I was born without knowing why, I have lived without knowing why, and I am dying without either knowing why or how.
—Pierre Gassendi, 1655Quotes
Every individual existence goes out in a lonely spasm of helpless agony.
—William James, 1902To desire immortality for the individual is really the same as wanting to perpetuate an error forever.
—Arthur Schopenhauer, 1819Epitaph, n. An inscription on a tomb, showing that virtues acquired by death have a retroactive effect.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906It is noble to die before doing anything that deserves death.
—Anaxandrides, c. 376The only evidence, so far as I know, about another life is, first, that we have no evidence; and, secondly, that we are rather sorry that we have not, and wish we had.
—Robert G. Ingersoll, 1879I looked and there was a pale green horse! Its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed with him.
—Book of Revelations, c. 90I think it makes small difference to the dead if they are buried in the tokens of luxury. All this is an empty glorification left for those who live.
—Euripides, 415 BCI am about to take my last voyage, a great leap in the dark.
—Thomas Hobbes, 1679I do not amuse myself by thinking of dead people.
—Napoleon Bonaparte, 1807When a man dies, and his kin are glad of it, they say, “He is better off.”
—Edgar Watson Howe, 1911Nobody, sir, dies willingly.
—Antiphanes, c. 370 BCI imagined it was more difficult to die.
—Louis XIV, 1715