I order that my funeral ceremonies be extremely modest, and that they take place at dawn or at the evening Ave Maria, without song or music.

If a parricide is more wicked than anyone who commits homicide—because he kills not merely a man but a near relative—without doubt worse still is he who kills himself, because there is none nearer to a man than himself. 

Under the wide and starry sky, / Dig the grave and let me lie.

If a man will observe as he walks the streets, I believe he will find the merriest countenances in mourning coaches.

Epitaph, n. An inscription on a tomb, showing that virtues acquired by death have a retroactive effect.

Every individual existence goes out in a lonely spasm of helpless agony.

There never is absolute birth nor complete death, in the strict sense, consisting in the separation of the soul from the body. What we call births are developments and growths, while what we call deaths are envelopments and diminutions.

The play is the tragedy “Man,” And its hero the conqueror worm.

I don’t believe in an afterlife, although I am bringing a change of underwear.

A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest.

It is not my design to drink or sleep; my design is to make what haste I can to be gone.

Life is a farce, and should not end with a mourning scene.

I looked and there was a pale green horse! Its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed with him.