It is noble to die before doing anything that deserves death.
—Anaxandrides, c. 376Quotes
The life of the dead consists in the recollection cherished of them by the living.
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, 43 BCWhen a man dies, and his kin are glad of it, they say, “He is better off.”
—Edgar Watson Howe, 1911I don’t believe in an afterlife, although I am bringing a change of underwear.
—Woody Allen, 1971In dealing with the dead, if we treat them as if they were entirely dead, that would show a want of affection and should not be done; or, if we treat them as if they were entirely alive, that would show a want of wisdom and should not be done.
—Confucius, c. 500 BCDrive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead.
—William Blake, c. 1790Anyone who’s never watched somebody die is suffering from a pretty bad case of virginity.
—John Osborne, 1956Death and vulgarity are the only two facts in the nineteenth century that one cannot explain away.
—Oscar Wilde, 1891Whoever has died is freed from sin.
—St. Paul, c. 50Death keeps no calendar.
—George Herbert, 1640Can we not live without pleasure, who cannot but with pleasure die?
—Tertullian, c. 215Is this dying? Is this all? Is this all that I feared when I prayed against a hard death? Oh, I can bear this! I can bear it!
—Cotton Mather, 1728Every individual existence goes out in a lonely spasm of helpless agony.
—William James, 1902