William Shakespeare quotes about death

"Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity."

"He was an man, take him for all in all. I shall not look upon his like again."

"I do not to set my life at a pin's fee; And, for my soul, what can it do to that, Being a thing immortal as itself?"

"Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, Unhousel'd, disappointed, unanel'd; No reckoning made, but sent to my account With all my imperfections on my head."

"To die:—to sleep: No more; and, by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished."

"For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause."

"Who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life; But that the dread of something after death, The undiscover'd country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of?"

"We should profane the service of the dead, To sing a requiem and such rest to her As to peace-parted souls."

"O proud death, What feast is toward in thine eternal cell, That thou so many princes at a shot So bloodily hast, struck?"

"When beggars die, there are no comets seen; The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes."

"Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once. Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, It seems to me most strange that men should fear; Seeing that death, a necessary end, Will come when it will come."

"That we shall die we know; 'tis but the time And drawing days out, that men stand upon."

"He that cuts off twenty years of life Cuts off so many years of fearing death."

"We must die, Messala: With meditating that she must die once, I have the patience to endure it now."

"Be absolute for death; either death or life Shall thereby be the sweeter."

"What's yet in this, That bears the name of life? Yet in this life Lie hid more thousand deaths: yet death we fear, That makes these odds all even."

"Dar'st thou die? The sense of death is most in apprehension; And the poor beetle that we tread upon, In corporal sufferance feels a pang as great As when a giant dies."

"If I must die I will encounter darkness as a bride, And hug it in mine arms."

"Ay, but to die, and go we know not where; To lie in cold obstruction and to rot."

"To be imprison'd in the viewless winds, And blown with restless violence roundabout The pendent world; or to be worse than worst Of those, that lawless and incertain thought Imagine howling; 'tis too horrible!"

"The weariest and most loathed worldly life That age, ache, penury and imprisonment Can lay on nature, is a paradise To what we fear of death."

"Woe, destruction, ruin, and decay; The worst is death, and death will have his day."

"Let's choose executors and talk of wills: And yet not so, for what can we bequeath, Save our desposed bodies to the ground?"

"Nothing can we call our own but death And that small model of the barren earth Which serves as paste and cover to our bones."

"Within the hollow crown That rounds the mortal temples of a king, Keeps Death his court; and there the antic sits, Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp."

"And there at Venice gave His body to that pleasant country's earth, And his pure soul unto his captain Christ, Under whose colours he had fought so long."

"Go thou, and fill another room in hell. That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire, That staggers thus my person. Exton, thy fierce hand Hath with thy king's blood stain'd the king's own land. Mount, mount, my soul! thy seat is up on high; Whilst my gross flesh sinks downward, here to die."

"Death lies on her, like an untimely frost Upon the sweetest flower of all the field."

"How oft, when men are at the point of death, Have they been merry! which their keepers call A lightning before death."

"Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath, Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty; Thou art not conquer'd; beauty's ensign yet Is crimson in thy lips, and in thy cheeks, And death's pale flag is not advanced there."

"Eyes, look your last! Arms, take your last embrace! and lips, O you The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss A dateless bargain to engrossing death."

"Golden lads and girls all must, As chimney-sweepers, come to dust."

"Come, let us take a muster speedily: Doomsday is near; die all, die merrily."

"And we shall feed like oxen at a stall, The better cherish'd, still the nearer death."

"A man can die but once; we owe God a death."

"What, is the old king dead? As nail in door."

"A' made a finer end and went away an it had been any christom child; a' parted even just between twelve and one, e'en at the turning o' th' tide: for after I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with flowers, and smile upon his fingers' ends, I knew there was but one way; for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and a' babbled of green fields. "How now, Sir John?" quoth I: "what, man! be o' good cheer." So a' cried out—"God, God, God!" three or four times. Now I, to comfort him, bid him a' should not think of God; I hoped there was no need to trouble himself with any such thoughts yet."

"Ah, what a sign it is of evil life, Where death's approach is seen so terrible!"

"He dies, and makes no sign."

"My sick heart shows That I must yield my body to the earth, And, by my fall, the conquest to my foe. Thus yields the cedar to the axe's edge, Whose arms gave shelter to the princely eagle; Under whose shade the ramping lion slept: Whose top-branch overpeer'd Jove's spreading tree, And kept low shrubs from winter's powerful wind."

"Why, what is pomp, rule, reign, but earth and dust? And, live we how we can, yet die we must."

"He gave his honours to the world again, His blessed part to heaven, and slept in peace."

"Death, death; oh, amiable, lovely death! Come, grin on me, and I will think thou smilest."

"We cannot hold mortality's strong hand."

"Have I not hideous death within my view, Retaining but a quantity of life Which bleeds away, even as a form of wax Resolveth from its figure 'gainst the fire?"

"O, our lives' sweetness! That we the pain of death would hourly die Rather than die at once!"

"Nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it."

"After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well; Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison, Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing, Can touch him further."

"I am a tainted wether of the flock, Meetest for death; the weakest kind of fruit Drops earliest to the ground, and so let me."

"Here is my journey's end, here is my butt, And very sea-mark of my utmost sail."