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Death

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“Consider the impasse of a one-God universe. He is all-knowing and all-powerful. He can't go anywhere, since He is already everywhere. He can't do anything, since the act of doing presupposes opposition. His universe is irrevocably thermodynamic, having no friction by definition. So, He has to create friction: War, Fear, Sickness, Death, to keep his dying show on the road.”
William S. Burroughs (1914–1997) said by 1997 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I should not really object to dying if it were not followed by death.”
Thomas Nagel (born 1937) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Death" (1970), p. 3 footnote.
“In the end, death came uniformly to all, and all extracted as much satisfaction from their dying as this essentially graceless process could afford.”
Jack Vance (1916–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The West is dying. Its nations have ceased to reproduce, and their populations have stopped growing and begun to shrink. Not since the Black Death carried off a third of Europe in the fourteenth century has there been a graver threat to the survival of Western civilization.”
Pat Buchanan (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If we do not solve our civilizational crisis -- a disintegrating culture, dying populations, and invasions unresisted -- the children born in 2006 will witness in their lifetimes the death of the West. In our hearts we know what must be done. We must stop the invasion. But do our leaders have the vision and will to do it?”
Pat Buchanan (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The great question is not, who died right, but who lived right? There is infinitely more responsibility in living than in dying. The moment of death is the most unimportant moment of life. Nothing can be done then. You cannot even do a favor for a friend, except to remember him in your will.”
Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) said by 1899 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It hath been often said, that it is not death, but dying which is terrible.”
Henry Fielding (1707–1754) said by 1754 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The only death I fear is dying ignorant.”
Steven Erikson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Why do you fight?" ... He kept his wife, his kid, from dying. That was nothing. Less than nothing. If he had had money, if he could have left it to them, he would have been free to go and get killed. As if the universe had not treated him all his life with kicks in the belly, it now despoiled him of the only dignity he could ever possess — his death.”
André Malraux (1901–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think it speaks to our basic fundamental feelings, you know. Of emotions, of love, of breakup, of love and hate and death and dying, mama, apple pie, and the whole thing. It covers a lot of territory, country music does.”
Johnny Cash (1932–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But mankind—the race would perish did they cease to aid each other.—From the time that the mother binds the child's head, till the moment that some kind assistant wipes the death-damp from the brow of the dying, we cannot exist without mutual help. All, therefore, that need aid, have the right to ask it of their fellow-mortals; no one who has the power of granting can refuse it without guilt.”
Walter Scott (1771–1832) first seen 1816 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Black Dwarf (1816), Ch. 17.
“He wasn’t afraid of dying, only of having not done all he could, and not properly spitting in the eye of death when it came for him. That final gesture was important.”
David Brin (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And he saw that Youth, Of age and looks to be his own dear son, Piteous and lovely, lying on the sand, Like some rich hyacinth, which by the scythe Of an unskillful gardener has been cut, Mowing the garden grass-plots near its bed, And lies, a fragrant tower of purple bloom, On the mown, dying grass; — so Sohrab lay, Lovely in death, upon the common sand. And Rustum gazed on him with grief.”
Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) said by 1888 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm not afraid of life and I'm not afraid of death: Dying's the bore.”
Katherine Anne Porter (1890–1980) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement at age 80 in The New York Times (3 April 1970)
“Tonight when I listen to our voices in this strange calm which is touched with the presence of death, even though the breeze is rustling so innocently at the door and the roof, I feel as if we were two gods on the clouds of heaven, with mankind dying between us.”
Halldór Laxness (1902–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm not scared of dying. I'm not scared of death. I'll keep a smile 'til my last breath. I've loved 'til I've lost. I've lived how I felt. One day I will find peace within myself.”
Ed Harcourt (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A kiss would kill me, woman, If beauty were not death... By what attraction Am I drawn, what morn forgotten by the prophets That pours on the dying distance its sad rites?”
Stéphane Mallarmé (1842–1898) said by 1898 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life is a play acted by dying men, Where, if its heroes seem to foot it well And go light-tongued without grimace of pain, Death will be found anon. And who shall tell Which part was saddest, or in youth or age, When the tired actor stops and leaves the stage?”
Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (1840–1922) first seen 1892 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Esther, A Young Man's Tragedy" (1892), Sonnet II
“To look straight into the eyes of my death/ My non-being/ To face myself as living and dying/ In the bare nakedness of my life and non-life.”
Kuruvilla Pandikattu (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Anyone who bar-codes their employees isn’t likely to be the forgiving type, and the reflex of long-held obedience through hierarchy is usually enough to overcome fear of a combat death. That’s how you fight wars, after all—with soldiers who are more afraid of stepping out of line than they are of dying on the battlefield.”
Richard Morgan (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“John C. Calhoun's last speech had a bitter attack on Mr. Jefferson for his amendment to the Ordinance of '87 prohibiting slavery in the Northwest Territory. Calhoun was in a dying condition – was too weak to read it. So James M. Mason, a Virginia Senator, read it in the Senate about two weeks before Calhoun's death, March 1850.”
John S. Mosby (1833–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In vain she strives with dying hands To wrench away the blade: Fixed in her ribs the weapon stands, Closed by the wound it made. Bloodless and faint, she gasps for breath; Her heavy eyes sink down in death; Her cheek's bright colors fade.”
John Conington (1825–1869) said by 1869 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I might be better able to help parents of dying children, but for quite a while I felt less able, too emotionally involved. And from that time on, I could rarely discuss the death of a child without tears welling up into my eyes.”
C. Everett Koop (1916–2013) first seen 1993 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Koop: The Memoirs of America's Family Doctor (1993), p. 126.
“[No-deal Brexit] won't return sovereignty, it will put us at the mercy of Trump and the big US corporations dying to get their teeth into our NHS, sound the death knell for our steel industry and strip back our food standards and animal welfare protections.”
Jeremy Corbyn (born 1949) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Brexit: Corbyn meets opposition MPs to discuss plan to stop no deal BBC News (27 August 2019).
“Everything was dying, yet death did not suffice. Life had hidden resources. In a thousand ways it was concentrating strength, hoarding its energies in seed, chrysalis, and nectar, preparing for the warrior sweep out of exile that would undo the defeat of winter. Spring was implicit.”
Michael Swanwick (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Parliament of Toulouse burned 400 witches at one time. Four hundred women at one hour on the public square, dying the horrid death of fire for a crime which never existed save in the imagination of those persecutors and which grew in their imagination from a false belief in woman’s extraordinary wickedness, based upon a false theory as to original sin.”
Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826–1898) said by 1898 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“im little jesica. im dying because of obamas help care bill. im on my death bed and the doctor is ignoring me because my dady works hard”
Dril (born 1987) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My aim was to save the Irish language from death - it was dying then as fast as ever it could died - and that ambition did not lend itself to English writing except for propaganda purposes ...”
Douglas Hyde (1860–1949) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Dominic Daly, The Young Douglas Hyde, 1974, p.xvii. The Dublin Magazine, vol. 13, 1938, p.29.
“But it’s one of my worries, I can’t get over it in my mind. I mean, I can’t even reconcile myself to the fact that death is real. Plus I’m an atheist, so I have no belief in the afterlife and no creed to help me out. I see the whole thing as unnatural, I know that sounds odd.” He snorts. “So yes, I’m definitely afraid of dying.”
Pedro Almodóvar (born 1949) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On his views on death in “Pedro Almodóvar: ‘I can no longer hide’” in The Guardian (2019 Aug 11)
“Death-Cast didn't call me, but if Rio doesn't stop fucking with a suicidal killer, he might find out that living pro-naturally means dying pro-naturally too.”
Adam Silvera (born 1990) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As long as there is death, there is hope. The only thing that keeps me alive is the hope of dying young.”
Brother Theodore (1906–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Regular people joined by a common link. Death, it affected all people, all occupations. Accountants, cooks, realtors, secretaries. A support group for all to grieve. Doctors, the unemployed, teenagers. Dying could happen to anyone.”
Jason Tanamor (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At death all our hope of salvation will come from the testimony of our conscience as to whether or not we are dying resigned to God’s will.”
Alphonsus Liguori (1696–1787) said by 1787 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am only alive because of a simple bowl of porridge from the United Nations that saved my life when I came close to dying from hunger as a child – so the Zero Hunger agenda is truly personal to me, hunger remains the leading cause of death in the world, and I am determined to play my part in ensuring that we reach every child and family in need -- especially on my own continent of Africa.”
Elizabeth Nyamayaro (born 1975) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Elizabeth Nyamayaro named Special Advisor for the United Nations World Food Programme", ReliefWeb (June 18, 2021)
“That he will haunt the footsteps of his enemy after death is the one revenge which a dying man can promise himself; and if men had power thus to avenge themselves the earth would be peopled with phantoms.”
Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835–1915) first seen 1867 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Eveline's Visitant", in Belgravia, vol. 1 (January 1867) p. 354
“The image that lives within us is linked to our conception of life and also to the difference we make between dying and death.”
Eugenio Borgna (1930–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the term dying, living also remains “alive”; in the word death, life disappears.”
Eugenio Borgna (1930–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I do not believe that we can stop perfecting new ways of dying until we have found new ways of living. Every new life-way ought to prevent a new death-way.”
Haniel Long (1888–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mask was an actual Yoruba thing, the mask of Oro, which no woman is supposed to see. So the story starts with a woman, her husband has a forbidden room and she goes in there and sees the mask and the mask kind of curses her, and she gets lost inside her mind, inside these repeating cycles of her witnessing the death of her children and her dying too; it just keeps building, building, building.”
Dare Segun Falowo wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not death, it is dying that alarms me.”
Michel de Montaigne (attributed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“First our pleasures die — and then Our hopes, and then our fears — and when These are dead, the debt is due, Dust claims dust — and we die too.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) first seen 1820 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Death (1820), st. 3
“I have had enough of the Pope, the Pope who really held on, he really held on, he wasn't going anywhere, he was just fucking hanging on, and the press could not wait for him to die. They were just waiting outside that whole Saturday when he died, but he wouldn't die, all day they were just fucking waiting, like: "He's not dead yet! But he might be when we come back from this commercial!”
Margaret Cho (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If I die, then I die. And if I don’t, then I don’t. Right now I feel good. I am aware that in some of my recent photos I look somewhat unhealthy, but that’s what illness can do. I’m not going to worry about that, I’ll rest when I’m dead.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from an interview for El Mundo (2014), regarding the announcement of Morrissey's cancer diagnosis
“We have such difficulty understanding this renunciation today because the relationship to marriage and children has clearly shifted. To have to die without children was once synonymous with a useless life: The echoes of my own life die away, and I am completely dead. If I have children, then I continue to live in them; it's a sort of immortality through posterity. ...”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Peter Seewald
“If we must die, O let us nobly die, So that our precious blood may not be shed In vain; then even the monsters we defy Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!”
Claude McKay (1889–1948) first seen 1919 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: If We Must Die, l. 5-8 (1919)
“Sometimes societies die and putrefy long before they are pronounced dead, and sometimes men die of corruption long before they have taken to their deathbeds.”
Pierre Stephen Robert Payne (1911–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Love is of source unknown, yet it grows ever deeper. The living may die of it, by its power the dead live again. Love is not love at its fullest if one who lives is unwilling to die for it, or if it cannot restore to life one who has so died. And must the love that comes in dream necessarily be unreal? For there is no lack of dream lovers in this world.”
Tang Xianzu (1550–1616) said by 1616 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In The Peony Pavilion, trans. Cyril Birch (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2002), p. ix
“Figure up the dead and wounded on Tonquin, Madagascar, Dahomey, adding thereto the thousands, yes, millions of unfortunates who die in the factories, the mines, and wherever the grinding power of capital is felt. Add also those who die of hunger, and all this with the assent of our Deputies. Beside all this, of how little weight are the reproaches now brought against me!”
Auguste Vaillant (1861–1894) said by 1894 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Strange is the night where black stars rise, And strange moons circle through the skies, But stranger still is Lost . ...Song of my soul, my voice is dead, Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed Shall dry and die in Lost Carcosa.”
Robert W. Chambers (1865–1933) first seen 1895 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Cassilda's Song", sts. 2, 4 in (1895), The Play, act 1, sc. 2
“Two children die. An accident and a suicide amongst so many murders. A chance death and a death of self-recrimination. Smut and the Skipping Girl have been aping their parents and elders -- perhaps they could now teach them a lesson -- all the machinations and game-playing and adjusting for sexual and emotional positioning is not worth the effort.”
Peter Greenaway (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source