Death keeps no calendar.
—George Herbert, 1640Quotes
In 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 BCEvery individual existence goes out in a lonely spasm of helpless agony.
—William James, 1902The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways—I to die, and you to live. Which is better, only the god knows.
—Socrates, 399 BCWhoever has died is freed from sin.
—St. Paul, c. 50The 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, 1879Is 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, 1728I doubt that we have any right to pity the dead for their own sakes.
—Lord Byron, 1817What is death? A scary mask. Take it off—see, it doesn’t bite.
—Epictetus, c. 110We and the dead ride quick at night.
—Gottfried August Bürger, 1773I 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.
—Giuseppe Verdi, 1900I do not amuse myself by thinking of dead people.
—Napoleon Bonaparte, 1807It is not my design to drink or sleep; my design is to make what haste I can to be gone.
—Oliver Cromwell, 1658