Can we not live without pleasure, who cannot but with pleasure die?

I was born without knowing why, I have lived without knowing why, and I am dying without either knowing why or how.

Whoever has died is freed from sin.

The 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.

Nobody, sir, dies willingly.

To desire immortality for the individual is really the same as wanting to perpetuate an error forever.

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

A god cannot procure death for himself, even if he wished it, which, so numerous are the evils of life, has been granted to man as our chief good.

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

What is death? A scary mask. Take it off—see, it doesn’t bite.

The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways—I to die, and you to live. Which is better, only the god knows.

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.

Man has here two and a half minutes—one to smile, one to sigh, and half a one to love; for in the midst of this minute he dies.