linked to the beginning.
—Marcus Manilius (c.48 BCE–20 CE) Roman Poet, Astrologer
For ‘Tis not in mere death that men die most.
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–61) English Poet
I never wanted to see anybody die, but there are a few obituary notices I have read with pleasure.
—Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American Civil Liberties Lawyer
So that he seemed not to relinquish life, but to leave one home for another.
—Cornelius Nepos (c.99–c.24 BCE) Roman Historian
This world is a dream within a dream; and as we grow older, each step is an awakening. The youth awakes, as he thinks, from childhood; the full-grown man despises the pursuits of youth as visionary; and the old man looks on manhood as a feverish dream. Death the last sleep? No! It is the last and final awakening!
—Walter Scott (1771–1832) Scottish Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Lawyer
As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.
—Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Polymath, Painter, Sculptor, Inventor, Architect
Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back into the same box.
—Italian Proverb
Any relic of the dead is precious, if they were valued living.
—Emily Bronte (1818–48) English Novelist, Poet
Death teaches us to live; it gives us a boundary to map our living within. Death’s hammer breaks through the mirror separating us from light.
—David Seltzer (b.1940) American Screenwriter, Film Producer, Film Director
The essential part of our being can only survive if the transient part dissolves. Death is a condition of survival. That which has been gained must be eternalized, and can only be eternalized by being transmuted, by passing through death they must return
—Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan (1916–2004) British Sufi Mystic, Religious Leader, Psychologist
I look upon life as a gift from God. I did nothing to earn it. Now that the time is coming to give it back, I have no right to complain.
—Joyce Cary (1888–1957) English Novelist, Artist
The death of what’s dead is the birth of what’s living.
—Arlo Guthrie (b.1947) American Singer, Songwriter
To die will be an awfully big adventure.
—J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) Scottish Novelist, Dramatist
All say, “How hard it is that we have to die” — a strange complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Every man is born as many men and dies as a single one.
—Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) German Existential Philosopher
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
No evil is honorable: but death is honorable; therefore death is not evil.
—Zeno of Citium (c.334–c.265 BCE) Greek Philosopher
The best place a person can die, is where they die for others.
—J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) Scottish Novelist, Dramatist
Only those are fit to live who are not afraid to die.
—Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964) American Military Leader
How strange this fear of death is! We are never frightened at a sunset.
—George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish Novelist, Lecturer, Poet
I’d rather die while I’m living than live while I’m dead.
—Jimmy Buffett (b.1946) American Musician, Author
He has gone over to the majority.
—Petronius (c.27–66 CE) Roman Courtier, Novelist
These have not the hope to die.
—Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) Italian Poet, Philosopher
When I die, I want people to play my music, go wild and freak out and do anything they want to do.
—Jimi Hendrix (1942–70) American Musician, Songwriter, Singer
It’s not that I’m afraid to die. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.
—Woody Allen (b.1935) American Film Actor, Director