Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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“Well, life was tough, but at least I was able to live it out and I was able to face death and not be afraid. Well, now I'm ready to go to Heaven and be with Jesus, and...hey? Hey, what's this? Oh, God it feels like a man's DICK IN MY ASS! Oh, GOD!!! I'M DEAD!!! Oh, you mean life keeps on fucking you even after you're dead? Oh, it never ends! OH! OHHH!!!”
Sam Kinison (1953–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God hath made the pious living in their death and hath made the wicked dead during their lives, i.e., the pious, though they be dead, yet live, since the angels utter blessings on their piety until they are made immortal by the recompense which they receive at the Resurrection.”
Shaqiq al-Balkhi (died 810) said by 810 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let him be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not powerless. Dead, did I say? There is no death, only change of worlds.”
Chief Seattle (misattributed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I wept that all must die — "Yet Love," I cried, "doth live, and conquer death —" And Time passed by, And breathed on Love, and killed it with his breath Ere Death was nigh.More bitter far than all It was to know that Love could change and die — Hush! for the ages call "The Love of God lives through eternity, And conquers all!”
Adelaide Anne Procter (1825–1864) said by 1864 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All religions speak about death during this life on earth. Death must come before rebirth. But what must die? False confidence in one’s own knowledge, self-love and egoism. Our egoism must be broken. We must realize that we are very complicated machines, and so this process of breaking is bound to be a long and difficult task. Before real growth becomes possible, our personality must die.”
G. I. Gurdjieff (1866–1949) said by 1949 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think worship of death is an interesting basis for religion, because after all death is the one universal. It doesn't seem to matter what gods you pray to. We all die, in the real world and in fantasy worlds, and if there was some religion where you did not die I suspect that would be, that god would become very popular. They all promise us eternal life, but whatever.”
George R. R. Martin (born 1948) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Discussing the influence of real-life faiths on his work and its religious systems, Authors@Google (August 2011)
“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.”
Adam Silvera (born 1990) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Anyone, in answer to the difficult questions in life, the "I don't know what happens after I die" or "What happens if my loved ones die?" or "How can I stop myself dying?", the big questions, who gives you an easy bullshit answer, and you go "Well, do you have any evidence for that?" and they go "Ah, there is more to life than evidence", get in the fucking sack.”
Dara Ó Briain (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mrs. M., you seem to be very sick." " Yes," said she, "I am dying." "And are you ready to die?" "Sir, God knows I have taken Him at His word, and I am not afraid to die.”
Ichabod Spencer (1798–1854) said by 1854 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Americans are willing to go to enormous trouble and expense defending their principles with arms, very little trouble and expense advocating them with words. Temperamentally we are ready to die for certain principles (or, in the case of overripe adults, send youngsters to die), but we show little inclination to advertise the reasons for dying.”
E. B. White (1899–1985) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Thud of Ideas," The New Yorker (23 September 1950)
“They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for ones country. But in modern war there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.”
Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) said by 1961 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Historically, as the faith dies, the culture and civilization to which it gave birth die, and then the people die. And a new tribe with its own gods comes to occupy the emptying land. On the old and new continents, it is the native-born of European ancestry who are de-Christianizing, aging and dying.”
Pat Buchanan (born 1938) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: How Christian America Dies" The American Conservative (May 26, 2015).
“What I had not counted on was discovering how closely a man could come to dying and still not die, or want to die. That, too, was mine; and it also is to the good. For that experience resolved proportions and relationships for me as nothing else could have done; and it is surprising, approaching the final enlightenment, how little one really has to know or feel sure about.”
Richard E. Byrd (1888–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People die when they are ready to die, for reasons that are their own. No person dies without a reason. You are not taught that, however, so people do not recognize their own reasons for dying, and they are not taught to recognize their own reasons for living — because you are told that life itself is an accident in a cosmic game of chance.”
Jane Roberts (1929–1984) said by 1984 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People are always dying in the Times who don't seem to die in other papers, and they die at greater length and maybe even with a little more grace.”
James Reston (1909–1995) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: New Leader (The New York Times (7 January 1963)
“Who saves his country, saves himself, saves all things, and all things saved do bless him! Who lets his country die, lets all things die, dies himself ignobly, and all things dying curse him!”
Benjamin Harvey Hill (1823–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported in Benjamin H. Hill, Jr., Senator Benjamin H. Hill of Georgia; His Life, Speeches and Writings (1893), epigraph, p. 594. From "Notes on the Situation", a series of articles appearing in the Chronicle and Sentin…
“I think that might not have been enough, were it not for me being my family ’s only hope. Because they were also dying, in a different way: financially, mentally. And I thought, I can’t die. Literally I can’t die.”
Ocean Vuong (born 1988) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On being surrounded by friends taken by the opioid epidemic and his quest to be the breadwinner for his family in “Ocean Vuong: ‘As a child I would ask: What’s napalm?’” in The Guardian (2019 Jun 9)
“How about we have been dead and what we must do after we die? Why we go to the churches when we are living because I think the divines and Christs are dead in the churches and provide the services, cares and merrys on our lived people. And we received the peaceful mind from them and held a better life than before.”
Martin Firrell (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Who can fancy warless men? Warless? War will die out late then. Will it ever? late or soon? Can it, till this outworn earth be dead as yon dead world the moon?”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You can't worship a spirit in spirit, unless you do it now. Wallowing in the past may be good literature. As wisdom, it's hopeless. Time Regained is Paradise Lost, and Time Lost is Paradise Regained. Let the dead bury their dead. If you want to live at every moment as it presents itself, you've got to die to every other moment.”
Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: John Rivers in The Genius and the Goddess (1955)
“I don't care if I'm remembered or not when I'm dead. (A scientist I knew at General Electric, who was married to a woman named Josephine, said to me, "Why should I buy life insurance? If I die, I won't care what's happening to Jo. I won't care about anything. I'll be dead.")”
Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Half dead’s a lot worse than dead, when you know you’re gonna die in another three, six days no matter what anyone else does.”
Samuel R. Delany (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“See, heroes never die. John Wayne isn't dead, Elvis isn't dead. Otherwise you don't have a hero. You can't kill a hero. That's why I never let him get older.”
Mickey Spillane (1918–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This heaven will pass away, and the one above it will pass away. The dead are not alive, and the living will not die. In the days when you consumed what is dead, you made it what is alive. When you come to dwell in the light, what will you do? On the day when you were one you became two. But when you become two, what will you do? (11)”
Jesus (6 BC–33) said by 33 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Bid me despair, and I'll despair, Under that cypress-tree; Or bid me die, and I will dare E'en death, to die for thee. Thou art my life, my love, my heart, The very eyes of me: And hast command of every part To live and die for thee.”
Robert Herrick (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Memento mori—remember death! These are important words. If we kept in mind that we will soon inevitably die, our lives would be completely different. If a person knows that he will die in a half hour, he certainly will not bother doing trivial, stupid, or, especially, bad things during this half hour. Perhaps you have half a century before you die—what makes this any different from a half hour?”
Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Was it better to die in the illusion of sunshine and warmth or face death in a cold darkness of reality? Was it better to die in happy ignorance or terrified knowledge? The answer, if you’re a Londoner, is that it’s better not to die at all.”
Ben Aaronovitch (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For even if the whole world believed in resurrection, little would change until we began to practice it. We can believe in CPR, but people will remain dead until someone breathes new life into them. And we can tell the world that there is life after death, but the world really seems to be wondering if there is life before death.”
Shane Claiborne (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O sleepers! what a thing is slumber! Sleep resembles death. Ah, why then dost thou not work in such wise as that after death thou mayst retain a resemblance to perfect life, when, during life, thou art in sleep so like to the hapless dead?”
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) said by 1519 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If the immortal is also imperishable, the soul when attacked by death cannot perish; for the preceding argument shows that the soul will not admit of death, or even be dead, any more than three or the odd number will admit of the even...”
Socrates (470–399 BC) said by 399 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm not afraid of death myself, because I'm not gonna know I'm dead. I'm awed a bit by the idea, but I'm perfectly reconciled to it. Certainly I am, as everyone is, reconciled to everyone else's death but their own. They think an exception can be made in their own case.”
Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Christmas with Christopher Hitchens", by Gregg LaGambina, The A.V. Club (20 December 2007)
“Corpses shouldn’t be forced to answer questions. Death was man’s ancient privilege, his immemorial pact with life, granted to the slave as well as the noble. Death was man’s solace, and his right. But perhaps they had revoked that right; and now you couldn’t evade your responsibilities simply by being dead.”
Robert Sheckley (1928–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My husband’s death was like a coup. It was sudden and shrouded in confusion. General Abdulasalami [Abubakar] just called me, telling me to come and collect the dead body. We buried him like any other ordinary Nigerian. It was quite unfortunate the way he died. Allah knows best and unto Him we shall all return. May his soul rest in peace. I’m yet to fully recover from the shock of his death.”
Maryam Abacha (born 1947) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Khadija Thabit(Tuesday, April 08, 2014)On how she handled the news of his sudden death
“Death, whether it regards ourselves or others, appears less terrible in war than at home. The cries of women and children, friends in anguish, a dark room, dim tapers, priests and physicians, are what affect us the most on the death-bed. Behold us already more than half dead and buried.”
Henry Home, Lord Kames (1696–1782) said by 1782 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fires that shook me once, but now to silent ashes fall'n away. Cold upon the dead volcano sleeps the gleam of dying day.”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The air is full of farewells to the dying, And mournings for the dead.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Henry W. Longfellow
“Dark night, Oh terrible is thy shadow on the battle ! Blows dealt alike on friend and foe, the dead , And dying trampled on— oh, day alone Should look upon the soldier's deeds !”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) first seen 1823 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (1st February 1823) The Cadets. An Indian Sketch
“Bill O'Reilly: 13,000 dead now in the USA. Many people who are dying, both here and around the world, were on their last legs anyway, and I don't want to sound callous about that.Sean Hannity: You're gonna get — hold on, you're going to get hammered for that.O'Reilly: Well, I don't care. I mean, a simple man tells the truth.”
Bill O'Reilly (commentator) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A decade and a half after victory in the Cold War and end-of-history triumphalism, the "what do you leave behind" question is more urgent than most of us expected. The Western world, as a concept, is dead and the West, as a matter of demographic fact, is dying.”
Mark Steyn (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The groans of the dying and the blanched set faces of the dead ... were enough to drive away all unwholesome feelings of exultation, and to remind one of the grim reality that war is. And even though these were the faces and the sufferings of our enemy, one had ... a deeper sense of the common humanity which knows no racial distinctions.”
Jan Smuts (1870–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Smuts in Memoirs of the Boer War, p. 151, as cited in Antony Lentin, 2010, Jan Smuts – Man of courage and vision, p. 15.
“For this dead Venice once taught us to be merchants, sailors and gentlemen; and this dying England taught the Americans all they have of speech, or thought, hitherto. What thoughts they have not learned from England are foolish thoughts; what words they have not learned from England, unseemly words; the vile among them not being able even to be humorous parrots, but only obscene mocking birds.”
John Ruskin (1819–1900) first seen 1874 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fors Clavigera,, letter xlii, (1 June 1874; quoted by William Archer in America To-Day)
“And it is easy to slip into a parallel universe. There are so many of them: worlds of the insane, the criminal, the crippled, the dying, perhaps of the dead as well. These worlds exist alongside this world and resemble it, but are not in it.”
Susanna Kaysen (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I read obituaries I always note the age of the deceased. Automatically I relate this figure to my own age. Four years to go, I think. Nine more years. Two years and I'm dead. The power of numbers is never more evident than when we use them to speculate on the time of our dying.”
Don DeLillo (born 1936) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It would be premature to suggest that the nation-state is dead or dying.”
Robert Gilpin (1930–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I really do fear that I'm dying I really do fear that I'm dead I saw it in your eyes what I'm looking for I saw it in your eyes what will make me live.”
Rufus Wainwright (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[Larry Ross] "There are only two stages to dying, Henry. Being alive and being dead.”
Michael Nava (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The babies who were my neighbours in public conveyances in China all fell into one of two categories: babies who appeared to be dead, and babies who appeared to be dying.”
Peter Fleming (writer) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: One's company: A Journey to China, on the train from Pinsiang to Changsha, September 1933.
“The dead must not rise—they undermine everything their dying created.”
Algis Budrys (1931–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I believe the old way of doing business is dying, and the sooner it's dead and buried the better off we all will be.”
Ricardo Semler (born 1959) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Seven-Day Weekend (2004)
“On the assault of one inmate who ended up dying, we realised that the management did not inform the public that the inmate left this facility already dead; it was only the inmate who was with him that revealed that he was with the corpse in the vehicle.”
Richard Ramoeletsi wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source