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Death

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• “Once a woman turns against you, forget it. They can love you, then something turns in them. They can watch you dying in a gutter, run over by a car, and they'll spit on you.”

  Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “On Thee we fling our burdening woe, O love Divine, forever dear: Content to suffer, while we know, Living and dying, Thou art near!”

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809–1894) said by 1894 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “You can't take a dying project, sprinkle it with the magic pixie dust of "open source," and have everything magically work out.”

  Jamie Zawinski (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “There's a little book I'm thinking of writing — "Swan Song" is what I shall call it. The song of the dying. And my book will be incense burnt at the deathbed of this society, damned with the damnation of its own impotence.”

  Maxim Gorky (1868–1936) first seen 1899 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Foma Gordeyev (1899) [also translated as The Man Who Was Afraid; the English music group Led Zeppelin would later name their record label "Swan Song".

• “Mother, mother There's too many of you crying. Brother, brother, brother There's far too many of you dying. You know we've got to find a way To bring some lovin' here today.”

  Marvin Gaye (1939–1984) said by 1984 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “One of the consolations of dying... Seriously, the world is changing so quickly that if you had any more than 80 years of change I don't see how you could stand it psychologically.”

  Jonathan Franzen (born 1959) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Jonathan Franzen Warns Ebooks are Corroding Values," The Guardian (Jan 30, 2012).

• “Fame is but a fruit tree: So very unsound. It can never flourish Till its stalk is in the ground. So men of fame Can never find a way Till time has flown Far from their dying day. Forgotten while you're here, Remembered for a while. A much updated ruin From a much outdated style.”

  Nick Drake (1948–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The thought system that dominates our culture is laced with selfish values, and relinquishing those values is a lot easier said than done. The journey to a pure heart can be highly disorienting. For years we may have worked for power, money and prestige. Now all of a sudden we’ve learned that those are just the values of a dying world. We don’t know where to search for motivation anymore.”

  Marianne Williamson (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Dying Is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well. I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I've a call.”

  Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I cannot forgive my friends for dying; I do not find these vanishing acts of theirs at all amusing.”

  Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) said by 1946 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “It may almost be a question whether such wisdom as many of us have in our mature years has not come from the dying out of the power of temptation, rather than as the results of thought and resolution.”

  Anthony Trollope (1815–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “‘Riots break out in all countries. Aren’t there riots in India? Aren’t people dying there? Have you kept track of the number of people who've died?” “If it were riots I'd understand, Baba. These aren’t riots. It is simply a case of Muslims killing Hindus.’”

  Taslima Nasrin (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “We live a dying dream / If you know what I mean”

  Noel Gallagher (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “She watches Marvy's face as he pays Monika, watches him in this primal American act, paying, more deeply himself than when coming, or asleep, or maybe even dying.”

  Thomas Pynchon (born 1937) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “In Cuba, there is no fear of a racial war. Men are more than whites, mulattos or Negroes. Cubans are more than whites, mulattos or Negroes. On the field of battle, dying for Cuba, the souls of whites and Negroes have risen together into the air.”

  José Martí (1853–1895) said by 1895 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “When I was young, I was extremely scared of dying, but now I think it a very, very wise arrangement. It’s like a light that is extinguished. Not very much to make a fuss about.”

  Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As quoted in "Ingmar Bergman, Master Filmmaker, Dies at 89" by Mervyn Rothstein in The New York Times (31 July 2007)

• “It is impossible to maintain civilization with 12-year-olds having babies, with 15-year-olds killing each other, with 17-year-olds dying of AIDS and with 18-year-olds getting diplomas they can’t even read.”

  Newt Gingrich (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “If it is a dying craft we can't do anything about it. Civilisation moves on. Where are all the fresco painters now? Where are the landscape artists? What are they doing now? The world is changing. I have been very fortunate to be able to do the same job for 40 years. That's rare in any era.”

  Hayao Miyazaki (born 1941) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: on the topic of hand-drawn animation (2005) The Guardian article

• “I do not want to criticize while my soldiers are still bleeding and dying in Iraq.”

  Eric Shinseki (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “At the end of time, when the many become one, the last storm shall gather its angry winds to destroy a land already dying. And at its center, the blind man shall stand upon his own grave. There he shall see again, and weep for what has been wrought.”

  Robert Jordan (1948–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “What's the point anyway — Of suffering, dying? It teaches us to live, boy. A man who does not struggle does not live, he survives.”

  Oriana Fallaci (1929–2006) first seen 1979 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: A Man (1979)

• “The purpose of my life is to put off dying as long as possible.”

  William Saroyan (1908–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “In the dying world I come from, quotation is a national vice. No one would think of making an after-dinner speech without the help of poetry. It used to be the classics, now it's lyric verse.”

  Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966) said by 1966 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “With all that this country has given me, I felt it wasn't right for me to be enjoying life in Indian Hill when Marines were fighting and dying in Iraq.”

  Paul Hackett (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I believe easel painting to be a dying form, and the tendency of modern feeling is toward the wall picture or mural..”

  Jackson Pollock (1912–1956) first seen 1944 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: In his application for a grant given by the Guggenheim Foundation 1944; as quoted in Barbara Hess Abstract expressionism, Cologne: Taschen (2006), p. 9

• “All over the world people are dying of poverty but that is not the case here in Fiji because the beauty about Fiji is that people are always ready to help those in need.”

  Asenaca Caucau wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “When I first read The Wretched of the Earth I heard a new history spoken—the voice of the decolonised subject raised in resistance. That voice . . . articulated a yearning for freedom that was so intense and a quality of emotional hunger that was so fierce that it was overwhelming. Dying into the text, I abandoned and forgot myself. The lust for freedom in those pages awakened and resurrected me.”

  Bell hooks (1952–2021) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Gender and Decolonization in the Congo (2010)

• “Full of years, Sir Frank's body died. The diphtheria which carried him off caused him as much suffering as it would have done an ordinary man; dying was not eased by his unique gift. He slid out into the long darkness — but his consciousness continued unabated in eight other bodies.”

  Brian Aldiss (1925–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Stop dying. Am trying to write a comedy.”

  Wilson Mizner (1876–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Quoted by Stuart B. McIver, Dreamers, Schemers and Scalawags, Pineapple Press, Sarasota, Florida, 1994. .

• “It is only a dying cause which can attain to perfect taste.”

  John Buchan (1875–1940) said by 1940 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The title of poet's a noble thing, worth living and dying for, Though all the devils on earth and in Hell spit at me their disdain. It is stern work, it is perilous work, to thrust your hand in the sun And pull out a spark of immortal flame to warm the hearts of men: But Prometheus, torn by the claws and beaks whose task is never done, Would be tortured another eternity to go stealing fire again.”

  Joyce Kilmer (1886–1918) said by 1918 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “In the hearts of a hundred billion worlds Across a trillion dying realities in a lethal multiverse— In the chthonic silence— All that could have been done had been done. In peace and satisfaction, minds diffuse and antique submitted to the End Time.”

  Stephen Baxter (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Put personal ambition away from you, and then you will find consolation in living or in dying, whatever may happen to you.”

  Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821–1881) first seen 1849 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: 3 May 1849

• “Fruit-bearing involves cross-bearing. We know how the Lord Jesus became fruitful – not by bearing His Cross merely, but by dying on it. Do we know much of fellowship with Him in this?”

  James Hudson Taylor (1832–1905) said by 1905 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “They're feeding the people a line of bull, and they are spinning and people are dying.”

  Ray Nagin (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “See, see where Christ's blood streames in the firmament: It flows from the Brow we nailed upon the tree Deep to the dying, to the thirsting heart That holds the fires of the world, — dark-smirched with pain As Caesar's laurel crown. Then sounds the voice of One who like the heart of man Was once a child who among beasts has lain — "Still do I love, still shed my innocent light, my Blood, for thee.”

  Edith Sitwell (1887–1964) said by 1964 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “'Tis not the dying for a faith that's so hard, Master Harry — every man of every nation has done that — 'tis the living up to it that is difficult, as I know to my cost.”

  William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863) said by 1863 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Then you hang up the phone and feel badly for upsetting things And crawl back into bed to dream of a time When your heart was open wide and you love things just because Like the sick and dying”

  Jenny Lewis (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Some guys they just give up living, And start dying little by little, piece by piece. Some guys come home from work and wash up And go racin' in the street.Tonight, tonight the strip's just right. I wanna blow 'em all out of their seats. Calling out around the world, we're going racin' in the street.”

  Bruce Springsteen (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “To be simple is to accept the essence of the message and not try to twist it or adapt it to our own ideas. To be simple we must desire to remain in the image of God. We must not be so complex that we make God into our image! Simplicity is dying to self, an emptying.”

  Catherine Doherty (1896–1985) said by 1985 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Heal the world, make it a better place, For you and for me and the entire human race, There are people dying, but if you care enough for the living, Make a better place for you and for me.”

  Michael Jackson (1958–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “This is a story about a man named Eddie and it begins at the end, with Eddie dying in the sun. It might seem strange to start a story with an ending. But all endings are also beginnings. We just don't know it at the time.”

  Mitch Albom (born 1958) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “ועל זה נאמר והחזקת בו גר ותושב וחי עמך כלומר החזק בו עד שלא :יפול ויצטרך (translation & needed); source citation also needed And about dying it is said, And you shall hold on to him, and he shall dwell and live with you spiritually. That is, hold on to him until he longer lives.”

  Maimonides (1135–1204) said by 1204 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Those in positions of power spend day and night plotting and pondering about what to do. The body is treated in a very careless way. People live their lives, constantly surrounded by anxiety. If they live long before dying, they end up in senility, worn out by concerns: a terrible fate.”

  Zhuangzi (369–288 BC) said by 288 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Ch. 18 (tr. Martin Palmer and Elizabeth Breuily, 1996)

• “We'd be making sail in the dawn, with a fair breeze, singing a chanty song wid no care to it. And astern the land would be sinking low and dying out, but we'd give it no heed but a laugh, and never look behind. For the day that was, was enough, for we was free men — and I'm thinking 'tis only slaves do be giving heed to the day that's gone or the day to come — until they're old like me.”

  Eugene O'Neill (1888–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “If you look into living process closely, you will find cruelty everywhere, for life feeds on life. This is a fact, but it does not make you feel guilty of being alive. (…) From the animal point of view, being killed is not the worst form of dying; surely preferable to sickness and senile decay. The cruelty lies in the motive, not in the fact. Killing hurts the killer, not the killed.”

  Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “You must have something new in a landscape as well as something old, something that's dying and something that's being born.”

  Andy Goldsworthy (born 1956) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Searching for the window into nature's soul" Smithsonian magazine (February 1997)

• “I also think that fantasy fans should go back and read the classics: obviously Tolkien if you haven’t read him, but also works like Fritz Leiber’s classic Fahfrd and the Grey Mousers stories; the original Conan stories by Robert E. Howard and his other characters like Bran Mak Morn and Solomon Kane; Jack Vance, one of my all-time favourites, the marvellous The Dying Earth stories by Jack Vance.”

  Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: George R. R. Martin, "An Interview With George R. R. Martin: Part One. Indigo Magazine, July 12 2011.

• “The water which has been refused to the cry of the weary and dying is unholy, though it had been blessed by every saint in heaven; and the water which is found in the vessel of mercy is holy, though it had been defiled with corpses.”

  John Ruskin (1819–1900) first seen 1841 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The King of the Golden River or The Black Brothers: A Legend of Stiria (1841), Ch. 5 : How Little Gluck Set off on an expedition to the Golden River, and how he prospered therein, with other matters of interest. • Full …

• “An evil and foolish and intemperate and irreligious life should not be called a bad life, but rather, dying long drawn out.”

  Democritus (461–361 BC) said by 361 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

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