quotations about death
Some men are like oak leaves -- they don't know when they're dead, but still hang right on; and there are others who let go before anything has really touched them.
GEORGE HORACE LORIMER
Old Gorgon Graham
Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still.
WILLIAM PENN
Some Fruits of Solitude
Death doesn't bargain.
AUGUST STRINDBERG
The Dance of Death
What is death but a traversing of eternities and a crossing of cosmic oceans?
ROBERT E. HOWARD
Kull: Exile of Atlantis
It is not wonderful that the contemplation and fear of death become more familiar to us as we approach nearer to it: that life seems to ebb with the decay of blood and youthful spirits; and that as we find everything about us subject to chance and change, as our strength and beauty die, as our hopes and passions, our friends and our affections leave us, we begin by degrees to feel ourselves mortal!
WILLIAM HAZLITT
Table Talk: Essays on Men and Manners
Death is the sleeping partner of life.
ELIZA COOK
Diamond Dust
Strange secrets are let out by Death
Who blabs so oft the follies of this world.
ROBERT BROWNING
Paracelsus
Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.
FRANCIS BACON
Essays
Who knows, maybe death is the darkroom where you get to see it all like it was supposed to come out. Bright and crisp and clean.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE
Radiance
No, I'll repine at death no more,
But with a cheerful gasp resign
To the cold dungeon of the ground
These dying, withering limbs of mine.
Let worms devour my wasting flesh,
And crumble all my bones to dust:--
My God shall raise my frame anew,
At the revival of the just.
ISAAC WATTS
"A Happy Resurrection"
Death is a distant rumor to the young.
ANDY ROONEY
"A Few Words from Andy Rooney: A Face of America Commentary"
It's not easy to live every moment wholly aware of death. It's like trying to stare the sun in the face: you can stand only so much of it. Because we cannot live frozen in fear, we generate methods to soften death's terror. We project ourselves into the future through our children; we grow rich, famous, ever larger; we develop compulsive protective rituals; or we embrace an impregnable belief in an ultimate rescuer.
IRVIN D. YALOM
Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death
There's no greater chaos than when swift, violent death knocks on the door of an unsuspecting crowd.
DAVID BALDACCI
Split Second
Death will get you sober.
ELIZABETH ZELVIN
Death Will Get You Sober
We might remember ... not to fear death; it is the only way to be cleansed.
ROBINSON JEFFERS
"Original Sin"
If I am killed, I can die but once; but to live in constant dread of it, is to die over and over again.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
attributed, American Statesmen: Abraham Lincoln
Nothing is born which Death makes not subject of his state.
BHARTRHARI
"Of Time the Destroyer"
Dying--shucks! If you kin handle the living, what's to be afraid of the dying?
ROBERT PENN WARREN
A Place To Come To
They, then, who are destined to die, need not be careful to inquire what death they are to die, but into what place death will usher them.
ST. AUGUSTINE
The City of God
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.
JOHN DONNE
Annunciation