Famous quotes
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Death
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“Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so, For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow, Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One short sleep past, we wake eternally, And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first ... I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”
Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Stephen Hawking: 'There is no heaven; it's a fairy story'" by Ian Sample, in The Guardian (15 May 2011)
“Stay with me to-night; you must see me die. I have long had the taste of death on my tongue, I smell death, and who will stand by my Constanze, if you do not stay?”
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) first seen 1791 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Spoken on his deathbed to his sister-in-law, Sophie Weber (5 December 1791), from Mozart: The Man and the Artist, as Revealed in his own Words by Friedrich Kerst, trans. Henry Edward Krehbiel (1906)
“Actors! The mechanics of cheap melodrama! That isn’t death! (More quietly.) You scream and choke and sink to your knees but it doesn’t bring death home to anyone—it doesn’t catch them unawares and start the whisper in their skulls that says—“One day you are going to die.”
Tom Stoppard (1937–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Tolga guided him not to the morgue, but to a patient chamber alloted mostly to a dozen crippled old indigent men, some brought in to be healed, some to die. For a beggar, Pen was not entirely sure it was a better death than in an alley or under a bridge; death was never a comfortable process, despite cots and sheets and usually overworked attendants, and it took longer here.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I’ve always thought thinking about how to live was more important than thinking about after we die. One likes to assume death will take care of itself. It’s just a bit disconcerting to see so many other people putting so much energy into taking care of it for you. Life has always been such a surprise, death, I expect—even if it’s nothing—will be one too.”
Samuel R. Delany (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is a very fine line between life and death. I realize I am walking this line. Living in New York City and also flying on airplanes so much, I face the possibility of death every day. And when I die there is nobody to take my place… That is true of a lot of people (or everyone) because everyone is an individual and everyone is important in that they cannot be replaced.”
Keith Haring (1958–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Keith Haring Journals (1996)
“I do not know why it distressed me so much to see an animal die when human death did not move me. Perhaps because they were more beautiful, and there is no corruption in them, while in the best of men there can always be found some guilt or wickedness which seems to have earned him death.”
Tanith Lee (1947–2015) said by 2015 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I thank you sir for your generous sympathy, but I die the death I always prayed for, the death of a soldier fighting for the rights of man.”
Johann de Kalb (1721–1780) first seen 1780 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To a British military officer (August 1780), as quoted in Washington and the Generals of the American Revolution (1856), by Rufus Wilmot Griswold, William Gilmore Simms, and Edward Duncan Ingraham. J.B. Lippincott, p. 2…
“Every time people come at us with the intention of killing us, I close my eyes and wait for death. Even thought I am still alive, I feel like each time I accept death, part of me dies. Very soon I will completely die and all that will be left is my empty body walking with you. It will be quieter than I am.”
Ishmael Beah (born 1980) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once. Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, It seems to me most strange that men should fear; Seeing that death, a necessary end, Will come when it will come.”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) said by 1616 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Old men's prayers for death are lying prayers, in which they abuse old age and long extent of life. But when death draws near, not one is willing to die, and age no longer is a burden to them.”
Euripides (481–407 BC) said by 407 BC at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“A man destined to fry Can never ever ever die... In any other way but frying. Lucky that I'm dying By hanging and not drowning.”
Regina Spektor (born 1980) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Easing the passing of a dying person isn't all that wicked. She wanted to die. That can't be murder. It is impossible to accuse a doctor.”
John Bodkin Adams (1899–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Greece expects you not merely to die for her, for that is little, indeed; she expects you to conquer. That is why each one of you, even in dying, should be possessed by one thought alone – how to conserve your strength to the last so that those who survive may conquer. And you will conquer, I am more than sure of this.”
Eleftherios Venizelos (1864–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm tired of the moral high ground. We've already got more than our share of Gandhis in "the movement". We need a General Patton. No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor bastard die for HIS country.”
Joey Comeau (born 1980) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I plan on not dying, but if I have to, I want to die in Liverpool.”
Ian McCulloch (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is absolutely no point in being healed in our bodies, then dying in our sins and spending an eternity in hell. It would be better to die of cancer and go to heaven because of that cancer, than to live in perfect health and end up in hell.”
Ray Comfort (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We must bear our crosses; self is the greatest of them all. If we die in part every day of our lives, we shall have but little to do on the last. O how utterly will these little daily deaths destroy the power of the final dying!”
François Fénelon (1651–1715) said by 1715 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Dying visions of angels and Christ and God and heaven are confined to credibly good men. Why do not bad men have such visions? They die of all sorts of diseases; they have nervous temperaments; they even have creeds and hopes about the future which they cling to with very great tenacity; why do not they rejoice in some such glorious illusions when they go out of the world?”
Enoch Fitch Burr (1818–1907) said by 1907 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is the same thing: killing, dying, it is the same thing: one is just as alone in each. He is lucky, he will only die once. As for me, for ten days I have been killing him at every minute.”
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Max Planck says, "The opposition never yields; they just die off." It's just a question of time. They are dying off.”
Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Democracy is not dying. We know it because we have seen it revive — and grow. We know it cannot die — because it is built on the unhampered initiative of individual men and women joined together in a common enterprise — an enterprise undertaken and carried through by the free expression of a free majority.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What if you're right? Husbands die everyday, Delores, why, one is probably dying right now while you're sitting here weeping.”
Stephen King (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So as through a glass, and darkly The age long strife I see Where I fought in many guises, Many names, but always me. And I see not in my blindness What the objects were I wrought, But as God rules o'er our bickerings It was through His will I fought. So forever in the future, Shall I battle as of yore, Dying to be born a fighter, But to die again, once more.”
George S. Patton (1885–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He then gave a hideous laugh and added that, if anybody was interested in his plans, he was going to join the Foreign Legion, that cohort of the damned in which broken men may toil and die and dying, forget. ‘Beau Widgeon?’ said the Egg, impressed. ‘What ho!’”
P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are some men, who as they approach 70, read the Bible and prepare to die. Others prepare themselves to live to 90. It has been my observation that if a man prepares to live to 90, but dies at 70, no harm is done. If however, a man prepares to live to 70 but ends up dying at 90, then his last 20 years will be hell.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Like everyone else you want to learn the way to win. But never to accept the way to lose. To accept defeat — to learn to die — is to be liberated from it. Once you accept, you are free to flow and to harmonize. Fluidity is the way to an empty mind. You must free your ambitious mind and learn the art of dying.”
Bruce Lee (1940–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey (2000)
“In the Smokies, over 90 percent of Fraser firs—a noble tree, unique to the southern Appalachian highlands—are sick or dying, from a combination of acid rain and the depredations of a moth called the balsam woolly adelgid. Ask a park official what they are doing about it and he will say, “We are monitoring the situation closely.” For this, read: “We are watching them die.”
Bill Bryson (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Better to die because of you, rather than dying still!" (from Domani si adesso no, 1985)”
Vasco Rossi (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My troubles are many They're deep as a well I swear there ain't no Heaven And I pray there ain't no hell But I'll never know by living only my dying will tell. And when I die and when I'm gone There'll be, one child born And a world to carry on, to carry on.”
Laura Nyro (1947–1997) said by 1997 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Some of you are probably thinking that you may panic and run. You will not! Others are worried about dying. Some of you will. But all men die. No one ever gets out of this life alive.”
David Gemmell (1948–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Unborn eternity does not die; existence is dying and falls asleep in the eternity beyond existence.”
Dejan Stojanovic (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Beater has still been young enough to feel immortal, at least on his better days. It was all, Wow, if we don’t slow down, we’re gonna die before we get old, except somehow it hadn’t happened that way. So they’d all assumed it never would, not dying, not getting old—hell, not even growing up.”
Pat Cadigan (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I indicate to the Leader of the Opposition that the government is not dying of shame—my father did not die of shame. What the Leader of the Opposition should be ashamed of is his performance in this parliament and the sexism he brings with it.”
Julia Gillard (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don't know why I ever succumbed to any of it... [but] I liked the rush of going under. It's such a high—it's like dying. I die, but then I come out prettier.”
Courtney Love (born 1964) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On what attracted her to undergo plastic surgery, The Inner Circle (27 October 2011)
“Tribune: 8-8-47. Mahatma Gandhi advised Congressmen who met him at the residence of Mrs. Rameshwari Nehru at Lahore on 6-8-47 that they should die with dying Lahore.”
Gurbachan Singh Talib (1911–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You think you can be as heroic as he was, simply by dying. But he doesn’t take courage to die. That’s easy. It takes courage to live.”
Lisa Goldstein (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is past, and it really comes from a very dark moment of my life. Dying is...When people say there is no alternative, there is always an alternative - to die, for example. It's a choice. You always have this choice.”
Marjane Satrapi (1969–2026) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the choices that people make in “Confessions of Miss Mischief” in The Guardian (2008 Mar 28)
“Even the trees were dying, from roots upwards,' he said. 'Does everything die like this?' 'No,' she said. 'You may see no rivers on the ground but we keep the rivers inside us. That is why all good things and all good people are called rain. Sometimes we see the rain clouds gather even though not a cloud appears in the sky. It is all in our heart.'”
Bessie Head (1937–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I wanted to write beyond the photograph, you know, that frozen image, beyond the date, beyond the fact of her dying. If anything in my book she doesn't die, she departs.”
Yvonne Vera (1964–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is a risk of dying when you stand up and fight but if you don’t, it’s a sure thing: you are going to die. So why don’t I try to stand up and fight with the chance that I might survive and live life as I want it.”
Jeannette Kagame (born 1962) first seen 1994 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: President Kagame and First Lady Jeannette Kagame lead Rwandans in 31st Commemoration of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi #Kwibuka31 | Kigali, 7 April 2025. paulkagame.rw (September 19, 2026)
“What a nasty act of cruelty, giving a dying man his last wish. Don't you realize he doesn't want it? His real wish is not to die.”
Steve Toltz (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are moving forward and will go until the end. All of us are ready to die. All 25,000, and then another 25,000. We are dying for the Russian people.”
Yevgeny Prigozhin (1961–2023) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Said when launching a convoy against Moscow and taking control over Rostov on Don and Voronezh, quoted in "What did Vladimir Putin say? Russian leader calls Wagner Group move a ‘betrayal’ in new speech", London World, 2…
“Women who shouldn’t die because of childbirth are dying simply because they have not had the care that they desire”
Amina Abubakar Bello (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is very difficult to die for a friend, but dying for enemies is even more difficult. Christ, however, died for us when we were still his enemies. God always remains close to us; it is the constancy of love to the extreme limit, indeed without limits. This is the reason for our joy. (homily of 14 September 1993)”
Pino Puglisi (1937–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am to die! yet I remember, dying, My soul's delight — my sweet unequalled, love, Like a fresh champak's golden blossom lying, Her smile its opening leaves; and, bright above, Over her sleepful brow those lustrous tresses, Dark-winding down, tangled with love's caresses.”
Bilhana (born 1000) first seen 1896 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chauraspanchasika, st. 1 (tr. Edwin Arnold, 1896)
“The difficulty is not so great to die for a friend as to find a friend worth dying for.”
Henry Home, Lord Kames (1696–1782) said by 1782 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source