Famous Death Quotations

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"I'm trying to die correctly, but it's very difficult, you know."
by Lawrence Durrell
"He who is obsessed by death is made guilty by it."
by Elias Canetti
"One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation."
by Oscar Wilde
"No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death."
by Plato
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains or slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take but as for me; give me liberty or give me death!"
by Patrick Henry
"Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death."
by Albert Einstein
"We sometimes congratulate ourselves at the moment of waking from a troubled dream; it may be so the moment after death."
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
"Must not all things at the last be swallowed up in death?"
by Plato
"Men are never really willing to die except for the sake of freedom: therefore they do not believe in dying completely."
by Albert Camus
"Just like those who are incurably ill, the aged know everything about their dying except exactly when."
by Philip Roth
"The charm of fame is so great that we like every object to which it is attached, even death."
by Blaise Pascal
"There will be no lasting peace either in the heart of individuals or in social customs until death is outlawed."
by Albert Camus
"Birth was the death of him."
by Samuel Beckett
"Biography lends to death a new terror."
by Oscar Wilde
"[Blacks] have twice the rates of prostate cancer death as Caucasian men, ... For reasons we don't know, it also starts at a younger age in African-American men."
by Harmon Eyre
"Foolish men imagine that because judgment for an evil thing is delayed, there is no justice; but only accident here below. Judgment for an evil thing is many times delayed some day or two, some century or two, but it is sure as life, it is sure as death."
by Thomas Carlyle
"To die is poignantly bitter, but the idea of having to die without having lived is unbearable."
by Erich Fromm
"A machine cannot go beyond the limitations of its design. The man-machine fears death because a machine cannot see beyond its own destruction."
by Barry Long
"A human infection, or death, wouldn't surprise me as it has happened in other countries and it can happen anywhere."
by Noureddin Mona
"The hour of departure has arrived and we go our ways; I to die, and you to live. Which is better? Only God knows."
by Anonymous
"The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets."
by Will Rogers
"The timing of death, like the ending of a story, gives a changed meaning to what preceded it."
by Mary Bateson
"The world is the mirror of myself dying."
by Henry Miller
"The True Lord, his Beloved, is always with him; the rounds of birth and death are ended for him"
by Granth Sahib
"There are so many little dying that it doesn't matter which of them is death."
by Kenneth Patchen
"There is no lonelier man in death, except the suicide, than that man who has lived many years with a good wife and then outlived her. If two people love each other there can be no happy end to it."
by Ernest Hemingway
"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."
by Anonymous
"There is nothing which at once affects a man so much and so little as his own death."
by Samuel Butler
"They were hanged to death."
by Leith Kubba
"Those who have never had a father can at any rate never know the sweets of losing one. To most men the death of his father is a new lease of life."
by Samuel Butler
"This was very bittersweet. I am glad. A no vote would have put us into a death spiral for the facility in Wellsville. While we don't have any guarantees, the company would not ask for this many concessions for nothing. I want to stay in the game for the future."
by Rick Chilson
"To die is but to leave off dying and do the thing once for all."
by Samuel Butler
"Time turns the old days to derision, Our loves into corpses or wives; And marriage and death and division Make barren our lives"
by Algernon Swinburne
"Though it be in the power of the weakest arm to take away life, it is not in the strongest to deprive us of death."
by Sir Thomas Browne
"Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem more afraid of life than death."
by James F. Byrnes
"Today, the death tax destroys family businesses and stifles investment that leads to increases in jobs and personal income. As a result, 70 percent of family-owned businesses are not passed on to the next generation and 87 percent do not make it to the third generation,"
by Jennifer Dunn
"Two common reasons are people have a death or a marriage dissolution and they put taxes on the back burner."
by Bill Brunson
"Truth sits upon the lips of dying men."
by Matthew Arnold
"To some extent I liken slavery to death."
by Marcus Tullius Cicero
"Until the day of his death, no man can be sure of his courage."
by Jean Anouilh
"We don't think that the death and destruction to the U.S. service people and to the Iraqi people can be justified in any way. We mark this date, and this particular number, because it does represent, we believe, an indication of just how wrong the U.S. policy in Iraq is, just how far off course this administration has taken us. And we basically see this as an opportunity to say to the people of this country, to say to the Bush administration and the Congress that these are too many of our young people who have died in this war."
by Leslie Cagan
"We do not want people to let their guard down. That's when we have the greatest number of deaths."
by Craig Fugate
"We love the guy to death. He's a great coach and a great mind. He's done so much for this defense and helped us out tremendously with his wisdom and knowledge. When he puts together a game plan we feel like, if we execute it, we have a great chance to win the game."
by James Farrior
"We get into the habit of living before acquiring the habit of thinking. In that race which daily hastens us towards death, the body maintains its irreparable lead."
by Albert Camus
"We totally agree with the results of the autopsy. This is typical of sudden cardiac death."
by Leo Bokeria
"We then witness the maize god's birth, his death and his resurrection, before the wall ends with the coronation of a named and titled Maya king, newly crowned in the company of the Gods."
by William Saturno
"We stuck in all the symptoms that diabetics get, ranging from serious things like death to less serious things like ballooning of the arteries in the legs. While it didn't meet the goal at the combination endpoint, it did on the one that really matters to patients: death, heart attacks and strokes."
by John Dormandy
"We run carelessly to the precipice, after we have put something before us to prevent us seeing it."
by Blaise Pascal
"We must pronounce him fortunate who has ended his life in fair prosperity."
by Aeschylus
"We're just tickled to death. It's just about unspeakable to me. It's a miracle within itself."
by James Young
"What between the duties expected of one during one's lifetime, and the duties exacted from one after one's death, land has ceased to be either a profit or a pleasure. It gives one position, and prevents one from keeping it up. That's all that can be said about land."
by Anonymous
"We're shocked and deeply saddened by the sudden death of our friend and colleague."
by Aaron Sorkin
"What we live by we die by."
by Robert Frost
"When two people are under the influence of the most violent, most insane, most delusive, and most transient of passions, they are required to swear that they will remain in that excited, abnormal, and exhausting condition continuously until death do them part."
by George Bernard Shaw
"When death comes it is never our tenderness that we repent from, but our severity."
by George Eliot
"Whom the gods love dies young."
by Menander
"Whoever lives among many evils just as I, how can dying not be a source of gain?"
by Sophocles
"Which death is preferably to every other? ''The unexpected''."
by Anonymous
"You must not fear death, my lads; defy him, and you drive him into the enemy's ranks."
by Napoleon Bonaparte
"You can be a king or a street sweeper, but everybody dances with the Grim Reaper."
by Robert Harris
"You must realize that one day you will die. Until then you are worthless."
by Anonymous
"And all the winds go sighing, For sweet things dying."
by Christina Georgina Rossetti
"As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living. Satisfaction is death."
by George Bernard Shaw
"Both marriage and death ought to be welcome: The one promises happiness, doubtless the other assures it."
by Anonymous
"Become an internationalist and learn to respect all life. Make war on machines. And in particular the sterile machines of corporate death and the robots that guard them."
by Abbie Hoffman
"Do you think he was smart enough to know ... that he couldn't get the death penalty in Maryland for shooting Conrad Johnson?"
by Robert Horan
"Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live."
by Norman Cousins
"Death is not natural for a state as it is for a human being, for whom death is not only necessary, but frequently even desirable."
by Marcus Tullius Cicero
"Death is less bitter punishment than death's delay."
by Ovid
"Death is frightening, and so is Eternal Life."
by Mason Cooley
"Death is easier than a wretched life; and better never to have born than to live and fare badly."
by Aeschylus
"Death is as sure for that which is born, as birth is for that which is dead. Therefore grieve not for what is inevitable."
by Bhagavad Gita
"Death ends a life, not a relationship."
by Anonymous
"Even after death such deeds are remembered and recalled."
by Rig Veda
"Envy feeds on the living, after death it rests, then the honor of a man protects him."
by Anonymous
"For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, / According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death."
by Anonymous
"For death is not the worst, but when one wants to die and is not able even to have that."
by Sophocles
"Even in death, his heart was bigger than anyone else's. About seven months ago, when the cancer appeared in his stomach, we were hoping that we could pull another rabbit out of the hat. But it didn't happen and it eventually took its toll."
by Steve Quidor
"He who dies with the most toys is, nonetheless, still dead."
by Anon.
"I really wanted to die at certain periods in my life. Death was like love, a romantic escape. I took pills because I didn't want to throw myself off my balcony and know people would photograph me lying dead below."
by Brigitte Bardot
"I know what death and destruction is and I know how much people suffer, ... And it breaks my heart. I pray for these people every night. So don't lecture me about knowing what disaster is like."
by Michael Brown
"I'm disappointed that it was not the barest minimum. It's a death penalty for her because she's 64 years old ... I think she's in a state of shock, understandably so."
by Joel Hirschhorn
"I'd rather die while I'm living then live while I'm dead."
by Jimmy Buffet
"I will be conquered; I will not capitulate."
by Samuel Johnson
"I think there's something peculiar about me that I haven't died. It doesn't make sense but I refuse to die."
by Judy Garland
"If my survival caused another to perish, then death would be sweeter and more beloved."
by Kahlil Gibran
"If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live."
by Martin Luther King, Jr.
"In our brief national history we have shot four of our presidents, worried five of them to death, impeached one and hounded another out of office. And when all else fails, we hold an election and assassinate their character."
by P. J. O'Rourke
"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."
by George Borrow
"If you don't know how to die, don't worry; Nature will tell you what to do on the spot, fully and adequately. She will do this job perfectly for you; don't bother your head about it."
by Michel de Montaigne
"It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other."
by Francis Bacon
"It is so friendly so simply friendly and though inevitable not a sadness and though occurring not a shock."
by Gertrude Stein
"It's the most ridiculous thing that only an idiot could believe. He didn't have a death wish. He had every reason to live, he had children and his criminal case was being managed."
by Philip Russell
"It's a reasonable, cautionary vote. It doesn't necessarily indicate leanings toward death penalty defendants. But at least he's going to be his own person."
by Richard Dieter
"Man weeps to think that he will die so soon; woman, that she was born so long ago."
by H. L. Mencken
"Life levels all men. Death reveals the eminent."
by George Bernard Shaw
"Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome."
by Isaac Asimov
"Milosevic's death sets back efforts to show that ethnic cleansing was the product not of an ethnic group but of the designs of individual leaders. His trial laid bare the massive evidence of his crimes, but his victims will now be denied a formal judgment on his guilt."
by Richard Dicker
"Middle age snuffs out more talent than even wars or sudden death does."
by Gerald Brenan
"Men are convinced of your arguments, your sincerity, and the seriousness of your efforts only by your death."
by Albert Camus


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