Death

"Whoever sheds man's blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in his own image."

"And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. And if he smite him with throwing a stone, wherewith he may die, and he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. Or if he smite him with an hand weapon of wood, wherewith he may die, and he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. The revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer: when he meeteth him, he shall slay him. But if he thrust him of hatred, or hurl at him by laying of wait, that he die; Or in enmity smite him with his hand, that he die: he that smote him shall surely be put to death; for he is a murderer: the revenger of blood shall slay the murderer, when he meeteth him."

"So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it."

"War can be and is mass murder, where the motive is wrong. It can be sacrifice and right action, where the motive is right. The slaying of a man in the act of killing the defenseless is not regarded as murder. The principle remains the same, whether it is killing an individual who is murdering, or fighting a nation which is warring on the defenseless."

"Thou shalt not kill."

"HOMICIDE, n. The slaying of one human being by another. There are four kinds of homocide: felonious, excusable, justifiable, and praiseworthy, but it makes no great difference to the person slain whether he fell by one kind or another -- the classification is for advantage of the lawyers."

"Of crimes injurious to the persons of private subjects, the most principal and important is the offense of taking away that life, which is the immediate gift of the great creator; and which therefore no man can be entitled to deprive himself or another of, but in some manner either expressly commanded in, or evidently deducible from, those laws which the creator has given us; the divine laws, I mean, of either nature or revelation."

"A subtler analogue occurs in treatments of murder and abortion in twentieth-century fiction. Both are the objects of real and urgent moral, emotional, and legal concerns among American citizens. Yet murder is depicted vastly more often than abortion: it is the single most common plot device in whole genres of imaginative literature-novels, movies, and television. Abortion occurs much less often as a plot device even in novels, and almost never in movies or on television. Is this because murder is a familiar part of most Americans’ lives and abortion is not? Or because Americans are more likely to be affected by a murder than by an abortion? Or because murder is less horrible and disapproved than abortion? On the contrary: there are enormously more abortions in the United States than murders, and vastly more members of the reading public are affected by abortion than by homicide (unless, of course, one categorized abortions as “murders,” but it is still not the act on which the bulk of mystery or action plots turn). Moreover, although substantial elements of the population are categorically opposed to it, many Americans do not regard abortion as immoral. Precisely because murder, although a real social problem is horrible enough and sufficiently removed form everyday life to provide the excitement of the extreme and perverse, it makes a useful subject for fiction, whereas abortion raises problems which are too familiar, too troubling, too ambivalent, and not sufficiently exotic to afford the same satisfaction in reading."

"In the United States in 1978, according to government figures, there were 1.4 million “legal” abortions- a figure doubtless much lower than the number of abortions of all kinds- as compared to 19,600 murders for the same year, including “nonnegligent homicides” (U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, “Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1980: National Data Book and Guide to Sources” [Washington, 1980], pp. 69 and 182)."

"Murder begins where self-defense ends."

""'Having abandoned the destruction of life, the recluse Gotama abstains from the destruction of life. He has laid aside the rod and the sword, and dwells conscientious, full of kindness, compassionate for the welfare of all living beings.' It is in this way, bhikkhus, that the worldling would speak when speaking in praise of the Tathāgata."

".....murder is not just a crime of lust or violence. It becomes possession. They are part of you … [the victim] becomes a part of you, and you [two] are forever one … and the grounds where you kill them or leave them become sacred to you, and you will always be drawn back to them."

"The murder of a human being is gravely contrary to the dignity of the person and the holiness of the Creator."

"The prohibition of murder does not abrogate the right to render an unjust aggressor unable to inflict harm. Legitimate defense is a grave duty for whoever is responsible for the lives of others or the common good."

"Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains for ever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can under any circumstance claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being… The deliberate murder of an innocent person is gravely contrary to the dignity of the human being, to the golden rule, and to the holiness of the Creator. The law forbidding it is universally valid: it obliges each and everyone, always and everywhere... The fifth commandment forbids direct and intentional killing as gravely sinful. The murderer and those who cooperate voluntarily in murder commit a sin that cries out to heaven for vengeance."

"Scripture notes a twofold equity on which this commandment is founded. Man is both the image of God and our flesh. Wherefore, if we would not violate the image of God, we must hold the person of man sacred—if we would not divest ourselves of humanity we must cherish our own flesh. The practical inference to be drawn from the redemption and gift of Christ will be elsewhere considered. The Lord has been pleased to direct our attention to these two natural considerations as inducements to watch over our neighbour's preservation, viz., to revere the divine image impressed upon him, and embrace our own flesh. To be clear of the crime of murder, it is not enough to refrain from shedding man's blood. If in act you perpetrate, if in endeavour you plot, if in wish and design you conceive what is adverse to another's safety, you have the guilt of murder. On the other hand, if you do not according to your means and opportunity study to defend his safety, by that inhumanity you violate the law. But if the safety of the body is so carefully provided for, we may hence infer how much care and exertion is due to the safety of the soul, which is of immeasurably higher value in the sight of God."

"Mordre wol out, that see we day by day."

"Oh dear, I never realized what a terrible lot of explaining one has to do in a murder!"

"Every murderer is probably somebody's old friend."

"It must be true that whenever a sensational murder is committed there are people who — though they are, quite properly, of no interest to law enforcers, attorneys, or newspaper reporters — weep, lie sleepless, and realize at last that their lives have been changed by a crime in which they played no part."

"To kill someone for committing murder is a punishment incomparably worse than the crime itself. Murder by legal sentence is immeasurably more terrible than murder by brigands."

"Keep far from a false charge, and don't kill the innocent and righteous: for I will not justify the wicked."

"True believing Christians are sheep among wolves. ... They employ neither worldly sword nor war, since with them killing is absolutely renounced."

"In vain do they think themselves innocent who appropriate to their own use alone those goods which God gave in common; by not giving to others that which they themselves receive, they become homicides and murderers, inasmuch as in keeping for themselves those things which would alleviate the sufferings of the poor, we may say that every day they cause the death of as many persons as they might have fed and did not. When, therefore, we offer the means of living to the indigent, we do not give them anything of ours, but that which of right belongs to them. It is less a work of mercy which we perform than the payment of a debt."

"The human race isn't worth fighting for, only worth killing. Give the Earth back to the animals. They deserve it infinitely more than we do. Nothing means anything anymore."

"You're not a homicidal, I checked that on your record before I came out after you. That is why I know you will join the Corps and get a great deal of pleasure out of going after the other kind of criminal who is sick, not just socially protesting. The man who can kill and enjoy it."

"One of television's great contributions is that it brought murder back into the home, where it belongs."

"By focusing on the entitlements of collectivities (notably nation states) as opposed to the well-being of individuals, the just war theory frames a rationale for war which omits the central moral issue...whether the massive, systematic and deliberate killing of human beings can ever be justified."

"Humans are basically good. That's why it takes so much training to march march march kill kill kill kill."

"Gentlemen of the Jury, the charge against the prisoner is murder, and the punishment of murder Is death; and that simple statement is sufficient to suggest to us the awful solemnity of the occasion which brings you and me face to face."

"If the masterpiece was murder, I'd major in art."

"No one joins the murder squad who hasn't a taste for death."

"To die is the lot of all, to commit homicide only of the weak man."

"I am not afraid to kill you for there is no death."

"For instance, if you have by a lie hindered a man who is even now planning a murder, you are legally responsible for all the consequences. But if you have strictly adhered to the truth, public justice can find no fault with you, be the unforeseen consequence what it may. It is possible that whilst you have honestly answered Yes to the murderer's question, whether his intended victim is in the house, the latter may have gone out unobserved, and so not have come in the way of the murderer, and the deed therefore have not been done; whereas, if you lied and said he was not in the house, and he had really gone out (though unknown to you) so that the murderer met him as he went, and executed his purpose on him, then you might with justice be accused as the cause of his death. For, if you had spoken the truth as well as you knew it, perhaps the murderer while seeking for his enemy in the house might have been caught by neighbours coming up and the deed been prevented."

"People try to excuse their brutality by saying that it is the custom; but a crime does not cease to be a crime because many commit it. Karma takes no account of custom; and the karma of cruelty is the most terrible of all. The fate of the cruel must fall also upon all who go out intentionally to kill God's creatures, and call it "sport"."

"Through violence you may murder a liar but you can't establish truth. Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can't murder hate. Darkness cannot put out darkness. Only light can do that."

"Some people will kill for second-rate reasons and that makes their act even more monstrous. The fact that a man will kill for a little money or kill for unnecessary reasons as the thrill of it might be looked down upon by a professional killer. He wouldn't kill for a few dollars or for the thrill of it. The professional murderer would kill for good money and good reasons and he would consider himself a craftsman."

"Around his neck a ribbon clung, Close to his heart a picture hung : I saw the face — it was not mine ; I saw, too, a small dagger shine, A curious toy — you know the rest."

"Abel the victim—Cain the homicide, Were type and prophecy Of times that were to be, Thus reddened from the first life’s troubled tide."

"Murder, like talent, seems occasionally to run in families."

"The power to kill is less than the power to create, for it produces an ending rather than the beginning of something new."

"You must not murder.(Exodus 20:13) Q. What does this mean? A. We should fear and love God so that we may not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and befriend him in every bodily need [in every need and danger of life and body]."

"We have now completed both the spiritual and the temporal government, that is, the divine and the paternal authority and obedience. But here now we go forth from our house among our neighbors to learn how we should live with one another, every one himself toward his neighbor. Therefore God and government are not included in this commandment nor is the power to kill, which they have taken away. For God has delegated His authority to punish evil-doers to the government instead of parents, who aforetime (as we read in Moses) were required to bring their own children to judgment and sentence them to death. Therefore, what is here forbidden is forbidden to the individual in his relation to any one else, and not to the government."

"Problems or successes, they all are the results of our own actions. Karma. The philosophy of action is that no one else is the giver of peace or happiness. One's own karma, one's own actions are responsible to come to bring either happiness or success or whatever... As you sow, so shall you reap. It's a very old proverb of mankind. As you sow, so shall you reap. Sometime you may have killed that man, and then sometime now he comes to kill you... What we have done, the result of that comes to us whenever it comes, either today, tomorrow, hundred years later, hundred lives later, whatever, whatever. And so, it's our own karma. That is why that philosophy in every religion: Killing is sin. Killing is sin in every religion. Whosoever sins, whoever is killed, it doesn't matter. It's a sin. And sin.. is a punishable offense. Because when you sin, when you've killed some man, what you are killing? You are killing the cosmic potential within the individual. Individual is cosmic. Individual potential of life is cosmic potential. Individual is divine deep inside. Transcendental experience awakens that divinity in man...When you kill a man like that you deprive him from getting to his human right."

"Had Thomas Nash been an impressed American, the homicide on board the Hermoine, would, most certainly, not have been murder. The act of impressing an American is an act of lawless violence. The confinement on board a vessel is a continuation of that violence, and in additional outrage. Death committed within the United States, in resisting such violence, would not have been murder."

"I killed their innocence. I killed their ambitions. And I killed their sense of security. I not only physically killed people, I mentally killed people too. I don't know how to describe the sorrow I feel when I think of the victims."

"The amount of pain it [murder] causes to everyone who ever cared about you, and innocent people, outweighs anything you are going through right now."

"Why should murder be so over-represented in our popular fiction, and crimes of a sexual nature so under-represented? Surely it cannot be because rape is worse than murder, and is thus deserving of a special unmentionable status. Surely, the last people to suggest that rape was worse than murder were the sensitively reared classes of the Victorian era … And yet, while it is perfectly acceptable (not to say almost mandatory) to depict violent and lethal incidents in lurid and gloating high-definition detail, this is somehow regarded as healthy and perfectly normal, and it is the considered depiction of sexual crimes that will inevitably attract uproars of the current variety."

"The murder of one person is called unrighteous and incurs one death penalty. Following this argument, the murder of ten persons will be ten times as unrighteous and there should be ten death penalties; the murder of a hundred persons will be a hundred times as unrighteous and there should be a hundred death penalties. All the gentlemen of the world know that they should condemn these things, calling them unrighteous. But when it comes to the great unrighteousness of attacking states, they do not know that they should condemn it. On the contrary, they applaud it, calling it righteous."

"To test the idea, the scholars examined the correlation between state abortion rates from 1973-1976 and state crime rates from 1985-1997, ostensibly when the children, had they not been aborted, have reached the prime crime-committing age group of 18-24. After factoring out such influences as income, racial composition, unemployment and incarcerations, Donohue and Levitt found a statistically significant correlation between high abortion rates and lower crime rates. For example, Donohue noted, the 10 states with the lowest incidence of abortions saw their murder rate rise 16.9 percent between 1985-1997, while the 10 with the highest incidence of abortions saw their murder rate drop 31.5 percent."

"Hell of a thing killing a man... you take away all he has and all he's gonna have."

"One murder made a villain, Millions a hero. Princes were privileged To kill, and numbers sanctified the crime."

"As a social phenomenon, serial murder is only about a hundred and twenty-five years old, part of as swelling tide of interpersonal violence that has been since the middle of the nineteenth century."

"The first killer I ever studied had put bandages over the wounds of the people he stabbed after they were dead, Other killers have done the same thing."

"When bodies are assaulted or parts excised, the killer is signifying his wish to remove any vestiges of humanity from the victim."

"I believe too thoroughly that we create our own reality, for one thing -- an unpopular belief where violence is concerned -- but I'm convinced that the victim-to-be picks out the assailant with as much skill and craft as the murderer seeks his victim, and until we learn much more about both, we'll get nowhere battling crime. I'm not justifying murder by any means, but I'm saying that the victim wants to be murdered -- perhaps to be punished, if not by a vengeful god then by one of his fellows, and that a would-be murderer can switch in a minute and become the victim instead; and that the slayer wants to be slain."

"It is forbidden to murder, as it says "You shall not murder" (Exodus 20:13, Deuteronomy 5:17). A murderer must be put to death, as it says "He shall be avenged" (Exodus 21:20, see Leviticus 24:17,21); it is forbidden to accept compensation from him instead, as it says "You shall not take redemption for the life of a murderer...; and there shall be no atonement for the blood that was spilled... except the blood of him that spilled it" (Numbers 35:31-33). It is forbidden to execute a murderer before he has stood trial, as it says "And the murderer shall not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment" (Numbers 35:12). However, we are commanded to prevent an attempted murder by killing the would-be murderer if necessary, and it is forbidden to refrain from doing so, as it says "And you shall cut off her hand; you shall not be merciful" (Deuteronomy 25:12); and similarly for attempted fornication, as it says "[If the man seizes her and lies with her...] just as a man rises up against his friend and murders him, so is this thing"(Deuteronomy 22:26). It is forbidden to refrain from saving life when it is in one's power to do so, as it says "You shall not stand on your friend's blood"(Leviticus 19:16)."

"Kill one man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god.""

"I say a murder is abstract. You pull the trigger and after that you do not understand anything that happens."

"If survival calls for the bearing of arms, bear them you must. But the most important part of the challenge is for you to find another means that does not come with the killing of your fellow man."

"Murder most foul, as in the best it is, But this most foul, strange, and unnatural."

"For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak With most miraculous organ."

"He took my father grossly, full of bread; With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May; And how his audit stands who knows save heaven?"

"No place, indeed, should murder sanctuarize."

"O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, That I am meek and gentle with these butchers! Thou art the ruins of the noblest man That ever lived in the tide of times. Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood Over thy wounds now do I prophesy."

"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incardine, Making the green one red."

"Blood hath been shed ere now i' the olden time, Ere humane statute purg'd the gentle weal; Ay, and since too, murders have been perform'd Too terrible for the ear: the time has been, That, when the brains were out, the man would die, And there an end; but now they rise again, With twenty mortal murders on their crowns, And push us from our stools: this is more strange Than such a murder is."

"The great King of kings Hath in the table of his law commanded That thou shalt do no murder: and wilt thou, then, Spurn at his edict and fulfill a man's?"

"Killing ain't fair, but somebody's got to do it."

"Bread is life to the poor; he who takes it from them is a murderer."

"Hiko Seijuro: Murder is the only art a swordsman may practice. No ornamental words can change that. You want to protect people with murder? You’ll slaughter legions so that a few may live. Many years, long before you were born, my sword was tearing asunder the lives of men. Yes, all of those men were evil, but they were human beings first and foremost, Kenshin. The world you ardently desire to enter will not know what to do with you. It will deceive you into believing that you are saving lives even as you destroy them. You will accept these lies all the while, your hands will be stained with the worst of offenses."

"We are concerned here only with the imposition of capital punishment for the crime of murder, and when a life has been taken deliberately by the offender, we cannot say that the punishment is invariably disproportionate to the crime. It is an extreme sanction suitable to the most extreme of crimes."

"This is my costume. I'm a homicidal maniac. They look just like everyone else."

"Do you not weep? Other sins only speak; murder shrieks out. The element of water moistens the earth, But blood flies upwards and bedews the heavens."

"I respect a person who's willing to die for his country, but I admire a person who is prepared to kill for his country."

"I've never murdered anyone in my life. The decisions are up to them."

"One to destroy is murder by the law, And gibbets keep the lifted hand in awe; To murder thousands takes a specious name, War's glorious art, and gives immortal fame."

"A man lusts to become a god...and there is murder. Murder upon murder upon murder. Why is the world of men nothing but murder?"

"Kay: There's something even thieves should never steal. Do you know what that is? Edgeworth: You really shouldn't steal anything, however, I'll bite. What shouldn't a thief steal? Kay: A life. It's too heavy of a burden on your soul to get away with, ever."

"Carcasses bleed at the sight of the murderer."

"Et tu, Brute fili."

"Blood, though it sleep a time, yet never dies. Trie gods on murtherers fix revengeful eyes."

"Murder may pass unpunish'd for a time, But tardy justice will o'ertake the crime."

"Neque enim lex est sequior ulla, Quam necis artifices arte perire sua."

"Cast not the clouded gem away, Quench not the dim but living ray,— My brother man, Beware! With that deep voice which from the skies Forbade the Patriarch's sacrifice. God's angel, cries, Forbear!"

"Killing no murder."

"I don't have the passion anymore, and so remember, it's better to burn out than to fade away. Peace, Love, Empathy. Kurt Cobain."

"To my friends: My work is done. Why wait?"

"Dear Eddie, This quite rational. Please give my love to my mother, but there was nothing left to do. Things just went wrong too many times."

"All fled – all done, so lift me on the pyre; The feast is over, and the lamps expire."

"I am going to put myself to sleep now for a bit longer than usual. Call it Eternity."

"Excuse all the blood, but I have slit my wrists and neck. It was the intention that I would die in the woods so that it would take a few days before I was possibly found. I belong in the woods and have always done so. No one will understand the reason for this anyway. To give some semblance of an explanation I'm not a human, this is just a dream and soon I will awake. It was too cold and the blood kept clotting, plus my new knife is too dull. If I don't succeed dying to the knife I will blow all the shit out of my skull. Yet I do not know. I left all my lyrics by "Let the good times roll"—plus the rest of the money. Whoever finds it gets the fucking thing. As a last salutation may I present "Life Eternal". Do whatever you want with the fucking thing."

"I must end it. There's no hope left. I'll be at peace. No one had anything to do with this. My decision totally."

"Dear World, I am leaving you because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool - good luck."

"I am afraid, I am a coward. I am sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of pain. P.E."

"When I am dead, and over me bright April Shakes out her rain drenched hair, Tho you should lean above me broken hearted, I shall not care. For I shall have peace. As leafey trees are peaceful When rain bends down the bough. And I shall be more silent and cold hearted Than you are now."

"The future is just old age and illness and pain … I must have peace and this is the only way."

"The act of taking my own life is not something I am doing without a lot of thought. I don't believe that people should take their own lives without deep and thoughtful reflection over a considerable period of time. I do believe strongly, however, that the right to do so is one of the most fundamental rights that anyone in a free society should have. For me much of the world makes no sense, but my feelings about what I am doing ring loud and clear to an inner ear and a place where there is no self, only calm. Love always, Wendy. (suicide note)"

"I feel certain that I'm going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices."

"[front side] To Harald, May God forgive you and forgive me, too but I prefer to take my life away and our baby’s before I bring him with shame or killin him. Lupe [backside] How could you, Harald, fake such a great love for me and our baby when all the time you didn’t want us? I see no other way out for me so goodbye and good luck to you. Love Lupe"

"I don't quite understand what it is that compels me to type this letter. Perhaps it is to leave some vague reason for the actions I have recently performed. I don't really understand myself these days. I am supposed to be an average reasonable and intelligent young man. However, lately (I cannot recall when it started) I have been a victim of many unusual and irrational thoughts. These thoughts constantly recur, and it requires a tremendous mental effort to concentrate on useful and progressive tasks. ..."

"I made mistakes from ignorance, inexperience and overwork I did not knowingly violate any law or standard of conduct No one in The White House, to my knowledge, violated any law or standard of conduct, including any action in the travel office. There was no intent to benefit any individual or specific group The FBI lied in their report to the AG The press is covering up the illegal benefits they received from the travel staff The GOP has lied and misrepresented its knowledge and role and covered up a prior investigation The Ushers Office plotted to have excessive costs incurred, taking advantage of Kaki and HRC The public will never believe the innocence of the Clintons and their loyal staff The WSJ editors lie without consequence I was not meant for the job or the spotlight of public life in Washington. Here ruining people is considered sport."

"In my case, I am driven by, at the very least, a vague sense of unease: some indistinct sense of unease towards my future. It is possible that you will not be able to take me at my word. Ten years of experience have taught me that for those who are not my close and constant acquaintances, my words dissipate like a song in the wind. So I would not blame you... [The note continues for a few pages.]"

"Until yesterday I had no definite intention of killing myself. But more than a few must have noticed that lately I have been tired both physically and mentally. As to the cause of my suicide, I don't quite understand it myself, but it is not the result of a particular incident, nor of a specific matter. Merely may I say, I am in the frame of mind that I lost confidence in my future. There may be someone to whom my suicide will be troubling or a blow to a certain degree. I sincerely hope that this incident will cast no dark shadow over the future of that person. At any rate, I cannot deny that this is a kind of betrayal, but please excuse it as my last act in my own way, as I have been doing my own way all my life. [The note continues for 3 pages.]"

"[excerpt] Like the Italian Croce is saying, I think that it is a fact that liberty, an essential part of human nature, absolutely cannot be destroyed. Even though it appears as if it is suppressed, deep down it is always fighting, and in the end it surely will win. Although authoritarian and totalitarian countries may prosper temporarily, it is certainly a plain fact that they will be defeated in the end. I think that we can see that truth in the Axis countries of the present world war. How about Fascist Italy? Nazi Germany also already has been defeated, and now authoritarian countries are collapsing one after another like buildings whose stone foundations are destroyed. ... The ambition to make my beloved homeland Japan a great empire like the former British Empire became futile in the end. I think that if persons who truly love Japan had been allowed to stand up, Japan would not have been driven to a situation like now."

"I believe often that death is good medical treatment because it can achieve what all the medical advances and technology cannot achieve today, and that is stop the suffering of the patient."

"What does one do with such an old machine? It is thrown on the scrap heap. What does one do with a lame horse, with such an unproductive cow? No, I do not want to continue the comparison to the end--however fearful the justification for it and the symbolic force of it are. We are not dealing with machines, horses and cows whose only function is to serve mankind, to produce goods for man. One may smash them, one may slaughter them as soon as they no longer fulfil this function. No, we are dealing with human beings, our fellow human beings, our brothers and sisters. With poor people, sick people, if you like unproductive people. But have they for that reason forfeited the right to life?"

"If you establish and apply the principle that you can kill 'unproductive' fellow human beings then woe betide us all when we become old and frail! If one is allowed to kill the unproductive people then woe betide the invalids who have used up, sacrificed and lost their health and strength in the productive process. If one is allowed forcibly to remove one's unproductive fellow human beings then woe betide loyal soldiers who return to the homeland seriously disabled, as cripples, as invalids. If it is once accepted that people have the right to kill 'unproductive' fellow humans--and even if initially it only affects the poor defenseless mentally ill--then as a matter of principle murder is permitted for all unproductive people, in other words for the incurably sick, the people who have become invalids through labor and war, for us all when we become old, frail and therefore unproductive."

"All our knowledge merely helps us to die a more painful death than the animals that know nothing. A day will come when science will turn upon its error and no longer hesitate to shorten our woes. A day will come when it will dare and act with certainty; when life, grown wiser, will depart silently at its hour, knowing that it has reached its term."

"There are documented cases of patients suffering from depression, the despair of poverty or homelessness, or the lack of access to health services who are offered Medical Assistance in Dying and euthanized. Disabled patients trying to access disability services are being offered Medical Assistance in Dying instead of assistance in gaining necessary services."

"The advocacy group’s euphemistic name, Dying with Dignity, cloaks the fact that its proponents are suggesting killing you, and they are encouraging you to take this course of action by vigorous government-lead advocacy for the process."

"We put down mad dogs; we kill the wild, untamed ox; we use the knife on sick sheep to stop their infecting the flock; we destroy abnormal offspring at birth; children, too, if they are born weak or deformed, we drown. Yet this is not the work of anger, but of reason – to separate the sound from the worthless."

"It would replace love with law, zapping the private and familial goodwill that has normally attended such end-of-life matters and replacing them with the death sanction of the state. This would be bad for the individual who wants to die, bureaucratizing his final moments of life, and it would be bad for those who want to live, too, since it would add up to the state saying: ‘Some lives are worth less than others and thus may legitimately be extinguished.’"

"The use of fetuses as organ and tissue donors is a ticking time bomb of bioethics."

"It is important to acknowledge again how bioethics discussions within and among religious communities reveal features that generally distinguish them from self-consciously secular approaches to bioethics. While it is to be expected that different interpretations of text, tradition, method, and authority often lead to different conclusions among religious traditions in their respective judgments on particular topics, it seems equally clear that religious understandings, although nuanced differently among various faith communities, often reveal broadly shared characteristics that stand in stark contrast to the moral minimalism at work in many secular approaches. Such similarities should not be that surprising. For the convictions at work in religious this often eventuate in a discernible consensus among traditions that nonetheless remain distinct in their understandings of ecclesiology, method, and authority. Theological arguments characteristically function in a richer, more robust fashion than the lowest-common denominator, procedurally driven arguments at work in secular perspectives. While that robustness of vision poses challenges to the development of a common morality workable at the level of policy, it also invites a broader conversation about, if not a prophetic challenge to, the assumptions that undergird much of the conventional wisdom in bioethics discussion."

"[Bioethics] is "a phony branch of elite philosophy whose principle purpose seems to be to justify allowing badly ill or disabled people to die.""

"The aim of bioethics is to identify ethical problems raised by critical decision making in healthcare, and by genetic engineering and biotechnology research into microorganisms. Most of the key bioethical issues, especially the ones related to human life sprung from a debate between principles of morality, the development of science, and its potential contribution to ‘better living standards’, all framed within different cultural backgrounds. Bioethical research will thus take place interactively with other related disciplinary ethics. In the bioethical debate it is important not only to take on board the general perception of norms, but also to question until what extent bioethics will reshape those norm."

"Christian bioethics is a puzzle. The very name suggests an ethics other than one for humans generally. Can there be an ethics just for certain humans? Has a special ethics been given to Christians as the Torah was given to Israel? Can there be an ethics for all people, but which only some people can know or know fully?"

"An exploration of Christian bioethics at the beginning of the 21st century might with relief be regarded as anachronistic, as a matter of the past. This side of the Renaissance and the French Revolution, the once-Christian West is increasingly post-Christian. Though in some countries a particular Christianity is still established – in Germany, two – their role and force for public policy are progressively marginalized in the framing of law and public policy. There is no society that is unabashedly Christian, as Spain under Franco or Portugal under Salazar had been Christian."

"In many ways it is anachronistic to use this term prior to the 1970s, for the phenomenon of bioethics was in many ways associated with the deprofessionalization of medical ethics and its reconceptualization as a secular, philosophically oriented discipline independent of the health care profession."

"Secular bioethics emerged out of the Enlightenment hope to disclose a secular ethic that could transcend the multiplicity of Christianities and their moralities. This Enlightenment hope has persisted despite the bloodshed of the French and October Revolutions, leading among other things to the emergence of the medical humanities and the contemporary high expectations from a secular bioethics."

"The Roman Catholic medical-ethical handbooks and compendia of moral theology that emerged at the end of the 19th century and enjoyed a flourishing in the 1950s have a continuity with Roman Catholic moral theological reflections, reaching to the beginning of the 16th century and to the flowering of Western scientific interest in medicine and its foundational sciences. From the 16th century onward, moral theological interest in medicine was driven by the remarkable medical progress after the Renaissance. Even Descartes (1596-1650) thought he could extend life, given the promise of medical knowledge. Medicine claimed importance before it could convey much benefit. Though therapeutic benefits came later, there were striking advances in knowledge. From Vesalius to Harvey to Morgagni through Bichat and Virchow and the explosion of medical science in the 19th century. New construals of research and science altered the very meaning of medical knowledge. In contrast, in the wake of the Council of Trent (1545-1563) there developed a continuity in Roman Catholic moral theological reflections that extended unbroken into the early 1960s. Roman Catholic moral thought had a previous substantial change in its character when it passed from the pre-Scholastic to the Scholastic period. The pre-Scholastic era, which was pastoral in its character, was much loser in its theological spirit to that o the Church of the first millennium. The Scholastic period, which began in the 12th century and extended to the Council of Trent, was marked by a concern with discursive rational reflection and systematization. The modern period, which began with Trent, in great measure carried forward the Scholastic tradition, but now more fully developed. It was in this period that reflections on medicine became the focus of whole works and began to constitute a sub-discipline of moral theology. This post-Tridentine, medical-ethical, moral theological literature was insightful. It constituted much more than merely wooden applications of past reflections. This significant body of Roman Catholic medical ethical reflection and scholarship was characterized by its constituting a single coherent community of research."

"A common sense of doing Christian medical ethics or bioethics was available for Roman Catholics until the mid-1960s. As John Berkman observes, “The conceptual continuity in moral theology is clearly visible from the manuals themselves, which in 1950 maintained the same basic structure and categories of the manuals which begin in 1605.” There was a confidence in the ability of moral theological reflection to answer the questions posed by new technological and scientific developments."

"At the end of the 19th century, there was a significant increase in Roman Catholic moral theological investigations concerning matters medical. The moral theological handbook tradition turned to the needs of physicians, priests, and nurses. During this same period, new medical techniques were being developed and new understandings of etiology, pathogenesis, and therapy were gaining salience. A good proportion of contemporary surgical procedures trace their roots to this period, which enjoyed the combination of anesthesia with Lister’s asepsis. During this period the germ theory became well established and the first steps were taken in the development of antisera as medical treatments. The emergence of contemporary medicine motivated theological reflections. This was a period within which various aspirations to progress, secularization and modernization brought into question traditional Christian commitments. After the Second World War, there was continued acceleration in the tempo of scientific and technological progress. The response was a further development of the religious medical-ethical literature, to which not only Roman Catholics, but also Protestants and Jews began to make numerous contributions. Initially, the Roman Catholic response was both vigorous and in continuity with its manualist tradition. The Christian bioethics that took shape in the 1970s developed a character quite different from the Roman Catholic medical-ethical tradition of the past. It did not so much produce manuals or guides for the perplexed physician, nurse, or believer, as it did reports of theological perplexity. The guides were themselves often disoriented: the moral theologians on whom bioethicists might draw were frequently unsure as to the character of appropriate moral guidance. Roman Catholic bioethical scholarship took on the character of a moral science in confusion: moral theology was in search of its foundations. As Roman Catholicism passed through the aftermath of Vatican II, it became impossible to carry forward the tradition of medical-ethical reflection that had taken shape at the beginning of the 17th century. This rupture in the tradition of Roman Catholic bioethical reflections was associated with the religious changes that occurred in Roman Catholicism following Vatican II. Pope John XXIII (1958-1963) began a revolution as he sought to bring “ecclesiastical discipline into closer accord with the needs and conditions of our times.”"

"Christian bioethics as a family of bioethics had a brief and significant flowering. For some two decades it commanded a centrality in the public debate regarding the new medicine. It then receded from public policy discussions. This is not to deny that a rich and often thoughtful literature continued to grow, nurtured by authors from evangelical as well as other perspectives. Christian bioethics simply no longer commands the public notice it once enjoyed. During its flourishing, Protestant bioethicists such as Paul Ramsey and Stanley Haurwas claimed a prominent place for Christian bioethics. Their reflections garnered enough broad attention. Initially, the novelty of the debates was itself engaging, even as an old paradigm of Christian bio ethic collapsed, and many scholars energetically struggled to erect diverse new ones. During the 1960s and early 1970s the various Christian bioethics flourished at the vanguard of bioethical scholarship, so that in this period one could not have given an adequate account of medical ethics of bioethics without taking into account of the work of Christian thinkers such as Ramsey and Hauerwas. Yet, just as secular bioethics assumed an important role for public policy Christian bioethics receded in cultural significance and force. Christian bioethics served as an intermediate step in the emergence of secular bioethics. In part, this was due to Christian bioethics attempting to speak to the world in secular rather than in Christian terms. By discounting its particularity, Christian bioethics marginalized the importance of what it could offer. As Stanley Hauerwas had argued, this has been one of the major forces in the recent decline of Christian bioethics."

"Other factors were also influential in making a secular bioethics appear more attractive than a Christian bioethics. The secularization of the culture made the consideration of a Christian bioethics as a source of moral guidance unappealing. Reliance on traditional authority figures came to be regarded as pejoratively paternalistic, if not as an expression of a false consciousness. Traditional Christian morality interpreted by an authoritative hierarchy was at loggerheads with the view that society should be open, liberal, and pluralist. The very notion of a religious tradition as a source of moral judgment collided with an emerging sense of autonomy and individual rights. Indeed, traditional Christianity is not only hierarchical but robustly patriarchal. It takes seriously the declaration of St. Paul that “the head of the woman is the man” (1 Cor 11:3) and that “man was not created on account of woman, but woman on account of the man” (I Cor 11:9). Although accepting men and women as equally called to salvation, traditional Christianity recognized them in a hierarchy of honor and authority. Against the backdrop of the rights movements of the 1960s and their rejection of traditional claims of social authority, traditional Christian understandings were not only unacceptable and embarrassing, but to be positively rejected. Traditional Christian commitments came to be regarded as exploitative, thus driving a deep cultural wedge between traditional and post-Christianities."

"In an age that endorses diversity, while considering real disparities of belief as threatening, Christian bioethics, or at least traditional Christian bioethics, presented differences that matter, and that are therefore threatening. The Western history of religious wars and inquisitorial coercion encumbered Christian bioethics with a past that made its contemporary undertaking suspect. In a world bloodied by its response to difference, Christian bioethics offered to divide Christian from non-Christian, and Christian from Christian, seeming to endanger the fabric of a peaceable society. The particular content of Christian bioethics was a possible enemy off tolerance an a friend of conflict. Having engendered the religious wars of the past, Christianity of the mid 20th century was engendering the culture wars of the future. From the perspective of post-traditional Christians, and indeed in terms of many of the rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s, traditional Christianity was reactionary at best. It resisted progressive liberalism’s commitment to freeing persons and social structures from the constraining hands of the past. It saw in abortion and the emerging contraceptive ethos not avenues of liberation but roads to damnation. Rather than celebrating this ethos of choice as a liberation from the tyrant of biological forces, which has subjected women to men, traditional Christianity recognized in the secular revolutions affirmation of extramarital sex, the contraceptive ethos, and abortion, as only a further enslavement to the passions and chaos they bring. Disagreements about these matters within Christianity itself heightened the moral confusion of the time. Christian bioethics, rather than providing a means to resolve bioethical controversies and to achieve a general consensus concerning health care policy, fueled further controversy."

"T o summarize, when Christian bioethics turned to the challenges of providing moral guidance for the new high-technology medicine, it found itself unequal to the task. The difficulties were multiple and deeply rooted in contemporary Christianity. Christianity was divided into a diversity of Christianites; it could not give unambiguous guidance. Given the plurality of visions, one could disingenuously select within rather broad constraints the religious perspective to approve behavior one wanted to embrace (e.g., if one wanted to find religious approval of artificial insemination by a donor, one needed only to select the appropriate Christian theologian). The mainline Christian religions were themselves in disarray about what it mean to be Christian: from within many Christian religions unambiguous guidance was often unavailable because centuries-old approaches to resolving moral controversies had been abandoned or rejected. Just as Christian bioethics had the opportunity to provide guidance for contemporary health care policy, Christianity seemed unclear as to what ethics it should offer. In consequence,, the relevance of Christianity to the modern would could not be doubted. As if this were not bad enough, the surrounding couture had grounds to regard Christianity as a threat to a democratic and open polity for several reasons. First, traditional Christianity sought answers to moral problems within a hierarchical structure, rather than from individual reasoning and choice unfettered by constraints of the past. Second, Christianity hierarchical structure was patriarchal. Third, Christianity, by the particularity of its moral commitments, accented differences rather than encouraging the emergence of a moral consensus to which all could subscribe fourth, Christianity, insofar as it offered an ethics that contrasted with a secular ethics, could not provide guidance for public institutions or policy in the secular pluralist societies that had emerged in the West after the Second World War. The Christianness of Christian bioethics was itself problematic."

"In the wake of the Enlightenment, it seemed necessary to articulate a medical ethics not reliant on traditional Christian morality or its various expressions in informal codes of gentlemanly behavior. At the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century medical ethical treatises of a secular nature became salient. Much of this occurred as codes of medical ethics of etiquette were crafted for the medical professions. There was the perceived need formally and secularly to determine the nature of proper medical behavior. As one entered the 20th century, there was a heightened recognition that old traditions could not guide and that a new medical morality was needed For example, a British secular medical ethics text published in 1902 acknowledges that “it is not sufficient to say, as some people do, that medical ethics may be summed up in the Golden Rule, or that a man has only to behave like a gentleman. The author recognizes that the guiding mores were changing so that “what was regarded as customary and even proper some years ago, has often come to be universally condemned.” It I as if the author protested to much in denying that “our conception of Christianity and chivalry had undergone a complete revolution within the same period.” Cultural, religious, scientific, technological, and economic developments were recasting th landscape of medical practice. Philosophy promised for health care in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980 what it had offered European societies in the 17th and 18th centuries: a rationally defensible ethics that can bid humans as such and justify in secular terms a content-rich account of human rights, duties, proper character, virtue, sentiments of care, etc. The medical humanities in the 1960s and 1970s recaptured the aspirations of the first, second, and third humanisms. The first humanism in the late 15th and 16th centuries claimed a basis for human dignity over against the emerging Christian religious divisions of the time. At the same time it reaffirmed classical Greek an Roman pagan ideals of paideia, philanthropia, and humanitas. The second humanism at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries continues Enlightenment themes in promising a cultivation proper to human as such. The third humanism and so-called New Humanism, which surfaced at the end of the 19th an beginning of the 20th centuries, anticipated the medical humanities movements of the 1960s and 1970s. the humanities were invoked to place the new sciences and technologies within the context of immanent human values and to provide a moral unity for an increasingly secular culture. The medical humanities in the 1960s and later bioethics were engaged with similar expectations: to disclose the values and goals proper to humans, so as to bind all in a coherent and well-directed technological culture. There was an additional claim: medicine and the humanities were recognized as mutually supporting. Medicine as a project of human caring was itself construed as one of the humanities. Its fully self-conscious appreciation was sought in the humanities. On the other, hand, the traditional humanities found a concrete bond to the human condition through their contact with medicine. The humanities could strengthen the tie between medicine and human values. Medicine, for its part, could reconnect the humanities with the human condition, saving them from being isolated scholarly pursuits. The vision of medicine and the humanities found it epiphany in Edmund Pelligrinos perceptive and provocative rallying cry:” Medicine is the most humane of sciences, the most empiric of arts, and the most scientific of humanities.” The humanities, rejuvenated from contact with medicine, were not just an academic undertaking or a cultural achievement. According to Pellegrino, they were also to constitute a personal moral calling. The humanist must also be “authentic.” The medical setting requires that the humanist incorporate the values he or she professes an the character traits that are embodiments of the liberal arts teachings, to be human if not humane…truly, the humanist must be “holier than thou.”"

"The challenge of providing a secular foundation for bioethics can be seen as defined historically against three fundamental Western experiences of fracture and rupture: (1) the Reformation with its consequent fragmentation of Western Christendom into a plurality of Christianities and Christendoms, (2) the Enlightenment with its formation of a secular, intellectual culture, which aspired to transcend this diversity, and (3) post-modernity with its recognition that are returned to this diversity, given the Enlightenment's failure to justify a single, canonical, content-full morality by discursive reason alone. These experiences frame the moral geography for current debates regarding bioethics. They establish taken-for-granted expectations regarding moral diversity, the role of secular morality in spanning religious moral difference, and the contemporary experience of post-modernity. They account as well for a kind of nostalgia felt for the moral unity of the Western Middle Ages expressed in various hopes to see humans bound in a universal moral community governed by a global bioethics enforced legally across the world and in a persistent faith that discursive moral rationality can establish a universal ethic, despite its many failures."

"There is a continuity between the discursive, rational commitments of the Scholasticism that emerged in the 13th century and the Enlightenment project of providing rational account of proper moral probity. Although the Enlightenment attempted to give an account of morality undirected by revelation and ecclesiastical authority, thus involving a substantive break with previous moral assumptions, the Enlightenment as well as Scholasticism share a substantive commitment to reason’s abilities to provide outside of right worship and right belief a universal account of morality. Bioethics as it took shape in the 1970s reflected a late-Enlightenment attempt to provide a secular surrogate for the religious moral authorities that had once guided the West (Engelhardt, 2002). Secular and Western Christian bioethics have drawn on philosophical assumptions regarding the capacities of discursive reflection. They both have a penchant for attempting to identify moral truths with the deliverances of systematic moral reflections. In contrast, Orthodox Christianity lives in an understanding of morality uncompromised by Scholasticism, the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment."

"Because Orthodox morality is primarily therapeutic, it is not juridical. The goal is not to do justice but to bring God’s mercy to the repentant. Although any falling short of the mark of saintly perfection is sinful, the response to sin is not punitive (e.g., penance is not punishment but treatment). Bioethics should be healing, aimed at restoring through repentance and purification the individual’s focus on God."

"Orthodox bioethics is not natural-law oriented. Unlike Western Christianity, which came to look for traces of God in nature, Orthodox Christianity approaches nature as an icon, as a window through which to see God, with the result that Orthodox Christianity is innocent of the natural-law theory of the West (Foltz, 2001)."

"Orthodox Christians hold that Christian bioethics is non-developmental in the sense of affirming the same moral commitments and insights that directed the Church of the first thousand years: it understands that all that has been essential for the appropriate moral life has been available since the time of the Apostles. This difference from Western secular and religious moral philosophical understandings is in part grounded in the Orthodox Christian recognition that truth is not merely a what (i.e., a set of discursive propositions referring to an objective truth) but a radically transcendent Who (i.e., the Trinity), with Whom since Pentecost right-worshipping Christians have had the possibility of a full relationship."

"In approaching new technological developments, the present is set within the now of the past. In addressing issues such as cloning, the use of embryonic stem cells, and germ-line genetic engineering, Orthodox Christians will not seek new moral insights. There will not be a search for new medical-ethical or bio-ethical principles, but the recall of a permanent possibility for epistemic insight grounded in the consequences of the Incarnation. The goal will be to provide an expression of an abiding truth in part guided by the writings of the Fathers but always crucially sustained by the presence of the Holy Spirit, so as to express in a new context the enduring moral consciousness of the Church."

"The obligation to become involved in sin (i.e., to engage in an activity that by itself falls short of the mark) to pursue salvation requires confronting moral issues within a value framework that at times does not produce black-and-white choices (through idolatry, sexual impurity, and murder of the innocent are always forbidden). Given this moral framework, the bioethics of Orthodox Christian physicians, nurses, families, and patients is often at odds with the reigning expectations of the surrounding secular society, as well as the moral views embraced by many Christians. This disparity of moral vision is expressed in competing understandings of proper professional conduct. For instance, Orthodox Christian physicians should not consider themselves obliged to be religiously and morally neutral in their care of their patients. Although they should avoid coercion of any sort (Caon CXIX of Carthage, A,D, 419), the ideal is to bring all who can be influenced into a life of right worship and right belief. For example, the Orthodox Church celebrates holy physicians such as St. Panteleimon (304) who took advantage off their professional role to convert their patients. Rather than regarding the patients’ vulnerability as a ground for not attempting to exert influence, Orthodox Christianity regards confrontations with pain, suffering, and death as opportunities to open the way to repentance and conversion. Traditional Orthodox Christianity does not affirm the abandonment by physicians of their Christian duties in favor of the norms of a secular medical ethics."

"The history of Roman Catholic bioethics is completely intermingled with that of Catholic morality more generally. Although that morality continues to be expounded and developed by moralists working in the Roman Catholic tradition, its overall history is largely unwritten. There is, of course, a large body of established scholarly work on the great figures of Roman Catholic moral theory, especially on St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine there are also studies on the history of Catholic moral teaching on particular moral issues, including abortion (Connery 1977), the distinction between ordinary and extraordinary treatments (Cronin, 1989), and contraception (Noonan, 1965). Finally, there are systematic treatments of Catholic bioethics (Ashley & O’Rourke, 19889). But there is no comprehensive study of the history of Catholic moral theology, much less the history of Catholic bioethics. In particular, little has been done to trace the development of Catholic moral thought in the period most essential for the development of distinctive Roman Catholic positions in bioethics – that is, the period from the sixteenth century Spanish scholastics to the dominance of the moral manuals in the half century before Vatican Council II."

"There is an institutional explanation for the development of bioethics within Roman Catholic moral thought. Catholics, especially those in religious orders, have been institutionally involved in health care throughout its technological and institutional development. This is especially true of catholic involvement in hospitals over the last 150 years, the period in which health care developed into its present institutional form (Kaufmann, 1999). The moral questions raised in the institutional context of catholic health care, especially those involving difficult cases related to sexual morality, pregnancy, and end of life issues, provoked a pedagogical literature directed at nurses, physicians, and others. That literature is clearly continuous with, and an ancestor of, modern secular bioethics. Moreover, the institutional focus continues, for example, in the American bishops’ ‘’Ethical Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services (National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1994 and 2001)"

"The vocabulary and leading ideas of Catholic bioethics have developed out of the moral work of the great scholastic theologians, most notably from the moral analyses of St. Thomas Aquinas. This tradition of moral thought is often called “natural law theory” or the “natural law tradition” after a dominant component of Aquinas’s time, with notable highlights in the work of the 16th century Spanish scholastics, the 17th century causists, the 18th century synthesis of St. Alphonsus Ligouri, and the revival of Thomistic study in the ate 19th and 20th centuries. The working method throughout this period has been a form of casuistry: new and difficult cases were compared and contrasted with clearer, paradigm cases to illuminate their morally important properties so as to allow their correct moral classification is compatible with the absolutism that characterizes catholic moral analysis: the morally important properties of actions, once revealed by casuistry shows a certain form of intervention in pregnancy involves an intention to end or, more precisely, to shorten the life of the fetus, then the intervention is excluded by the exceptionless prohibition against intentionally killing the innocent."

"As we have seen, Roman Catholic bioethics is a conceptually and institutionally mature set of inquiries. It has deep historical roots within catholic theology, doctrine, and canon law, and consequently a developed set of positions and methods of moral analysis. Although traditional authorities are accorded some respect by all engaged as Roman Catholics in bioethics, there are very significant disagreements among Catholic bioethicists. These disagreement reach so deeply into the fabric of moral life an thought that they suggest radical fissures within the Catholic community. These divisions of moral conviction would not be troubling if they were simply about new and difficult cases or about casuistical details; but, as the preceding summaries and citations indicate, they go to the heart of key norms themselves. The resolution of the most central of these disagreements is surely essential if the traditions of Catholic moralizing are to be effectively brought to bear on the bioethical perplexities facing the Roman Catholic community and others who may look to its riches for guidance."

"I find no evidence that the Greco-Roman pagan tradition ever regarded the sufferings of small children as so problematic that moral-philosophical treatises were devoted to this question. On the contrary, writers such as Cicero and Seneca criticize parents and especially fathers for grieving over the deaths of their small children. As I noted in the previous chapter, our sources do not give an unambiguous answer to the question whether parents did, in fact, grieve over their dead babies, but the fact that representatives of the intellectual elite express the view that small children are nor worth their parent’s grief tells us clearly what kinds of reaction were regarded as conventional. This means that the church fathers apparently had a different attitude to the worth of babies than that found in the pagan moral-philosophical tradition. Although our sources are not explicit on this point, it is reasonable to believe that this positive assessment of the worth of babies is connected with the idea that all human beings, even small children, are created in the image of God. Whereas pagans thought that a newborn baby was not a human person in the full sense, patristic thinking implies that the newborn possesses the fullness of human dignity. I quote Cyprian’s words once more: “For what is lacking to him who has once been formed in the womb by the hands of God?” (Ep. 64:.2). This means that the newborn has a soul and can receive the gifts of divine salvation, and that the church is the instrument that it to mediate these gifts even to the smallest children. The idea that babies are created in God’s image, and hence are the recipients of divine salvation, thus leads to a focus on babies and an interest in them that unknown in pagan antiquity."

"However, somewhat contraditory [sic] I would think, it the fact that Catholic priests do not, ordinarily, give a fetus the usual extreme unction or burial services afforded a still-birth. It seems to me that this kind of differentiation, in practice, is in variation with their beliefs. If they do consider the fetus to be alive, why do they deny it the extreme unction given the child born dead? I have never heard this question answered."

"That they may not become too complacent or delighted in married life, he makes them distressed by the shortcomings of their partners, or humbles them through willful offspring, or afflicts them with the want or loss of children. But, if in all these matters he is more merciful to them, he shows them by diseases and dangers how unstable and passing all mortal blessings are, that they may not be puffed up with vain glory."

"While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you!" Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. And he said: "Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.” In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong."

"The Lord, by Moses, to Pharaoh said: Oh! let my people go If not, I'll smite your first-born dead—Oh! let my people go Oh! go down, Moses Away down to Egypt's land And tell King Pharaoh To let my people go."

"Rorshach: Existence is random. Has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long. No meaning save what we choose to impose. This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It’s us. Only us. Streets stank of fire. The void breathed hard on my heart, turning its illusions to ice, shattering them. Was reborn then, free to scrawl own design on this morally blank world."

"If someone who knew the future, pointed out a child to you and told you that that child would grow up totally evil, to be a ruthless dictator who would destroy millions of lives... could you then kill that child?"

"Rust Cohle: I think about my daughter now, and what she was spared. Sometimes I feel grateful. The doctor said she didn’t feel a thing; went straight into a coma. Then, somewhere in that blackness, she slipped off into another deeper kind. Isn’t that a beautiful way to go out, painlessly as a happy child? Trouble with dying later is you’ve already grown up. The damage is done, it’s too late."

"Rust Cohle: The newspapers are gonna be tough on you. And prison is very, very hard on people who hurt kids. If you get the opportunity, you should kill yourself."

"Unicef, the United Nations' children's agency, said this week that fewer than 10m children died before their fifth birthday in 2006—probably the lowest rate ever, and certainly the smallest number since records began in 1960, when twice as many under-fives died, out of a world population half today's level."

"Turanga Leela: Alright, this is for their own good. Don't leave orphans. Gotta kill entire families. [She looks down the gunsight.] But they're so cute. No! You can do this. It's just like murdering a little butler. I-I can't look."

"The Bible never directly addresses the matter of a resurrection for babies who were stillborn or lost through a miscarriage. Nonetheless, God’s Word does contain principles that bear on the question and that may offer a measure of comfort. Let us consider two related questions. First, from Jehovah’s viewpoint, when does the life of a human begin—at conception or at birth? Second, how does Jehovah view the unborn—as unique individuals or as mere collections of cells and tissue in a woman’s womb? Bible principles give clear answers to both questions. The Mosaic Law clearly revealed that life begins, not at birth, but much earlier. How so? It showed that killing a fetus could incur the death penalty. Note this law: “You must give soul for soul.”* (Ex. 21:22, 23) Thus, the unborn child in the womb is alive and is a living soul. Understanding that timeless truth has helped millions of Christians to repudiate the practice of abortion, seeing it as a serious sin against God. Granted, the unborn child is alive, but what value does Jehovah place on that life? The law cited above demanded that an adult be put to death for causing the death of an unborn child. Clearly, then, the life of an unborn child has great value in God’s eyes. Further, numerous passages in the Scriptures reveal that Jehovah sees the unborn as distinct individuals. For example, King David was inspired to say of Jehovah: “You kept me screened off in the belly of my mother. . . . Your eyes saw even the embryo of me, and in your book all its parts were down in writing, as regards the days when they were formed.”—Ps. 139:13-16; Job 31:14, 15. Jehovah also sees that the unborn have distinct traits and may have great potential for the future. While Isaac’s wife Rebekah was pregnant with twins, Jehovah uttered a prophecy about the two boys struggling in her womb, suggesting that he already saw traits in them that would have far-reaching effects.—Gen. 25:22, 23; Rom. 9:10-13. The case of John the Baptist is an interesting one as well. The Gospel account says: “As Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the infant in her womb leaped; and Elizabeth was filled with holy spirit.” (Luke 1:41) In describing this incident, the physician Luke used a Greek word that could refer either to a fetus or to a baby after its birth. He used the same word in referring to the baby Jesus lying in the manger.—Luke 2:12, 16; 18:15."

"On the whole, does the Bible give us a basis for drawing a big distinction between a baby in the womb and one that has drawn its first breath? It does not seem so. And that accords with the findings of modern science. For example, researchers have learned that a baby in the womb is able to sense and respond to external stimuli. Thus, it is not surprising that an expectant mother develops such a close bond with the child growing within her. When the baby finally arrives, the timing of birth can seem quite arbitrary. Consider this example: One mother gives birth prematurely to a living baby, who dies after a few days. Another mother carries her baby to full term, but the child dies just before birth. Is the first mother blessed with the hope that her child will be resurrected simply because of the happenstance of a premature birth, whereas the second mother has no such hope? To summarize, then, the Bible clearly teaches that life begins at conception and that Jehovah sees the unborn child as a unique and valued individual. In the light of those Scriptural truths, some might see it as inconsistent to argue that there is no hope for a resurrection of an unborn child that dies. Indeed, they might feel that such an argument undermines our Scriptural stand against abortion, which is largely based on those very truths. In the past, this journal has raised some practical questions that seem to cast doubt on the possibility of a resurrection for children who died before birth. For example, would God implant even a partially developed embryo in the womb of a woman in Paradise? However, further study and prayerful meditation has led the Governing Body to conclude that such considerations do not really have a bearing on the resurrection hope. Jesus said: “All things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:27) Jesus’ own experience demonstrated the truth of that statement; his life was transferred from heaven to the womb of a young virgin—surely an utter impossibility from a human standpoint. Does all of this mean, then, that the Bible teaches that children who perish before birth will be resurrected? We must emphasize that the Bible does not directly answer that question, so there is no basis for humans to be dogmatic on the matter. This subject may give rise to an almost endless variety of questions. Really, though, it seems best to avoid speculation. What we know is this: The matter rests with Jehovah God, who is abundant in loving-kindness and mercy. (Ps. 86:15) Unquestionably, it is his heartfelt desire to undo death by means of the resurrection. (Job 14:14, 15) We can be confident that he always does what is right. He will provide healing for the many wounds inflicted upon us by life in this wicked system of things as he lovingly directs his Son to “break up the works of the Devil.”—1 John 3:8."

"Gabriel: I'm an angel. I kill firstborns while their mamas watch. I turn cities into salt. I even, when I feel like it, rip the souls from little girls, and from now till kingdom come, the only thing you can count on in your existence is never understanding why."

"When our children die, we drop them into the unknown, shuddering with fear. We know that they go out from us, and we stand, and pity, and wonder. If we receive news that a hundred thousand dollars had been left them by some one dying, we should be thrown into an ecstasy of rejoicing; but when they have gone home to God, we stand, and mourn, and pine, and wonder at the mystery of Providence."

"If you want to know what love is, have a child. If you want to know what pain is, bury him."

"Better that the light cloud should fade away into heaven with the morning breath, than travail through the weary day to gather in darkness, and in storm."

"Think of your child, then, not as dead, but as living; not as a flower that has withered, but as one that is transplanted, and touched by a Divine hand, is blooming in richer colors and sweeter shades than those of earth."

"I never hear parents exclaim impatiently, "Children, you must not make so much noise," that I do not think how soon the time may come when, beside the vacant seat, those parents would give all the world, could they hear once more the ringing laughter which once so disturbed them."

"The dying boy said: " Father, don't you weep for me; when I get to heaven I will go straight to Jesus and tell Him that ever since I can remember you have tried to lead me to Him." I would rather have my children say that of me after I am gone; or if they die before me, I would rather they should take that message to the Master than to have a monument over me reaching to the skies."

"How can a mother's heart feel cold or weary Knowing her dearer self safe, sheltered, warm? How can she feel her road too dark or dreary, Who knows her treasure sheltered from the storm? How can she sin? Our hearts may be unheeding, Our God forgot, our holy saints defied; But can a mother hear her dead child pleading, And thrust those little angel hands aside?"

"Let your children be as so many flowers, borrowed from God. If the flowers die or wither, thank God for a summer loan of them."

"Dearest wife, let us go on and faint not; something of ours is in heaven besides the flesh of our exalted Saviour, and we go on after our own."

"Ye have lost a child — nay, she is not lost to you, who is found to Christ; she is not sent away, but only sent before; like unto a star, which going out of our sight, doth not die and vanish, but shineth in another hemisphere."

"We had been told there were no ‘death panels’ in the bill...But look closely at the provision mandating bureaucratic panels that will be calling the shots regarding who will receive government health care."

"Put off boasting, give up self-conceit and remember your grave."

"Mine be the breezy hill that skirts the down; Where a green grassy turf is all I crave, With here and there a violet bestrewn, Fast by a brook or fountain's murmuring wave; And many an evening sun shine sweetly on my grave!"

"GRAVE, n. A place in which the dead are laid to await the coming of the medical student."

"They say in the grave there is peace, and peace and the grave are one and the same."

"Perhaps the early grave Which men weep over may be meant to save."

"The foot in the grave."

"Take your delight in momentariness, Walk between dark and dark — a shining space With the grave's narrowness, though not its peace."

"They grew in beauty side by side, They filled one home with glee: Their graves are severed far and wide By mount and stream and sea."

"A piece of a Churchyard fits everybody."

"Sympathy is the softener of death, and memory of the loved and the lost is the earthly shadow of their immortality. But who turns aside amid those crowds that hurry through the thronged and noisy streets?—No one can love London better than I do; but never do I wish to be buried there. It is the best place in the world for a house, and the worst for a grave."

"Lay her in the gentle earth, Where the summer maketh mirth ; Where young violets have birth ; Where the lily bendeth. Lay her there, the lovely one ! With the rose, her funeral stone ; And for tears, such showers alone As the rain of April lendeth."

"The grave's a fine and private place, But none, I think, do there embrace."

"The grave unites; where e'en the great find rest, And blended lie th' oppressor and th' oppressed!"

"Bear from hence his body: And mourn you for him: let him be regarded As the most noble corse that ever herald Did follow to his urn."

"The sepulchre, Wherein we saw thee quietly inurn'd, Hath op'd his ponderous and marble jaws."

"They bore him barefac'd on the bier; * * * * * And in his grave rain'd many a tear."

"Lay her i' the earth; And from her fair and unpolluted flesh May violets spring!"

"Has this fellow no feeling of his business that he sings at grave-making? Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness."

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

"Taking the measure of an unmade grave."

"The body is placed under the earth, and after a certain period there remains no vestige even of its form. This is that contemplation of inexhaustible melancholy, whose shadow eclipses the brightness of the world. The common observer is struck with dejection of the spectacle. He contends in vain against the persuasion of the grave, that the dead indeed cease to be. The corpse at his feet is prophetic of his own destiny. Those who have preceded him, and whose voice was delightful to his ear; whose touch met his like sweet and subtle fire: whose aspect spread a visionary light upon his path — these he cannot meet again."

"Peace is in the grave. The grave hides all things beautiful and good. I am a God and cannot find it there, Nor would I seek it; for, though dread revenge, This is defeat, fierce king, not victory."

"The lone couch of his everlasting sleep."

"I am gone into the fields To take what this sweet hour yields; — Reflection, you may come to-morrow, Sit by the fireside with Sorrow. — You with the unpaid bill, Despair, — You, tiresome verse-reciter, Care, — I will pay you in the grave, — Death will listen to your stave."

"Some say we're born into the grave."

"Our father's dust is left alone And silent under other snows."

"The Mohammedans use the graves of their saints and martyrs almost in the place of images."

"And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor; but no man knoweth of his sepulcher unto this day."

"By Nebo's lonely mountain, On this side Jordan's wave, In a vale in the land of Moab, There lies a lonely grave; But no man built that sepulcher, And no man saw it e'er, For the angels of God upturned the sod And laid the dead man there."

"Inn of a traveller on his way to Jerusalem."

"Here's an acre sown indeed, With the richest royalest seed."

"Nigh to a grave that was newly made, Leaned a sexton old on his earth-worn spade."

"See yonder maker of the dead man's bed, The sexton, hoary-headed chronicle, Of hard, unmeaning face, down which ne'er stole A gentle tear."

"The grave, dread thing! Men shiver when thou'rt named: Nature appalled, Shakes off her wonted firmness."

"The grave is Heaven's golden gate, And rich and poor around it wait; O Shepherdess of England's fold, Behold this gate of pearl and gold!"

"Build me a shrine, and I could kneel To rural Gods, or prostrate fall; Did I not see, did I not feel. That one GREAT SPIRIT governs all. O Heaven, permit that I may lie Where o'er my corse green branches wave; And those who from life's tumults fly With kindred feelings press my grave."

"Gravestones tell truth scarce forty years."

"I gazed upon the glorious sky And the green mountains round, And thought that when I came to lie At rest within the ground, 'Twere pleasant that in flowery June When brooks send up a cheerful tune, And groves a joyous sound, The sexton's hand, my grave to make, The rich, green mountain turf should break."

"Of all The fools who flock'd to swell or see the show Who car'd about the corpse? The funeral Made the attraction, and the black the woe; There throbb'd not there a thought which pierc'd the pall."

"What's hallow'd ground? Has earth a clod Its Maker mean'd not should be trod By man, the image of his God, Erect and free, Unscourged by Superstition's rod To bow the knee."

"But an untimely grave."

"The grave's the market place."

"The solitary, silent, solemn scene, Where Cæsars, heroes, peasants, hermits lie, Blended in dust together; where the slave Rests from his labors; where th' insulting proud Resigns his powers; the miser drops his hoard: Where human folly sleeps."

"Etsi alterum pedem in sepulchro haberem."

"Alas, poor Tom! how oft, with merry heart, Have we beheld thee play the Sexton's part; Each comic heart must now be grieved to see The Sexton's dreary part performed on thee."

"Some village Hampden, that, with dauntless breast, The little tyrant of his fields withstood, Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest, Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood."

"The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, Await alike th' inevitable hour, The paths of glory lead but to the grave."

"Fond fool! six feet shall serve for all thy store, And he that cares for most shall find no more."

"Such graves as his are pilgrim shrines, Shrines to no code or creed confined,— The Delphian vales, the Palestines, The Meccas of the mind."

"Green be the turf above thee, Friend of my better days; None knew thee but to love thee Nor named thee but to praise."

"Graves they say are warm'd by glory; Foolish words and empty story."

"Where shall we make her grave? Oh! where the wild flowers wave In the free air! When shower and singing-bird 'Midst the young leaves are heard, There—lay her there!"

"The house appointed for all living."

"Teach me to live that I may dread The grave as little as my bed."

"Then to the grave I turned me to see what therein lay; 'Twas the garment of the Christian, worn out and thrown away."

"I like that ancient Saxon phrase, which calls The burial-ground God's Acre. It is just."

"This is the field and Acre of our God, This is the place where human harvests grow!"

"I see their scattered gravestones gleaming white Through the pale dusk of the impending night. O'er all alike the imperial sunset throws Its golden hues mingled with the rose; We give to each a tender thought and pass Out of the graveyards with their tangled grass."

"Take them, O Grave! and let them lie Folded upon thy narrow shelves, As garments by the soul laid by, And precious only to ourselves!"

"There are slave-drivers quietly whipped underground, There bookbinders, done up in boards, are fast bound, There card-players wait till the last trump be played, There all the choice spirits get finally laid, There the babe that's unborn is supplied with a berth, There men without legs get their six feet of earth, There lawyers repose, each wrapped up in his case, There seekers of office are sure of a place, There defendant and plaintiff get equally cast, There shoemakers quietly stick to the last."

"As life runs on, the road grows strange With faces new,—and near the end The milestones into headstones change:— 'Neath every one a friend."

"We should teach our children to think no more of their bodies when dead than they do of their hair when cut off, or of their old clothes when they have done with them."

"Your seventh wife, Phileros, is now being buried in your field. No man's field brings him greater profit than yours, Phileros."

"There is a calm for those who weep, A rest for weary pilgrims found, They softly lie and sweetly sleep Low in the ground."

"(Bodies) carefully to be laid up in the wardrobe of the grave."

"Pabulum Acheruntis."

"Yet shall thy grave with rising flow'rs be dressed, And the green turf lie lightly on thy breast; There shall the morn her earliest tears bestow, There the first roses of the year shall blow."

"Ruhe eines Kirchhofs!"

"Never the grave gives back what it has won!"

"To that dark inn, the Grave!"

"O heart, and mind, and thoughts! what thing do you Hope to inherit in the grave below?"

"The grave Is but the threshold of eternity."

"There is an acre sown with royal seed."

"Kings have no such couch as thine, As the green that folds thy grave."

"…The low green tent Whose curtain never outward swings."

"But the grandsire's chair is empty, The cottage is dark and still; There's a nameless grave on the battle-field, And a new one under the hill."

"… In shepherd's phrase With one foot in the grave."

"The earth doth not cover our beloved, but heaven hath received him; let us tarry for a while, and we shall be in his company."

"For ages the world has been waiting and watching; millions, with broken hearts, have hovered around the yawning abyss; but no echo has come back from the engulfing gloom —silence, oblivion, covers all. If indeed they survive; if they went away whole and victorious, they give us no signals. We wait for years, but no messages come from the far-away shore to which they have gone."

"There is a voice from the tomb sweeter than song. There is a remembrance of the dead to which we turn even from the charms of the living. O, the grave! the grave! It buries every error, covers every defect, extinguishes every resentment. From its peaceful bosom spring none but fond regrets and tender recollections."

"The grave has a door on its inner side."

"It is sweet to hold converse with the pious dead. A holy influence emanates from their blissful home, and fills the soul with a feeling of sacred and solemn awe. The spirit whispers peace, and fills the waiting caverns of the soul with the bright hope of again meeting those whom we believe to be in the abode of redeemed and happy spirits."

"The grave is a very small hillock, but we can see farther from it, when standing on it, than from the highest mountain in all the world."

"Dark lattice! letting in eternal day!"

"Hellenes ... think that as men and animals beget men and animals, so from good men a good man springs. But this is what nature, though she may intend it, cannot always accomplish."

"And all to leave what with his toil he won, To that unfeather'd two-legged thing, a son."

"What we have inherited from our fathers and mothers is not all that 'walks in us.' There are all sorts of dead ideas and lifeless old beliefs. They have no tangibility, but they haunt us all the same and we can not get rid of them. Whenever I take up a newspaper I seem to see Ghosts gliding between the lines. Ghosts must be all over the country, as thick as the sands of the sea."

"The privilege of executors is too great already. They ought to be properly informed when they bring actions."

"Whenever the rate of return on capital is significantly and durably higher than the growth rate of the economy, it is all but inevitable that inheritance (of fortunes accumulated in the past) predominates over saving (wealth accumulated in the present). ... The inequality r > g in one sense implies that the past tends to devour the future: wealth originating in the past automatically grows more rapidly, even without labor, than wealth stemming from work, which can be saved. Almost inevitably, this tends to give lasting disproportionate importance to inequalities created in the past, and therefore to inheritance."

"He lives to build, not boast, a generous race; No tenth transmitter of a foolish face."

"American families are in the process of passing along a $9 trillion legacy from one generation to the next. This is a lot of money, but it is distributed very unevenly.. ... Hand in hand with this money, I submit, what is really being handed down from generation to generation is the profound legacy of reproducing racial inequality. The legacy is difficult to discern because the language of family heritage hides it from our political consciousness."

"Mainstream sociological theory sees differences in jobs, skills, and education as the primary causes of inequality, and substantial wealth transfers embarrass this theory. The classical sociologist Emil Durkheim, for example, predicted that family inheritances would decline over time in favor of giving to charitable and nonprofit organizations, but studies examining actual bequests invalidate this predication. ... In 1989 charitable bequests constituted less than 10 percent of proceeds of estates valued at over $600,000 in the United States."

"He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind. And the fool shall be servant to the wise in heart."

"A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just."

"De male quæsitis vix gaudet tertius pæres, Nec habet eventus sordida præda bonos."

"The monuments of wit survive the monuments of power."

"Baltimore uprooted General Lee under the cover of night. New Orleans removed its four Confederate statues to mixed reactions—some voicing relief, others, disapproval. And with the violence that followed the events in Charlottesville, when white nationalists killed one counter-protestor and injured 19 more, the question of how America deals with its history of racism has continued to grow in urgency."

"There’s no easy answer when the monument in question is carved into a mountain, when Confederate generals continue to provoke strong emotions. What the debate boils down to is whose version of history will endure. And even when you have a 1,000-foot-granite wall at your disposal, it will never be enough space to capture the complexity of the nation’s centuries-long struggle with the legacy of slavery."

"He made him a hut, wherein he did put The carcass of Robinson Crusoe. O poor Robinson Crusoe!"

"Tombs are the clothes of the dead. A grave is but a plain suit, and a rich monument is one embroidered."

"The righteous require no monuments; their lives and their teachings are their monuments."

"My engagements will not permit me to be present, and I believe if there I could not add anything material to the information existing on the subject. I think it wiser, moreover, not to keep open the sores of war, but to follow the example of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife, and to commit to oblivion the feelings it engendered."

"Soldats, du haut ces Pyramide quarante siècles vous contemplent."

"Where London's column, pointing at the skies, Like a tall bully, lifts the head and lies."

"Jove, thou regent of the skies."

"The tap'ring pyramid, the Egyptian's pride, And wonder of the world, whose spiky top Has wounded the thick cloud."

"Gold once out of the earth is no more due unto it; what was unreasonably committed to the ground, is reasonably resumed from it; let monuments and rich fabricks, not riches, adorn men's ashes."

"To extend our memories by monuments, whose death we daily pray for, and whose duration we cannot hope, without injury to our expectations in the advent of the last day, wore a contradiction to our belief."

"But monuments themselves memorials need."

"You shall not pile, with servile toil, Your monuments upon my breast, Nor yet within the common soil Lay down the wreck of power to rest, Where man can boast that he has trod On him that was "the scourge of God.""

"Exegi monumentum ære perennius Regalique situ pyramidum altius, Quod non imber edax, non Aquilo impotens Possit diruere aut innumerabilis Annorum series et fuga temporum. Non omnis moriar, multaque pars mei Vitabit Libitinam."

"Incisa notis marmora publicis, Per quæ spiritus et vita redit bonis Post mortem ducibus."

"Cœlo tegitur qui non hatet urnam."

"Thou, in our wonder and astonishment Hast built thyself a life-long monument."

"For men use, if they have an evil tourne, to write it in marble; and whoso doth us a good tourne we will write it in duste."

"Towers of silence."

"Factum abiit; monumenta manent."

"Let it rise! let it rise, till it meet the sun in his coming; let the earliest light of the morning gild it, and the parting day linger and play on its summit."

"If we work upon marble it will perish. If we work upon brass time will efface it. If we rear temples they will crumble to dust. But if we work upon men's immortal minds, if we imbue them with high principles, with the just fear of God and love of their fellow men, we engrave on those tablets something which no time can efface, and which will brighten and brighten to all eternity."

"To go from mortal to Buddha, you have to put an end to karma, nurture your awareness, and accept what life brings."

"Again, bhikkhus, as though he were to see a corpse thrown aside in a charnel ground, one, two, or three days dead, bloated, livid, and oozing matter, a bhikkhu compares this same body with it thus: 'This body too is of the same nature, it will be like that, it is not exempt from that fate.'"

"He still had that marvelous swing, and what a follow-through, just beautiful, like a great golfer. But he was forty years old. He couldn’t run, he could hardly bend down for a ball, and of course he couldn’t hit the way he used to. One of the saddest things of all is when an athlete begins to lose it … and to see it happening to Babe Ruth, to see Babe Ruth struggling on a ball field, well, then you realize we’re all mortal and nothing lasts forever."

"To smell to a turf of fresh earth is wholesome for the body; no less are thoughts of mortality cordial to the soul."

"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed. The entire universe need not arm itself to crush him. A vapor, a drop of water suffices to kill him. But, if the universe were to crush him, man would still be more noble than that which killed him, because he knows that he dies and the advantage which the universe has over him; the universe knows nothing of this."

"It's our mortality that defines us, Soran. It's part of the truth of our existence."

"You mortals are so obtuse! Why do you persist in believing that life and death are such static and rigid concepts? Why I can take your life and give it back to you again with the snap of a finger!"

"You must drink quickly as from a rapid stream that will not always flow."

"The ungodly ... reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves,..."

"At thirty, man suspects himself a fool, Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan; At fifty, chides his infamous delay, Pushes his prudent purpose to resolve, In all the magnanimity of thought; Resolves, and re-resolves, then dies the same. And why? because he thinks himself immortal, All men think all men mortal but themselves."

"Memento mori."

"Mortality is man's invention; not in the logic of life."

"O Charidas, what of the underworld?" "Great darkness." "And what of the resurrection?" "A lie." "And Pluto?" "A fable; we perish utterly."

"That flesh is but the glasse, which holds the dust That measures all our time; which also shall Be crumbled into dust."

"Consider The lilies of the field whose bloom is brief:— We are as they; Like them we fade away As doth a leaf."

"Hier ist die Stelle wo ich sterblich bin."

"The immortal could we cease to contemplate, The mortal part suggests its every trait. God laid His fingers on the ivories Of her pure members as on smoothèd keys, And there out-breathed her spirit's harmonies."

"I wrote my name upon the sand, And trusted it would stand for aye; But, soon, alas! the refluent sea Had washed my feeble lines away."

"The paths of glory lead but to the grave."

"Don't strew me with roses after I'm dead. When Death claims the light of my brow, No flowers of life will cheer me: instead You may give me my roses now!"

"Faded the flower and all its budded charms, Faded the sight of beauty from my eyes, Faded the shape of beauty from my arms, Faded the voice, warmth, whiteness, paradise! Vanish'd unseasonably …"

"So fleet the works of men, back to their earth again; Ancient and holy things fade like a dream."

"It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: "And this, too, shall pass away". How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride!—how consoling in the depth of affliction!"

"Above all, Hubert was a man with a good heart. And on this sad day it would be good for us to recall Shakespeare's words:"

"Philip, remember that thou art mortal."

"It's calm under the waves in the blue of my oblivion."

"[Horror fiction] shows us that the control we believe we have is purely illusory, and that every moment we teeter on chaos and oblivion."

"Oblivion is full of people who allow the opinions of others to overrule their belief in themselves."

"I fear oblivion. I fear it like the proverbial blind man who's afraid of the dark."

"There was time before organisms experienced consciousness, and there will be time after. And if the inevitability of human oblivion worries you, I encourage you to ignore it."

"Only the dead could afford oblivion."

"No matter how much time passes, no matter what takes place in the interim, there are some things we can never assign to oblivion, memories we can never rub away."

"Sleep is my lover now, my forgetting, my opiate, my oblivion."

"I let go. Lost in oblivion. Dark and silent and complete. I found freedom. Losing all hope was freedom."

"Wishing to grab the life with nothingness wanting to erase the sigh of tiredness forgetting myself completely from my being why do I seek embrace of yours do not ask me, I know not, I am in oblivion."

"Gods prefer simple, vicious games, where you Do Not Achieve Transcendence but Go Straight To Oblivion; a key to the understanding of all religion is that a god's idea of amusement is Snakes and Ladders with greased rungs."

"As for oblivion, well, we can wait a little while for that."

"Then she was kissing him as she had never kissed him before...and it was blissful oblivion, better than firewhisky; she was the only real thing in the world."

"Oblivion - what a blessing...for the mind to dwell a world away from pain."

"Oblivion is not to be hired."

"For those sacred powers Tread on oblivion: no desert of ours Can be entombed in their celestial breasts."

"It is not in the storm nor in the strife We feel benumb'd, and wish to be no more, But in the after-silence on the shore, When all is lost, except a little life."

"Without oblivion, there is no remembrance possible. When both oblivion and memory are wise, when the general soul of man is clear, melodious, true, there may come a modern Iliad as memorial of the Past."

"And o'er the past oblivion stretch her wing."

"He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more."

"Injuriarum remedium est oblivio."

"What's past and what's to come is strew'd with husks And formless ruin of oblivion."

"Eo magis præfulgebant quod non videbantur."

"But from your mind's chilled sky It needs must drop, and lie with stiffened wings Among your soul's forlornest things; A speck upon your memory, alack! A dead fly in a dusty window-crack."

"Ye undertakers, tell us, 'Midst all the gorgeous figures you exhibit, Why is the principal conceal'd, for which You make this mighty stir?"

"There was a man bespake a thing, Which when the owner home did bring, He that made it did refuse it: And he that brought it would not use it, And he that hath it doth not know Whether he hath it yea or no."

"Why is the hearse with scutcheons blazon'd round, And with the nodding plume of ostrich crown'd? No; the dead know it not, nor profit gain; It only serves to prove the living vain."

"Diaulus, lately a doctor, is now an undertaker; what he does as an undertaker, he used to do also as a doctor."

"There's a grim one-horse hearse in a jolly round trot; To the churchyard a pauper is going I wot; The road it is rough, and the hearse has no springs, And hark to the dirge that the sad driver sings— Rattle his bones over the stones, He's only a pauper whom nobody owns."

"The houses that he makes last till doomsday."

"Death is nothing but death, but it prevents life. If you are afraid, life has no value, and if you die, everything dies.~~ December 18, 2024"

"Death gives meaning to life. Living in fear of death is living in denial. Actually, it's not really living at all, because there is no life without death. It's two sides of the one."

"To every man upon this earth"

"Death is a black camel, which kneels at the gates of all."

"Call no man happy till he is dead."

"The Fear of Death often proves Mortal, and sets People on Methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them."

"It is written that the last enemy to be vanquished is death. We should begin early in life to vanquish this enemy by obliterating every trace of the fear of death from our minds. Then can we turn to life and fill the whole horizon of our souls with it, turn with added zest to all the serious tasks which it imposes and to the pure delights which here and there it affords."

"Let us learn from the lips of death the lessons of life. Let us live truly while we live, live for what is true and good and lasting. And let the memory of our dead help us to do this. For they are not wholly separated from us, if we remain loyal to them. In spirit they are with us. And we may think of them as silent, invisible, but real presences in our households."

"The bitter, yet merciful, lesson which death teaches us is to distinguish the gold from the tinsel, the true values from the worthless chaff. The terrible events of life are great eye-openers. They force us to learn that which it is wholesome for us to know, but which habitually we try to ignore — namely, that really we have no claim on a long life; that we are each of us liable to be called off at any moment, and that the main point is not how long we live, but with what meaning we fill the short allotted span — for short it is at best."

"Only that Teaching which contains all hope, which makes life beautiful, which manifests action, can promote true evolution. Certainly life is not a market, where one can make a fine bargain for entrance into the Heavenly Kingdom. Certainly life is not a grave, where one trembles before the justice of an Unknown Judge! In keeping with their opinion, scholars have proposed the ingenious consolation: “Man begins to die from the moment of his birth” — a scanty and funereal comfort. But We say that man is eternally being born, and particularly at the moment of so-called death. The servitors of distorted religions encourage their wards in the purchase of places in the cemetery, where through their advance arrangements they will lie more advantageously and honorably than others more indigent and hence undeserving of lengthy prayers. The incense for these poor ones will be adulterated and the prayers abominably sung. Ask people, finally, what authentic Teaching has enjoined this monstrous practice? Verily, we have had enough of graves, cemeteries, and intimidations! 334."

"One may know how loftily the Teachers have regarded the transition to future manifestations, and least of all have They been concerned about a cemetery site. The attitude toward death is a very important indicator of the character of the Teaching, for in it is contained the understanding of reincarnation. I urge you to consider reincarnation strictly scientifically. If you can propound any other structure of the universe, We shall reserve for you a chair as professor of theology and promise you a first-class funeral; for indeed in the eyes of the enlightened you will have already decided to die. Read attentively the writings of the Teachers published by you, and you will be amazed at how unanimously in all ages They speak about the change of life. The Path of Light will appear when you venture to look scientifically and without prejudices."

"But when the sun in all his state, Illumed the eastern skies, She passed through glory's morning gate, And walked in Paradise."

"Somewhere, in desolate, wind-swept space, In twilight land, in no man's land, Two hurrying shapes met face to face And bade each other stand. "And who are you?" cried one, a-gape, Shuddering in the glimmering light. "I know not," said the second shape, "I only died last night.""

"The white sail of his soul has rounded The promontory—death."

"Every breath you take is a step towards death."

"The separation of the spiritual part of the soul from the earthly body does not essentially change that spirit. A person takes with him the sum total of the character he has formed up to that time. Mortal death does not make a person better or worse; it simply adds to him one more experience which, no doubt, has a teachable influence on him."

"Oh Gilgamec! Enlil, the Great Mountain, the father of gods, has made kingship your destiny, but not eternal life -- lord Gilgamec, this is how to interpret the dream. [The end] of life should not make you feel sad, should not make you despair, should not make you feel depressed. You must have been told that this is what the bane of being human involves. You must have been told that this is what the cutting of your umbilical cord involved. The darkest day of humans awaits you now. The solitary place of humans awaits you now. The unstoppable flood-wave awaits you now. The unavoidable battle awaits you now. The unequal struggle awaits you now. The skirmish from which there is no escape awaits you now. But you should not go to the underworld with heart knotted in anger."

"In its flight from death, the craving for permanence clings to the very things sure to be lost in death."

"Your lost friends are not dead, but gone before, Advanced a stage or two upon that road Which you must travel in the steps they trod."

"He who died at Azan sends This to comfort all his friends: Faithful friends! It lies I know Pale and white and cold as snow; And ye say, "Abdallah's dead!" Weeping at the feet and head. I can see your falling tears, I can hear your sighs and prayers; Yet I smile and whisper this: I am not the thing you kiss. Cease your tears and let it lie; It was mine—it is not I."

"Her cabin'd ample spirit, It fluttered and fail'd for breath; Tonight it doth inherit The vasty hall of death."

"Our bodies are prisons for our souls. Our skin and blood, the iron bars of confinement. But fear not. All flesh decays. Death turns all to ash. And thus, death frees every soul."

"Following Pythagoras, Plato, the great Grecian philosopher, taught the old-new doctrine of Rebirth. He taught that the souls of the dead must return to earth, where, in new lives, they must wear out the old earth deeds, receiving benefits for the worthy ones, and penalties for the unworthy ones, the soul profiting by these repeated experiences, and rising step by step toward the divine. Plato taught that the reincarnated soul has flashes of remembrance of its former lives, and also instincts and intuitions gained by former experiences."

"It is not death that a man should fear, but never beginning to live."

"Death is a friend of ours; and he that is not ready to entertain him is not at home."

"Men fear death, as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other."

"It is worthy the observing, that there is no passion in the mind of man, so weak, but it mates, and masters, the fear of death; and therefore, death is no such terrible enemy, when a man hath so many attendants about him, that can win the combat of him. Revenge triumphs over death; love slights it; honor aspireth to it; grief flieth to it; fear preoccupieth it."

"I have often thought upon death, and I find it the least of all evils."

"Pompa mortis magis terret quam mors ipsa."

": The pomp of death alarms us more than death itself."

"It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other."

"What then remains, but that we still should cry Not to be born, or being born to die."

"The next two hundred years will see the abolition of death, as we now understand that great transition, and the establishing of the soul's existence. The soul will be known as an entity, as the motivating impulse, and the spiritual centre back of all manifested forms. . . . Our essential immortality will be demonstrated and realised to be a fact in nature."

"I speak about Death as one who knows... There is no death. There is... entrance into fuller life. There is freedom from the handicaps of the fleshly vehicle. The rending process so much dreaded does not exist, except in the cases of violent and of sudden death, and then the only true disagreeables are an instant and overwhelming sense of imminent peril and destruction, and something closely approaching an electric shock. No more... For the average good citizen, death is a continuance of the living process in his consciousness and a carrying forward of the interests and tendencies of the life. His consciousness and his sense of awareness are the same and unaltered. He does not sense much difference, is well taken care of, and oft is unaware that he has passed through the episode of death. For the wicked and cruelly selfish, for the criminal and for those few who live for the material side only, there eventuates that condition which we call "earth-bound". The links they have forged with earth and the earthward bias of all their desires, force them to remain close to the earth and their last setting in the earth environment. They seek desperately and by every possible means to re-contact it and to re-enter. In a few cases, great personal love for those left behind or the non-fulfilment of a recognised and urgent duty, holds the good and beautiful in a somewhat similar condition."

"The young forget, and rightly forget, the inevitability of that final symbolic detachment which we call Death. But when life has played its part, and age has taken its toll of interests and strength, the tired and world-weary man has no fear of the detaching process, and seeks not to hold on to that which earlier was desired. He welcomes death, and relinquishes willingly that which earlier engrossed his attention."

"Death, as the human consciousness understands it, pain and sorrow, loss and disaster, joy and distress, are only such because man, as yet, identifies himself with the life of the form and not with the life and consciousness of the soul..."

"With that inner conviction (of immortality), we face death, and we know that we shall live again, that we come and we go, and that we persist because we are... the controllers of our own destiny. We know that we have set ourselves a goal, and that the goal is "Life more abundantly" - somewhere, here, there, and eventually everywhere... The spirit in man is undying; it forever endures, progressing from point to point, and stage to stage upon the Path of Evolution, unfolding steadily and sequentially the divine attributes and aspects... The immortality of the human soul, and the innate ability of the spiritual, inner man to work out his own salvation under the Law of Rebirth, in response to the Law of Cause and Effect, are the underlying factors governing all human conduct and all human aspiration. They condition him at all times, until he has achieved the desired and the designed perfection, and can manifest on earth as a rightly functioning son of God."

"Another fear which induces mankind to regard death as a calamity, is one which theological religion has inculcated, particularly the Protestant fundamentalists, and the Roman Catholic Church - the fear of hell, the imposition of penalties, usually out of all proportion to the errors of a life-time, and the terrors imposed by an angry God. To these man is told he will have to submit, and from them there is no escape, except through the vicarious atonement. There is, as you well know, no angry God, no hell, and no vicarious atonement. There is only a great principle of love animating the entire universe... As these erroneous ideas die out, the concept of hell will fade from man's recollection, and its place will be taken by an understanding of the law which makes each man work out his own salvation upon the physical plane, which leads him to right the wrongs which he may have perpetrated in his lives on Earth, and which enables him eventually to "clean his own slate"."

"The problem of death or the art of dying. This is something which all seriously ill people must inevitably face, and for which those in good health should prepare themselves, through correct thinking and sane anticipation. The morbid attitude of the majority of men to the subject of death, and their refusal to consider it when in good health, is something which must be altered and deliberately changed. Christ demonstrated to His disciples the correct attitude, when referring to His coming and immediate decease at the hand of His enemies; He chided them when they evidenced sorrow... The fear and the morbidness which the subject of death usually evokes, and the unwillingness to face it with understanding, are due to the emphasis which people lay upon the fact of the physical body, and the facility with which they identify themselves with it; it is based also upon an innate fear of loneliness, and the loss of the familiar. ... After death... the man finds on the other side of the veil those whom he knows, and who have been connected with him in physical plane life, and he is never alone as human beings understand loneliness; he is also conscious of those still in physical bodies; he can see them, he can tune in on their emotions, and also upon their thinking, for the physical brain, being non-existent, no longer acts as a deterrent."

"Much good will be brought about through the growing custom to cremate those forms which the indwelling life has vacated; when it is an universal custom, we shall see a definite minimising of disease, leading to longevity and increased vitality. p. 249 If delay is necessary from family feeling or municipal requirements, cremation should follow death within thirty-six hours; where no reason for delay exists, cremation can be rightly permitted in twelve hours. It is wise, however, to wait twelve hours in order to ensure true death. p.485"

"Life hath more awe than death."

"Death is the universal salt of states; Blood is the base of all things — law and war."

"The death-change comes. Death is another life. We bow our heads At going out, we think, and enter straight Another golden chamber of the king's, Larger than this we leave, and lovelier. And then in shadowy glimpses, disconnect, The story, flower-like, closes thus its leaves. The will of God is all in all. He makes, Destroys, remakes, for His own pleasure, all."

"There is no harm in patience, and no profit in lamentation. Death is easier to bear (than) that which precedes it, and more severe than that which comes after it. Remember the death of the Apostle of God, and your sorrow will be lessened."

"Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies, flags, nations, in order to deny the fact of death, which is the only fact we have."

"So fades a summer cloud away; So sinks the gale when storms are o'er; So gently shuts the eye of day; So dies a wave along the shore."

"To me the honour is sufficient of belonging to the universe — such a great universe, and so grand a scheme of things. Not even Death can rob me of that honour. For nothing can alter the fact that I have lived; I have been I, if for ever so short a time. And when I am dead, the matter which composes my body is indestructible — and eternal, so that come what may to my 'Soul,' my dust will always be going on, each separate atom of me playing its separate part — I shall still have some sort of a finger in the pie. When I am dead, you can boil me, burn me, drown me, scatter me — but you cannot destroy me: my little atoms would merely deride such heavy vengeance. Death can do no more than kill you."

"It is only the dead who do not return."

"When we come to die, we shall be alone. From all our worldly possessions we shall be about to part. Worldly friends — the friends drawn to us by our position, our wealth, or our social qualities, — will leave us as we enter the dark valley. From those bound to us by stronger ties — our kindred, our loved ones, children, brothers, sisters, and from those not less dear to us who have been made our friends because they and we are the friends of the same Saviour, — from them also we must part. Yet not all will leave us. There is One who "sticketh closer than a brother" — One who having loved His own which are in the world loves them to the end."

"No man escapes Death. So Death must not be the enemy. Life must not be the prize. It must be the gameboard, on which Death teaches its savage lessons. You could heed those lessons, or ignore them, but never evade them. Death, then, was the ally. Not to be sought, but heeded."

"To die would be an awfully big adventure."

"But whether on the scaffold high, Or in the battle's van, The fittest place where man can die Is where he dies for man."

"What a power has Death to awe and hush the voices of this earth! How mute we stand when that presence confronts us, and we look upon the silence he has wrought in a human life! We can only gaze, and bow our heads, and creep with our broken, stammering utterances under the shelter of some great word which God has spoken, and in which we see through the history of human sorrow the outstretching and overshadowing of the eternal arms."

"To the Christian, these shades are the golden haze which heaven's light makes, when it meets the earth, and mingles with its shadows."

"And when no longer we can see Thee, may we reach out our hands, and find Thee leading us through death to immortality and glory."

"So we fall asleep in Jesus. We have played long enough at the games of life, and at last we feel the approach of death. We are tired out, and we lay our heads back on the bosom of Christ, and quietly fall asleep."

"Dear brethren, our ship is sailing fast. We shall soon hear the rasping of the shallows, and the commotion overhead which bespeaks the port in view. When it comes to that, how will you feel? Are you a stranger, or a convict, or are you going home? Brethren, we are all sailing home; and by and by, when we are not thinking of it, some shadowy thing (men call it death), at midnight, will pass by, and will call us by name, and will say, "I have a message for you from home; God wants you; heaven waits for you.""

"Death and dissolution are not penalties inflicted on the living; they are themselves the conditions necessary to the existence of life and they hold all the hope of the future, as they have from the start."

"Suicide is the deliberate or the hurried action of the man who is trying to get out of a trouble and escape from it. Yet he cannot escape from it. He has struck away his body, he is wide awake on the other side of death, exactly the same man he was a moment before, except that his body is thrown off; no more changed than if he had merely taken off his coat. The result of his losing the physical body is that his capacity for suffering is very much increased."

"The theory of Reincarnation, then, in the Esoteric Philosophy, asserts the existence of a living and individualised Principle, which dwells in and informs the body of a man, and Which, on the death of the body, passes into another body, after a longer or shorter interval. Thus successive bodily lives are linked together like pearls strung upon a thread, the thread being the living Principle, the pearls upon it the separate human lives... In the light of reincarnation life... becomes the school of the eternal Man within us, who seeks therein his development..."

"Death is only a change that gives the soul a partial liberation, releasing him from the heaviest of his chains. It is but a birth into a wider life, a return after brief exile on earth to the soul's true home, a passing from a prison into the freedom of the upper air. Death is the greatest of earth's illusions; there is no death, but only changes in life-conditions. Life is continuous, unbroken, unbreakable; "unborn, eternal, ancient, constant," it perishes not with the perishing of the bodies that clothe it. We might as well think that the sky is falling when a pot is broken, as imagine that the soul perishes when the body falls to pieces."

"As inevitably as a drunkard must live in his repulsive soddened physical body here, so must he live in his equally repulsive astral body there. The harvest sown is reaped after its kind. Such is the law in all the worlds, and it may not be escaped. Nor indeed is the astral body there more revolting and horrible than it was when the man was living upon earth and made the atmosphere around him fetid with his astral emanations. But people on earth do not generally recognise its ugliness, being astrally blind. Further, we may cheer ourselves in contemplating these unhappy brothers of ours by remembering that their sufferings are but temporary, and are giving a much-needed lesson in the life of the soul. By the tremendous pressure of nature’s disregarded laws they are learning the existence of those laws, and the misery that accrues from ignoring them in life and conduct. The lesson they would not learn during earth-life, whirled away on the torrent of lusts and desires, is pressed on them here, and will be pressed on them in their succeeding lives, until the evils are eradicated and the man has risen into a better life. Nature’s lessons are sharp, but in the long run they are merciful, for they lead to the evolution of the soul and guide it to the winning of its immortality."

"Cremation is preferable to burial as a way of disposing of corpses."

"Who does not remember the story of the Christian missionary in Britain, sitting one evening in the vast hall of a Saxon king, surrounded by his thanes, having come thither to preach the gospel of his Master; and as he spoke of life and death and immortality, a bird flew in through an unglazed window, circled the hall in its flight, and flew out once more into the darkness of the night. The Christian priest bade the king see in the flight of the bird within the hall the transitory life of man, and claimed for his faith that it showed the soul, in passing from the hall of life, winging its way not into the darkness of night, but into the sunlit radiance of a more glorious world. Out of the darkness, through the open window of Birth, the life of a man comes to the earth; it dwells for a while before our eyes; into the darkness, through the open window of Death, it vanishes out of our sight. And man has questioned ever of Religion, Whence comes it? Whither goes it? and the answers have varied with the faiths."

"In literature and in art, alike, this gloomy fashion of regarding Death has been characteristic of Christianity. Death has been painted as a skeleton grasping a scythe, a grinning skull, a threatening figure with terrible face and uplifted dart, a bony scarecrow shaking an hour-glass—all that could alarm and repel has been gathered round this rightly-named King of Terrors."

"That such a view of Death should be taken by the professed followers of a Teacher said to have "brought life and immortality to light" is passing strange. The claim, that as late in the history of the world as a mere eighteen centuries ago the immortality of the Spirit in man was brought to light, is of course transparently absurd, in the face of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary available on all hands. The stately Egyptian Ritual with its Book of the Dead, in which are traced the post-mortem journeys of the Soul, should be enough, if it stood alone, to put out of court for ever so preposterous a claim."

"For certain is death for the born And certain is birth for the dead; Therefore over the inevitable Thou shouldst not grieve."

"Never the spirit was born, the spirit shall cease to be never. Never was time it was not, end and beginning are dreams."

"How wilt thou, then, knowing it so, --grieve when thou shouldst not grieve? How, if thou hearest that the man new-dead Is, like the man new-born, still living man-- One same, existent Spirit--wilt thou weep? The end of birth is death; the end of death Is birth: this is ordained! and mournest thou, Chief of the stalwart arm! for what befalls Which could not otherwise befall? The birth Of living things comes unperceived; the death Comes unperceived; between them, beings perceive: What is there sorrowful herein, dear Prince?"

"Never the spirit was born; the spirit shall cease to be never; Never was time it was not; End and Beginning are dreams! Birthless and deathless and changeless remaineth the spirit for ever; Death hath not touched it at all, dead though the house of it seems!"

"Generals gathered in their masses just like witches at black masses. Evil minds that plot destruction, sorcerer of death's construction."

"How shocking must thy summons be, O Death! To him that is at ease in his possessions! Who, counting on long years of pleasure here, Is quite unfurnished for the world to come! In that dread moment, how the frantic soul Raves round the walls of her clay tenement; Runs to each avenue, and shrieks for help; But shrieks in vain."

"Sure 'tis a serious thing to die! My soul! What a strange moment must it be, when, near Thy journey's end, thou hast the gulf in view! That awful gulf, no mortal e'er repass'd To tell what's doing on the other side."

"'Tis long since Death had the majority."

"Science regards man as an aggregation of atoms temporarily united by a mysterious force called the life-principle. To the Materialism|Materialist, the only difference between a living and a dead body is that in the one case that force is active, in the other latent. When it is extinct or entirely latent, the molecules obey a superior attraction, which draws them asunder and scatters them through space. This dispersion must be Death, if it is possible to conceive such a thing as Death, where the very molecules of the dead body manifest an intense vital energy.... Says Eliphas Levi: "Change attests movement, and movement only reveals life. The corpse would not decompose if it were dead; all the molecules which compose it are living and struggle to separate.""

"Two things happen in the minds of most men and women who lose a close friend through death. First, whether or not a person believes in heaven or hell, or has been told that death is the end of all thought and feeling for the one who has gone, he finds himself re-asking the question, "Where are the dead?" in such a way as to show he had not been really impressed by either of the two usual answers. Second, he sees clearly how the greatest sadness of death comes from realizing that something of importance was left uncompleted between himself and the one now separated from him; he desires to believe that there may be some way in which his knowing or loving the other person may continue toward a better adjustment or fulfillment. It is because these two things happen in the mind of man when he is faced with the death of a friend that the theosophical viewpoint becomes a natural thing to consider seriously. For Theosophy holds that there is a continual evolution for every human soul, that there is no final heaven or hell, and that all who die return again to earth where they may, according to natural law, recover lost friends and proceed to develop further, as well as to deepen the bonds of understanding only temporarily cut off by the dissolution of the physical body."

"The notions about heaven and hell, with which the people of "Christian" nations are more or less familiar, are probably the crude remains of earlier and more philosophical ideas. If we consider hell and heaven to be states of mind instead of places, it is easy to see the reason for such ideas. For each man, in the course of his normal living, enters periodically into states of great happiness and great unhappiness, and further more, while he is in them, he is apt to forget everything else. The mind, in other words, builds its own world. Is it so strange, then, to imagine that after the death of the body this same process may continue, in an even more intense degree, since no physical interruptions are possible?"

"Some people have felt that they could not consider seriously the possibility of reincarnation because they do not remember their past lives... If men are reborn, it would, as a matter of fact, be impossible to expect an entirely new body to retain and give expression to the details recorded by a different physical brain... The idea suggested by reincarnation is that the soul, not the brain, continues to live. And what is a "soul"? If the word has any meaning at all, it must stand for those unique qualities of character which distinguish us, far more than any physical differences, from our fellow human beings. And our most important qualities do not depend upon the memory of the brain. Our most important qualities are our attitudes of mind, formed through experience provided by brain, yet retained as moral instincts rather than as specific memories."

"The real contact between any two friends, living or "dead," is the contact of mutual understanding and love, and the inspiration of worth-while things undertaken in common. Why is it not possible for such relationships to pass untroubled through death, and back to life again? Such is, perhaps, the wisest teaching of all the ages, because it is at once the most natural and the most hopeful."

"The theosophical view is really older than any religion, because it is natural to man. It was held as the truest thought by the Hindus and Egyptians and Greeks - to name but a few in ancient times - that death is simply a longer sleep than that we experience every night of our lives, after which the soul wakes again in a new body. All through the centuries this idea has been expressed by poets and philosophers. Theosophical writers have called this idea of rebirth "reincarnation," signifying that the soul, or real man, incarnates again in flesh when the suitable conditions for a further working out of its destiny are provided by a new body...in answer to the question, "Where are the dead?"... we might consider, there can be no such thing as someone "dead". The man who loses his body is, simply, according to this view, resting - and, perhaps, dreaming."

"Men in great suffering are very apt to look first at the very worst of themselves and their lives, and afterward, toward the very best. And such - as the Hindus, Egyptians, and some of the Greeks taught - is the case after the death of the body. The soul, alone with its memories, struggles first to free itself from those most disturbing... The notions about heaven and hell, with which the people of "Christian" nations are more or less familiar, are probably the crude remains of earlier and more philosophical ideas. If we consider hell and heaven to be states of mind instead of places, it is easy to see the reason for such ideas. For each man, in the course of his normal living, enters periodically into states of great happiness and great unhappiness, and further more, while he is in them, he is apt to forget everything else. The mind, in other words, builds its own world. Is it so strange, then, to imagine that after the death of the body this same process may continue, in an even more intense degree, since no physical interruptions are possible?"

"Those who have "died" may logically be thought of as still existing, in one of these two states. Each state will last just as long as the nature of the person demands. Those who tired easily from psychological strain during life might require a long period of mental readjustment, while those who seemed to have the energy at all times to enter vigorously into even the most difficult experiences might be ready to be born again on earth in a much shorter time. The great philosopher Plato wrote an allegory in the last book of his Republic about souls making themselves ready to come back to earth again. Each one, he said, had a choice as to when and where to be born, but that choice must always be in accord with the soul's capacities and needs. So it is really a matter of being drawn naturally to the environment best suited to the soul, as provided by parents, family, and nation."

"All our times have come Here but now they're gone Seasons don't fear the reaper Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain... we can be like they are Come on baby... don't fear the reaper Baby take my hand... don't fear the reaper We'll be able to fly... don't fear the reaper Baby I'm your man..."

"Death is never trivial: it is solemnity, it is mystery."

"Physical death, so much a preoccupation in the death world, is less mortifying than what is peddled as life."

"When I lived, I provided for every thing but death; now I must die, and am unprepared."

"Beyond the shining and the shading I shall be soon. Beyond the hoping and the dreading I shall be soon. Love, rest and home— Lord! tarry not, but come."

"Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, in sure and certain hope of the resurrection."

"Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery. He cometh up, and is cut down, like a flower; he fleeth as it were a shadow, and never continueth in one stay."

"In the midst of life we are in death."

"Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there. It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so as long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away."

"Is Death important? No. Everything that happens before Death is what counts."

"Here. Astride the top of nothingness, I suddenly receive the call of death. Who, in passing, tells me that it’s nothing. Nothing more than the absence of the word itself. Nothing more, and simply nothingness."

"'Mid youth and song, feasting and carnival, Through laughter, through the roses, as of old Comes Death, on shadowy and relentless feet Death, unappeasable by prayer or gold; Death is the end, the end. Proud, then, clear-eyed and laughing, go to greet Death as a friend!"

"Oh! death will find me, long before I tire Of watching you; and swing me suddenly Into the shade and loneliness and mire Of the last land!"

"A little before you made a leap in the dark."

"The thousand doors that lead to death."

"We all labour against our own cure; for death is the cure of all disease."

"Pliny hath an odd and remarkable Passage concerning the Death of Men and Animals upon the Recess or Ebb of the Sea."

"O Earth, so full of dreary noises! O men, with wailing in your voices! O delved gold, the waller's heap! O strife, O curse, that o'er it fall! God makes a silence through you all, And "giveth His beloved, sleep.""

"For I say, this is death and the sole death, When a man's loss comes to him from his gain, Darkness from light, from knowledge ignorance, And lack of love from love made manifest."

"The grand perhaps."

"Fear Death? – to feel the fog in my throat,The mist in my face."

"The drama of death has always seemed to me the truest element in life."

"Sustained and soothed By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave Like one that wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."

"All that tread The globe are but a handful to the tribes That slumber in its bosom."

"So he passed over and all the trumpets sounded For him on the other side."

"How immense is being, when you thought yourself dead!"

"the great death waits to gather me in its stars."

"Dying visions of angels and Christ and God and heaven are confined to credibly good men. Why do not bad men have such visions? They die of all sorts of diseases; they have nervous temperaments; they even have creeds and hopes about the future which they cling to with very great tenacity; why do not they rejoice in some such glorious illusions when they go out of the world?"

"Die Todten reiten schnell."

": The dead ride swiftly."

"But, oh! fell Death's untimely frost, That nipt my flower sae early."

"There is only rest and peace In the city of Surcease From the failings and the waitings 'neath the sun, And the wings of the swift years Beat but gently o'er the biers Making music to the sleepers every one."

"They do neither plight nor wed In the city of the dead, In the city where they sleep away the hours."

"We wonder if this can be really the close, Life's fever cooled by death's trance; And we cry, though it seems to our dearest of foes, "God give us another chance.""

"Timor mortis morte pejor."

": The fear of death is worse than death."

"Friend Ralph! thou hast Outrun the constable at last!"

"Heaven gives its favourites — early death."

"Without a grave, unknell'd, uncoffin'd, and unknown."

"Ah! surely nothing dies but something mourns!"

""Whom the gods love die young," was said of yore."

"Death, so called, is a thing which makes men weep, And yet a third of life is pass'd in sleep."

"Oh, God! it is a fearful thing To see the human soul take wing In any shape, in any mood!"

"Down to the dust! — and, as thou rott'st away, Even worms shall perish on thy poisonous clay."

"Nothing, indeed, can be more deserving of our admiration than the conduct of the Christian martyrs, who cheerfully submitted to an ignominious death, inflicted by the most atrocious torments, rather than deny their faith even by the mere performance of an apparently insignificant rite of Paganism."

"But this we may positively state, that nobody has made any progress in the school of Christ unless he cheerfully looks forward to the day of his death and to the day of the final resurrection."

"To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die."

"Brougham delivered a very warm panegyric upon the ex-Chancellor, and expressed a hope that he would make a good end, although to an expiring Chancellor death was now armed with a new terror."

"And I still onward haste to my last night; Time's fatal wings do ever forward fly; So every day we live, a day we die."

"Oh man, at that end not much has been left of your excellence, nothing of all that you have been boasting about through life - only sex, fear, self-admiration and a few other things you are usually ashamed of."

"His religion, at best, is an anxious wish; like that of Rabelais, "a great Perhaps.""

"I believe this thought, of the possibility of death — if calmly realised, and steadily faced would be one of the best possible tests as to our going to any scene of amusement being right or wrong. If the thought of sudden death acquires, for you, a special horror when imagined as happening in a theatre, then be very sure the theatre is harmful for you, however harmless it may be for others; and that you are incurring a deadly peril in going. Be sure the safest rule is that we should not dare to live in any scene in which we dare not die. But, once realise what the true object is in life — that it is not pleasure, not knowledge, not even fame itself, 'that last infirmity of noble minds' — but that it is the development of character, the rising to a higher, nobler, purer standard, the building-up of the perfect Man — and then, so long as we feel that this is going on, and will (we trust) go on for evermore, death has for us no terror; it is not a shadow, but a light; not an end, but a beginning!"

"¿Qué se hace a la hora de morir? ¿Se vuelve/la cara a la pared?/¿Se agarra por los hombros al que está cerca y oye?/¿Se echa uno a correr, como el que tiene/las ropas incendiadas, para alcanzar el fin?"

"Qui nunc it per iter tenebricosum Illuc unde negant redire quemquam."

": Who now travels that dark path from whose bourne they say no one returns."

"Soles occidere et redire possunt; Nobis cum semel occidit brevis lux, Nox est perpetua una dormienda."

": Suns may set and rise; we, when our short day has closed, must sleep on during one neverending night."

"When death hath poured oblivion through my veins, And brought me home, as all are brought, to lie In that vast house, common to serfs and thanes,— I shall not die, I shall not utterly die, For beauty born of beauty—that remains."

"The principal point of their doctrine is that the soul does not die and that after death it passes from one body into another."

"With regard to their actual course of studies, the main object of all education is, in their opinion, to imbue their scholars with a firm belief in the indestructibility of the human soul, which, according to their belief, merely passes at death from one tenement to another; for by such doctrine alone, they say, which robs death of all its terrors, can the highest form of human courage be developed."

"For all that let me tell thee, brother Panza," said Don Quixote, "that there is no recollection which time does not put an end to, and no pain which death does not remove." "And what greater misfortune can there be," replied Panza, "than the one that waits for time to put an end to it and death to remove it?"

"It singeth low in every heart, We hear it each and all,— A song of those who answer not, However we may call; They throng (he silence of the breast, We see them as of yore,— The kind, the brave, the true, the sweet, Who walk with us no more."

"This character wherewith we sink into the grave at death is the very character wherewith we shall reappear at the resurrection."

"When I hear it contended that the least sensitive are, on the whole, the most happy, I recall the Indian proverb: “It’s better to sit than to stand, it is better lie down than to sit, but death is best of all.”"

"Back in 1980, less than 5 percent of Americans were cremated when they died. That figure now stands at about 50 percent... Rosehill charges just $180 to cremate a body, although the urn, flowers, and service are extra. A grave, by contrast, can cost $2,500, plus an additional $1,500 to open the ground with a backhoe."

"Neither modern science nor ancient religion believes in complete free thought. Theology rebukes certain thoughts by calling them blasphemous. Science rebukes certain thoughts by calling them morbid. For example, some religious societies discouraged men more or less from thinking about sex. The new scientific society definitely discourages men from thinking about death; it is a fact, but it is considered a morbid fact."

"Death is not the end. Death can never be the end. Death is the road. Life is the traveller. The soul is the guide."

"At length, fatigued with life, he bravely fell, And health with Boerhaave bade the world farewell."

"I’m not a morbid person, but I thought about death—or more precisely, how strangely tilted our view of life is. We know the universe went on before for billions of years and it will go on for billions more. There’s just this brief stretch when the window is opened before our eyes, and the world is visible. Then the window is shut, forever."

"Ex vita discedo, tanquam ex hospitio, non tanquam ex domo."

": I depart from life as from an inn, and not as from my home."

"Emori nolo: sed me esse mortuum nihil æstimo."

": Translation: I do not wish to die: but I care not if I were dead."

"Vetat dominans ille in nobis deus, injussu hinc nos suo demigrare."

": The divinity who rules within us, forbids us to leave this world without his command."

"Undique enim ad inferos tantundem viæ est."

": There are countless roads on all sides to the grave."

"Supremus ille dies non nostri extinctionem sed commutationem affert loci."

": That last day does not bring extinction to us, but change of place."

"Some men make a womanish complaint that it is a great misfortune to die before our time. I would ask what time? Is it that of Nature? But she, indeed, has lent us life, as we do a sum of money, only no certain day is fixed for payment. What reason then to complain if she demands it at pleasure, since it was on this condition that you received it."

"Death, to a good man is but passing through a dark entry, out of one little dusky room of his Father's house into another that is fair and large, lightsome and glorious, and divinely entertaining."

"Omnia mors æquat."

": Death levels all things."

"Our souls are prisoners of the terror of death, and the day is beautiful."

"Bloody pumps, face flat on the concrete. Here comes the white sheet. Mister Coroner, caught with some yellow tape, but the murderers escaped."

"How well he fell asleep! Like some proud river, widening toward the sea; Calmly and grandly, silently and deep, Life joined eternity."

"Mors dominos servis et sceptra ligonibus æquat, Dissimiles simili conditione trahens."

"Death is like thunder in two particulars; we are alarmed at the sound of it; and it is formidable only from that which preceded it."

"Death comes with a crawl or he comes with a pounce, And whether he's slow, or spry, It isn't the fact that you're dead that counts, But only, how did you die?"

"Dead’s not good, but at least it’s simple."

"Qui ne craint point la mort ne craint point les menaces."

": He who does not fear death cares naught for threats."

"Ut non ex vita, sed ex domo in domum videretur migrare."

": So that he seemed to depart not from life, but from one home to another."

"And all you men, whom greatness does so please,"

"All flesh is grass, and all its glory fades Like the fair flower dishevell'd in the wind; Riches have wings, and grandeur is a dream; The man we celebrate must find a tomb, And we that worship him, ignoble graves."

"All has its date below; the fatal hour Was register'd in Heav'n ere time began. We turn to dust, and all our mightiest works Die too."

"Two hands upon the breast, And labor's done; Two pale feet cross'd in rest, The race is won."

"Life, that dares send A challenge to his end, And when it comes, say, "Welcome, friend!""

"She'l bargain with them; and will giue Them GOD; teach them how to liue In him; or if they this deny, For him she'l teach them how to Dy."

"We are born, then cry, We know not for why, And all our lives long Still but the same song."

"The most heaven-like spots I have ever visited, have been certain rooms in which Christ's disciples were awaiting the summons of death. So far from being a "house of mourning," I have often found such a house to be a vestibule of glory."

"Remember, Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."

"Death is utterly acceptable to consciousness and life. There has been endless times of numberless deaths, but neither consciousness nor life has ceased to arise. The felt quality and cycle to death has not modified the fragility of flowers, even the flowers within the human body."

"Round, round the cypress bier Where she lies sleeping, On every turf a tear, Let us go weeping! Wail!"

"We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Sahara. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively outnumbers the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here."

"And though mine arm should conquer twenty worlds, There's a lean fellow beats all conquerors."

"Every living movement is a sliding toward death. But if they are willing to look it in the face they also discover that every movement toward death is life."

"I expressed just now my mistrust of what is called Spiritualism—… I owe it a trifle for a message said to come from Voltaire's Ghost. It was asked, "Are you not now convinced of another world?" and rapped out, "There is no other world — Death is only an incident in Life.""

"Death carries off a man who is gathering flowers and whose mind is distracted, as a flood carries off a sleeping village."

"What argufies pride and ambition?Soon or late death will take us in tow:Each bullet has got its commission,And when our time's come we must go."

"People can't die, along the coast," said Mr. Peggotty, "except when the tide's pretty nigh out. They can't be born, unless it's pretty nigh in—not properly born, till flood. He's a-going out with the tide."

"It ’s such a little thing to weep, So short a thing to sigh; And yet by trades the size of these We men and women die!"

"Beloved in the Lord, if only you will lay hold of the Saviour's strength, and cast yourself entirely on His kind arms, with His dying grace He will do wonders for you in the dying hour. A great trembling may come upon you when you think of going down to tread the verge of Jordan: "For ye have not passed this way heretofore." But Jesus has; and you shall see His footprints along the shore. "He knoweth all the fords," and will be your guide unto death and through death."

"Soon for me the light of day Shall forever pass away; Then from sin and sorrow free, Take me, Lord, to dwell with Thee."

"The dead cannot be restored. They can be remembered. They can be mourned. But they are still dead."

"The answer to death was to make use of it rather than fall victim to it—master it by making it serve his goals, beliefs. This was not a good answer. But it was the only answer he had."

"Death be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so, For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow, Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me. From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee, Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow, And soonest our best men with thee doe goe, Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie. Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell, And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well, And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then; One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally, And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die."

"I think it's good that we die. I just wish that more of us could have more fulfilment, and know the beauty of life more fully. When I hear about Silicon Valley billionaires who want to live forever, I think to myself: There’s no higher entitlement than thinking that you should live forever, when part of the beauty of nature is that even the stars die. That's what Emily Dickinson said: 'That it will never come again/is what makes life so sweet.' I believe that."

"Welcome, thou kind deceiver! Thou best of thieves! who, with an easy key, Dost open life, and, unperceived by us, Even steal us from ourselves."

"Death in itself is nothing; but we fear To be we know not what, we know not where."

"So was she soon exhaled, and vanished hence; As a sweet odour, of a vast expense. She vanished, we can scarcely say she died."

"Of no distemper, of no blast he died, But fell like autumn fruit that mellow'd long."

"Heaven gave him all at once; then snatched away, Ere mortals all his beauties could survey; Just like the flower that buds and withers in a day."

"He was exhal'd; his great Creator drew His spirit, as the sun the morning dew."

"Like a led victim, to my death I'll go, And dying, bless the hand that gave the blow."

"In the jaws of death."

"Death is the way to immortality. Love will begin when the world ends."

"I want to go when I want. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share; it is time to go. I will do it elegantly."

"[Words he used to refuse heart surgery the day before he passed away.]"

"Death is the king of this world: 'tis his park Where he breeds life to feed him. Cries of pain Are music for his banquet."

"If we could know Which of us, darling, would be first to go, Who would be first to breast the swelling tide And step alone upon the other side— If we could know!"

"He thought it happier to be dead, To die for Beauty, than live for bread."

"Philosophy instructs us to pay homage to the gods, not through hope or fear, but from veneration of Their superior nature. It moreover enables us to conquer the fear of death, by teaching us that it is no proper object of terror; since, whilst we are, death is not, and when death arrives, we are not: so that it neither concerns the living nor the dead."

"I cried to Thee, O Lord; and unto the Lord I made supplication. What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise Thee? Shall it declare Thy truth?""

"But learn that to die is a debt we must all pay."

"Out of the strain of the Doing, Into the peace of the Done; Out in the thirst of Pursuing, Into the rapture of Won. Out of grey mist into brightness, Out of pale dusk into Dawn— Out of all wrong into rightness, We from these fields shall be gone. "Nay," say the saints, "Not gone but come, Into eternity's Harvest Home.""

"He that always waits upon God is ready whenever He calls. Neglect not to set your accounts even; he is a happy man who to lives as that death at all times may find him at leisure to die."

"I am not in the least surprised that your impression of death becomes more lively, in proportion as age and infirmity bring it nearer. God makes use of this rough trial to undeceive us in respect to our courage, to make us feel our weakness, and to keep us in all humility in His hands."

"On a long enough timeline the survival rate for everybody drops to zero."

"Sit the comedy out, and that done, When the Play's at an end, let the Curtain fall down."

"Young Never-Grow-Old, with your heart of gold And the dear boy's face upon you; It is hard to tell, though we know it well, That the grass is growing upon you."

"Death hath so many doors to let out life."

"We must all die! All leave ourselves, it matters not where, when, Nor how, so we die well; and can that man that does so Need lamentation for him?"

""Paid the debt of nature." No; it is not paying a debt; it is rather like bringing a note to the bank to obtain solid gold for it. In this case you bring this cumbrous body which is nothing worth, and which you could not wish to retain long; you lay it down, and receive for it from the eternal treasures — liberty, victory, knowledge, rapture."

"When you take the wires of the cage apart, you do not hurt the bird, but help it. You let it out of its prison. How do vou know that death does not help me when it takes the wires of my cage down? — that it does not release me, and put me into some better place, and better condition of life?"

"If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete."

"Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes!"

"A dying man can do nothing easy."

"I knew a man who once said, "Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back.""

"La montagne est passée; nous irons mieux."

": The mountain is passed; now we shall get on better."

"Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure in life."

"We may feel only anxious (or even sick) for a number of reasons which have no apparent connection with our conscience. [...] One form of this anxiety is the fear of death; not the normal fear of having to die which every human being experiences in the contemplation of death, but a horror of dying by which people can be possessed constantly. This irrational fear of death results from the failure of having lived; it is the expression of our guilty conscience for having wasted our life and missed the chance of productive use of our capacities. To die is poignantly bitter, but the idea of having to die without having lived is unbearable."

"Human beings desire more than small pleasures in the routines of life. We also seek great challenges in the face of death."

"Drawing near her death, she sent most pious thoughts as harbingers to heaven; and her soul saw a glimpse of happiness through the chinks of her sicknesse broken body."

"I can state from my own experience that what people fear in death is the loneliness of having to leave this world forever. Though people may not be consciously aware of all the phenomena around them under normal circumstances, the thought that that which makes them themselves will be lost forever is a terribly lonely thing."

"Had [Christ] the death of death to death Not given death by dying: The gates of life had never been To mortals open lying."

"Life's race well run, Life's work well done, Life's crown well won, Now comes rest."

"To die is landing on some silent shore, Where billows never break nor tempests roar; Ere well we feel the friendly stroke 'tis o'er."

"The prince who kept the world in awe, The judge whose dictate fix'd the law; The rich, the poor, the great, the small, Are levell'd; death confounds 'em all."

"Dead as a door nail."

"Where the brass knocker, wrapt in flannel band, Forbids the thunder of the footman's hand, The' upholder, rueful harbinger of death, Waits with impatience for the dying breath."

"Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation."

"To the man whom death’s wing has touched, what once seemed important is so no longer; and other things become so which once did not seem important or which he did not even know existed. The layers of acquired knowledge peel away from the mind like a cosmetic and reveal, in patches, the naked flesh beneath, the authentic being hidden there.Henceforth this was what I sought to discover: the authentic being, “the old Adam” whom the Gospels no longer accepted; the man whom everything around me—books, teachers, family and I myself—had tried from the first to suppress. And I had already glimpsed him, faint, obscured by their encrustations, but all the more valuable, all the more urgent. I scorned henceforth that secondary, learned being whom education had pasted over him.And I would compare myself to a palimpsest; I shared the thrill of the scholar who beneath more recent script discovers. on the same paper, an infinitely more precious ancient text."

"What if thou be saint or sinner, Crooked gray-beard, straight beginner,— Empty paunch, or jolly dinner, When Death thee shall call. All alike are rich and richer, King with crown, and cross-legged stitcher, When the grave hides all."

"None who e'er knew her can believe her dead; Though, should she die, they deem it well might be Her spirit took its everlasting flight In summer's glory, by the sunset sea, That onward through the Golden Gate is fled. Ah, where that bright soul is cannot be night."

"He had never feared the entity Death but was often afraid of dying."

"Can storied urn or animated bust Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath? Can honour's voice provoke the silent dust, Or flattery soothe the dull cold ear of death?"

"He pass'd the flaming bounds of place and time: The living throne, the sapphire blaze, Where angels tremble while they gaze, He saw; but blasted with excess of light, Closed his eyes in endless night."

"Fling but a stone, the giant dies."

"I have not declared that the Tathagata exists after death... that is not conducive to the purpose, not conducive to Dhamma, not the way to embark on the holy life; it does not lead to disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to calm, to higher knowledge, to enlightenment, to Nibbana. That is why I have not declared it."

"When life is woe, And hope is dumb, The World says, "Go!" The Grave says, "Come!""

"Man has the possibility of existence after death. But possibility is one thing and the realization of the possibility is quite a different thing."

"Every one of those unfortunates during the process of existence should constantly sense and be cognizant of the inevitability of his own death as well as of the death of everyone upon whom his eyes or attention rests. Only such a sensation and such a cognizance can now destroy the egoism completely crystallized in them that has swallowed up the whole of their Essence, and also that tendency to hate others which flows from it."

"The sole means now for the saving of the beings of the planet Earth would be to implant again into their presences a new organ … of such properties that every one of these unfortunates during the process of existence should constantly sense and be cognizant of the inevitability of his own death as well as the death of everyone upon whom his eyes or attention rests. Only such a sensation and such a cognizance can now destroy the egoism completely crystallized in them."

"Death borders upon our birth; and our cradle stands in our grave."

"Come to the bridal-chamber, Death! Come to the mother's, when she feels, For the first time, her first-born's breath! Come when the blessed seals That close the pestilence are broke, And crowded cities wail its stroke!"

"Ere the dolphin dies Its hues are brightest. Like an infant's breath Are tropic winds before the voice of death."

"We shall be in the midst of some great work, when the tools shall drop from our relaxing fingers, and we shall work no more; we shall be planning some mighty project — house, business, society, book — when in one shattering moment all our thoughts shall perish. Life shall seem strong in us when we shall find that it is done. Oh, how happy they to whom all that remains is immortality; happy you who have that confidence in the Saviour, that, although nature start at the sudden midnight cry, "The Bridegroom cometh!" faith shall answer, the moment that we remember who He is, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus!""

"All life is surrounded by a great circumference of death; but to the believer in Jesus, beyond this surrounding death is a boundless sphere of life. He has only to die once to be done with death forever."

"Seek such union to the Son of God, as, leaving no present death within, shall make the second death impossible, and shall leave in all your future only that shadow of death which men call dissolution, and which the gospel calls sleeping in Jesus."

""Come and see how a Christian can die," said the dying sage to his pupil; how would it do to say, "Come and see how an infidel can die?" How would it have done for Voltaire to say this, who, in his panic at the prospect of eternity, offered his physician half his fortune for six weeks more of life?"

"And now, with busy, but noiseless process, the Comforter is giving the last finish to the sanctifying work, and making the heir of glory meet for home, till, at a signal given, the portal opens, and even the numb body feels the burst of blessedness as the rigid features smile and say, "I see Jesus," then leave the vision pictured on the pale but placid brow."

"When at last the angels come to convey your departing spirit to Abraham's bosom, depend upon it, however dazzling in their newness they may be to you, you will find that your history is no novelty, and you yourself no stranger to them."

"We think that we have been alive since a certain point in time and that prior to that moment, our life did not exist. This distinction between life and non-life is not correct. Life is made of death, and death is made of life. We have to accept death; it makes life possible. The cells in our body are dying every day, but we never think to organize funerals for them. The death of one cell allows for the birth of another. Life and death are two aspects of the same reality. We must learn to die peacefully so that others may live. This deep meditation brings forth non-fear, non-anger, and non-despair, the strengths we need for our work. With non-fear, even when we see that a problem is huge, we will not burn out. We will know how to make small, steady steps. If those who work to protect the environment contemplate these four notions, they will know how to be and how to act."

"Yes, even pricks turn into top blokes after death"

"The ancients dreaded death: the Christian can only fear dying."

"And I hear from the outgoing ship in the bay The song of the sailors in glee: So I think of the luminous footprints that bore The comfort o'er dark Galilee, And wait for the signal to go to the shore, To the ship that is waiting for me."

"On a lone barren isle, where the wild roaring billows Assail the stern rock, and the loud tempests rave, The hero lies still, while the dew-drooping willows, Like fond weeping mourners, lean over his grave. The lightnings may flash and the loud thunders rattle; He heeds not, he hears not; he's free from all pain. He sleeps his last sleep, he has fought his last battle; No sound can awake him to glory again!"

"Death rides on every passing breeze, He lurks in every flower."

"For dying is not to be feared—it is the final comfort. As we all learn, eventually."

"Leaves have their time to fall, And flowers to wither at the north wind's breath, And stars to set—but all. Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O Death."

""Passing away" is written on the world and all the world contains."

"Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid."

"What is Death But Life in act? How should the Unteeming Grave Be victor over thee, Mother, a mother of men?"

"So be my passing. My task accomplished and the long day done, My wages taken, and in my heart Some late lark singing, Let me be gathered to the quiet west, The sundown splendid and serene, Death."

"Those incantations of the Spring That made the heart a centre of miracles Grow formal, and the wonder-working bours Arise no more — no more.Something is dead . . . 'Tis time to creep in close about the fire And tell grey tales of what we were, and dream Old dreams and faded, and as we may rejoice In the young life that round us leaps and laughs, A fountain in the sunshine, in the pride Of God's best gift that to us twain returns, Dear Heart, no more — no more."

"Who says that we shall pass, or the fame of us fade and die, While the living stars fulfil their round in the living sky?"

"Life is worth Living Through every grain of it, From the foundations To the last edge Of the cornerstone, death."

"Dear, was it really you and I? In truth the riddle's ill to read, So many are the deaths we die Before we can be dead indeed."

"Life — give me life until the end, That at the very top of being, The battle-spirit shouting in my blood, Out of the reddest hell of the fight I may be snatched and flung Into the everlasting lull, The immortal, incommunicable dream."

"From the winter’s gray despair, From the summer’s golden languor, Death, the lover of Life, Frees us for ever."

"Not lost, but gone before."

"Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

"Those that God loves, do not live long."

"I know thou art gone to the home of thy rest— Then why should my soul be so sad? I know thou art gone where the weary are blest, And the mourner looks up, and is glad; I know thou hast drank of the Lethe that flows In a land where they do not forget, That sheds over memory only repose, And takes from it only regret."

"Upon the Grave which swallows fast/'Tis peace at last, oh peace at last."

"And death makes equal the high and low."

"(Mors, mortis morti mortem nisi morte dedisset [dedisses].)"

": Death when to death a death by death hath given Then shall be op't the long shut gates of heaven."

"Now I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap in the dark."

"How frighteningly few are the persons whose death would spoil our appetite and make the world seem empty."

"live so nothing will be left for death at the end"

"And when, in the evening of life, the golden clouds rest sweetly and invitingly upon the golden mountains, and the light of heaven streams down through the gathering mists of death, I wish you a peaceful and abundant entrance into that world of blessedness, where the great riddle of life will be unfolded to you in the quick consciousness of a soul redeemed and purified."

"When darkness gathers over all. And the last tottering pillars fall, Take the poor dust Thy mercy warms. And mould it into heavenly forms."

"The mossy marbles rest On the lips that he has pressed In their bloom; And the names he loved to hear Have been carved for many a year On the tomb."

"Behold—not him we knew! This was the prison which his soul looked through."

"And they die An equal death,—the idler and the man Of mighty deeds."

"He slept an iron sleep,— Slain fighting for his country."

"It is not right to glory in the slain."

"One more unfortunate Weary of breath, Rashly importunate, Gone to her death!"

"We watch'd her breathing thro' the night, Her breathing soft and low, As in her breast the wave of life Kept heaving to and fro. Our very hopes belied our fears, Our fears our hopes belied; We thought her dying when she slept, And sleeping when she died."

"'Tis after death that we measure men."

"Pallida mors æquo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas Regumque turres."

": Pale death, with impartial step, knocks at the hut of the poor and the towers of kings."

"Omnes una manet nox, Et calcanda semel via leti."

": One night is awaiting us all, and the way of death must be trodden once."

"Omnes eodem cogimur; omnium Versatur urna serius, ocius Sors exitura."

": We are all compelled to take the same road; from the urn of death, shaken for all, sooner or later the lot must come forth."

"Omne capax movet urna nomen."

": In the capacious urn of death, every name is shaken."

"Cita mors ruit."

": Swift death rushes upon us."

"Aequa lege Necessitas Sortitur insignes et imos; Omne capax movet urna nomen."

"Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori."

": Sweet and glorious it is to die for our country."

"Melius est bene mori, quam male vivere (...) qui mortem metuit, amittit gaudia vitae; super omnia vincit veritas, vincit, qui occiditur, quia nulla ei nocet adversitas, si nulla ei dominatur iniquitas."

"Duty is weightier than a mountain, while death is lighter than a feather."

"In the democracy of the dead all men at last are equal. There is neither rank nor station nor prerogative in the republic of the grave."

"Death's got to be easy, because life is hard. It'll leave you physically, mentally, and emotionally scarred."

"You're on your way to meet your maker... Are you ready? No exceptions to the rule; death is promised."

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true."

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

"I am not afraid to kill you for there is no death."

"Then with no fiery throbbing pain, No cold gradations of decay, Death broke at once the vital chain, And freed his soul the nearest way."

"Depend upon it, Sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully."

"Disease generally begins that equality which death completes."

"Thou art but gone before, Whither the world must follow."

"Suicide is a huge folly, because it places the committer of it in an infinitely worse position than he was in under the conditions from which he foolishly hoped to escape. It is not death. It is only a leaving of one well-known house in familiar surroundings to go into a new place where terror and despair alone have place."

"Hence one whose fire is burned out is reborn through the tendencies in mind; according to his thoughts he enters life. But linked by the fire with the Self, this life leads to a world of recompense.--Prashna Upanishad... The above quotation from Prashna Upanishad gives the old doctrine, the same as in Buddhism, that re-birth is due to mind and to the tendencies therein. "Whose fire has burned out" means the fire of life expiring. "According to his thoughts" does not refer to what one wishes to have for rebirth, but to the seeds of thought left in the mind from the thinking of each hour of life; these in a mass make a tendency or many tendencies which on coming out either keep the soul to that family in all modes of thought and act or tend to segregate the soul from the circle into which it was born. "This life leads to a world of recompense," because by the fire of life it is linked to the Self, which being thus bound goes after death to the state where recompense is its portion. The alternation to and fro from one state to another for purposes of compensation is not the attainment of knowledge but the subjection to results eternally, unless the soul strives to find the truth and becomes free, and ceases to set up causes for future births."

"There is no 'death'; it is only a question of passing from one level of awareness to another, from physical consciousness to spiritual consciousness. If man could only come to this realization then all fears would vanish. 'Death' is not something to be feared, but on the contrary, in many respects, it is a phase to be welcomed what a wonderful thought for the older person who has been through life's treadmill and experienced its weal and woe, that he can shed the dense physical prison with all its aches and pains and fears, that he can exchange physical life with all its worries, doubts, disappointments and mental strain, for a spell of life in a spiritual body that will no longer tire and be subject to all the earthly troubles..."

"From the human standpoint death often appears senseless and severe, but remember that man can only visualize a very narrow sector of the overall Plan, and his perspective must inevitably remain limited. Remember also that the earthly life which has been cut short will, after a longer or shorter spiritual sojourn, be resumed in a new physical vehicle, to continue the experiences planned by the soul."

"Mors sola fatetur Quantula sint hominum corpuscula."

"Trust to a plank, draw precarious breath, At most seven inches from the jaws of death."

"They say you only live once, but come to think of it - you only die once as well."

"Verse, Fame and beauty are intense indeed,But Death intenser – Death is life's high mead."

"Love masters agony; the soul that seemed Forsaken feels her present God again And in her Father's arms Contented dies away."

"The living wander away, we don't hear from them for months, years—but the dead move in with us to stay. They exhort us to greater faithfulness, forgive us our inertia, comfort us in our agitation."

"Nemo impetrare potest a papa bullam nunquam moriendi."

": No one can obtain from the Pope a dispensation for never dying."

"Dying is not a crime."

"Despite the solace of hypocritical religiosity and its seductive promise of an after-life of heavenly bliss, most of us will do anything to thwart the inevitable victory of biological death."

"When you and I behind the Veil are past."

"Strange—is it not?—that of the myriads who Before us passed the door of Darkness through, Not one returns to tell us of the road Which to discover we must travel too."

"If being a kid is about learning how to live, then being a grown-up is about learning how to die."

"Fear makes us blind, and we touch each fear with all the avid curiousity of self-interest, trying to make a whole out of a hundred parts, like the blind men with their elephant. We sense the shape. Children grasp it easily, forget it, and relearn it as adults. The shape is there, and most of us come to realize what it is sooner or later: it is the shape of a body under a sheet. All our fears add up to one great fear, all our fears are part of that great fear - an arm, a leg, a finger, an ear. We're afraid of the body under the sheet. It's our body. And the great appeal of horror fiction through the ages is that it serves as a rehearsal for our own deaths."

"My friend, there will come one day to you a Messenger, whom you cannot treat with contempt. He will say, "Come with me;" and all your pleas of business cares and earthly loves will be of no avail. When his cold hand touches yours, the key of the counting-room will drop forever, and he will lead you away from all your investments, your speculations, your bank-notes and real estate, and with him you will pass into eternity, up to the bar of God. You will not be too busy to die."

"Nay, why should I fear Death, Who gives us life, and in exchange takes breath?"

"When I have folded up this tent And laid the soiled thing by, I shall go forth 'neath different stars, Under an unknown sky."

"Let the dead bury the dead? But, the dead can bury no one."

"Death is no disgrace."

"Painting the sensual with thy hues divine,—"

"The thunderstorm is a constant phenomenon, raging alternately over some part of the world or the other. Can a single man or creature escape death if all that charge of lightning strikes the earth?"

"You must bear your karma cheerfully, whatever it may be, taking it as an honor that Suffering comes to you, because it shows that the Lords of Karma think you worth helping. However hard it is, be thankful that it is no worse."

"You must give up all feeling of possession. Karma may take from you the things which you like best — even the people whom you love most. Even then you must be cheerful — ready to part with anything and everything."

"Karma takes no account of custom; and the karma of cruelty is the most terrible of all... The fate of the cruel must fall also upon all who go out intentionally to kill God's creatures, and call it "sport"."

"Even if death were to fall upon you today like lightning, you must be ready to die without sadness and regret, without any residue of clinging for what is left behind. Remaining in the recognition of the absolute view, you should leave this life like an eagle soaring up into the blue sky...."

"When death finally comes you will welcome it like an old friend, aware of how dreamlike and impermanent the whole phenomenal world really is."

"If your mind is constantly preoccupied by your money and possessions, you are in reality only preparing the ground for rebirth as a spirit tortured by hunger and thirst. If your thoughts are obsessed with your family and loved ones, you are only strengthening the pangs of separation you will suffer when you die."

"The horror of death so typical of modern man is probably another feminine aspect of our time. "Media vita in morte sumus" is the hymn of a male and hierarchic age. The great thing in the life of the male is death just as love is the keynote of a female life. "Man is the glory of God, but woman is the glory of man," says St. Paul. The man finds his final reunion with God through the gate of death, but the woman gets the foreboding of such a reunion in her love to a man. Men also love women as children of God but, while this remains an indirect approach to Him, death always remains the shortest route to the Father. This is also the reason why there is such a deep metaphysical relation between love and death."

"Gone before To that unknown and silent shore."

"No one dies but some one is glad of it."

"One destin'd period men in common have, The great, the base, the coward, and the brave, All food alike for worms, companions in the grave."

"The first day after a death, the new absence Is always the same; we should be careful Of each other, we should be kind While there is still time."

"We think each one will heave to and unload"

"Philip Larkin, “Next, Please""

"Neither the sun nor death can be looked at with a steady eye."

"François de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims, 36"

"...a giant tombstone fell out of the sky to mark the place, but I didn’t care any more, because I was far away, in that place where the heroes and the cowards lie together with a fine impartiality, waiting for eternity to pass, slowly, like a procession of snails creeping across an endless desert toward a distant line of mountains."

"If popular theology had not most unhappily altogether lost sight of the cardinal doctrine of reincarnation, its· views on this subject of death would naturally be entirely different. A man who realizes that he has died many times before regards the operation more philosophically than one who believes it to be an absolutely new experience fraught with all kinds of vague· and awful possibilities."

"Death is a subject which cannot but be of the deepest interest to every one, since the one thing which is absolutely certain in the future biography of all men alike is that one day they must die-still more since there is hardly anyone, except the very young, from whose kin death has not already removed some dearly loved one. Yet though this is thus a question of such universal interest, there is perhaps none about which the misconceptions current in the popular mind are so many and so serious. It is impossible for us to calculate the vast amount of utterly unnecessary sorrow and terror and misery which mankind in the aggregate has suffered simply from its ignorance and superstition with regard to this one most important matter. There is amongst us a mass of ·false and foolish belief along this line which has worked untold evil in the past and is causing indescribable suffering in the present, and its eradication would be one of the greatest benefits that could be conferred upon the human race."

"The Theosophical Explanation. We endorse the theory that the soul leaves the body; but we are perhaps a little more definite in our explanation of what we mean by the soul than are many religious people. Our statement is not that man possesses a soul, but that man is a soul, and that the body is merely a vestment which he casts off when it is worn out... Man is a far more complex being than to physical sight he appears to be; and the only way in which we can thoroughly understand him is by raising our consciousness to altogether higher planes, where we can see much more...[than] one who has not previously studied the subject. This benefit the Theosophical teaching at once confers on those who, from their study of philosophy in past lives, now find themselves able to accept it. It robs death forthwith of all its terror and much of its sorrow, and enables us to see it in its true proportions and to understand its place in the scheme of our evolution."

"Things of real worth, such as the mental life of the ant or the crab, fill psychological and scientific literature; but such a thing as death, which involves the whole human race more intimately than anything else possibly can-since all must die-is regarded as hardly worthy of serious discussion!"

"The first and most fatal of all misconceptions about death is the idea that it is the end of all things; that there is nothing in man which survives it. Many people seem to be under the impression that this gross form of materialism has almost died out from among us; that it was a mental disease of the earlier part of the last century, and that the race has now outgrown it. It is much to be wished that this view represented the facts of the case, but I fear a careful student of contemporary thought can hardly endorse it. It is happily true that this noxious weed of materialism no longer -rears its, head in high places with the confidence of yore, for the men whose opinion is worthy of attention have by this time learnt better than that."

"The highly developed soul, who during earth life has gained complete control over his lower nature, and entirely dominated passion and desire, does in consequence sweep through the astral life with such rapidity that when he regains his consciousness he finds opening out before it the indescribable glory and bliss of the heaven-world. But the ordinary man has by no means succeeded in entirely dominating all earthly desires and passions before his death. Thus he finds himself upon the astral plane with a fairly vigorous desire-body, which he has made for himself during physical life, in which he now has to live until the process of its disintegration is in turn completed. It disintegrates only as · the desire which is its life dies out of it, and this often involves Suffering which is not inaptly symbolized by the fires of purgatory."

"One of our most serious losses at that time was the custom of prayer for the dead, and the nations who blindly threw away that means of helping their fellows have ever since paid the penalty of their folly in the persons of their departed members, who have had to fight their way unaided through the astral world..."

"What is a prayer for the dead but an expression of an earnest wish and loving thought for those who have passed on before us? We who study Theosophy know well that in physical life such wishes and such thoughts are real and objective things-storage batteries of spiritual force which will discharge themselves only when they reach the persons towards whom they are directed... The prayer or the strong loving wish for a particular dead person always reaches him and helps him, nor can it ever fail to do so while the great law of cause and effect remains part of the constitution of the universe. Even the earnest general prayer or wish for the good of the dead as a whole, though it is likely to be a vague and therefore a less efficient force, has yet in the aggregate produced an effect whose importance it would be difficult to exaggerate."

"If it should be asked what it is that· we ought to wish for our dear· ones who have passed away-we who in many cases know so little of their condition that we might well fea to set in motion a force which might be ill-directed, for want of more exact knowledge of their need-we cannot do better than turn to the formulae of the Catholic Church once more, and use that beautiful antiphon which appears so often in the services for the dead: Eternal rest grant unto him, 0 Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon him."

"It is not infrequently our custom to seek to cover our own blank ignorance of certain subjects with the confident assertion that nothing ever has been or can be really known... our treatment of this question of the life after death is one of the worst examples of this habit. If popular theology had not most unhappily altogether lost sight of the cardinal doctrine of reincarnation, its· views on this subject of death would naturally be entirely different. A man who realizes that he has died many times before regards the operation more philosophically than one who believes it to be an absolutely new experience fraught with all kinds of vague and awful possibilities. (p. 42)"

"If you have been able to assimilate what I have already said, you will now understand that, however natural it may be for us to feel sorrow at the death of our relatives, that sorrow is an error and an evil, and we ought to overcome it. There is no need to sorrow for them, for they have passed into a far wider and happier life. If we sorrow for our own fancied separation from them, we are, in the first place, weeping over an illusion, for in truth they are not separated from us; and, secondly, we are acting selfishly, because we are thinking more of our own apparent loss than of their great and real gain. We must strive to be utterly unselfish, as indeed all love should be. We must think of them and not of ourselves-not of what we wish or we feel, but solely of what is best for them and most helpful to their progress."

"A knowledge of the hidden side of life by no means teaches us to forget our dead, but it makes us exceedingly careful as to how we think of them; it warns us that we must adopt a resolutely unselfish attitude, that we must forget all about ourselves, and the pain of the apparent separation, and think of them neither with grief nor with longing, but always with strong affectionate wishes for their happiness and their progress. The clairvoyant sees exactly in what manner such wishes affect them, and at once perceives the truth which underlies the teaching of the Catholic Church with regard to the advisability of prayers for the dead. By these both the living and the dead are helped; for the former, instead of being thrown back upon his grief with a hopeless feeling that now he can do nothing, since there is a great gulf between himself and his loved one, is encouraged to turn his affectionate thought into definite action which promotes the happiness and advancement of him who has passed from his sight in the physical world. Of all this and much more I have written fully in the book called The Other Side of Death... p. 340"

"It is one of the many evils resulting from the absurdly erroneous teaching as to conditions after death which is unfortunately current in our western world, that those who have recently shaken off this mortal coil are usually much puzzled and often very seriously frightened at finding everything so different from what their religion had led them to expect. The mental attitude of a large number of such people was pithily voiced the other day by an English general, who three days after his death met one of the band of helpers whom he had known in physical life. After expressing his great relief that he had at last found someone with whom he was able to communicate, his first remark was: “But if I am dead, where am I? For if this is heaven I don’t think much of it; and if it is hell, it is better than I expected.” Ch. 12"

"Unfortunately a far greater number take things less philosophically. They have been taught that all men are destined to eternal flames except a favoured few who are superhumanly good; and since a very small amount of self examination convinces them that they do not belong to that category, they are but too often in a condition of panic terror, dreading every moment that the new world in which they find themselves may dissolve and drop them into the clutches of the devil, in whom they have been sedulously taught to believe. In many cases they spend long periods of acute mental suffering before they can free themselves from the fatal influence of this blasphemous doctrine of everlasting punishment - before they can realize that the world is governed, not according to the caprice of a hideous demon who gloats over human anguish, but according to a benevolent and wonderfully patient law of evolution, which is absolutely just indeed, but yet again and again offers to man opportunities of progress, if he will but take them, at every stage of his career."

"What you love, you will love. What you undertake you will complete. You are a fulfiller of hope; you are to be relied on. But seventeen years give little armor against despair...Consider, Arren. To refuse death is to refuse life."

"O Time! consumer of all things; O envious age! thou dost destroy all things and devour all things with the relentless teeth of years, little by little in a slow death. Helen, when she looked in her mirror, seeing the withered wrinkles made in her face by old age, wept and wondered why she had twice been carried away."

"You are a player in the rigorous game of living. You can’t blame the game if you don’t believe the rules or bother to remember them. The first rule is: every player dies; none knows when it’s coming; the youngest and best often go first. Everyone has to play. The game goes on forever – or until you win. You win by finding death before it finds you. The prize – is life."

"And, as she looked around, she saw how Death, the consoler, Laying his hand upon many a heart, had healed it forever."

"The young may die, but the old must!"

"There is no confessor like unto Death! Thou canst not see him, but he is near: Thou needest not whisper above thy breath, And he will hear; He will answer the questions, The vague surmises and suggestions, That fill thy soul with doubt and fear."

"Death never takes one alone, but two! Whenever he enters in at a door, Under roof of gold or roof of thatch, He always leaves it upon the latch, And comes again ere the year is o'er, Never one of a household only."

"There is a Reaper whose name is Death, And with his sickle keen, He reaps the bearded grain at a breath, And the flowers that grow between."

"There is no Death! What seems so is transition; This life of mortal breath Is but a suburb of the life elysian, Whose portal we call Death."

"There is no flock, however watched and tended, But one dead lamb is there! There is no fireside howsoe'er defended, But has one vacant chair."

"Oh, what hadst thou to do with cruel Death, Who wast so full of life, or Death with thee, That thou shouldst die before thou hadst grown old!"

"Then fell upon the house a sudden gloom, A shadow on those features fair and thin; And softly, from the hushed and darkened room, Two angels issued, where but one went in."

"Were a star quenched on high, For ages would its light, Still travelling downward from the sky, Shine on our mortal sight. So when a great man dies, For years beyond our ken, The light he leaves behind him lies Upon the paths of men."

"J'avais cru plus difficile de mourir."

": I imagined it was more difficult to die."

"That is not dead which can eternal lie / And with strange aeons even Death may die."

"But life is sweet, though all that makes it sweet Lessen like sound of friends' departing feet; And Death is beautiful as feet of friend Coming with welcome at our journey's end."

"Victorosque dei celant, ut vivere durent felix esse mori."

":Translation: The gods conceal from those destined to live how sweet it is to die, that they may continue living."

"Libera Fortunæ mors est; capit omnia tellus Quæ genuit."

": Death is free from the restraint of Fortune; the earth takes everything which it has brought forth."

"Pavido fortique cadendum est."

": The coward and the courageous alike must die."

"E mediis Orci faucibus ad hunc evasi modum."

": From the very jaws of death I have escaped to this condition."

"Adde repertores doctrinarum atque leporum; Adde Heliconiadum comites; quorum unus Homerus Sceptra potitus, eadem aliis sopitu quiete est."

": Nay, the greatest wits and poets, too, cease to live; Homer, their prince, sleeps now in the same forgotten sleep as do the others."

"What is our death but a night's sleep? For as through sleep all weariness and faintness pass away and cease, and the powers of the spirit come back again, so that in the morning we arise fresh and strong and joyous; so at the Last Day we shall rise again as if we had only slept a night, and shall be fresh and strong."

"To every man upon this earth Death cometh soon or late, And how can man die better Than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers And the temples of his gods?"

""In the midst of life we are in death," said one; it is more true that in the midst of death we are in life. Life is the only reality; what men call death is but a shadow — a word for that which cannot be — a negation, owing the very idea of itself to that which it would deny. But for life there could be no death. If God were not, there would not even be nothing. Not even nothingness preceded life. Nothingness owes its very idea to existence."

"There is no such thing as death. In nature nothing dies. From each sad remnant of decay Some forms of life arise."

"God giveth His beloved sleep;" and in that peaceful sleep, realities, not dreams, come round their quiet rest, and fill their conscious spirits and their happy hearts with blessedness and fellowship. In His own time He will make the eternal morning dawn, and the hand that kept them in their slumbers shall touch them into waking, and shall clothe them when they arise according to the body of His own glory; and they, looking into His face, and flashing back its love, its light, its beauty, shall each break forth into singing as the rising light of that unsetting day touches their transfigured and immortal heads, in the triumphant thanksgiving, "I am satisfied, for I awake in Thy likeness."

"If life has not made youby God's grace, through faith, holy — think you, will death, without faith do it? The cold waters of that narrow stream are no purifying bath in which you may wash and be clean. No! no! as you go down into them, you will come up from them."

"I do not know why a man should be either regretful or afraid, as he watches the hungry sea eating away this "bank and shoal of time" upon which he stands, even though the tide has all but reached his feet — if he knows that God's strong hand will be stretched forth to him at the moment when the sand dissolves from under him, and will draw him out of many waters, and place him high above the floods on the stable land where there is "no more sea.""

"It is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

"Death is something inevitable. When a man has done what he considers to be his duty to his people and his country, he can rest in peace. I believe I have made that effort and that is, therefore, why I will sleep for the eternity."

"In the real world, people die, and no self-promoting asshole in a fucking leotard can stop it."

"All our knowledge merely helps us to die a more painful death than the animals that know nothing."

"Nascentes morimur, finiaque ab origine pendet."

": We begin to die as soon as we are born, and the end is linked to the beginning."

"I want to meet my God awake."

"Hic rogo non furor est ne moriare mori?"

": This I ask, is it not madness to kill thyself in order to escape death?"

"Death is not worse than a dishonourable life which destroys its own soul as well as that of its neighbour."

"When the last sea is sailed and the last shallow charted, When the last field is reaped and the last harvest stored, When the last fire is out and the last guest departed Grant the last prayer that I shall pray, Be good to me, O Lord."

"When Life knocks at the door no one can wait, When Death makes his arrest we have to go."

"Death opens unknown doors. It is most grand to die."

"She thought our good-night kiss was given, And like a lily her life did close; Angels uncurtain'd that repose, And the next waking dawn'd in heaven."

"Death hath a thousand doors to let out life. I shall find one."

"I am afraid to die sometimes, but God is the one to decide when a person dies. I want to live to the fullest until then."

"In this world, one day death is going to take the life from everything that you love. So while you're able, love what you have. Takes the death from your life."

"The world has created no living thing it does not intend to destroy."

"Death is for the living and not for the dead."

"There is no death! the stars go down To rise upon some other shore, And bright in Heaven's jeweled crown, They shine for ever more."

"At the end of your life, you're lucky if you die."

"It nice it happen to you. Like you come to the island and had a holiday. Sun didn't burn you red-red, just brown. You sleep and no mosquito eat you. But the truth is, it bound to happen if you stay long enough. So take that nice picture you got in your head home with you, but don't be fooled. We lonely here mostly too. If we lucky, maybe, we got some nice pictures to take with us."

"O that we may all be living in such a state of preparedness, that, when summoned to depart, we may ascend the summit whence faith looks forth on all that Jesus hath suffered and done, and exclaiming, " We have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord," lie down with Moses on Pisgah, to awake with Moses in paradise."

"He whom the gods love dies young."

"There's nothing certain in man's life but this: That he must lose it."

"No man who is fit to live need tear to die. Poor, timorous, faithless souls that we are! How we shall smile at our vain alarms when the worst has happened! To us here, death is the most terrible thing we know. But when we have tasted its reality, it will mean to us birth, deliverance, a new creation of ourselves. It will be what health is to the sick man. It will be what home is to the exile. It will be what the loved one given - back is to the bereaved. As we draw near to it, a solemn gladness should fill our hearts. It is God's great morning lighting up the sky. Our fears are the terror of children in the night. The night with its terrors, its darkness, its feverish dreams, is passing away; and when we awake, it will be into the sunlight of God."

"If I should die to-night, My friends would look upon my quiet face Before they laid it in its resting-place, And deem that death had left it almost fair."

"Death did not come to my mother Like an old friend. She was a mother, and she must Conceive him. Up and down the bed she fought crying Help me, but death Was a slow child Heavy."

"Aujourd'hui si la mort n' existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer."

": Today if death did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it."

"Death is delightful. Death is dawn, The waking from a weary night Of fevers unto truth and light."

"Death cannot come To him untimely who is fit to die; The less of this cold world, the more of heaven; The briefer life, the earlier immortality."

"O fairest flower; no sooner blown but blasted, Soft, silken primrose fading timelessly."

"So spake the grisly Terror."

"I fled, and cried out Death; Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sigh'd From all her caves, and back resounded Death."

"Before mine eyes in opposition sits Grim Death, my son and foe."

"Death Grinned horrible a ghastly smile, to hear His famine should be filled."

"Eas'd the putting off"

": These troublesome disguises which we wear."

"Behind her Death Close following pace for pace, not mounted yet On his pale horse."

"How gladly would I meet Mortality my sentence, and be earth Insensible! how glad would lay me down As in my mother's lap!"

"And over them triumphant Death his dart Shook, but delay'd to strike, though oft invoked."

"Nous sommes tous mortels, et chacun est pour soi."

": We are all mortal, and each one is for himself."

"On n'a point pour la mort de dispense de Rome."

": Rome can give no dispensation from death."

"Philosophy first commands us to have death ever before our eyes, to anticipate it and consider it beforehand, and then she gives us rules and caveats in order to forestall our being hurt by our reflections!"

"La mort (dict on) nous acquitte de toutes nos obligations."

": Death, they say, acquits us of all obligations."

"There's nothing terrible in death; 'Tis but to cast our robes away, And sleep at night, without a breath To break repose till dawn of day."

"Thus star by star declines Till all are passed away, As morning high and higher shines To pure and perfect day: Nor sink those stars in empty night; They hide themselves in heaven's pure light."

"Weep not for those whom the veil of the tomb In life's happy morning hath hid from our eyes, Ere sin threw a blight o'er the spirit's young bloom Or earth had profaned what was born for the skies."

"How short is human life! the very breath Which frames my words accelerates my death."

"A dreaded sunny day So I meet you at the cemetry gates Keats and Yeats are on your side While Wilde is on mine So we go inside and we gravely read the stones All those people, all those lives Where are they now? With loves, and hates And passions just like mine They were born And then they lived And then they died It seems so unfair I want to cry"

"At end of Love, at end of Life, At end of Hope, at end of Strife, At end of all we cling to so— The sun is setting—must we go? At dawn of Love, at dawn of Life, At dawn of Peace that follows Strife, At dawn of all we long for so— The sun is rising—let us go."

"There is rust upon locks and hinges, And mould and blight on the walls, And silence faints in the chambers, And darkness waits in the halls."

"Yes, death, — the hourly possibility of it, — death is the sublimity of life."

"Death is not the opposite of life; it exists as a part of them."

"All beings in the world, all bodies must break up: Even the Teacher, peerless in the human world, The mighty Lord and perfect Buddha has passed away."

"Impermanent are compounded things, prone to rise and fall, Having risen, they are destroyed, their passing truest bliss."

"When you think of your own death, the fact that all the good things in life will come to an end is certainly a reason for regret. But that doesn’t seem to be the whole story. Most people want there to be more of what they enjoy in life, but for some people, the prospect of nonexistence is itself frightening, in a way that isn’t adequately explained by what has been said so far. The thought that the world will go on without you, that you will become nothing, is very hard to take in. It’s not clear why. We all accept the fact that there was a time before we were born, when we didn’t yet exist—so why should we be so disturbed at the prospect of nonexistence after our death? But somehow it doesn’t feel the same. The prospect of nonexistence is frightening, at least to many people, in a way that past nonexistence cannot be. The fear of death is very puzzling, in a way that regret about the end of life is not. It’s easy to understand that we might want to have more life, more of the things it contains, so that we see death as a negative evil. But how can the prospect of your own nonexistence be alarming in a positive way? If we really cease to exist at death, there’s nothing to look forward to, so how can there be anything to be afraid of? If one thinks about it logically, it seems as though death should be something to be afraid of only if we will survive it, and perhaps undergo some terrifying transformation. But that doesn’t prevent many people from thinking that annihilation is one of the worst things that could happen to them."

"I do not think life will change for the better without an assault on the establishment, which goes on exploiting the wretched of the earth. This belief lies at the heart of the concept of revolutionary suicide. Thus it is better to oppose the forces that would drive me to self-murder than to endure them. Although I risk the likelihood of death, there is at least the possibility, if not the probability, of changing intolerable conditions."

"The biggest part of my life I did not trust people who were not scared of dying, because when you get older, you think about death more and more times. I think if we could choose, no one wants to die. That's why we can come to the conclusion that everyone wants to have the eternal life, which seems to become possible in the future due to the developments in the medical science. But the question is not really if you want eternal life, it is more if you want to have eternal life at your children's expense. By the way: we would get big ecologic problems if we all remain alive."

"Everybody dies. The obstetrician slaps you on the ass with one hand and hands you a postdated death certificate with the other."

"All humans will, without exception, eventually die. After they die, the place they go is Mu (nothingness)."

"As I'm sure you've noticed, death isn't the great equalizer it's made out to be. Layers of hierarchy remain, interlaced by the tangled webs of power and privilege. The dead, after all, are human, and what could be more human than an unnecessarily oppressive bureaucracy at the end all be all of existence?"

"I don't know what God is. I don't know what death is.But I believe they have between them some fervent and necessary arrangement."

"And die with decency."

"Tendimus huc omnes; metam properamus ad unam. Omnia sub leges mors vocat atra suas."

": We are all bound thither; we are hastening to the same common goal. Black death calls all things under the sway of its laws."

"Stulte, quid est somnus, gelidæ nisi mortis imago? Longa quiescendi tempora fata dabunt."

": Thou fool, what is sleep but the image of death? Fate will give an eternal rest."

"Ultima semper Expectanda dies homini est, dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo et suprema funera debet."

": Man should ever look to his last day, and no one should be called happy before his funeral."

"Nec mihi mors gravis est posituro morte dolores."

": Death is not grievous to me, for I shall lay aside my pains by death."

"Quocunque adspicias, nihil est nisi mortis imago."

": Wherever you look there is nothing but the image of death."

"I don't care when I die, when you die, you die. What I don't want is to die in my bed. To be killed in an accident or to be shot is my preferred way to die."

"I've said I'm not afraid of death, and that's true. Dying, though, is another matter. Dying slowly in great pain is something I actively try to avoid."

"Death's but a path that must be trod, If man would ever pass to God."

"Reflect on death as in Jesus Christ, not as without Jesus Christ. Without Jesus Christ it is dreadful, it is alarming, it is the terror of nature. In Jesus Christ it is fair and lovely, it is good and holy, it is the joy of saints."

"Death ends a life, but not a relationship. Those memories, I think, linger in love. These honored dead have returned to the love that created them, and we miss their faces that we’ll see no more. Yet, we know at the deepest level of our being that something of who they were, and are now, endures at a whole new dimension of reality. And our true nature is to trust and embrace both life and death. As Thornton Wilder once wrote, 'There is a land of the living and the land of the dead, and the only bridge is love, the only survivor, the only meaning.'"

"Death is repose, but the thought of death disturbs all repose."

"Death comes to all. His cold and sapless hand Waves o'er the world, and beckons us away. Who shall resist the summons?"

"O lady, he is dead and gone! Lady, he's dead and gone! And at his head a green grass turfe, And at his heels a stone."

"For death betimes is comfort, not dismay, And who can rightly die needs no delay."

"Earl of Sandwich: 'Pon my honor, Wilkes, I don't know whether you'll die on the gallows or of the pox. John Wilkes: That must depend my Lord, upon whether I first embrace your Lordship's principles, or your Lordship's mistresses."

"Nam vita morti propior est quotidie."

": For life is nearer every day to death."

"Look forward a little further to the period when all the noise and tumult and business of this world shall have closed forever."

"Quem dii diligunt, Adolescens moritur, dum valet, sentit, sapit."

": He whom the gods love dies young, whilst he is full of health, perception, and judgment."

"Omnibus a suprema die eadem, quæ ante primum; nec magis a morte sensus ullus aut corpori aut animæ quam ante natalem."

": His last day places man in the same state as he was before he was born; nor after death has the body or soul any more feeling than they had before birth."

"De mortuis nil nisi bonum."

": Concerning the dead nothing but good shall be spoken."

"Come! let the burial rite be read— The funeral song be sung!— An anthem for the queenliest dead That ever died so young— A dirge for her, the doubly dead In that she died so young."

"Out—out are the lights—out all! And, over each quivering form, The curtain, a funeral pall, Comes down with the rush of a storm, And the angels, all pallid and wan, Uprising, unveiling, affirm That the play is the tragedy, "Man," And its hero the Conqueror Worm."

"See my lips tremble and my eyeballs roll, Suck my last breath, and catch my flying soul!"

"O Death, all eloquent! you only prove What dust we dote on, when 'tis man we love."

"Till tired, he sleeps, and life's poor play is o'er."

"But thousands die without or this or that, Die, and endow a college or a cat."

"Tell me, my soul! can this be death?"

"The world recedes; it disappears; Heav'n opens on my eyes; my ears With sounds seraphic ring: Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly! O Grave! where is thy victory? O Death! where is thy sting?"

"Vital spark of heavenly flame! Quit, oh quit this mortal frame."

"By foreign hands thy dying eyes were clos'd, By foreign hands thy decent limbs compos'd, By foreign hands thy humble grave adorn'd, By strangers honour'd, and by strangers mourn'd."

"A heap of dust remains of thee; 'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be!"

"An uneasy rhythm of life is more life like than an easy death."

"It was said that life was cheap in Ankh-Morpork. This was, of course, completely wrong. Life was often very expensive; you could get death for free."

"I am death, not taxes. I turn up only once."

"Teach him how to live, And, oh! still harder lesson! how to die."

"Sunt aliquid Manes: letum non omnia finit, Luridaque evictos effugit umbra rogos."

"Death aims with fouler spite At fairer marks."

"It is the lot of man but once to die."

"Withdrawn into the peace of this desert, along with some books, few but wise, I live in conversation with the deceased, and listen to the dead with my eyes."

"Je m'en vais chercher un grand peut-être; tirez le rideau, la farce est jouée."

": I am going to seek a great perhaps; draw the curtain, the farce is played."

"Et l'avare Achéron ne lâche pas sa proie."

": And greedy Acheron does not relinquish its prey."

"O eloquent, just, and mighty Death! whom none could advise, thou hast persuaded; what none hath dared, thou hast done; and whom all the world hath flattered, thou only hast cast out of the world and despised: thou hast drawn together all the far stretchèd greatness, all the pride, cruelty and ambition of man, and covered it all over with those two narrow words, Hic jacet!"

"Hushed in the alabaster arms of Death, Our young Marcellus sleeps."

"On the contrary, death is the ultimate fairness; rich and poor, young and old, all are equal in death."

"Sorry about your Uncle Fred, but hey, sometimes you end up dead. Did somebody bonk him in the head? Did somebody pump him full of lead? What the...? Are they trying to be humorous? Betcha glad it wasn't you instead."

"Fort Belle, Elle Dort."

"But death we are, and death have always been."

"Der lange Schlaf des Todes schliesst unsere Narben zu, und der kutze des Lebens unsere Wunden."

": The long sleep of death closes our scars, and the short sleep of life our wounds."

"The imminence of death serves to sweep away the inessential preoccupations for those who do not flee from the thought of death into triviality."

"Some people think that we are stuck in physical reality like flies in flypaper or victims in quicksand, so that each motion we make only worsens our predicament and hastens our extinction. Others see the universe as a sort of theater into which we are thrust at birth and from which we depart forever at death. In the backs of their minds people with either attitude will see a built-in threat in each new day; even joy will be suspect because it, too, must end in the body's eventual death. I used to feel this way. When I fell in love with Rob, my joy served to double the underlying sense of tragedy I felt, as if death mocked me all the more by making life twice as precious. I saw each day bringing me closer to a total extinction that I could hardly imagine, but which I resented with growing vehemence."

"However dreary we may have felt life to be here, yet when that hour comes — the winding up of all things, the last grand rush of darkness on our spirits, the hour of that awful sudden wrench from all we have ever known or loved, the long farewell to sun, moon, stars, and light — brother man, I ask you this day, and I ask myself humbly and fearfully, "What will then be finished? When it is finished, what will it be? Will it be the butterfly existence of pleasure, the mere life of science, a life of uninterrupted sin and self-gratification, or will it be, 'Father, I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do?'""

"Every day His servants are dying modestly and peacefully — not a word of victory on their lips; but Christ's deep triumph in their hearts — watching the slow progress of their own decay, and yet so far emancipated from personal anxiety that they are still able to think and plan for others, not knowing that they are doing any great thing. They die, and the world hears nothing of them; and yet theirs was the completest victory. They came to the battle field, the field to which they had been looking forward all their lives, and the enemy was not to be found. There was no foe to fight with."

"The struggles, the disillusions, and the enmities of life are a part of daily experience. Either death should bring compensating oblivion, or it should throw the mantle of charity over our frailties."

"And so, you see, simplicity Requires that our lot Be that we exit, when we must, With only what we brought."

"Those that he loved so long and sees no more, Loved and still loves—not dead, but gone before, He gathers round him."

"Mortal danger is an effective antidote for fixed ideas."

"Sleep that no pain shall wake, Night that no morn shall break, Till joy shall overtake Her perfect peace."

"There is no music more for him: His lights are out, his feast is done; His bowl that sparkled to the brim Is drained, is broken, cannot hold."

"When I am dead, my dearest, Sing no sad songs for me; Plant thou no roses at my head, No shady cypress tree."

"It has been commonly observed that blood, wounds, cries and groans, the preparations for painful operations, and everything which directs the senses towards things connected with suffering, are usually the first to make an impression on all men. The idea of destruction, a more complex matter, does not have so great an effect; the thought of death affects us later and less forcibly, for no one knows from his own experience what it is to die; you must have seen corpses to feel the agonies of the dying. But when once this idea is established in the mind, there is no spectacle more dreadful in our eyes, whether because of the idea of complete destruction which it arouses through our senses, or because we know that this moment must come for each one of us and we feel ourselves all the more keenly affected by a situation from which we know there is no escape."

"Je m'em vais voir le soleil pour la dernière fois."

": I go to see the sun for the last time."

"Death is the privilege of human nature, And life without it were not worth our taking: Thither the poor, the pris'ner, and the mourner Fly for relief, and lay their burthens down."

"I died as a mineral and became a plant, I died as plant and rose to animal, I died as animal and I was Man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar With angels blest; but even from angelhood I must pass on: all except God doth perish. When I have sacrificed my angel-soul, I shall become what no mind e'er conceived. Oh, let me not exist! for Non-existence Proclaims in organ tones, To Him we shall return."

"I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive. I am not young and I love life. But I should scorn to shiver with terror at the thought of annihilation. Happiness is nonetheless true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting. Many a man has borne himself proudly on the scaffold; surely the same pride should teach us to think truly about man's place in the world. Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cosy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigour, and the great spaces have a splendour of their own."

"To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead."

"Out of the chill and the shadow, Into the thrill and the shine; Out of the dearth and the famine, Into the fulness divine."

"There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval."

"Death must be an evil — and the gods agree; for why else would they live for ever?"

"Yes [death has become a taboo]. Today people want to avoid the subject and hide the deaths that happen around them. It is as if the world were a hotel where the dead usually disappear at night, without any guest being able to notice their presence. While movies and television address death, they do not touch the fundamental point of finitude. The deaths are false, the good guys get shot and come back to life. It's another way of treating death as unreal."

"Death is the inventor of God."

"One day in the afternoon of the world, glum death will come and sit in you, and when you get up to walk, you will be as glum as death, but if you're lucky, this will only make the fun better and the love greater."

"We may have years, we may have hours, but sooner or later, we push up flowers."

"Death makes sad stories of us all."

"I hope that Allah will not make me immortal, for death is his greatest gift to any true believer."

"Day's lustrous eyes grow heavy in sweet death."

"Und setzet ihr nicht das Leben ein, Nie wird euch das Leben gewonnen sein."

": If you do not dare to die you will never win life."

"Gut' Nacht, Gordon. Ich denke einen langen Schlaf zu thun."

": Good night, Gordon. I am thinking of taking a long sleep."

"Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death."

"Death is a human affirmation of a belief in “fate,” or level confusion. That is why the Bible says, “There is no death,” and why I demonstrated that death does not exist. I came to fulfill the law by reintepreting it. p. 10 When your body and your ego and your dreams are gone, you will know that you will last forever. Many think this is accomplished through death, but nothing is accomplished through death because death is nothing. Everything is accomplished through life, and life is of the mind and IN the Mind. The body neither lives nor dies because it cannot contain you who are life. If we share the same mind, you can overcome death because I did. Death is an attempt to resolve conflict by not willing at all. Like any other impossible solution which the ego attempts, it will not work. p. 132 Sleep is no more a form of death than death is a form of unconsciousness. Unconsciousness is impossible. You can rest in peace only because you are awake. Healing is release from the fear of waking and the substitution of the will to wake. The will to wake is the will to love, since ALL healing involves replacing fear with love. p. 195"

"Death ends a life, not a relationship."

"Haste thee, haste thee, to be gone! Earth flits fast and time draws on: Gasp thy gasp, and groan thy groan! Day is near the breaking."

"Soon the shroud shall lap thee fast, And the sleep be on thee cast That shall ne'er know waking."

"Like the dew on the mountain, Like the foam on the river, Like the bubble on the fountain, Thou art gone, and for ever!"

"Death is a stage in human progress to be passed as we would pass from childhood to youth or from youth to manhood, and with the same consciousness of an ever-unfolding nature."

"I have a rendezvous with Death At some disputed barricade, When Spring comes back with rustling shade And apple-blossoms fill the air— I have a rendezvous with Death When Spring brings back blue days and fair. It may be he shall take my hand And lead me into his dark land And close my eyes and quench my breath— It may be I shall pass him still. I have a rendezvous with Death On some scarred slope of battered hill, When Spring comes round again this year And the first meadow-flowers appear. God knows ’twere better to be deep Pillowed in silk and scented down, Where Love throbs out in blissful sleep, Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath, Where hushed awakenings are dear … But I’ve a rendezvous with Death At midnight in some flaming town, When Spring trips north again this year, And I to my pledged word am true, I shall not fail that rendezvous."

"So die as though your funeral Ushered you through the doors that led Into a stately banquet hall Where heroes banqueted."

"Quid est enim novi, hominem mori, cujus tota vita nihil aliud quam ad mortem iter est?"

": What new thing then is it for a man to die, whose whole life is nothing else but a journey to death?"

"Ultimum malorum est ex vivorum numero exire antequam moriaris."

": It is an extreme evil to depart from the company of the living before you die."

"Quem mihi dabis qui aliquod pretium tempori ponat, qui diem aestimet, qui intellegat se cotidie mori?"

"In hoc enim fallimur, quod mortem prospicimus: magna pars eius iam praeterit; quidquid aetatis retro est mors tenet."

"Nulli potest secura vita contingere qui de producenda nimis cogitat."

"Vivere nolunt, et mori nesciunt."

": They will not live, and do not know how to die."

"Non amittuntur sed præmittuntur."

": They are not lost but sent before."

"Stultitia est timore mortis mori."

": It is folly to die of the fear of death."

"Incertum est quo te loco mors expectet: itaque tu illam omni loco expecta."

": It is uncertain in what place death may await thee; therefore expect it in any place."

"Dies iste, quem tamquam extremum reformidas, æterni natalis est."

": This day, which thou fearest as thy last, is the birthday of eternity."

"Interim pœna est mori, Sed sæpe donum; pluribus veniæ fuit."

": Sometimes death is a punishment; often a gift; it has been a favor to many."

"Eripere vitam nemo non homini potest; At nemo mortem; mille ad hanc aditus patent."

": Any one may take life from man, but no one death; a thousand gates stand open to it."

"Optanda mors est, sine metu mortis mori."

": To die without fear of death is to be desired."

"Illi mors gravis incubat"

"Mr. Bookman: Mr. Death, that little girl's only 8 years old. I'm ready now."

"Death's pale flag advanced in his cheeks."

"Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off, And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. Do not be forever with thy vailed lids Seek for thy noble father in the dust: Thou know'st tis common; all that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity."

"To be, or not to be, —that is the question:— Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? —To die, —to sleep,— No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, —'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, —to sleep;— To sleep! perchance to dream: —ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? who would these 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 naught of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought; And enterprises of great pitch and moment, With this regard, their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action."

"O, I die, Horatio; The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit: I cannot live to hear the news from England; But I do prophesy the election lights On Fortinbras: he has my dying voice; So tell him, with the occurrents, more and less, Which have solicited. The rest is silence."

"Cowards die many times before their deaths;"

"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,"

"The babe is at peace within the womb, The corpse is at rest within the tomb. We begin in what we end."

"First our pleasures die—and then Our hopes, and then our fears—and when These are dead, the debt is due, Dust claims dust—and we die too."

"All buildings are but monuments of death, All clothes but winding-sheets for our last knell, All dainty fattings for the worms beneath, All curious music but our passing bell: Thus death is nobly waited on, for why? All that we have is but death's livery."

"Death calls ye to the crowd of common men."

"The glories of our blood and state Are shadows, not substantial things; There is no armour against fate, Death lays his icy hand on kings. Scepter and crown Must tumble down, And, in the dust, be equal made With the poor crooked scythe and spade."

"He that on his pillow lies, Fear-embalmed before he dies Carries, like a sheep, his life, To meet the sacrificer's knife, And for eternity is prest, Sad bell-wether to the rest."

"Death is the event in life. It is our chief organizing principle. It’s why we rush and why we dawdle, why we better up our bosses and fawn over our children, why we like both fast cars and fading flowers, why we write poetry, why sex thrills us. It's why we wonder why we are here."

"La mort sans phrase."

": Death without phrases."

"Yet 'twill only be a sleep: When, with songs and dewy light, Morning blossoms out of Night, She will open her blue eyes 'Neath the palms of Paradise, While we foolish ones shall weep."

"We count it death to falter, not to die."

"Dead is she? No; rather let us call ourselves dead, who tire so soon in the service of the Master whom she has gone to serve forever."

"To our graves we walk In the thick footprints of departed men."

"Your death and my death are mainly of importance to ourselves. The black plumes will be stripped off our hearses within the hour; tears will dry, hurt hearts close again, our graves grow level with the church-yard, and although we are away, the world wags on. It does not miss us; and those who are near us, when the first strangeness of vacancy wears off, will not miss us much either."

"Tarry with me, O my Saviour! Lay my head upon Thy breast, Till the morning; then awake me — Morning of eternal rest."

"Death is one of two things. Either it is annihilation, and the dead have no consciousness of anything; or, as we are told, it is really a change: a migration of the soul from this place to another."

"Death is not the worst evil, but rather when we wish to die and cannot."

"Death! to the happy thou art terrible; But how the wretched love to think of thee, O thou true comforter! the friend of all Who have no friend beside!"

":[An alien is impersonating Data.]"

"Death is the waiting-room where we robe ourselves for immortality."

"How we face death is at least as important as how we deal with life."

"David: Lieutenant Saavik was right: you never have faced death --"

"Death, for the author of the John Gospel as for the strict Moslem, is not the end of life, but a Something, a death-force, that contends with a life-force for the possession of man."

"Death is an equall doome To good and bad, the common In of rest."

"Death slue not him, but he made death his ladder to the skies."

"A free man thinks of death least of all things; and his wisdom is a meditation not of death but of life."

"It’s not until they tell you you’re going to die soon that you realize how short life is. Time is the most valuable thing in life because it never comes back. And whether you spend it in the arms of a loved one or alone in a prison-cell, life is what you make of it. Dream big."

"Life into death—life’s other shape; no rupture, only crossing."

"If birth is a manifestation of life, death is another."

"Life and death merge in greatness."

"They are both spectacular, life and death."

"Chicó - John! John! Died! Oh my God, poor died of John Cricket! So yellow, and so shameless to die like that! What do I do in the world without John? John! John! There is no way, John Cricket died. Ended the smartest Cricket in the world. He completed his sentence and met with the only irredeemable evil, what is the mark of our strange destiny on earth, that fact without explanation that matches everything that is alive in one flock of guilty, because all that is alive dies. What can I do now? Only your funeral and pray for his soul."

"There's no time to think about the starting or the end. We'll find out I'm told, my mother she told me so."

"Everyone dies—the rearrangement of when is a matter of only statistical interest."

"The problem is, information degrades each time a human cell replenishes itself. Death is inherent in flesh people. It seems to be written into the basic program—a way, perhaps, of keeping the universe from filling up with old people."

"Death, if thou wilt, fain would I plead with thee: Canst thou not spare, of all our hopes have built, One shelter where our spirits fain would be Death, if thou wilt?"

"For thee, O now a silent soul, my brother, Take at my hands this garland and farewell. Thin is the leaf, and chill the wintry smell, And chill the solemn earth, a fatal mother."

"And hands that wist not though they dug a grave, Undid the hasps of gold, and drank, and gave, And he drank after, a deep glad kingly draught: And all their life changed in them, for they quaffed Death; if it be death so to drink, and fare As men who change and are what these twain were."

"On the mountains of memory, by the world's wellsprings, In all men's eyes, Where the light of the life of him is on all past things, Death only dies."

"Honesta mors turpi vita potior."

": An honorable death is better than a dishonorable life."

"As for myself, may the "sweet Muses," as Virgil says, bear me away to their holy places where sacred streams do flow, beyond the reach of anxiety and care, and free from the obligation of performing each day some task that goes against the grain. May I no longer have anything to do with the mad racket and the hazards of the forum, or tremble as I try a fall with white-faced Fame. I do not want to be roused from sleep by the clatter of morning callers or by some breathless messenger from the palace; I do not care, in drawing my will, to give a money-pledge for its safe execution through anxiety as to what is to happen afterwards; I wish for no larger estate than I can leave to the heir of my own free choice. Some day or other the last hour will strike also for me, and my prayer is that my effigy may be set up beside my grave, not grim and scowling, but all smiles and garlands, and that no one shall seek to honour my memory either by a motion in the senate or by a petition to the Emperor."

"Trust not your own powers till the day of your death."

"Death is not rare, alas! nor burials few, And soon the grassy coverlet of God Spreads equal green above their ashes pale."

"He that would die well must always look for death, every day knocking at the gates of the grave; and then the gates of the grave shall never prevail upon him to do him mischief."

"However convergent it be, evolution cannot attain to fulfilment on earth except through a point of dissociation. With this we are introduced to a fantastic and inevitable event which now begins to take shape in our perspective, the event which comes nearer with every day that passes: the end of all life on our globe, the death of the planet, the ultimate phase of the phenomenon of man. ... Now when sufficient elements have sufficiently agglomerated, this essentially convergent movement will attain such intensity and such quality that mankind, taken as a whole, will be obliged—as happened to the individual forces of instinct—to reflect upon itself at a single point; that is to say, in this case, to abandon its organo-planetary foothold so as to shift its centre on to the transcendent centre of its increasing concentration. This will be the end and the fulfilment of the spirit of the earth. The end of the world: the wholesale internal introversion upon itself of the noosphere, which has simultaneously reached the uttermost limit of its complexity and its centrality. The end of the world: the overthrow of equilibrium, detaching the mind, fulfilled at last, from its material matrix, so that it will henceforth rest with all its weight on God-Omega. ... The death of the materially exhausted planet; the split of the noosphere, divided on the form to be given to its unity; and simultaneously (endowing the event with all its significance and with all its value) the liberation of that percentage of the universe which, across time, space and evil, will have succeeded in laboriously synthesising itself to the very end. Not an indefinite progress, which is an hypothesis contradicted by the convergent nature of noogenesis, but an ecstasy transcending the dimensions and the framework of the visible universe."

"Do we not all, in this very hour, recall a death-bed scene in which some loved one has passed away? And, as we bring to mind the solemn reflections of that hour, are we not ready to hear and to heed the voice with which a dying wife once addressed him who stood sobbing by her side: "My dear husband, live for one thing, and only one thing; Just one thing, — the glory of God, the glory of God!""

"The great world's altar-stairs That slope thro' darkness up to God."

"Death has made His darkness beautiful with thee."

"God's finger touched him, and he slept."

"But O! for the touch of a vanish'd hand, And the sound of a voice that is still!"

"Sunset and evening star, And one clear call for me! And may there be no moaning of the bar When I put out to sea."

"Twilight and evening bell, And after that the dark! And may there be no sadness of farewell When I embark."

"For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place The flood may bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I have crossed the bar."

"The night comes on that knows not morn, When I shall cease to be all alone, To live forgotten, and love forlorn."

"Whatever crazy sorrow saith, No life that breathes with human breath Has ever truly long'd for death."

"Sleep sweetly, tender heart, in peace; Sleep, holy spirit, blessed soul, While the stars burn, the moons increase, And the great ages onward roll. Sleep till the end, true soul and sweet. Nothing comes to thee new or strange. Sleep full of rest from head to feet; Lie still, dry dust, secure of change."

"Dead men bite not."

"τάχ᾽ αὔριον ἔσσετ᾽ ἄμεινον ἐλπίδες ἐν ζωοῖσιν, ἀνέλπιστοι δὲ θανόντες"

"We create the dualism, not realizing that death, like life, is a process. The moment I am born, I enter the realm of death. Life and death are together one process, and we are dying every moment."

"Do not go gentle into that good night."

"Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

"Et "Bene," discedens dicet, "placideque quiescas; Terraque securæ sit super ossa levis.""

": And at departure he will say, "Mayest thou rest soundly and quietly, and may the light turf lie easy on thy bones.""

"I hear a voice you cannot hear, Which says, I must not stay; I see a hand you cannot see, Which beckons me away."

"These taught us how to live; and (oh, too high The price for knowledge!) taught us how to die."

"Since every day a little of our life is taken from us—since we are dying every day—the final hour when we cease to exist does not of itself bring death; it merely completes the death process."

"Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to "die before you die" - and find that there is no death. p. 34"

"Conscious Death. Apart from dreamless sleep... there is one other involuntary portal. It opens up briefly at the time of physical death. Even if you have missed all the other opportunities for spiritual realization during your lifetime, one last portal will open up for you immediately after the body has died. There are countless accounts by people who had a visual impression of this portal as radiant light and then returned from what is commonly known as a near-death experience. Many of them also spoke of a sense of blissful serenity and deep peace... This portal opens up only very briefly, and unless you have already encountered the dimension of the Unmanifested in your lifetime, you will likely miss it. Most people carry too much residual resistance, too much fear, too much attachment to sensory experience, too much identification with the manifested world. So they see the portal, turn away in fear, and then lose consciousness. Most of what happens after that is involuntary and automatic. Eventually, there will be another round of birth and death. p. 91"

"Approaching death and death itself, the dissolution of the physical form, is always a great opportunity for spiritual realization. This opportunity is tragically missed most of the time, since we live in a culture that is almost totally ignorant of death, as it is almost totally ignorant of anything that truly matters. Every portal is a portal of death, the death of the false self. When you go through it, you cease to derive your identity from your psychological, mind-made form. You then realize that death is an illusion, just as your identification with form was an illusion. The end of illusion - that's all that death is. It is painful only as long as you cling to illusion. p. 92"

"Memento mori—remember death! These are important words. If we kept in mind that we will soon inevitably die, our lives would be completely different. If a person knows that he will die in a half hour, he certainly will not bother doing trivial, stupid, or, especially, bad things during this half hour. Perhaps you have half a century before you die—what makes this any different from a half hour?"

"Those who are lighthearted remind me of death."

"Our soul’s perfection is our life’s purpose; any other purpose, keeping death in mind, has no substance."

"The syllogism he had learnt from Kiesewetter’s Logic: “Caius is a man, men are mortal, therefore Caius is mortal,” had always seemed to him correct as applied to Caius, but certainly not as applied to himself. That Caius—man in the abstract—was mortal, was perfectly correct, but he was not Caius, not an abstract man, but a creature quite, quite separate from all others."

"The awful, terrible act of his dying was, he could see, reduced by those about him to the level of a casual, unpleasant, and almost indecorous incident (as if someone entered a drawing room defusing an unpleasant odor) and this was done by that very decorum which he had served all his life long. He saw that no one felt for him, because no one even wished to grasp his position"

"It occurred to him that what had appeared perfectly impossible before, namely that he had not spent his life as he should have done, might after all be true. It occurred to him that his scarcely perceptible attempts to struggle against what was considered good by the most highly placed people, those scarcely noticeable impulses which he had immediately suppressed, might have been the real thing, and all the rest false. And his professional duties and the whole arrangement of his life and of his family, and all his social and official interests, might all have been false. He tried to defend all those things to himself and suddenly felt the weakness of what he was defending."

"He lay on his back and began to pass his life in review in quite a new way. In the morning when he saw first his footman, then his wife, then his daughter, and then the doctor, their every word and movement confirmed to him the awful truth that had been revealed to him during the night. In them he saw himself—all that for which he had lived—and saw clearly that it was not real at all, but a terrible and huge deception which had hidden both life and death."

"I believe if I should die, And you should kiss my eyelids where I lie Cold, dead, and dumb to all the world contains, The folded orbs would open at thy breath, And from its exile in the Isles of Death Life would come gladly back along my veins."

"[P]eople are afraid – more afraid of the state – than of dying."

"So what if a kid dies? God will take care of him."

"Death is so preoccupied with life, that is has no time for anything else."

"“Death is never dignified.” O’Doull spoke with a doctor’s certainty. “Never. Dignity in death is something we invent afterwards to make the living feel better.”"

"Say the report is exaggerated."

"And God said, "A way must be conceived to pursue the dead beyond the tomb.""

"Only the feeble resign themselves to final death and substitute some other desire for the longing for personal immortality. In the strong the zeal for perpetuity overrides the doubt of realizing it, and their superabundance of life overflows upon the other side of death."

"If a man despises the applause of the crowd of today, it is because he seeks to survive in renewed minorities for generations. "Posterity is an accumulation of minorities," said Gounod. He wishes to prolong himself in time rather than in space. The crowd soon overthrows its own idols and the statue lies broken at the foot of the pedestal without anyone heeding it; but those who win the hearts of the elect will long be the objects of a fervent worship in some shrine, small and secluded no doubt, but capable of preserving them from the flood of oblivion."

"No one says in the morning: A day is soon past, let us wait for the night. ... Yet what we cannot be certain of for an hour, we sometimes feel assured of for life, and say: “If death is the end of everything, why give ourselves so much trouble?""

"Go thou, deceased, to this earth which is a mother, and spacious and kind. May her touch be soft like that of wool, or a young woman, and may she protect thee from the depths of destruction. Rise above him, O Earth, do not press painfully on him, give him good things, give him consolation, as a mother covers her child with her cloth, cover thou him."

"Venit summa dies et ineluctabile tempus."

": The supreme day has come and the inevitable hour."

"Vixi, et quem dederat cursum fortuna, peregi: Et nunc magna mei sub terras currit imago."

": I have lived, and I have run the course which fortune allotted me; and now my shade shall descend illustrious to the grave."

"Irreameabilis unda."

": The wave from which there is no return [the river Styx]."

"Usque adeone mori miserum est?"

": Is it then so sad a thing to die?"

"Decet imperatorem stantem mori."

": It becomes an emperor to die standing (i.e. "in harness")."

"C'est demain, ma belle amie, que je fais le saut perilleux."

": It is today, my dear, that I take a perilous leap."

"Le lâche fuit en vain; la mort vole à sa suite: C'est en la défiant que le brave l'évite."

": It is vain for the coward to flee; death follows close behind; it is only by defying it that the brave escape."

"The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist. The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just that way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them. It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever."

"Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt."

"Every man dies. Not every man really lives."

"But God, who is able to prevail, wrestled with him, as the angel did with Jacob, and marked him; marked him for his own."

"Softly his fainting head he lay Upon his Maker's breast; His Maker kiss'd his soul away, And laid his flesh to rest."

"Hark! from the tombs a doleful sound."

"The tall, the wise, the reverend head, Must lie as low as ours."

"One may live as a conqueror, a king, or a magistrate; but he must die as a man."

"I know death hath ten thousand several doors For men to take their exits."

"I saw him now going the way of all flesh."

"I rejoice in the presence of death because I think it’s what makes life brilliant and beautiful. And without it, the world would be ridiculous. I’m interested in it from every point of view. My interest in it has not dimmed with its approach."

"Like Moses to thyself convey, And kiss my raptur'd soul away."

"Mysterious Night! When our first parent knew Thee from report Divine, and heard thy name, Did he not tremble for this lovely frame, This glorious canopy of light and blue? Yet 'neath a curtain of translucent dew, Bathed in the rays of the great setting flame, Hesperus, with the host of heaven came; And lo! creation widened in man's view. Who could have thought such darkness lay concealed Within thy beams, O sun? or who could find, While fly and leaf and insect stood revealed, That to such countless orbs thou mad'st us blind? Why do we then shun death with anxious strife? If light can thus deceive, wherefore not life?"

"Joy, shipmate, joy (Pleas'd to my soul at death I cry,) Our life is closed, our life begins, The long, long anchorage we leave, The ship is clear at last, she leaps! Joy, shipmate, joy!"

"O, I see now that life cannot exhibit all to me, as day cannot, I see that I am to wait for what will be exhibited by death."

"Nothing can happen more beautiful than death."

"Death is nature's way of saying, "Your table is ready.""

"It is not the fear of death That damps my brow; It is not for another breath I ask thee now; I could die with a lip unstirred."

"How beautiful it is for a man to die Upon the walls of Zion! to be called Like a watch-worn and weary sentinel, To put his armour off, and rest in heaven!"

"I don't wanna die But I ain't keen on living either"

"For I know that Death is a guest divine, Who shall drink my blood as I drink this wine; And he cares for nothing! a king is he— Come on, old fellow, and drink with me! With you I will drink to the solemn past, Though the cup that I drain should be my last."

"But he lay like a warrior taking his rest, With his martial cloak around him."

"If I had thought thou couldst have died I might not weep for thee; But I forgot, when by thy side, That thou couldst mortal be; It never through my mind had passed, That time would e'er be o'er When I on thee should look my last, And thou shouldst smile no more!"

"O, sir! the good die first, And they whose hearts are dry as summer dust Burn to the socket."

"Death is the quiet haven of us all."

"But they are dead; those two are dead! Their spirits are in Heaven!" 'Twas throwing words away; for still The little Maid would have her will, And said, "Nay, we are seven!"

"He first deceased; she for a little tried To live without him, lik'd it not, and died."

"People don't die that easily, really. ...As long as they've got something worth living for."

"Insatiate archer! could not one suffice? Thy shaft flew thrice; and thrice my peace was slain!"

"Who can take Death's portrait? The tyrant never sat."

"The chamber where the good man meets his fate Is privileged beyond the common walk Of virtuous life, quite in the verge of heaven."

"A death-bed's a detector of the heart."

"Lovely in death the beauteous ruin lay; And if in death still lovely, lovelier there; Far lovelier! pity swells the tide of love."

"Death is the crown of life; Were death denyed, poor man would live in vain; Were death denyed, to live would not be life; Were death denyed, ev'n fools would wish to die."

"The knell, the shroud, the mattock and the grave, The deep, damp vault, the darkness, and the worm."

"And feels a thousand deaths, in fearing one."

"As soon as man, expert from time, has found The key of life, it opes the gates of death."

"Early, bright, transient, chaste, as morning dew She sparkled, was exhal'd, and went to heaven."

"Death loves a shining mark, a signal blow."

"Men drop so fast, ere life's mid stage we tread, Few know so many friends alive, as dead."

"Prefiero morir de pie que vivir de rodillas."

"Death is mighty, and is no one's friend."

"He is the Angel of Death. Life lasts long, save for him; populations would rise up like tidal waves and inundate worlds, save for him; criminals would require trials and sentencing, save for him; and of course history might reflect unnecessary twisting and turnings, save for the Angel of Death."

"While on a journey, Chuang Tzu found a skull, dry and parched. With sorrow he questioned and lamented the end to all things. When he finished speaking, he dragged the skull over, and using it as a pillow, lay down to sleep. In the night, the skull came to his dreams and said, "You are a fool to rejoice in the entanglements of life." Chuang Tzu couldn't believe this and asked "If I could return you to your life, you would want that, wouldn't you?" Stunned by Chuang Tzu's foolishness the skull replied, "How do you know that it is bad to be dead?""

"One event happeneth to them all."

"The grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail; because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets."

"For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing at all, nor do they have any more reward, because all memory of them is forgotten."

"Whatever your hand finds to do, do with all your might, for there is no work nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom in the Grave, where you are going."

"Judge none blessed before his death."

"For dust thou art, and unto dust shall thou return."

"We all do fade as a leaf."

"And those slain by Jehovah in that day will be from one end of the earth clear to the other end of the earth. They will not be mourned, nor will they be gathered up or buried. They will become like manure on the surface of the ground."

"The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."

"He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more."

"The land of darkness and the shadow of death."

"And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell."

"I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death."

"John of Patmos, in Book of Revelation 1:17-18"

"When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come.” I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth."

"And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

"The axe is laid unto the root of the trees."

"For he must rule as king until God has put all enemies under his feet. And the last enemy, death, is to be brought to nothing."

"Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death where is thy sting, O Grave where is thy victory?"

"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."

"I have said ye are gods … But ye shall die like men."

"How can you refute God that you were without life and He gave you life? Again, He will cause you to die and again bring you to life, then you shall be brought back to Him. It is He who created for you all that is in the earth. And He directed Himself to the heaven, so He made them complete seven heavens; and He is Knower of all things"

"And no soul can die except by God's permission -- the term is fixed. And whoever desires the reward of this world, We give him of it, and whoever desires the reward of the Hereafter, We give him of it. And We shall reward the grateful."

"Every soul will taste death, and you will only be given your (full) compensation on the Day of Resurrection. So he who is drawn away from the Fire and admitted to Paradise has attained (his desire). And what is the life of this world except the enjoyment of delusion."

"Wherever you are, death will find you even if you hide yourselves in fortresses built up strong and high. Whenever people experience fortune, they say that it is from God but whenever they experience misfortune, they say it is because of you, (O Muhammad). Tell them, "Everything is from God." What is wrong with these people that they do not even try to understand?"

"And says man: When I am dead, shall I truly be brought forth alive? Does not man remember that We created him before, when he was nothing? So by thy Lord! We shall certainly gather them together and the devils, then shall We bring them around Hell on their knees. Then We shall draw forth from every sect those most rebellious against the Beneficent. Again, We certainly know best those who deserve most to be burned therein. And there is not one of you but shall come to it. This is an unavoidable decree of thy Lord. And We shall deliver those who guard against evil, and leave the wrongdoers therein on their knees."

"And We did not give immortality to any human that came before you. If you are going to die, would they be immortal? every soul will taste death. And We burden you with evil and good as a test, and it is to Us that you will return."

"See they not that God, who created the heavens and the earth and was not tired by their creation, is able to give life to the dead? Aye, He is surely Possessor of power over all things. And on the day when those who disbelieve are brought before Hell: 'Is it not true?' They will say 'Yea, by our Lord' He will say: 'Then taste the chastisement, because you disbelieved.'"

"And the intoxication of death will bring the truth; that is what you were trying to avoid."

"(Muhammad), tell them, "The death from which you run away will certainly approach you. Then you will be returned to the One who knows the unseen and the seen, and He will inform you of about all that you had been doing"."

"Woe to man! How ungrateful is he! Of what substance did He create him? Of a sperm-drop. It is He who creates him, and fashions him, then provides nourishment for him, then it is He who decides him to die, then puts him to a grave, and when He will, He resurrects him. Nay! has man fulfilled the mission entrusted?"

"Oh, stanch my bootless tears, my weeping is in vain; I am not lost, for we in heaven shall one day meet again."

"The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic."

"Xerxes the great did die; And so must you and I."

"Be happy while you're living, For you're a long time dead."

"A samurai once asked Zen Master Hakuin where he would go after he died. Hakuin answered "How am I supposed to know?" "How do you know? You're a Zen master!" exclaimed the samurai. "Yes, but not a dead one", Hakuin answered"

"Ave Cæsar, morituri te salutant."

": Hail Cæsar, we who are about to die salute you."

"Today, many a hundred year since Paulinus talked with Edwin, there are more people in Christendom who question whether man has a spirit to come any whence or to go any whither than, perhaps, in the world’s history could ever before have been found at one time. And the very Christians who claim that Death’s terrors have been abolished, have surrounded the bier and the tomb with more gloom and more dismal funeral pomp than have the votaries of any other creed. What can be more depressing than the darkness in which a house is kept shrouded, while the dead body is awaiting sepulture?...During the last few years, a great and marked improvement has been made. The plumes, cloaks, and weepers have well-nigh disappeared. The grotesquely ghastly hearse is almost a thing of the past, and the coffin goes forth heaped over with flowers instead of shrouded in the heavy black velvet pall. Men and women, though still wearing black, do not roll themselves up in shapeless garments like sable winding-sheets, as if trying to see how miserable they could make themselves by the imposition of artificial discomforts. Welcome common-sense has driven custom from its throne, and has refused any longer to add these gratuitous annoyances to natural human grief."

"In literature and in art, alike, this gloomy fashion of regarding Death has been characteristic of Christianity. Death has been painted as a skeleton grasping a scythe, a grinning skull, a threatening figure with terrible face and uplifted dart, a bony scarecrow shaking an hourglass – all that could alarm and repel has been gathered round this rightly-named King of Terrors. Milton, who has done so much with his stately rhythm to mould the popular conceptions of modern Christianity, has used all the sinewy strength of his magnificent diction to surround with horror the figure of Death."

"That such a view of Death should be taken by the professed followers of a Teacher said to have “brought life and immortality to light” is passing strange. The claim, that as late in the history of the world as a mere eighteen centuries ago the immortality of the Spirit in man was brought to light, is of course transparently absurd, in the face of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary available on all hands. The stately Egyptian Ritual with its Book of the Dead, in which are traced the post-mortem journeys of the Soul, should be enough, if it stood alone, to put out of court for ever so preposterous a claim. *Hear the cry of the Soul of the righteous: O ye, who make the escort of the God, stretch out to me your arms, for I become one of you (xvii. 22)."

"Hail to thee, Osiris, Lord of Light, dwelling in the mighty abode, in the bosom of the absolute darkness. I come to thee, a purified Soul; my two hands are around thee (xxi. 1)."

"I open heaven; I do what was commanded in Memphis. I have knowledge of my heart; I am in possession of my heart, I am in possession of my arms, [4] I am in possession of my legs, at the will of myself. My Soul is not imprisoned in my body at the gates of Amenti (xxvi. 5, 6)."

"Not to multiply to weariness quotations from a book that is wholly composed of the doings and sayings of the disembodied man, let it suffice to give the final judgment on the victorious Soul: The defunct shall be deified among the Gods in the lower divine region, he shall never be rejected. … He shall drink from the current of the celestial river. … His Soul shall not be imprisoned, since it is a Soul that brings salvation to those near it. The worms shall not devour it (clxiv. 14-16)."

"The general belief in Reincarnation is enough to prove that the religions of which it formed a central doctrine believed in the survival of the Soul after Death; but one may quote as an example a passage from the Ordinances of Manu, following on a disquisition on metempsychosis, and answering the question of deliverance from rebirths."

"Amid all these holy acts, the knowledge of self (should be translated, knowledge of the Self, Ātmā) is said (to be) the highest; this indeed is the foremost of all sciences, since from it immortality is obtained.* [* xii. 85. Trans. of Burnell and Hopkins.]"

"The testimony of the great Zarathustrean Religion is clear, as is shown by the following, translated from the Avesta, in which, the journey of the Soul after [5] death having been described, the ancient Scripture proceeds: The soul of the pure man goes the first step and arrives at (the Paradise) Humata; the soul of the pure man takes the second step and arrives at (the Paradise) Hukhta; it goes the third step and arrives at (the Paradise) Hvarst; the soul of the pure man takes the fourth step and arrives at the Eternal Lights. To it speaks a pure one deceased before, asking it: How art thou, O pure deceased, come away from the fleshly dwellings, from the earthly possessions, from the corporeal world hither to the invisible, from the perishable world hither to the imperishable, as it happened to thee – to whom hail!Then speaks Ahura-Mazda: Ask not him whom thou asketh, (for) he is come on the fearful, terrible, trembling way, the separation of body and soul.* [* From the translation of Dhunjeebhoy Jamsetjee Medhora, Zoroastrian and some other Ancient Systems, xxvii.]"

"Now in some people a sense of repulsion arises at the idea that the ties they form on earth in one life are not to be permanent in eternity. But let us look at the question calmly for a moment. When a mother first clasps her baby-son in her arms, that one relationship seems perfect, and if the child should die, her longing would be to repossess him as her babe; but as he lives on through youth to manhood the tie changes, and the protective love of the mother and the clinging obedience of the child merge into a different love of friends and comrades, richer than ordinary friendship from the old recollections; yet later, when the mother is aged and the son in the prime of middle life, their positions are reversed and the son protects while the mother depends on him for guidance. Would the relation have been more perfect had it ceased in infancy with only the one tie, or is it not the richer and the sweeter from the different strands of which the tie is woven?"

"To me it seems that this very variety of experiences makes the tie stronger, not weaker, and that it is a rather thin and poor thing to know oneself and another in only one little aspect of many-sided humanity for endless ages of years; a thousand or so years of one person in one character would, to me, be ample, and I should prefer to know him or her in some new aspect of his nature. But those who object to this view need not feel distressed, for they will enjoy the presence of their beloved in the one personal aspect held by him or her in the one incarnation they are conscious of for as long as the desire for that presence remains."

"Only let them not desire to impose their own form of bliss on everybody else, nor insist that the kind of happiness which seems to them at this stage the only one desirable and satisfying, must be stereotyped to all eternity, through all the millions of years that lie before us."

"Nature gives to each in Devachan the satisfaction of all pure desires, and Manas there exercises that faculty of his innate divinity, that he “never wills in vain”. Will not this suffice?"

"But leaving aside disputes as to what may be to us “happiness” in a future separated from our present by millions of years, so that we are no more fitted now to formulate its conditions than is a child, playing with its dolls, to formulate the deeper joys and interests of its maturity, let us understand that, according to the teachings of the Esoteric Philosophy, the Devachanī is surrounded by all he loved on earth, with pure affection, and the union being on the plane of the Ego, not on the physical plane, it is free from all the sufferings which would be inevitable were the Devachanī present in consciousness on the physical plane with all its illusory and transitory joys and sorrows. It is surrounded by its beloved in the higher consciousness, but is not agonised by the knowledge of what they are suffering in the lower consciousness, held in the bonds of the flesh."

"According to the orthodox Christian view, Death is a separation, and the “spirits of the dead” wait for reunion until those they love also pass through Death’s gateway, or – according to some – until after the judgment-day is over. As against this the Esoteric Philosophy teaches that Death cannot touch the higher consciousness of man, and that it can only separate those who love each other so far as their lower vehicles are concerned; the man living on earth, blinded by matter, feels separated from those who have passed onwards, but the Devachanī, says H. P. Blavatsky, has a complete conviction “that there is no such thing as Death at all”, having left behind it all those vehicles “over which Death has power”. Therefore, to its less blinded eyes, its beloved are still with it; for it, the veil of matter that separates has been torn away."

"The rule is that a person who dies a natural death will remain from “a few hours to several short years” within the earth’s attraction – i. e., the Kāmaloka. But exceptions are the cases of suicides and those who die a violent death in general. Hence, one... who was destined to live, say, eighty or ninety years – but who either killed himself or was killed by some accident, let us suppose at the age of twenty – would have to pass in the Kāmaloka not “a few years”, but in this case sixty or seventy years... Premature death brought on by vicious courses, by over-study, or by voluntary sacrifice for some great cause, will bring about delay in Kāmaloka, but the state of the disembodied entity will depend on the motive that cut short the life."

"In the victim’s case the natural hour of death was anticipated accidentally, while in that of the suicide death is brought on voluntarily and with a full and deliberate knowledge of its immediate consequences. Thus a man who causes his death in a fit of temporary insanity is not a felo de se, to the great grief and often trouble of the Life Insurance Companies. Nor is he left a prey to the temptations of the Kāmaloka, but falls asleep like any other victim... The population of Kāmaloka is thus recruited with a peculiarly dangerous element by all the acts of violence, legal and illegal, which wrench the physical body from the soul and send the latter into Kāmaloka clad in the desire body, throbbing with pulses of hatred, passion, emotion, palpitating with longings for revenge, with un-satiated lusts."

"And we must remember that thoughts and motives are material, and at times marvelously potent material, forces, an we may then begin to comprehend why the [98] hero, sacrificing his life on pure altruistic grounds, sinks as his life-blood ebbs way into a sweet dream, wherein All that he wishes and all that he loves Come smiling round his sunny way, only to wake into active or objective consciousness when reborn in the Region of Happiness, while the poor unhappy and misguided mortal who, seeking to elude fate, selfishly loosens the silver string and breaks the golden bowl, finds himself terribly alive and awake, instinct with all the evil cravings and desires that embittered his world-life, without a body in which to gratify these, and capable of only such partial alleviation as is possible by more or less vicarious gratification, and this only at the cost of the ultimate complete rupture with his sixth and seventh principles, and consequent ultimate annihilation after, alas! prolonged periods of suffering."

"Let it not be supposed that there is no hope for this class – the sane deliberate suicide. If, bearing steadfastly his cross, he suffers patiently his punishment, striving against carnal appetites still alive in him, in all their intensity, though, of course, each in proportion to the degree to which it had been indulged in earth-life – if, we say, he bears this humbly, never allowing himself to be tempted here or there into unlawful gratifications of unholy desires – then when his fated death-hour strikes, his four higher principles reunite, and, in the final separation that then ensues, it may well be that all may be well with him, and that he passes on to the gestation period and its subsequent developments."

"Alexander the Great (unknown)"

"Ayrton Senna (Extracted from the Holy Bible)"

"Gracie Allen and George Burns (themselves)"

"Susan B. Anthony (unknown)"

"Robert Baden-Powell (by himself) 1857 - 1941"

"Clyde Barrow (unknown) - 1909 - 1934"

"Hilaire Belloc (unknown) - 1870 - 1953"

"John Belushi (unknown) - 1949 - 1982"

"Jakob Bernoulli (by himself) - 1654-1705"

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

"Mel Blanc (by himself) - 1908 - 1989"

"William Bligh (unknown) - 1754 - 1817"

"Ludwig Boltzmann (by himself) - 1844-1906"

"John Brown (unknown)"

"Charles Bukowski (by himself)"

"Samuel Butler (by Samuel Wesley) - 1612-1680"

"Al Capone (by himself)"

"George Carlin (suggested by himself)"

"Andrew Carnegie (unknown)"

"Karen Carpenter (unknown)"

"George Washington Carver (unknown)"

"Brian Cawley (by himself)"

"Anton Cermak (by himself)"

"Walter Chiari (by himself)"

"Agatha Christie (from Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene)"

"Samuel Taylor Coleridge (by himself)"

"The Commonwealth soldiers who fell in the Battle of Normandy (1944)"

"Ian Curtis (Himself)"

"Rodney Dangerfield (himself) - 1921 - 2004"

"Somebody's Darling (William Rigney)"

"Bette Davis (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)"

"Jefferson Davis (unknown)"

"Sammy Davis Jr. (by Altovise Davis and his children)"

"Cecil Day-Lewis (himself)"

"Emily Dickinson (herself)"

"Curly Joe DeRita (unknown)"

"John Donne (Himself)"

"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (unknown)"

"Claude Duval (unknown)"

"Diophantus of Alexandria (Metrodous, 4th century CE)"

"Wyatt Earp (unknown)"

"Eazy-E (Eric Wright)"

"Edward I of England (unknown)"

"Peter Falk (himself)- 1927-2011"

"William Faulkner (unknown)- 1897-1962"

"W.C. Fields (unknown)- 1880-1946"

"F. Scott Fitzgerald (himself; from The Great Gatsby)"

"Benjamin Franklin (himself)"

"Betty Friedan 1921-2006"

"Robert Frost (himself)"

"R. Buckminster Fuller (himself)"

"Rene Gagnon (unknown) 1925 - 1979"

"John Gay (himself) 1635 - 1732"

"Jackie Gleason (himself) 1916 - 1987"

"Mane Garrincha 1933 - 1983"

"Mahatma Gandhi 1869 - 1948"

"Betty Grable (Victoria James, her daughter) 1916 - 1973"

"Kenneth Grahame (Anthony Hope, his cousin) 1859 - 1932"

"Sharon Grant-Henry (Mary Wickline, her life partner) July 4, 1949 - February 3, 2004"

"Merv Griffin (by himself)"

"Michael Grzimek 1934 - 1959"

"Santiago Vizan Gulizia"

"Alexander Hamilton - 1757 - 1804"

"some sources also put Alexander's birth year as 1755 which puts him at age 49"

"Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton - 1757 - 1854"

"Her husband Alexander is next to her and her son Philip is nearby in an unmarked grave."

"Hannibal Barca"

"Rita Hayworth (Rebecca Welles)"

"Henry II (by Ralph of Diceto)"

"Werner Heisenberg (unknown)"

"George Hill"

"Richard Hind"

"William Stephen Raikes Hodson"

"Winifred Holtby (by herself) - 1898-1935"

"Robin Hood (mythological; sometimes identified with Robert of Huntingdon)"

"Jack Horkheimer, presenter of the popular astrononomy programme Star Gazer"

"C. Wayne Hussey AKA Margaret I Empress of Alaska AKA Large Marge (unknown) 1937 - 1983"

"Vladislav Illich-Svitych - 1934 - 1966"

"Jesse James (by his mother) 1847 - 1882"

"Rick James (by himself) 1948-2004"

"Jimi Jamison (by himself) 1951 - 2014"

"Thomas Jefferson (by himself) 1743 - 1826"

"George Johnson (unknown)"

"Jeremiah Johnson (unknown)"

"John Jones (by Himself)"

"Carl Jung (unknown) 1875 - 1961"

"Nikos Kazantzakis (by himself)"

"John Keats (by himself and his friends) - 1795-1821"

"Martin Luther King, Jr."

"Ernie Kovacs (by Edie Adams) 1919-|1962"

"Elsa Lanchester (unknown) 1902-1986"

"Brandon Lee (by Paul Bowles) 1965 - 1993"

"Bruce Lee 1940 - 1973"

"Vivien Leigh"

"Jack Lemmon (by himself)"

"Primo Levi"

"Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh"

"John Locke (unknown)"

"Jack London (Psalm 118:22)"

"Howard Phillips Lovecraft (himself) 1890 - 1937"

"Bela Lugosi (his children) 1882 - 1956"

"Rob Roy MacGregor (unknown)"

"Jayne Mansfield (either her fans or family) 1933 - 1967"

"Roger Maris (unknown) 1935 - 1985"

"Billy Martin (by himself) 1928 – 1989"

"Dean Martin (by himself) 1917 - 1995"

"Groucho Marx (by himself)"

"Karl Marx (by himself) - 1818 - 1883"

"André Masséna 1758 - 1817"

"Leonard Matlovich (by himself) - 1943 - 1988"

"John Laird McCaffery ("your friends") - 1940 - 1995"

"H. L. Mencken (by himself) - 1880 - 1956"

"Russ Meyer"

"Spike Milligan (by himself) - 1918 - 2002"

"Lester Moore (unknown)"

"Captain Tom Moore"

"Jim Morrison (unknown) - 1943 - 1971"

"Matthew Mudd (unknown) from Massachusetts:"

"Audie Murphy (unknown) 1926 - 1971"

"Isaac Newton (Alexander Pope)"

"Frank Nitti (unknown) 1881 - 1943"

"Leslie Nielsen"

"Joshua A. Norton"

"Peter O'Toole (himself)"

"Bonnie Parker (Unknown) 1910 - 1934"

"Dorothy Parker - 1893 - 1967"

"Rosa Parks (by herself)"

"Penn and Teller (by themselves)"

"Fernando Pessoa (himself)"

"James Louis Petigru (unknown) - 1789-1863"

"Allan Pinkerton (unknown) 1819 - 1884"

"Sylvia Plath (Ted Hughes) 1932 - 1963"

"Edgar Allan Poe (himself) 1809 - 1849"

"Fritiof Nilsson Piraten (by himself) - 1895-1972"

"Freddie Prinze (unknown)"

"Ernie Pyle"

"Quick Draw McGraw"

"Ramón Valdés - (unknown) - 1923-1988 (aka Don Ramón)"

"Dee Dee Ramone (aka Douglas Glen Corvin)"

"Johnny Ramone (aka John Cummings)"

"Will Rogers (himself)"

"William P. Rothwell (unknown) from Rhode Island:"

"Babe Ruth (Cardinal Spellman)"

"Selena - (Isaiah/Isaías 25:8) - 1971-1995"

"Seikilos, between 200 BC and 100 AD"

"William Shakespeare - baptized April 26, 1564 - April 23, 1616"

"Sam Suryawanshi AKA Vazir (by himself) - 1985-2011"

"Frank Sinatra (by himself) - 1915-1998"

"Emil Sitka (by himself)"

"Harry Edsel Smith (unknown) - 1903-1942"

"The 300 Spartans (Simonides) - 480 BC"

"Robert Louis Stevenson (by himself) - 1850-1894"

"Harold J. Story (1919 - 1993)"

"Arthur Sullivan 1842-1900 (by W. S. Gilbert)"

"Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov - 1729-1800"

"Jonathan Swift (unknown) 1667 - 1745"

"Lucius Cornelius Sulla (by himself) - died 78 BC"

"Alfred Tennyson (himself)"

"Studs Terkel (Suggested by himself)"

"Thomas Thetcher 1737 - 1764"

"J. R. R. Tolkien:"

"Voltaire (unknown) - 1694-1778"

"Kurt Vonnegut (himself) 1922 - 2007"

"Verginius Rufus"

"John Wayne (himself) 1907 - 1979"

"H. G. Wells (himself) - 1866-1946"

"Oscar Wilde (himself)"

"Billy Wilder (himself and Joe E. Brown)"

"Hank Williams (his wife)"

"Christopher Wren (by his son)"

"Virginia Woolf (by herself)"

"William Butler Yeats (by himself)"

"Jean Valjean, Les Misérables, Victor Hugo"

"King Menethil II"

"Edmund Blackadder (by himself)"

"Strong Bad"

""A Jacobite's Epitaph" (Thomas Babington Macaulay)"

"Baldur's Gate"

"Scrooge McDuck (Keno Don Rosa)"

"Jenny Sparks (unknown)"

"Ron Obvious"

"David St. Hubbins (himself)"

"Buffy Summers (unknown) - 1981–2001"

"From Fable (game)"

"Senator Vrooman (Ambrose Bierce)"

"Van Ruijven"

"Royal Tenenbaum (At his suggestion)"

"Dumbledore family's tomb"

"Potter family's tomb"

"The Boss's grave"

"Big Boss's grave"

"Charles Xavier (Age of Apocalypse version)"

"Balin Fundinul Uzbad Khazad-dumu Balin son of Fundin Lord of Moria"

"From a Canadian WWI Memorial (Rudyard Kipling)"

"From Ireland"

"From a grave in Muçum, Brazil"

"Adult's grave in Rome, Italy"

"Child's grave in Miami, FL (by Edmund Waller)"

"Infant in Vermont"

"From Tasmania, Australia"

"From Perth, Scotland"

"From Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia"

"From Nanuet, New York"

"From Évora, Portugal, in the Chapel of Bones"

"On a grave in a Kent cemetery"

"On a grave in New York"

"Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God."

"Their name liveth forevermore."

"British Soldier, in Westminster Abbey"

"British Soldier, Tobruk Commonwealth Cemetery, Libya"

"Australian soldier whose body is held in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Australia. By former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating"

"To save your world you asked this man to die; Would this man, could he see you now, ask why?"

"And be the Spartan's epitaph on me— "Sparta hath many a worthier son than he.""

"Shrine of the mighty! can it be, That this is all remains of thee?"

"After your death you were better have a bad epitaph than their ill report while you live."

"Either our history shall with full mouth Speak freely of our acts, or else our grave, Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth, Not worshipp'd with a waxen epitaph."

"You cannot better be employ'd, Bassanio, Than to live still and write mine epitaph."

"On your family's old monument Hang mournful epitaphs."

"And if your love Can labour aught in sad invention, Hang her an epitaph upon her tomb And sing it to her bones, sing it to-night."

"Of comfort no man speak: Let's talk of graves, of worms and epitaphs."

"Here lies the remains of James Pady, Brickmaker, in hope that his clay will be remoulded in a workmanlike manner, far superior to his former perishable materials."

"Stavo bene; per star meglio, sto qui."

"Sufficit huic tumulus, cui non suffecerit orbis."

"If Paris that brief flight allow, My humble tomb explore! It bears: "Eternity, be thou My refuge!" and no more."

"Here lies who, born a man, a grocer died."

"Here lies Anne Mann; she lived an Old maid and died an old Mann."

"And the voice of men shall call, "He is fallen like us all, Though the weapon of the Lord was in his hand:" And thine epitaph shall be— "He was wretched ev'n as we;" And thy tomb may be unhonoured in the land."

"Kind reader! take your choice to cry or laugh; Here HAROLD lies—but where's his Epitaph? If such you seek, try Westminster, and view Ten thousand, just as fit for him as you."

"Yet at the resurrection we shall see A fair edition, and of matchless worth, Free from erratas, new in heaven set forth."

"Loe here the precious dust is layd; Whose purely-temper'd clay was made So fine that it the guest betray'd. Else the soule grew so fast within, It broke the outward shell of sinne And so was hatch'd a cherubin."

"This Mirabeau's work, then, is done. He sleeps with the primeval giants. He has gone over to the majority: "Abiit ad plures.""

"It is so soon that I am done for, I wonder what I was begun for!"

"Ere sin could blight or sorrow fade, Death came with friendly care; The opening bud to Heaven conveyed, And bade it blossom there."

"Peas to his Hashes."

"Underneath this crust Lies the mouldering dust Of Eleanor Batchelor Shoven, Well versed in the arts Of pies, custards and tarts, And the lucrative trade of the oven. When she lived long enough, She made her last puff, A puff by her husband much praised, And now she doth lie And make a dirt pie, In hopes that her crust may be raised."

"What wee gave, wee have; What wee spent, wee had; What wee left, wee lost."

"Praised, wept, And honoured, by the muse he loved."

"And when I lie in the green kirkyard, With the mould upon my breast, Say not that she did well—or ill, "Only, She did her best.""

"O man! whosoever thou art, and whensoever thou comest, for come I know thou wilt, I am Cyrus, founder of the Persian empire. Envy me not the little earth that covers my body."

"Full many a life he saved With his undaunted crew; He put his trust in Providence, And Cared Not How It Blew."

"His form was of the manliest beauty, His heart was kind and soft, Faithful, below, he did his duty; But now he's gone aloft."

"For though his body's under hatches, His soul has gone aloft."

"This comes of altering fundamental laws and overpersuading by his landlord to take physic (of which he died) for the benefit of the doctor—Stavo bene (was written on his monument) ma per star meglio, sto qui."

"Here lies Du Vall; reader, if male thou art, Look to thy purse; if female, to thy heart."

"If e'er she knew an evil thought She spoke no evil word: Peace to the gentle! She hath sought The bosom of her Lord."

"Let there be no inscription upon my tomb. Let no man write my epitaph. No man can write my epitaph. I am here ready to die. I am not allowed to vindicate my character; and when I am prevented from vindicating myself, let no man dare calumniate me. Let my character and motives repose in obscurity and peace, till other times and other men can do them justice."

"Nemo me lacrumis decoret neque funera fletu faxit."

"Under this stone, reader, survey Dead Sir John Vanbrugh's house of clay: Lie heavy on him, earth! for he Laid many heavy loads on thee."

"Lie light upon him, earth! tho' he Laid many a heavy load on thee."

"The body of Benjamin Franklin, Printer, (Like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out and stript of its lettering and gilding), Lies here, food for worms; But the work shall not be lost, for it will (as he believed) appear once more in a new and more elegant edition, revised and corrected by the author."

"Quand je serai la, je serai sans souci."

"Here lies Fred, Who was alive and is dead. Had it been his father, I had much rather. Had it been his brother, Still better than another. Had it been his sister, No one would have missed her. Had it been the whole generation, Still better for the nation. But since 'tis only Fred, Who was alive, and is dead, There's no more to be said."

"Fuller's earth."

"Here lies Nolly Goldsmith, for shortness called Noll, Who wrote like an angel, and talked like poor Poll."

"Here lie together, waiting the Messiah The little David and the great Goliath."

"Life is a jest, and all things show it, I thought so once, but now I know it."

"Like a worn out type, he is returned to the Founder in the hope of being recast in a better and more perfect mould."

"I have expended; I have given; I have kept; I have possessed; I do possess; I have lost; I am punished. What I formerly expended, I have; what I gave away, I have."

"What we say of a thing that has just come in fashion And that which we do with the dead, Is the name of the honestest man in the nation: What more of a man can be said?"

"Qui nullum fere scribendi genus non tetigit; nullum quod tetigit non ornavit."

"And many a holy text around she strews That teach the rustic moralist to die."

"Balnea, vina, Venus corrumpunt corpora nostra; Sed vitam faciunt baldea, vina, Venus."

"Beneath these green trees rising to the skies, The planter of them, Isaac Greentree, lies; The time shall come when these green trees shall fall, And Isaac Greentree rise above them all."

"His foe was folly and his weapon wit."

"Farewell, vain world, I've had enough of thee, And Valies't not what thou Can'st say of me; Thy Smiles I count not, nor thy frowns I fear, My days are past, my head lies quiet here. What faults you saw in me take Care to shun, Look but at home, enough is to be done."

"Man's life is like unto a winter's day, Some break their fast and so depart away, Others stay dinner then depart full fed; The longest age but sups and goes to bed. Oh, reader, then behold and see, As we are now so must you be."

"But here's the sunset of a tedious day. These two asleep are; I'll but be undrest, And so to bed. Pray wish us all good rest."

"Here she lies a pretty bud, Lately made of flesh and blood; Who, as soone fell fast asleep, As her little eyes did peep. Give her strewings, but not stir The earth that lightly covers her."

"Under the shadow of a leafy bough That leaned toward a singing rivulet, One pure white stone, whereon, like crown on brow, The image of the vanished star was set; And this was graven on the pure white stone In golden letters—"WHILE SHE LIVED SHE SHONE.""

"The hand of him here torpid lies, That drew th' essential form of grace, Here closed in death th' attentive eyes That saw the manners in the face."

"Sleep undisturbed within this peaceful shrine, Till angels wake thee with a note like thine."

"Underneath this stone doth lie As much beauty as could die; Which in life did harbor give To more virtue than doth live. If at all she had a fault, Leave it buried in this vault."

"Underneath this sable herse Lies the subject of all verse,— Sydneye's sister, Pembroke's mother. Death, ere thou hast slaine another, Faire and learn'd and good as she, Tyme shall throw a dart at thee."

"Here lies one whose name was writ in water."

"I conceive disgust at these impertinent and misbecoming familiarities inscribed upon your ordinary tombstone."

"Satire does not look pretty upon a tombstone; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 232."

"I strove with none, for none was worth my strife; Nature I loved, and after Nature, Art; I warmed both hands before the fire of life; It sinks, and I am ready to depart."

"Emigravit, is the inscription on the tombstone where he lies; Dead he is not, but departed,—for the artist never dies."

"Here lie I, Martin Elginbrodde: Have mercy o' my soul, Lord God; As I wad do, were I Lord God, And ye were Martin Elginbrodde."

"The shameless Chloe placed on the tombs of her seven husbands the inscription, "The work of Chloe." How could she have expressed herself more plainly?"

"This work, newly revised and improved by its great Author, will reappear in a splendid day."

"Ci gît l'enfant gâté du monde qu'il gâta."

"Requiescat in pace."

"Beneath this stone old Abraham lies; Nobody laughs and nobody cries. Where he is gone, and how he fares, Nobody knows and nobody cares."

"Jacet ecce Tibullus; Vix manet e toto parva quod urna capit."

"Molliter ossa cubent."

""In his last binn Sir Peter lies." * * * * He kept at true humour's mark The social flow of pleasure's tide: He never made a brow look dark, Nor caused a tear, but when he died."

"Postquam est mortem aptus Plautus: comœdia luget Scena deserta, dein risus ludus jocusque Et numeri innumeri simul omnes collacrumarunt."

"Under this marble, or under this sill, Or under this turf, or e'en what they will, Whatever an heir, or a friend in his stead, Or any good creature shall lay o'er my head, Lies one who ne'er car'd, and still cares not a pin What they said or may say of the mortal within; But who, living and dying, serene, still and free, Trusts in God that as well as he was he shall be."

"Kneller, by Heaven and not a master taught Whose art was nature, and whose pictures thought, * * * * * * Living great Nature fear'd he might outvie Her works; and dying, fears herself may die."

"To this sad shrine, whoe'er thou art! draw near! Here lies the friend most lov'd, the son most dear; Who ne'er knew joy but friendship might divide, Or gave his father grief but when he died."

"Nihil unquam peccavit, nisi quod mortua est."

"Calmly he looked on either Life, and here Saw nothing to regret, or there to fear: From Nature's temp'rate feast rose satisfy'd, Thank'd Heaven that he had lived, and that he died."

"Statesman, yet friend to truth! of soul sincere, In action faithful, and in honour clear; Who broke no promise, served no private end, Who gained no title, and who lost no friend, Ennobled by himself, by all approved, And praised, unenvied, by the muse he loved."

"Heralds and statesmen, by your leave, Here lies what once was Matthew Prior; The son of Adam and of Eve; Can Bourbon or Nassau go higher?"

"Johnny Carnegie lais heer Descendit of Adam and Eve, Gif ony cou gang hieher, I'se willing give him leve."

"In Fortunam Inveni portum spes et fortuna valete Nil mini vobiscum ludite nunc alios."

"Jam portum inveni, Spes et Fortuna valete. Nil mihi vobiscum est, ludite nunc alios."

"Avete multum, Spesque, Forsque; sum in vado. Qui pone sint illudite; haud mea interest."

"Speme e Fortuna, addio; che' in porto entrai. Schernite gli altri; ch'io vi spregio omai."

"I came at morn—'twas spring, I smiled, The fields with green were clad; I walked abroad at noon,—and lo! 'Twas summer,—I was glad; I sate me down; 'twas autumn eve, And I with sadness wept; I laid me down at night, and then 'Twas winter,—and I slept."

"The world's a book, writ by th' eternal Art Of the great Maker; printed in man's heart; 'Tis falsely printed though divinely penn'd, And all the Errata will appear at th' end."

"The World's a Printing-House, our words, our thoughts, Our deeds, are characters of several sizes. Each Soul is a Compos'tor, of whose faults The Levites are Correctors; Heaven Revises. Death is the common Press, from whence being driven, We're gather'd, Sheet by Sheet, and bound for Heaven."

"She was—but room forbids to tell thee what— Sum all perfection up, and she was—that."

"Warm summer sun, shine friendly here; Warm western wind, blow kindly here; Green sod above, rest light, rest light— Good-night, Annette! Sweetheart, good-night."

"Warm summer sun shine kindly here; Warm southern wind blow softly here; Green sod above lie light, lie light— Good night, dear heart, good night, good night."

"Quod expendi habui Quod donavi habeo Quod servavi perdidi."

"Ecce quod expendi habui, quod donavi habeo, quod negavi punior, quod servavi perdidi."

"Lo, all that ever I spent, that sometime had I; All that I gave in good intent, that now have I; That I never gave, nor lent, that now aby I; That I kept till I went, that lost I."

"It that I gife, I haif, It that I len, I craif, It that I spend, is myue, It that I leif, I tyne."

"Howe: Howe: who is heare: I, Robin of Doncaster, and Margaret my feare. That I spent, that I had; That I gave, that I have; That I left, that I lost."

"The earthe goeth on the earthe Glisteringe like gold; The earthe goeth to the earthe Sooner than it wold; The earthe builds on the earthe Castles and Towers; The earthe says to the earthe All shall be ours."

"Earth walks on Earth, Glittering in gold; Earth goes to Earth, Sooner than it wold; Earth builds on Earth, Palaces and towers; Earth says to Earth, Soon, all shall be ours."

"Traveller, let your step be light, So that sleep these eyes may close, For poor Scarron, till to-night, Ne'er was able e'en to doze."

"Sit tua terra levis."

"Good Frend for Jesvs Sake Forbeare, To Digg the Dvst Encloased Heare. Blese be ye Man yt Spares Thes Stones. And Cvrst be he yt Moves my Bones."

"These are two friends whose lives were undivided: So let their memory be, now they have glided Under the grave; let not their bones be parted, For their two hearts in life were single-hearted."

"He will be weighed again At the Great Day, His rigging refitted, And his timbers repaired, And with one broadside Make his adversary Strike in his turn."

"Let no man write my epitaph; let my grave Be uninscribed, and let my memory rest Till other times are come, and other men, Who then may do me justice."

"The turf has drank a Widow's tear; Three of her husbands Slumber here."

"Here lies one who meant well, tried a little, failed much."

"I, whom Apollo sometime visited, Or feigned to visit, now, my day being done, Do slumber wholly, nor shall know at all The weariness of changes; nor perceive Immeasurable sands of centuries Drink up the blanching ink, or the loud sound Of generations beat the music down."

"Now when the number of my years Is all fulfilled and I From sedentary life Shall rouse me up to die, Bury me low and let me lie Under the wide and starry sky. Joying to live, I joyed to die, Bury me low and let me lie."

"To the down Bow of Death His Forte gave way, All the Graces in sorrow were drown'd; Hallelujah Cresendo Shall be his glad lay When Da'Capo the Trumpet shall sound."

"Thou third great Canning, stand among our best And noblest, now thy long day's work hath ceased, Here silent in our minster of the West Who wert the voice of England in the East."

"Ne'er to these chambers where the mighty rest, Since their foundation came a nobler guest; Nor e'er was to the bowers of bliss conveyed A fairer spirit or more welcome shade."

"Then haste, kind Death, in pity to my age, And clap the Finis to my life's last page. May Heaven's great Author my foul proof revise, Cancel the page in which my error lies, And raise my form above the etherial skies. * * * * * * * * The stubborn pressman's form I now may scoff; Revised, corrected, finally worked off!"

"Mantua me genuit; Calabri rapuere; tenet nunc Parthenope. Cecini pascua, rura, duces."

"Here in this place sleeps one whom love Caused, through great cruelty to fall. A little scholar, poor enough, Whom François Villon men did call. No scrap of land or garden small He owned. He gave his goods away, Table and trestles, baskets—all; For God's sake say for him this Lay."

"He directed the stone over his grave to be thus inscribed: Hie jacet hujus Sententiæ primus Author: Disputandi pruritus ecclesiarum scabies. Nomen alias quære. Here lies the first author of this sentence; "The itch of disputation will prove the scab of the Church." Inquire his name elsewhere."

"The poet's fate is here in emblem shown, He asked for bread, and he received a stone."

"Here lies, in a "horizontal" position The "outside" case of Peter Pendulum, watch-maker. He departed this life "wound up" In hopes of being "taken in hand" by his Maker, And of being thoroughly "cleaned, repaired" and "set a-going" In the world to come."

"O what a monument of glorious worth, When in a new edition he comes forth, Without erratas, may we think he'll be In leaves and covers of eternity!"

"He first deceas'd; she for a little tri'd To live without him, lik'd it not, and died."

"Si monumentum requiris circumspice."

"Why wilt thou add to all the griefs I suffer Imaginary ills, and fancy'd tortures?"

"Acceptance is the better part of grief."

"But what is grief, if not love persevering?"

"I tell you, hopeless grief is passionless."

"O, brothers! let us leave the shame and sin Of taking vainly in a plaintive mood, The holy name of Grief—holy herein, That, by the grief of One, came all our good."

"Thank God, bless God, all ye who suffer not More grief than ye can weep for. That is well— That is light grieving!"

"To say that a life is grievable is to claim that a life, even before it is lost, is, or will be, worthy of being grieved on the occasion of its loss; the life has value in relation to mortality. One treats a person differently if one brings the sense of the grievability of the other to one’s ethical bearing toward the other. If an other’s loss would register as a loss, would be marked and mourned, and if the prospect of loss is feared, and precautions are thus taken to safeguard that life from harm or destruction, then our very ability to value and safeguard a life depends upon an ongoing sense of its grievability—the conjectured future of a life as an indefinite potential that would be mourned were it cut short or lost."

"We are not yet speaking about equality if we have not yet spoken about equal grievability, or the equal attribution of grievability. Grievability is a defining feature of equality. Those whose grievability is not assumed are those who suffer inequality—unequal value."

"The heart which grief hath cankered Hath one unfailing remedy - the Tankard."

"Nullus dolor est quem non longinquitas temporis minuat ac molliat."

"One often calms one's grief by recounting it."

"In much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow."

"Grief is the price we pay for love."

"In all the silent manliness of grief."

"Grief tears his heart, and drives him to and fro, In all the raging impotence of woe."

"Quis desiderio sit pudor aut modus Tam cari capitis?"

"On me, on me Time and change can heap no more! The painful past with blighting grief Hath left my heart a withered leaf. Time and change can do no more."

"Grief and disappointment give rise to anger, anger to envy, envy to malice, and malice to grief again, till the whole circle be completed."

"Ponamus nimios gemitus: flagrantior æquo Non debet dolor esse viri, nec vulnere major."

"Grieving is a sign of spiritual health."

"If grief can be a doorway to love, then let us all weep for the world we are breaking apart so we can love it back to wholeness again."

"We tend to shy away from that grief. But I think that that’s the role of art: to help us into grief, and through grief, for each other, for our values, for the living world. You know, I think about grief as a measure of our love, that grief compels us to do something, to love more."

"There is an indolence in grief Which will not even seek relief. What is the toil, or care, or pain, The human heart cannot sustain? Enough if struggling can create A change or colour in our fate; But where's the spirit that can cope With listless suffering, when hope, The last of misery's allies, Sickens of its sweet self, and dies."

"The only cure for grief is action."

"Oh, well has it been said, that there is no grief like the grief which does not speak!"

"Believe me, it is no time for words when the wounds are fresh and bleeding; no time for homilies when the lightning's shaft has smitten and the man lies stunned and stricken. Then let the comforter be silent; let him sustain by his presence, not by his preaching; by his sympathetic silence, not by his speech. "Afterward," when the storm is spent, he may venture to open his mouth; "afterward," when the morn has dawned, he may seek "to justify the ways of God to man;" for " afterward" the sufferer will be prepared to hear, and "afterward" the sufferer himself may be able to extract sweetness from bitterness, music from mourning, songs from sorrow, and "the peaceable fruit of righteousness" from the root of wretchedness and woe."

"Grief exists only so long as one considers oneself to be of a definite form. If the form is transcended one will know that the one Self is eternal. There is no death nor birth. That which is born is only the body. The body is the creation of the ego."

"Ille dolet vere qui sine teste dolet."

"There is a solemn luxury in grief."

"Se a ciascun l'interno affanno Si leggesse in fronte scritto, Quanti mai, che invidia fanno, Ci farebbero pietà!"

"What need a man forestall his date of grief, And run to meet what he would most avoid?"

"Great, good, and just, could I but rate My grief with thy too rigid fate, I'd weep the world in such a strain As it should deluge once again; But since thy loud-tongued blood demands supplies More from Briareus' hands than Argus' eyes, I'll sing thy obsequies with trumpet sounds And write thy epitaph in blood and wounds."

"Strangulat inclusus dolor, atque exæstuat intus, Cogitur et vires multiplicare suas."

"Grief must be a reflection of love. It is perhaps the ultimate proof of love. Grief is an uncontrollable manifestation of your belief that the lost person’s existence, limited and flawed as it might have been, was worthwhile, despite the limitations and flaws even of life itself."

"I’ve climbed up here holding the hilt of time’s sword after driving it into my tender heart."

"Whether anybody comes to convince me or not a part of my life does always ache arresting my chest."

"Grief—unlike sex, music, and cheating at cards—was not a skill that could be honed by practice."

"Le bonheur est salutaire pour le corps, mais c'est le chagrin qui développe les forces de l'esprit."

"All the old statues of Victory have wings: but Grief has no wings. She is the unwelcome lodger that squats on the hearthstone between us and the fire and will not move or be dislodged."

"Curæ leves loquuntur, ingentes stupent."

"Levis est dolor qui capere consilium potest."

"Magnus sibi ipse non facit finem dolor."

"If thou engrossest all the griefs are thine, Thou robb'st me of a moiety."

"For grief is crowned with consolation."

"O, grief hath chang'd me since you saw me last, And careful hours with time's deform'd hand Have written strange defeatures in my face."

"That we two are asunder; let that grieve him; Some griefs are medicinable."

"Great griefs, I see, medicine the less."

"Oft have I heard that grief softens the mind And makes it fearful and degenerate."

"What private griefs they have, alas, I know not, That made them do it."

"For grief is proud and makes his owner stoop."

"I am not mad; I would to heaven I were! For then, 'tis like I should forget myself: O, if I could, what grief should I forget!"

"Grief fills the room up of my absent child, Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me, Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words, Remembers me of all his gracious parts, Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form; Then, have I reason to be fond of grief?"

"But then the mind much sufferance doth o'erskip, When grief hath mates."

"Every one can master a grief but he that has it."

"Men Can counsel and speak comfort to that grief Which they themselves not feel; but, tasting it, Their counsel turns to passion, which before Would give preceptial medicine to rage, Fetter strong madness in a silken thread, Charm ache, with air and agony with words."

"Nor doth the general care Take hold on me, for my particular grief Is of so flood-gate and o'erbearing nature That it engluts and swallows other sorrows And it is still itself."

"When remedies are past, the griefs are ended By seeing the worst, which late on hopes depended."

"Each substance of a grief hath twenty shadows, Which shows like grief itself, but is not so; For sorrow's eye, glazed with blinding tears, Divides one thing entire to many objects."

"You may my glories and my state depose, But not my griefs; still am I king of those."

"My grief lies all within; And these external manners of laments Are merely shadows to the unseen grief That swells with silence in the tortur'd soul."

"Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast, Which thou wilt propagate, to have it prest With more of thine."

"Some griefs show much of love; But much of grief shows still some want of wit."

"My grief lies onward and my joy behind."

"Alas, poor man! grief has so wrought on him, He takes false shadows for true substances."

"But I have That honourable grief lodg'd here which burns Worse than tears drown."

"What's gone and what's past help Should be past grief."

"From now on, everything in life will appear blurry to me. What’s the point of wiping my glasses when my vision has already left me?"

"Winter is come and gone, But grief returns with the revolving year."

"Dark is the realm of grief: but human things Those may not know of who cannot weep for them."

"Oh, but," quoth she, "great griefe will not be tould, And can more easily be thought than said."

"He gave a deep sigh; I saw the iron enter into his soul."

"Nulli jactantius mœrent quam qui maxime lætantur."

"But, Madam, let your grief be laid aside, And let the fountain of your tears be dry'd, In vain they flow to wet the dusty plain, Your sighs are wafted to the skies in vain, Your pains they witness, but they can no more, While Death reigns tyrant o'er this mortal shore."

"Men are we, and must grieve when even the Shade Of that which once was great is passed away."

"Were floods of tears to be unloosed In tribute to my grief, The doves of Noah ne'er had roost Nor found an olive-leaf."

"A genuine faith lifts us above the bitterness of grief; a sense of Christ's living presence takes away all unbearable loneliness even when we are most alone. In our darkest hours, to know that our lost friend is still living, still loving us, still ours, in the highest and best sense, must be unspeakably consoling."

"The mossy marbles rest On the lips that he has pressed In their bloom; And the names he loved to hear Have been carved for many a year On the tomb."

"Over the river they beckon to me, Loved ones who've crossed to the farther side, The gleam of their snowy robes I see, But their voices are lost in the dashing tide."

"Yes, we all live to God! Father, Thy chastening rod, So help us, Thine afflicted ones, to bear, That in the spirit land, Meeting at Thy right hand, 'Twill be our heaven to find that He is there!"

"Those who suppose that after a suicide they will return to the place from which they were sent are indeed mistaken, for the whirl of space will carry them far away, like a leaf in autumn. The desire to live must be expressed consciously. Man must realize what he is striving for, and remember that he has good deeds to perform and a mission to fulfill here on Earth."

"A yogi understands the great harm of the premature ending of one’s own life. A yogi understands to what extent he can harm not only himself but also his entire surroundings. Each violence against life is a disturbance of harmony, and heavy is the price for any attempt against the rhythm of cosmic order."

"A brave man once requested me To answer questions that are key Is it to be or not to be And I replied oh why ask me"

"Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem."

"The next place that they came unto Was the meer Barathrum of wo, Where lay a miserable pack Of men that dy'd for honours sake, Some that had drown'd themselves in River, Others thrust Ponyard through Liver, Because forsooth they cou'd not sip Nepenthe from a Mistress lip. Some that had been past worldly hope And ended all their cares with rope; But were become the unhappier (Out of the Frying-pan into the fire,) For here they'r cramb'd up in a hole Which always lies bedung'd and foul. As for with brooms and mops to cleanse it I wonder who in conscience means it, Because like privy or a sink The more 'tis stir'd the more 'twill stink."

"There be many excellent straines in that Poet (Lucan), wherewith his Stoicall Genius hath liberally supplyed him; and truely there are singular pieces of the Philosophy of Zeno, and doctrine of the Stoickes, which I perceive, delivered in a Pulpit, passe for currant Divinity, yet herein are they extream that can allow a man to be his owne Assassine, and so highly extoll the end of Cato, this is indeed not to feare death, but yet to be afraid of life. It is a brave act of valour to contemne death, but where life is more terrible then death, it is then the truest valour to dare to live, and herein Religion hath taught us a noble example: For all the valiant acts of Curtius, Scevola, or Codrus, doe not parallell or match that one of Job, and sure there is no torture to the racke of a disease, nor any Poneyard in death itselfe like those in the way or prologue unto it.Emori nolo, sed me esse mortuum nihil curo, I would not dye, but care not to be dead. Were I of Cæsars Religion I should be of his desires, and wish rather to be tortured at one blow, then to be sawed in peeces by the grating torture of a disease."

"[Suicide] is the deliberate or the hurried action of the man who is trying to get out of a trouble and escape from it. Yet he cannot escape from it. He has struck away his body, he is wide awake on the other side of death, exactly the same man he was a moment before, except that his body is thrown off; no more changed than if he had merely taken off his coat. The result of his losing the physical body is that his capacity for suffering is very much increased. He is subject to the same forces as those which may have driven him to suicide. There is, however, one peculiarity in relation to it-that he generally goes through in "imagination," as we call it (which is the most real thing of all), all that led up to the point when he killed himself, and that is repeated over and over again. A great deal of the suffering depends upon that. The thing which drove him to suicide was mental or emotional, as the case may be. He has not got rid either of his mind or his emotions. All the part of him that drove him to suicide is there; it was not a mere bodily action. The result of that is that he has still in him every­ thing which made him commit the act; the consequence of this is that he keeps on committing it, going through the whole of the trouble that drove him up to the final act.""

"But if there be an hereafter, And that there is, conscience, uninfluenc'd And suffer'd to speak out, tells every man, Then must it be an awful thing to die; More horrid yet to die by one's own hand."

"Our time is fixed, and all our days are number'd; How long, how short, we know not:—this we know, Duty requires we calmly wait the summons, Nor dare to stir till Heaven shall give permission."

"The common damn'd shun their society."

"Suicide is the worst of crimes and dire in its results."

"No more than murder, is it ever justifiable, however desirable it may sometimes appear. The Occultist, who looks at the origin and the ultimate end of things, teaches that the individual, who affirms that any man, under whatsoever circumstances, is called upon to put and end to his life, is guilty of as great an offence and of as pernicious a piece of sophistry, as the nation that assumes a right to kill in war thousands of innocent people under the pretext of avenging the wrong done to one."

"No man, we repeat, has a right to put an end to his existence simply because it is useless... There is a vast difference between the man who parts with his life in sheer disgust at constant failure to do good, out of despair of ever being useful, or even out of dread to do injury to his fellow-men by remaining alive; and one who gives it up voluntarily to save the lives either committed to his charge or dear to him. One is a half insane misanthrope the other, a hero and a martyr. One takes away his life, the other offers it in sacrifice to philanthropy and to his duty."

"The man who gives up his place in a boat that will not hold all, in favour of younger and weaker beings; the physician, the sister of charity, and nurse who stir not from the bed-side of patients dying of an infectious fever; the man of science who wastes his life in brain-work and fatigue and knows he is so wasting it and yet is offering it day after day and night after night in order to discover some great law of the universe, the discovery of which may bring in its results some great boon to mankind; the mother that throws herself before the wild beast, that attacks her children, to screen and give them the time to fly; all these are not suicides. The impulse which prompts them thus to contravene the first great law of animated nature--the first instinctive impulse of which is to preserve life--is grand and noble."

"Don't commit suicide, because you might change your mind two weeks later."

"There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy."

"Our account echoes the account of suicide by Emile Durkheim, the founder of sociology, of how suicide happens when society fails to provide some of its members with the framework within which they can live dignified and meaningful lives."

"The man who kills a man, kills a man. The man who kills himself, kills all men. As far as he is concerned he wipes out the world."

"Tears do not burn except in solitude. Those who ask to be surrounded by friends when they die do so out of fear and inability to live their final moments alone. They want to forget death at the moment of death. They lack infinite heroism. Why don't they lock their door and suffer those maddening sensations with a lucidity and a fear beyond all limits?"

"It is not worth the bother of killing yourself, since you always kill yourself too late."

"The only subversive mind is the one that questions the obligation to exist; all the others, the anarchist at the top of the list, compromise with the established order."

"死神の附いた耳へは、意見も道理も入るまいとは思へど、さりとは愚痴の至り"

"Fool! I mean not That poor-souled piece of heroism, self-slaughter; Oh no! the miserablest day we live There's many a better thing to do than die!"

"I thought, “I want to die. I want to die more than ever before. There’s no chance now of a recovery. No matter what sort of thing I do, no matter what I do, it’s sure to be a failure, just a final coating applied to my shame. That dream of going on bicycles to see a waterfall framed in summer leaves—it was not for the likes of me. All that can happen now is that one foul, humiliating sin will be piled on another, and my sufferings will become only the more acute. I want to die. I must die. Living itself is the source of sin.""

"In time, when we became adults, we might look back on this pain and loneliness as a funny thing, perfectly ordinary, but—but how were we expected to get by, to get through this interminable period of time until that point when we were adults? There was no one to teach us how. Was there nothing to do but leave us alone, like we had the measles? But people died from the measles, or went blind. You couldn't just leave them alone. Some of us, in our daily depressions and rages, were apt to stray, to become corrupted, irreparably so, and then our lives would be forever in disorder. There were even some who would resolve to kill themselves. And when that happened, everyone would say, Oh, if only she had lived a little longer she would have known, if she were a little more grown up she would have figured it out. How saddened they would all be. But if those people were to think about it from our perspective, and see how we had tried to endure despite how terribly painful it all was, and how we had even tried to listen carefully, as hard as we could, to what the world might have to say, they would see that, in the end, the same bland lessons were always being repeated over and over, you know, well, merely to appease us. And they would see how we always experienced the same embarrassment of being ignored. It's not as though we only care about the present. If you were to point to a faraway mountain and say, If you can make it there, it's a pretty good view, I'd see that there's not an ounce of untruth to what you tell us. But when you say, Well, bear with it just a little longer, if you can make it to the top of that mountain, you'll have done it, you are ignoring the fact that we are suffering from a terrible stomachache—right now. Surely one of you is mistaken to let us go on this way. You're the one who is to blame."

"Was suicide just the coward's refuge from some black despair? Or was it in its way an act of courage that revealed a perverted sort of valour? Not that, though. So many other lives were intertwined: no burdens were shed — they were merely passed from the shoulders of one to those of another."

"Death is before me today Like the recovery of a sick man … Like the longing of a man to see his home again After many years of captivity …"

"Officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs say that each year more than 6,000 veterans take their own lives.... The dying didn't stop when the unit came home. Two soldiers in the unit took their own lives. At the funeral for the second veteran, in a supreme example of gallows humor, one veteran told another, "Guess I'll see you at the next one of these.""

"Who doubting tyranny, and fainting under Fortune's false lottery, desperately run To death, for dread of death; that soul's most stout, That, bearing all mischance, dares last it out."

"In a remotely healthy society, one that provides basic emotional needs to its population, suicide and serious suicidal ideation are rare events. It is anathema to the most basic human instinct: the will to live. A society in which such a vast swath of the population is seriously considering it as an option is one which is anything but healthy, one which is plainly failing to provide its citizens the basic necessities for a fulfilling life."

"All our obligations to do good to society seem to involve doing something in return: I get the benefits of society, so I ought to promote its interests. But when I withdraw myself altogether from society, can I still be obliged to serve it? And even if our obligations to do good did last for ever, they certainly have some limits; I am not obliged to do a small good to society at the expense of a great harm to myself; so why should I prolong a miserable existence because of some trivial advantage that the public may perhaps receive from me? Suppose I am old and unwell: can’t I lawfully resign from whatever jobs I have, and spend all my time coping with these calamities and doing what I can to reduce the miseries of my remaining years? If so, why isn’t it lawful for me to cut short these miseries at once by suicide, an action that does no more harm to society? Now try three other suppositions. Suppose that I am no longer able to do any good for society, or that I am a burden to society, or that my life is getting in the way of some other person’s being much more useful to society. In such cases it must be not only lawful but praiseworthy for me to take my own life. And most people who are at all tempted to commit suicide are in some such situation; those who have health, or power, or authority, usually have better reason to be on good terms with the world."

"Suicide can often be consistent with self-interest and with one’s duty to oneself; this can’t be questioned by anyone who accepts that age, sickness, or misfortune may make life a burden that is even worse than annihilation. I don’t believe that anyone ever threw away his life while it was worth keeping. Our natural horror of death is too great to be overcome by small motives. It may happen that a man takes his own life although his state of health or fortune didn’t seem to require this remedy, but we can be sure that he was cursed with such an incurable depravity or depression as must poison all enjoyment and make him as miserable as if he had been loaded with the most grievous misfortunes."

"If suicide is a crime, only cowardice can drive us to it. If it is not a crime, both prudence and courage should lead us to rid ourselves of existence when it becomes a burden. If that time comes, suicide is our only way to be useful to society—setting an example which, if imitated, would preserve to everyone his chance for happiness in life, and effectively free him from all risk of misery."

"In most societies and religious traditions, suicide is seen as a tragic act linked to despair, mental illness, or social breakdown. Yet, historically and across cultures, there have been times when suicide has been accepted or even valorized—viewed as a noble sacrifice, a spiritual transition, or a protest against injustice. These acts are not solely personal but are embedded within systems of meaning that grant them theological, esoteric, and political significance."

"What a silly thing to do, he thought. What a goddam silly thing to do. You wont even be there to watch their faces."

"Suicide, like any other murder is a sin because it is a sudden disturbance of the harmony of the world. It is a sin because it defeats nature. Nature exists for the sake of the soul and for no other reason, it has the design, so to say, of giving the soul experience and self-consciousness. These can only be had by means of a body through which the soul comes in contact with nature, and to violently sever the connection before the natural time defeats the aim of nature, for the present compelling her, by her own slow processes, to restore the task left unfinished. And as those processes must go on through the soul that permitted the murder, more pain and suffering must follow."

"Suicide is a huge folly, because it places the committer of it in an infinitely worse position than he was in under the conditions from which he foolishly hoped to escape. It is not death. It is only a leaving of one well-known house in familiar surroundings to go into a new place where terror and despair alone have place."

"The fate of the suicide is horrible in general. He has cut himself off from his body by using mechanical means that affect the body, but cannot touch the real man. He then is projected into the astral world, for he has to live somewhere. There the remorseless law, which acts really for his good, compels him to wait until he can properly die. Naturally he must wait, half dead, the months or years which, in the order of nature, would have rolled over him before body and soul and spirit could rightly separate. He becomes a shade; he lives in purgatory, so to say, called by the Theosophist the “place of desire and passion,” or “Kama-Loka.” He exists in the astral realm entirely, eaten up by his own thoughts. Continually repeating in vivid thoughts the act by which he tried to stop his life’s pilgrimage, he at the same time sees the people and the place he left, but is not able to communicate with any one..."

"Abstract. Background: Suicide and food insecurity (i.e., lack of access to food) are two major issues that affect US Veterans. Purpose: Using a US-based sample, we evaluated the association between food insecurity and suicidal ideation among Veterans. Because depression often precedes suicide, we also examined the association between food insecurity and depression. Conclusion: Food insecurity in Veterans is associated with increased depression symptoms and suicidal ideation. This association strengthens as food insecurity worsens. Veterans with food insecurity should be screened for depression and suicidal ideation. Simultaneously, depression treatment plans and suicide prevention programs should consider basic needs like food security."

"Suicide evokes revulsion with horror, because everything in nature seeks to preserve itself: a damaged tree, a living body, an animal; and in man, then, is freedom, which is the highest degree of life, and constitutes the worth of it, to become now a principium for self-destruction? This is the most horrifying thing imaginable. For anyone who has already got so far as to be master, at any time, over his own life, is also master over the life of anyone else; for him, the door stands open to every crime, and before he can be seized he is ready to spirit himself away out of the world. So suicide evokes horror, in that a man thereby puts himself below the beasts. We regard a suicide as a carcase, whereas we feel pity for one who meets his end through fate."

"Darkling I listen; and, for many a time I have been half in love with easeful Death, Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme, To take into the air my quiet breath; Now more than ever seems it rich to die, To cease upon the midnight with no pain …"

"Just as in a drama, by shortening the time and condensing the events, one is enabled to see the content of many years in the course of a few hours, so also one wants to arrange oneself dramatically within temporality. God’s plan for existence is rejected, so that temporality is entirely development, complication-eternity the denouement. Everything is arranged within temporality, a score of years devoted to development, then ten years, and then the denouement follow. Undeniably death is also a denouement, and then it is over, one is buried-yet not before the denouement of decomposition has begun. But anyone who refuses to understand that the whole of one’s life should be the time of hope is veritably in despair, no matter, absolutely no matter, whether he is conscious of it or not, whether he counts himself fortunate in his presumed well-being or wears himself out in tedium and trouble. Anyone who gives up the possibility that his existence could be forfeited in the next moment-provided he does not give up this possibility because he hopes for the possibility of the good, anyone who lives without possibility is in despair. He breaks with the eternal and arbitrarily puts an end to possibility; without the consent of eternity, he ends where the end is not, instead of, like someone who is taking dictation, continually having his pen poised for what comes next, so that he does not presume meaninglessly to place a period before the meaning is complete or rebelliously to throw away his pen."

"A low serotonin level . . . can dry up the wellsprings of life’s happiness, withering a person’s interest in his existence and increasing the risk of depression and suicide."

"We are often asked how suicide affects a man's position in the other world. First of all, it must be clearly understood that suicide is a wrong thing, and :no man should end his life before its natural time, unless it be in an act of heroism for the benefit of others. p. 168"

"Men have committed suicide out of sheer cowardice, afraid to face the results of their own actions; in such cases there is unquestionably moral wrong. Such a man throws himself, in the fullest consciousness, into the lowest and most unpleasant part of the astral world, where a good deal of suffering may be his lot. He often realizes immediately that he has made a mistake, that he has done wrong; but he has to bear the consequences of his rash act. p. 169"

"One of the most curious cases of a man being saved from suicide... Mr. K-, she said , while sitting in his study one afternoon, fell, or fancied he fell, asleep. He thought that when in this condition he was abruptly awakened, and that while he was sitting wondering what it was that had awakened him, the door of his room very slowly opened and his friend B-, who lived in quite another part of the town, entered on tiptoe. He was about to speak to B-to ask him what he wanted, when B-put a finger to his lips as if to enjoin silence, and then, drawing a razor from his pocket, bared the blade of it, and raised it to his throat in the most horribly suggestive manner. Realizing that B-was about to· destroy himself, Mr. K... rushed to B-'s side. A furious struggle then ensued... The following day he met B-out of doors... "I say, old fellow," B-exclaimed, by way of greeting, "I've just had such an extraordinary experience. Things haven't gone very well with me lately, and yesterday afternoon I determined to put an end to myself by cutting my throat. I was in my bedroom and I had my razor in my right hand, all ready to do the' deed, when, to my utter amazement... you suddenly came in at the door and tried to snatch it... p. 314"

"While foulest fiends shun thy society."

"Ah, yes, the sea is still and deep, All things within its bosom sleep! A single step, and all is o'er, A plunge, a bubble, and no more."

"I am here (Istana Negara) because I am also a Malaysian citizen, and this is a people's movement, so I sympathise with them. As mentioned earlier, Malays have never committed suicide until now. Seventeen Malays have committed suicide, some even killed their mothers or fathers because they lost direction and are feeling extremely pressured. That's why I am here, to show my solidarity with the people."

"When Fannius from his foe did fly Himself with his own hands he slew; Who e'er a greater madness knew? Life to destroy for fear to die."

"He That kills himself to avoid misery, fears it, And, at the best, shows but a bastard valour. This life's a fort committed to my trust, Which I must not yield up till it be forced: Nor will I. He's not valiant that dares die, But he that boldly bears calamity."

"If you like not hanging, drown yourself; Take some course for your reputation."

"Suicide is a private thing."

"Suicide kills two people. That's what it's for."

"In his famous and highly regarded book “Life After Life.” With regard to interviews he had conducted with people who had had a Near Death Experience as a result of a suicide attempt from which they either survived or were medically resuscitated, Moody writes: “These experiences were uniformly characterized as being unpleasant. As one woman said, ‘If you leave here a tormented soul, you will be a tormented soul over there, too.’ In short, they report that the conflicts they had attempted suicide to escape were still present when they died, but with added complications. In their disembodied state they were unable to do anything about their problems, and they also had to view the unfortunate consequences which resulted from their acts. A man who was despondent about the death of his wife shot himself, ‘died’ as a result, and was resuscitated. He states: ‘I didn’t go where [my wife] was, I went to an awful place. … I immediately saw the mistake I had made. … I thought, ‘I wish I hadn’t done it.’ Others who experienced this unpleasant ‘limbo’ state have remarked that they had the feeling they would be there for a long time. This was their penalty for ‘breaking the rules’ by trying to release themselves prematurely from what was, in effect, an ‘assignment’ – to fulfill a certain purpose in life.”"

"In his subsequent book “Reflections on Life After Life,” Moody says: “All of these people agree on one point: they felt their suicidal attempts solved nothing. They found that they were involved [in the other world] in exactly the same problems from which they had been trying to extricate themselves by suicide. Whatever difficulty they had been trying to get away from was still there on the other side, unresolved. One person mentioned being “trapped” in the situation which had provoked her suicide attempt. [It was] repeated again and again, as if in a cycle.”"

"Suicide is not a solution But it remains an excellent option"

"Beginning Tuesday, U.S. military veterans who find themselves in suicidal crisis will be eligible for free emergency medical care at any Department of Veterans Affairs facility or any private facility. Unlike for most other medical benefits, veterans do not have to be enrolled in the VA system to be eligible. More than 18 million veterans in the U.S. could be eligible. The new policy... will include up to 30 days of inpatient or crisis residential care and up to 90 days of follow-on outpatient care."

"I do not think life will change for the better without an assault on the establishment, which goes on exploiting the wretched of the earth. This belief lies at the heart of the concept of revolutionary suicide. Thus it is better to oppose the forces that would drive me to self-murder than to endure them. Although I risk the likelihood of death, there is at least the possibility, if not the probability, of changing intolerable conditions."

"Revolutionary suicide does not mean that I and my comrades have a death wish; it means just the opposite. We have such a strong desire to live with hope and human dignity that existence without them is impossible. When reactionary forces crush us, we must move against these forces, even at the risk of death."

"The people will win a new world. Yet when I think of individuals in the revolution, I cannot predict their survival. Revolutionaries must accept this fact. ... Some see our struggle as a symbol of the trend toward suicide among Blacks. Scholars and academics, in particular, have been quick to make this accusation. They fail to perceive differences. Jumping off a bridge is not the same as moving to wipe out the overwhelming force of an oppressive army. When scholars call our actions suicidal, they should be logically consistent and describe all historical revolutionary movements in the same way. Thus the American colonialists, the French of the late eighteenth century, the Russians of 1917, the Jews of Warsaw, the Cubans, the NLF, the North Vietnamese—any people who struggle against a brutal and powerful force—are suicidal."

"My fear was not of death itself, but a death without meaning. I wanted my death to be something the people could relate to, a basis for further mobilization of the community."

"The thought of suicide is a great consolation: by means of it one gets through many a dark night."

"A lot of writers are crazy about having people commit suicide to end their books. But people don't usually commit suicide."

"It's in our nature to kill ourselves."

"Razors pain you; Rivers are damp; Acids stain you; And drugs cause cramp. Guns aren't lawful; Nooses give; Gas smells awful; You might as well live."

"Consider this point carefully: nowadays, suicide is just a way of disappearing. It is carried out timidly, quietly, and falls flat. It is no longer an action, only a submission."

"Here's the difficulty about suicide: it is an act of ambition that can be committed only when one has passed beyond ambition."

"No one ever lacks a good reason for suicide."

"The act—the act—must not be a revenge. It must be a calm, weary renunciation, a closing of accounts, a private, rhythmic deed. The last remark."

"Suicides are timid murderers. Masochism instead of Sadism."

"My duty will be to continue to endeavor to do the work I seem to have been put into the world to do; and when the moment arrives at which there seems to be no rational hope of making my life useful, my duty, as I see it, will be to treat my life just as I would an aching tooth that there was no hope of making useful. I will have it out."

"Dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well."

"Well, I wasn't sure whether I was ever going to be able to do anything again. When we lost Tommy on December 31 of 2020, my chief of staff, Julie Tagen, who came over to the house, said that, you know, just for hours I just sat in one seat. And I was just repeating over and over, I've lost my son. My life is over. My life is over. And that pretty well captures my state of mind at the time. And he had - Speaker Pelosi, I see in hindsight, threw me a lifeline because she reached out to me. And she said, we need you. And the country needs you. So I was forced to galvanize all of my love for Tommy and my daughters, Hannah and Tabitha, and my wife, Sarah, and our family and our country, and to throw myself into the trial to make the case that Donald Trump had incited this violent insurrection and effort to overthrow the 2020 presidential election."

"Some people might say, I have a right to die, when they are arguing the case for suicide. And while this is true, it is also true that the people on your planet need every bit of help and encouragement they can get from each person alive. In a certain sense, the energy of each individual does keep the world going, and to commit suicide is to refuse a basic, cooperative venture."

"We cannot tear out a single page from our life, but we can throw the whole book into the fire."

"Bravest at the last, She levell'd at our purposes, and, being royal, Took her own way."

"Against self-slaughter There is a prohibition so divine That cravens my weak hand."

"To be, or not to be,—that is the question:— Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?—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 wish'd. To die, to sleep;— To sleep, perchance to dream:—ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? who would these 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 naught of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought; And enterprises of great pith and moment, With this regard, their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action."

"The more pity that great folk should have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves, more than their even Christian."

"Therein, ye gods, you make the weak most strong; Therein, ye gods, you tyrants do defeat: Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass, Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron, Can be retentive to the strength of spirit; But life, being weary of these worldly bars, Never lacks power to dismiss itself."

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

"You ever-gentle gods, take my breath from me; Let not my worser spirit tempt me again To die before you please!"

"Suicide is often a failure of community, and claiming it as inevitable is a defense against that failure."

"To those of us who have suffered severe depression - myself included - this general unawareness of how relentlessly the disease can generate an urge to self-destruction seems widespread; the problem badly needs illumination. What is saddening about Primo Levi's death is the suspicion that his way of dying was not inevitable and that with proper care he might have been rescued from the abyss. I find it difficult not to believe that if Mr Levi had been under capable hospital attention, sequestered from the unbearable daily world in a setting where he would have been safe from his self-destructive urge, and where time would have permitted the storm raging in his brain to calm itself and die away, he would be among us now."

"One important worker task is colony defense. In some bees, ants, and wasps, the worker sting has backward-pointing barbs that lodge in an at- tacker’s flesh. The sting then detaches (“sting autotomy”) from the worker, who dies (Hermann 1984)."

"I have little use for the past and rarely think about it; however, I would briefly like to tell you how I came to be a spiritual teacher and how this book came into existence. Until my thirtieth year, I lived in a state of almost continuous anxiety interspersed with periods of suicidal depression. It feels now as if I am talking about some past lifetime or somebody else's life.... What was the point in continuing to live with this burden of misery? Why carry on with this continuous struggle? I could feel that a deep longing for annihilation, for nonexistence, was now becoming much stronger than the instinctive desire to continue to live. “I cannot live with myself any longer.” This was the thought that kept repeating itself in my mind. Then suddenly I became aware of what a peculiar thought it was. “Am I one or two? If I cannot live with myself, there must be two of me: the ‘I’ and the ‘self’ that ‘I’ cannot live with.” “Maybe,” I thought, “only one of them is real.”... BR>When someone goes to the doctor and says, "I hear a voice in my head," he or she will most likely be sent to a psychiatrist. The fact is that, in a very similar way, virtually everyone hears a voice, or several voices, in their head all the time: the involuntary thought processes that you don't realize you have the power to stop. Introduction"

"For a moment, I was able to stand back from my own mind and see it from a deeper perspective, as it were. There was a brief shift from thinking to awareness. I was still in the men’s room, but alone now, looking at my face in the mirror. At that moment of detachment from my mind, I laughed out loud....“Life isn’t as serious as my mind makes it out to be.” That’s what the laughter seemed to be saying. But it was only a glimpse, very quickly to be forgotten. I would spend the next three years in anxiety and depression, completely identified with my mind. I had to get close to suicide before awareness returned, and then it was much more than a glimpse. I became free of compulsive thinking and of the false, mindmade “I.” p. 23"

"Suicide is self-expression."

"The man, who in a fit of melancholy, kills himself today, would have wished to live had he waited a week."

"The so-called ‘psychotically depressed’ person who tries to kill herself doesn't do so out of quote ‘hopelessness’ or any abstract conviction that life's assets and debits do not square. And surely not because death seems suddenly appealing. The person in whom Its invisible agony reaches a certain unendurable level will kill herself the same way a trapped person will eventually jump from the window of a burning high-rise. Make no mistake about people who leap from burning windows. Their terror of falling from a great height is still just as great as it would be for you or me standing speculatively at the same window just checking out the view; i.e. the fear of falling remains a constant. The variable here is the other terror, the fire's flames: when the flames get close enough, falling to death becomes the slightly less terrible of two terrors. It's not desiring the fall; it's terror of the flames. Yet nobody down on the sidewalk, looking up and yelling ‘Don‘t!’ and ‘Hang on!’, can understand the jump. Not really. You'd have to have personally been trapped and felt flames to really understand a terror way beyond falling."

"Suicide among service members, veterans, and their families is a public health and national security crisis. In 2019 alone, the Department of Veterans Affairs reported that 6,261 veterans died by suicide. The Department of Defense reported 580 suicide deaths among Active Components, Reserve, and National Guard service members in 2020; and 202 suicide deaths among military family members in 2019.ii While suicide in the general population has been increasing, the rate among service members and veterans remains too high despite ongoing effort to reduce suicide through the implementation of federal policies, programs, and practices. For more than a decade, the suicide rates have been higher and have risen faster among veterans as compared to non-veterans. Women veterans die by suicide at almost twice the rate than nonveteran women, and veterans ages 18-34 have a suicide rate almost three times higher than nonveterans the same age."

"There is no refuge from confession but suicide; and suicide is confession."

"Britannia's shame! There took her gloomy flight, On wing impetuous, a black sullen soul… Less base the fear of death than fear of life. O Britain! infamous for suicide."

"It's better to burn out than to fade away."

"Another class of disembodied entities includes those whose lives on earth have been prematurely cut short, by their own act, the act of others, or by accident. Their fate in Kāmaloka depends on the conditions which surrounded their out-goings from earthly life, for not all suicides are guilty of felo de se, and the measure of responsibility may vary within very wide limits. The condition of such has been thus described:"

"Suicides, although not wholly dissevered from their...[higher] principles... to the day when they would have died a natural death, are separated from their higher principles by a gulf... whereas in cases of accidental death the higher and the lower groups actually attract each other... These, whether suicides or killed by accident, can communicate with those in earth-life, but much to their own injury... The good and innocent sleep happily till the life-period is over. But where the victim of an accident is depraved and gross, his fate is a sad one. Unhappy shades, if sinful and sensual, they wander about (not shells, for their connection with their two higher principles is not quite broken) until their death­ hour comes."

"The rule is that a person who dies a natural death will remain from “a few hours to several short years” within the earth’s attraction – i. e., the Kāmaloka. But exceptions are the cases of suicides and those who die a violent death in general. Hence, one... who was destined to live, say, eighty or ninety years – but who either killed himself or was killed by some accident, let us suppose at the age of twenty – would have to pass in the Kāmaloka not “a few years”, but in this case sixty or seventy years... Premature death brought on by vicious courses, by over-study, or by voluntary sacrifice for some great cause, will bring about delay in Kāmaloka, but the state of the disembodied entity will depend on the motive that cut short the life."

"In the victim’s case the natural hour of death was anticipated accidentally, while in that of the suicide death is brought on voluntarily and with a full and deliberate knowledge of its immediate consequences. Thus a man who causes his death in a fit of temporary insanity is not a felo de se, to the great grief and often trouble of the Life Insurance Companies. Nor is he left a prey to the temptations of the Kāmaloka, but falls asleep like any other victim... The population of Kāmaloka is thus recruited with a peculiarly dangerous element by all the acts of violence, legal and illegal, which wrench the physical body from the soul and send the latter into Kāmaloka clad in the desire body, throbbing with pulses of hatred, passion, emotion, palpitating with longings for revenge, with un-satiated lusts."

"A murderer in the body is not a pleasant member of society, but a murderer suddenly expelled from the body is a far more dangerous entity; society may protect itself against the first, but in its present state of ignorance it is defenceless as against the second."

"And we must remember that thoughts and motives are material, and at times marvelously potent material, forces, an we may then begin to comprehend why the [98] hero, sacrificing his life on pure altruistic grounds, sinks as his life-blood ebbs way into a sweet dream, wherein All that he wishes and all that he loves Come smiling round his sunny way, only to wake into active or objective consciousness when reborn in the Region of Happiness, while the poor unhappy and misguided mortal who, seeking to elude fate, selfishly loosens the silver string and breaks the golden bowl, finds himself terribly alive and awake, instinct with all the evil cravings and desires that embittered his world-life, without a body in which to gratify these, and capable of only such partial alleviation as is possible by more or less vicarious gratification, and this only at the cost of the ultimate complete rupture with his sixth and seventh principles, and consequent ultimate annihilation after, alas! prolonged periods of suffering."

"Let it not be supposed that there is no hope for this class – the sane deliberate suicide. If, bearing steadfastly his cross, he suffers patiently his punishment, striving against carnal appetites still alive in him, in all their intensity, though, of course, each in proportion to the degree to which it had been indulged in earth-life – if, we say, he bears this humbly, never allowing himself to be tempted here or there into unlawful gratifications of unholy desires – then when his fated death-hour strikes, his four higher principles reunite, and, in the final separation that then ensues, it may well be that all may be well with him, and that he passes on to the gestation period and its subsequent developments."

"I tell my kids ... "Tell me when I'm going gaga — but all three of you had better come in, because if it's just one of you, you're out of the will."

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

"There is no instance where men are so easily imposed upon, as at the time of their dying under the pretence of charity."

"Of all the cases which come before the Court for its decision, none can be more embarrassing and more unsatisfactory than those which arise upon the construction of wills. The Court has no real guide to enable it to arrive at a conclusion. The only things which can be called guides are certain rules which the Court has laid down, and which may be extracted from the decisions. Beyond that, the decisions are not of the slightest use. Except by adherence to those rules, there is nothing but what may, not irreverently, be called guessing as to what the words of the document can be held to mean."

"In the state of languor in which dying persons generally are, their assent could be easily got to statements which they never intended to make, if they were but ingeniously interwoven with statements which were actually true by an artful person. ** R. v. Fitzgerald, Ir. Cir. R. 168, 169."

"This seems to me to be one of those cases in which the Court is bound to arrive at a conclusion without having any satisfactory means of arriving at it. The only guide I have is this. I am entitled to sit in the testator's chair as he wrote his own will."

"A will is often executed suddenly in a last sickness, and sometimes in the article of death . . . consequently the time of the execution is the critical moment which requires guard and protection."

"As lawyers we must construe the will like any other document."

"The law has ever been watchful and jealous of wills made under religious influences, and especially so when those influences connect themselves with any individual who is the object of the testator's bounty."

"I regret exceedingly that, not only ordinary laymen, but, as it seems to me, professional men, do not understand the great difficulty there is in drawing wills, and do not bestow a little more care and pains in endeavouring to draw them in such a way as that the numerous questions which often arise on them should be avoided. I regret to say that these questions often throw a great deal of expense on parties interested under the wills, and are the cause of great heartburnings and most bitter animosities."

"I quite admit that on the question of the construction of wills relating to real property the cases have always had greater attention given to them than in the case of personalty, because land in England passes by title, and it has always been the habit of the lawyers and Judges to look with greater strictness to the reported cases where it is a question of land than where it is a question of personalty."

"Speaking for myself, I do not look upon wills as Chinese puzzles; they no doubt do present great difficulties, but I do not feel myself the serious difficulty which other learned Judges have."

"The Court is at liberty to transpose and mould clauses and words in a will so as to make the whole take effect."

"If we find from a will, as we do here, that a testator has used a word in a particular sense, we must give it that meaning wherever it occurs in the will. It is the same thing as if a foreign word were used—a case of which I have known. In such a case we have to get at the meaning of the word in English from an ordinary dictionary, and then whenever it occurs give it that English meaning. Of course, the dictionary must be clear; and if we cannot make out what the testator meant, then we have not got the dictionary."

"No previous will can be treated properly as a precedent for another which is expressed in different language, and no decision on the precise words of a former will can as a general rule be of the least service in guiding the Court as to the construction of other words. Unless you can get a principle from a case which is applicable generally to other cases, the precedent is of little use."

"Let a will be ever so fair, a slip in form is fatal: which is a certain mischief. But if a will be fraudulent, though it is allowed to be formal, it may be set aside upon evidence and circumstances."

"My distinction is, that in incorrect wills the Court may take liberties, but that if the words are correct they have no power to make any alteration."

"Every will stands on its own bottom and is various as anything whatsoever, and therefore it is hard to cite a case that can quadrate. I have mean thoughts of my own opinion. I may say in this case, diffieilius est invenire quam vincere, as Caesar said when he and his army ran about the Alps to find out a way."

"Men should not sin in their graves."

"I do not intend to encumber myself with cases. Decisions upon other words something like those in question, in other wills, where the whole context of those other wills must be gone into, can afford very little assistance."

"I do not see why, if we can tell what a man intends, and can give effect to his intention as expressed, we should be driven out of it by other cases or decisions in other cases. I always protest against anything of the sort."

"We must find out the meaning of the testator as well as we can."

"Technical rules are not to be relied upon in explaining the intention of testators: and yet cases of intention are much embarrassed by authorities."

"Courts of justice ought to carry into effect the intentions of testators as far as they can consistently with the rules of law."

"It is from the words, and from the context, not from the punctuation, that the sense must be collected."

"The intention of the testator is the polar star by which we must be guided."

"The Court is to pronounce according to the apparent intent of the testator, but that intent must be found in the words of the will, and is not to be collected by conjecture dehors the will."

"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."

"Who pass'd, methought, the melancholy flood With that grim ferryman which poets write of, Unto the kingdom of perpetual night."

"'Tis a vile thing to die, my gracious lord, When men are unprepared and look not for it."

"The wills above be done! but I would fain die a dry death."

"He that dies pays all debts."

"Come away, come away, death, And in sad cypress let me be laid; Fly away, fly away, breath: I am slain by a fair cruel maid. My shroud of white, stuck all with yew, Oh, prepare it! My part of death no one so true Did share it."

"The youth that you see here I snatch'd one half out of the jaws of death."

"For he being dead, with him is beauty slain, And, beauty dead, black chaos comes again."

"In me thou see'st the twilight of such day, As after sunset fadeth in the west; Which by and by black night doth take away, Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire, That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, As the death-bed whereon it must expire, Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by. This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong, To love that well which thou must leave ere long."

"The offence is what is improperly called the death of an infant, who has ceased to be, before knowing what existence is, — a result of a nature not to give the slightest inquietude to the most timid imagination; and which can cause no regrets but to the very person who, through a sentiment of shame and pity, has refused to prolong a life begun under the auspices of misery."

"I have little sympathy with the idea that infanticide is just another form of murder. Persons who are already functionally persons in the full sense have more important rights even than infants. Infanticide can be wrong without being fully comparable to the killing of persons in the full sense."

"The Spaniards in Mexico and Peru used to baptize Indian infants and then immediately dash their brains out: by this means they secured these infants went to Heaven."

"I use the term "person" to refer to a being who is capable of anticipating the future, of having wants and desires for the future... I think that it is generally a greater wrong to kill such a being than it is to kill a being that has no sense of existing over time. Newborn human babies have no sense of their own existence over time. So killing a newborn baby is never equivalent to killing a person, that is, a being who wants to go on living. That doesn’t mean that it is not almost always a terrible thing to do. It is, but that is because most infants are loved and cherished by their parents, and to kill an infant is usually to do a great wrong to its parents. Sometimes, perhaps because the baby has a serious disability, parents think it better that their newborn infant should die. Many doctors will accept their wishes, to the extent of not giving the baby life-supporting medical treatment. That will often ensure that the baby dies. My view is different from this, only to the extent that if a decision is taken, by the parents and doctors, that it is better that a baby should die, I believe it should be possible to carry out that decision, not only by withholding or withdrawing life-support – which can lead to the baby dying slowly from dehydration or from an infection - but also by taking active steps to end the baby’s life swiftly and humanely."

"When the death of a disabled infant will lead to the birth of another infant with better prospects of a happy life, the total amount of happiness will be greater if the disabled infant is killed. The loss of happy life for the first infant is outweighed by the gain of a happier life for the second. Therefore, if killing the hemophiliac infant has no adverse effect on others, it would, according to the total view, be right to kill him."

"Singer is right that on the basis of his premises there is no relevant difference between abortion and the killing of “severely disabled infants.” But why does he confine the comparison to newborn infants who are severely disabled? He certainly does not confine abortion to severely disabled fetuses. If newborns, like unborn children, are not persons, and it is permissible to abort unborn children regardless of whether they are afflicted or healthy, then newborns, afflicted or healthy, should be subject to killing too, provided of course that “on balance, and taking into account the interests of everyone affected,” their killing will increase the total amount of happiness or satisfied preferences in the world. Singer certainly offers no good utilitarian reason to confine the killing to severely disabled newborns."

"They're very much like people in a long-term coma, except there is no metabolism. They're not alive, but they're not dead. In our view, dying is a process, and Cryonics stops that process and puts it on pause, and lets you go into the future where we have greater capabilities to reverse that and bring you back to life. Around -100°C, the body becomes a true solid, so it does not matter if you wait a day or 100 years, you will be the same as when you started."

"I wish it were possible...to invent a method of embalming drowned persons, in such a manner that they might be recalled to life at any period, however distant; for having a very ardent desire to see and observe the state of America a hundred years hence, I should prefer to an ordinary death, being immersed with a few friends in a cask of Madeira, until that time, then to be recalled to life by the solar warmth of my dear country! But... in all probability, we live in a century too little advanced, and too near the infancy of science, to see such an art brought in our time to its perfection..."

"The act of freezing a dead body and storing it indefinitely on the chance that some future generation may restore it to life is an act of faith, not science."

"Cryonics might be a suitable subject for scientific research, but marketing an unproven method to the public is quackery."

"Cryonics is a legitimate science-based endeavor that seeks to preserve human beings, especially the human brain, by the best technology available. Future technologies for resuscitation can be envisioned that involve molecular repair by nanomedicine, highly advanced computation, detailed control of cell growth, and tissue regeneration. With a view toward these developments, there is a credible possibility that cryonics performed under the best conditions achievable today can preserve sufficient neurological information to permit eventual restoration of a person to full health. The rights of people who choose cryonics are important, and should be respected."

"I feel pleased with the rate of progress of interest in life-extension that is now developing. I am more concerned about the rate of growth of interest in cryonics — since this is the "first aid" which may be necessary for some of us to reach the time when biological aging is no longer a part of normal human life. The decision to include cryonics in a program of life extension requires a great stride beyond the more usual methods of safe and health-conscious living. Cryonics may be an advanced form of medicine that can greatly extend lifespan. Cryonics is not anti-religious or a means to prevent ultimate death. I hope that those who deeply care about their lives and the lives of their loved-ones will increasingly learn to be open to the life-saving potential of cryonics and other practical strategies for survival — and not be distracted by fantasies of physical immortality."

"Cryonics is the second worst thing that can happen to you."

"We’ll look back on this 50 to 100 years from now — we’ll shake our heads and say, “What were people thinking? They took these people who were very nearly viable, just barely dysfunctional, and they put them in an oven or buried them under the ground, when there were people who could have put them into cryopreservation." I think we’ll look at this just as we look today at slavery, beating women, and human sacrifice, and we’ll say, “this was insane — a huge tragedy.""

"Tantalisingly, later next century and beyond, our transhuman descendants may well enjoy lifelong (super-)happiness and quasi-eternal youth. By contrast, most if not all early twenty-first century humans are destined to crumble away and perish. If implemented, however, a stopgap regime of opt-out cryonics, and opt-in cryothanasia, can potentially defang death for secular rationalists, and even offer a backup insurance policy for religious believers. Therefore political lobbying for regulatory change should be a priority. If successful, then visiting absent loved ones in the cryonics tank can become the norm rather than the exception."

"If cryonics were a scam it would have far better marketing and be far more popular."

"There’s always this question: Have we missed something? That’s the sort of thing that will occasionally keep me awake at night. We were ready for most things, but MH370 has been unpredictable all the way through."

"In times of emergencies like this, we have to show unity of efforts that transcends boundaries and issues."

"If they have a strong feeling or indication that the debris belongs to the aircraft, one of the first things authorities will do is drop sonar buoys in the water. If the black box (flight recorder) is there, the buoys should be able to pick up the signals. This could take up to 48 hours but it all depends on how near or far the ships and other assets are."

"I have been very hopeful because it was intentionally diverted, so I don't believed it was crashed," he said. "It's been a very, very difficult time, and very emotionally stressing. The area where Australia is looking - I was a captain at sea - I have been through that area several times. This area has got a concentration of garbage - plastics and wood. I don't know, I don't want to believe it as yet."

"Obviously we have now had a number of very credible leads and there is increasing hope - no more than hope, no more than hope - that we might be on the road to discovering what did happen to this ill-fated aircraft."

"We demand the Malaysian side state the detailed evidence that leads them to this judgement, as well as supply all the relevant information and evidence about the satellite data analysis. The search and rescue work cannot stop now. We demand the Malaysian side continue to finish all the work including search and rescue."

"Our sincerest condolences go out to the loved ones of the 239 passengers, friends and colleagues. Words alone cannot express our enormous sorrow and pain."

"We realize this is an excruciating time for the families of those on board. No words can describe the pain they must be going through. We understand the desperate need for information on behalf of the families and those watching around the world."

"Goodnight Malaysian Three Seven Zero"

"Could you believe it possible that through such a night as this they choose to sleep under those wadded cotton coverlets, and dread not instantaneous asphyxiation?"

"A death is attributed to asphyxia only when the asphyxia itself is the condition that directly causes the death.... Asphyxia (Greek for “breathlessness”) is defined as the lack of oxygen in the blood or the failure of cells to utilize oxygen, and a failure of the body to eliminate carbon dioxide. Asphyxial deaths are commonly divided into different categories based on the nature of the cause for inadequate respiration. Asphyxial deaths include suffocation, smothering, choking, positional asphyxia, mechanical asphyxia, traumatic asphyxia, hanging, strangulation, and “chemical” asphyxia."

"In the last two decades of the twentieth century, hundreds of people have died of carbon dioxide asphyxiation near volcanoes in Cameroon and in Indonesia."

"A Pledge to Six Million: It is beyond mortal power to bring back to life six million who were burned, asphyxiated, and buried alive by the Nazis. But our six million brothers and sisters who went to their deaths have bequeathed us a sacred injunction: to prevent such a disaster overtaking the Jewish peoples in the future and to do so by the Jewish people being an independent people in its own land, capable of resisting any foe or enemy by its own strength."

"Big handfuls of pills, munch em up. That peculiar blue cast of the fingernails following asphyxiation—in its final grim struggle to survive the brain takes all the oxygen that is left, even that in those living cells under the nails."

"One of my favorite methods of escape was what amounts to gentle asphyxiation. I used a piece of cloth that I cut from the remnants of a blanket. I called it my dream rag. I wet it with sea water so that it was soaked but not dripping. [...]. I would fall into a daze, not difficult for someone in such an advanced state of lethargy to begin with. But the dream rag gave a special quality to my daze. It must have been the way it restricted my air intake. I would be visited by the most extraordinary dreams, trances, visions, thoughts, sensations, remembrances. And time would be gobbled up."

"This wasteful governing by fear, by contempt for the basic dignities of life, this steady asphyxiation of a dependent people, should be the very last means to be adopted by those who themselves know too well the awful significance, the unforgettable suffering of such an existence. It is unworthy of my great people, the Jews, who have striven to abide by a code of moral rectitude for some 5,000 years, who can create and achieve a society for themselves such as we see around us but can yet deny the sharing of its great qualities and benefits to those dwelling amongst them."

"While the term asphyxia literally means without a pulse, modern usage limits its application to cases where the body has been exposed to a significant reduction in oxygen levels resulting in impaired tissue oxygenation (delivery of oxygen to the body’s cells)."

"If asphyxia is considered pathophysiologically, there are four stages where the transfer of oxygen can be compromised i.e., oxygen reduction at the cellular level may be caused by (1) decreased amounts of oxygen in the environment, (2) reduced transfer from the air to the blood, (3) reduced transport from the lungs to the tissues, and (4) reduced transfer across cell membranes."

"In smothering, blockage of the mouth and nose results in failure of oxygen to enter the lungs and reach the blood. ... and results from poisoning of vital cell processes that prevent tissues from receiving or utilizing the available oxygen."

"Although drowning may be considered a specialized form of asphyxia in which environmental oxygen (air) is displaced by a liquid (usually water), the mechanism of death is much more complicated as it also involves hydrostatic and osmotic effects of inhaled fluid within the small airways."

"In the 13th century a manual was prescribed in China for examination of injuries caused by different weapons, investigation of death from asphyxia and other causes."

"In coma there is a combination of both syncope and asphyxia leading to death. It is due to paralysis or insensibility of vital centers in the brain stem."

"In young adolescent/adults/even middle aged sexual asphyxia must be though as masochistic - autoerotic hanging is common in this age group. These activities usually amount to accidental hanging, here death not being intended by the man who is indulging in sexual fantasies produced by temporary cerebral ischemi, by a controlled hanging (refer Asphyxial Death)."

"Asphyxial deaths are said to be caused by failure of cells to receive and/ or utilize oxygen. The deprivation of oxygen may be partial (w:Hypoxia|hypoxia]]/suboxia) or total (anoxia/anoxemia). The terminologies anoxia, anoxemia, suboxia, hypoxia, etc. are though considered better ones the terminology “asphyxia” has been accepted in medico legal sense globally."

"It has been scientifically accepted that pressure on the neck can result in occlusion of neck structures for respiratory functioning, developing asphyxia. Experimentally it is proved that pressure/ force of 3 l/2 to 5 kg weight on the neck can occlude jugular vein and carotid arteries, 15 kg can occlude trachea and 16 kg can occlude vertebral arteries. All these can bring about gross decrease in cerebral blood flow leading to cerebral anoxia, aspyhixia and death."

"I’ve always thought cemeteries were like cities. There are streets, avenues—you’ve seen them, I think, Michael. There are blocks, too, and house numbers, slums and ghettos, middle-class sections and small palaces."

"CEMETERY, n. An isolated suburban spot where mourners match lies, poets write at a target and stone-cutters spell for a wager."

"Cemeteries: there's another idea whose time has passed! Saving all the dead people in one part of town? What the hell kind of a superstitious religious medieval bullshit idea is that? Plow these motherfuckers up, plow them into the streams and rivers of America, we need that phosphorus for farming! If we're gonna recycle, let's get serious!"

"I have a weakness for cemeteries, though they aren't so beautiful anymore, because they are simply overpopulated! When I meet friends or people I know who are going through a difficult period, I usually have this advice for them: "Go for twenty minutes in a cemetery and you'll see that, though your worry won't disappear, you'll almost forget about it and you'll feel better." Just a few days ago I told a young woman who was suffering fearfully from an unhappy love, "Since you don't live far from Montparnasse, take a walk through the cemetery, just half an hour, and you will see that your misery will appear bearable." In such a situation, it is much better to do that than to go to a doctor; there is no medicine that can help. To visit a cemetery in such a situation is a lesson, a lesson in wisdom! I have always practiced such methods, or recommended them, although it may not seem altogether serious, but it has been effective in every case. What can one say that is meaningful to someone in despair? Absolutely nothing, or almost nothing. My advice shows immediate results."

"He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery."

"Sarah: You're going to say I shouldn't be in the cemetery in the middle of the night, right?"

"In the city a funeral is just an interruption of traffic; in the country it is a form of entertainment."

"She was a soprano of the kind often used for augmenting grief at a funeral."

"FUNERAL, n. A pageant whereby we attest our respect for the dead by enriching the undertaker, and strengthen our grief by an expenditure that deepens our groans and doubles our tears."

"We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."

"Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God of his great mercy to take unto himself the soul of our dear brother here departed, we therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, that it may be like unto his glorious body, according to the mighty working, whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself."

"I move to suspend the rules and concur in the Senate amendment to the bill (H.R. 5037) to amend titles 38 and 18, United States Code, to prohibit certain demonstrations at cemeteries under the control of the National Cemetery Administration and at Arlington National Cemetery, and for other purposes….Prohibition.—No person may carry out— (1) a demonstration on the property of a cemetery under the control of the National Cemetery Administration or on the property of Arlington National Cemetery unless the demonstration has been approved by the cemetery superintendent or the director of the property on which the cemetery is located; or (2) with respect to such a cemetery, a demonstration during the period beginning 60 minutes before and ending 60 minutes after a funeral, memorial service, or ceremony is held, any part of which demonstration— Each family of the United States military now attends to their loved ones funeral with a wrenching worry that it will be met possibly with a protest or a demonstration. With the approach of our Nation's annual day of remembrance, it is altogether fitting that we approve this bill to protect the sanctity of our military funerals at our national cemeteries and Arlington National Cemetery."

"When selecting music for a service meant to proclaim the hope of eternal life, why include a song that denies the very concept of eternal life in its opening words? …As Christians, our funerals shouldn’t be celebrations of our accomplishments, hobbies, or interests because, as Christians, we aren’t primarily statesmen or sports fans or Parrotheads with a little bit of Jesus dust sprinkled on top."

"Beneath our feet and o'er our head Is equal warning given: Beneath us lie the countless dead, Above us is the heaven! Death rides on every passing breeze, And lurks in every flower; Each season has its own disease, Its peril every hour."

"Thou art gone to the grave; but we will not deplore thee, Though sorrows and darkness encompass the tomb."

"Why then thy flowing sable Stoles, Deep pendant Cypress, mourning Poles, Loose Scarfs to fall athwart thy Weeds, Long Palls, drawn Herses, cover’d Steeds, And Plumes of black, that as they tread, Nod o’er the ’Scutcheons of the Dead?"

"Cold is that breast which warm’d the world before, And those love-darting eyes must roll no more. Thus, if eternal Justice rules the ball, Thus shall your wives, and thus your children fall; On all the line a sudden vengeance waits, And frequent herses shall besiege your gates. There passengers shall stand, and pointing say (While the long fun’rals blacken all the way), ‘Lo! these were they whose souls the Furies steel’d And cursed with hearts unknowing how to yield.’"

"Shylock: I would my daughter were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear! would she were hearsed at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin!"

"It will not take a hundred years to thank God for Ronald Reagan. But why? Why was he so admired? Why was he so beloved? He was beloved, first, because of what he was."

"Ronald believed in freedom so he acted on behalf of its values and ideals. He believed in tomorrow so the great communicator became the great liberator."

"If Ronald Reagan created a better world for many millions, it was because of the world someone else created for him. Nancy was there for him always. Her love for him provided much of his strength, and their love together transformed all of us as we've seen -- renewed seeing again here in the last few days."

"So, Nancy, I want to say this to you: Today, America embraces you. We open up our arms."

"As his vice president for eight years, I learned more from Ronald Reagan than from anyone I encountered in all my years of public life. I learned kindness; we all did. I also learned courage; the nation did."

"Who can forget the horrible day in March 1981, he looked at the doctors in the emergency room and said, "I hope you're all Republicans." And then I learned decency; the whole world did. Days after being shot, weak from wounds, he spilled water from a sink, and entering the hospital room aides saw him on his hands and knees wiping water from the floor. He worried that his nurse would get in trouble."

"The good book says humility goes before honor, and our friend had both, and who could not cherish such a man? And perhaps as important as anything, I learned a lot about humor, a lot about laughter. And, oh, how President Reagan loved a good story. When asked, "How did your visit go with Bishop Tutu?" he replied: "So-so.""

"And in leaving the White House, the very last day, he left in the yard outside the Oval Office door a little sign for the little squirrels. He loved to feed those racoons, so he left a sign that said, "Beware of the bird," and to no avail, because his mouse Millie came in and beat the heck out of the cheese."

"But anyway, he also left me a note, at the top of which said, "Don't let the turkeys take a dive!!" Well, he certainly never let them get him down. And he fought hard for them and their delicatessens, but rony led from conviction, but never made an adversary into an enemy, except you know the golf caddy. He was never mean-spirited."

"And then this, too, from Proverbs 37: "There is a past for the man of piece, and a future for a man of peace." God bless you, my friend, and the nation you loved and led so well."

"It is a fortunate and happy thing that... Before so very long, burial in the ground will be against the law, and cremation will be enforced, and this as a health and sanitation measure. Those unhealthy, psychic spots, called cemeteries, will eventually disappear, just as ancestor worship is passing out, both in the Orient – with its ancestor cults – and in the Occident – with its equally foolish cult of hereditary position. p. 55"

"These taints to which humanity is prone, are found in the soil, and their presence there is largely due to burial, down the ages, of millions of corpses. By the increased use of the processes of cremation, this condition will be steadily improved. Gradually, very gradually, the taint will thus die out... As the soil becomes less tainted... we can hope to see a steady decrease in the number of those who succumb to the inherited taints. p. 61/2"

"Much good will be brought about through the growing custom to cremate those forms which the indwelling life has vacated; when it is an universal custom, we shall see a definite minimising of disease, leading to longevity and increased vitality. p. 249"

"If delay is necessary from family feeling or municipal requirements, cremation should follow death within thirty-six hours; where no reason for delay exists, cremation can be rightly permitted in twelve hours. It is wise, however, to wait twelve hours in order to ensure true death. p.485"

"If the dense body be buried, the etheric double floats over the grave, slowly disintegrating, and the unpleasant feelings many experience in a churchyard are largely due to the presence of these decaying etheric corpses. If the body is burned, the etheric double breaks up quickly, having lost its nidus, its physical centre of attraction, and this is one among many reasons why cremation is preferable to burial, as a way of disposing of corpses."

"The holy fights by Moslem heroes fought, The saintly works by Christian hermits wrought And those of Jewry or of Sabian creed— Their valour reaches not the Indian's deed Whom zeal and awe religiously inspire To cast his body on the flaming pyre... And like the dead of Ind I do not fear To go to thee in flames; the most austere Angel of fire a softer tooth and tongue Hath he than dreadful Munker and Nakir."

"Back in 1980, less than 5 percent of Americans were cremated when they died. That figure now stands at about 50 percent... Rosehill charges just $180 to cremate a body, although the urn, flowers, and service are extra. A grave, by contrast, can cost $2,500, plus an additional $1,500 to open the ground with a backhoe."

"The funeral industry is a $16 billion a year industry...The average cost of a funeral is about $7,200... Direct cremation, meaning no viewing or ceremony, is the cheapest option, at just over $2,000. There are more details breaking down what the different parts of the funeral cost at the NFDA website. Forty-five percent of those who died in 2015 were cremated in 2015... projected to be 70 percent by 2030."

"Bones burn, the wood burns, the one lighting the pyre burns And so does the one seeing them all burn, from whom may I seek solace . . ."

"By far the most effective, hygienic, and also the 'neatest' way of disposing of... [our] physical remains is by cremation. ...Burial in Mother Earth.. is most unhygienic because so many deaths are caused by infectious diseases, and in burying these corpses the soil becomes contaminated by the causal germs and viruses, which may remain contagious for many years. Thus the burial of millions of the infected corpses has contaminated large parts of the Earth's surface."

"My life. There can't be long to go now. Just promise me one thing - don't slot me into one of those wall cupboards in the graveyard." (joking) "But I will. And I'll put one of those nice ceramic photos of you on the door with little roses all round it." "Burn me and fritter my ashes on the ocean."

"It’s estimated that each year, at least 20,000 people donate their whole body, after death, to medical facilities throughout the country to be used in medical research projects, anatomy lessons and surgical practice. After using your body, these facilities will then provide free cremation... and will either bury or scatter your ashes in a local cemetery or return them to your family, usually within a year or two."

"Post-cremation burials have been discovered ... distributed among strata of all periods [at Mohenjo Daro.]"

"Cremation was the usual way for the dead. [in Ancient India]"

"I'll have your mama picking out your casket, bastard."

"A mother cries; another son lies in a casket. Life was fun while it lasted."

"Butterflies Love and follow this flower wreath— that on the coffin lies"

"Hodgkin created one of the first pathology specimen museums (now known as the "Gordon Museum" at Guy's Hospital, London) organized by systems for student and physician education. He was an important proponent of the autopsy and one of the first physicians to devote himself almost entirely to autopsy performance ..."

"Removing and examining the brain of a dead person does not go beyond the purview of standard autopsy procedure. Harvey, however, has been neither asked nor authorized to do what he does next to Einstein's body, nor does the Hippocratic oath endorse his actions. He saws off the head of the dead man and scoops out its contents. He holds the brain in his hand the way Hamlet held Yorick's skull. In these two and a half pounds of nerve tissue, he is certain, lies the key to understanding the greatest intellectual creative power. If it were possible to elicit the trade secret from this organ, he, the pathologist, would gain fame and honor. He decides to walk off with it and never give it back."

"Autopsies are forbidden within the Islamic faith except when ordered by the Coroner. In these circumstances, the reasons why an autopsy is needed must be clearly explained to the family, due to religious sensitivities as already mentioned. If an autopsy is required, then the ritual preparations in care of the body will begin after."

"So what? I'm sorry. What do you want me to do? My name's Messiah, but I can't work miracles."

"It's embarrassing for the country that led on so much of the science around immunology, virology, and vaccinology, to have stumbled in vaccine implementation and rollout to its population. And it's just really terrible to think that so many of those deaths were completely preventable."

"Herd immunity, protect the economy, and if that means some pensioners die, too bad."

"The debate over COVID's mortality rate hinges on what counts as a COVID-19 death. Gandhi and other researchers argue that the daily death toll attributed to COVID is exaggerated because many deaths blamed on the disease are actually from other causes. Some of the people who died for other reasons happened to also test positive for the coronavirus. "We are now seeing consistently that more than 70% of our COVID hospitalizations are in that category," says Dr. Shira Doron, an infectious disease specialist at the Tufts Medical Center and a professor at the Tufts University School of Medicine. "If you're counting them all as hospitalizations, and then those people die and you count them all as COVID deaths, you are pretty dramatically overcounting." If deaths were classified more accurately, then the daily death toll would be closer to the toll the flu takes during a typical season, Doron says. If this is true, the odds of a person dying if they get a COVID infection — what's called the case fatality rate — would be about the same as the flu now, which is estimated to be around 0.1%, or perhaps even lower."

"Fauci argues that it's difficult to distinguish between deaths that are caused "because of" COVID and those "with" COVID. The disease has been found to put stress on many systems of the body. "What's the difference with someone who has mild congestive heart failure, goes into the hospital and gets COVID, and then dies from profound congestive heart failure?" he asks. "Is that with COVID or because of COVID? COVID certainly contributed to it.""

"Number of people in the US under the age of 18: 74.2 million. Number of people in the US under the age of 18 who have died of COVID since the pandemic began: 361."

"Ireland now has the highest number of patients in hospital with Covid-19 since March, despite over 91% of the population over-12 being vaccinated – the highest jab rate in the EU."

"And as the United States and other rich nations race to vaccinate their populations, new hot spots have emerged in parts of Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. The global pace of deaths is accelerating, too. After the coronavirus emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the pandemic claimed a million lives in nine months. It took another four months to kill its second million, and just three months to kill a million more. “We are running out of space,” Mohammed Shamin, a gravedigger in New Delhi’s largest Muslim cemetery, said on Saturday. “If we don’t get more space, you will soon see dead bodies rotting in the streets.”"

"A South American country, a cult leader, a drug and the deaths of thousands of fanatic followers may sound like the tragic story of the . But these details could just as well serve as the introduction to another devastating chapter in Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's administration, as he leads Brazil into chaos amid the coronavirus pandemic. The eerie parallels between the Rev. Jim Jones and Bolsonaro recall the old adage that history repeats itself — first as tragedy, then as farce. [...] As Brazil's COVID-19 death toll surpasses 600, Bolsonaro is doubling down on his manipulation tactics and motivates his followers to go out in the streets to protest against isolation measures. This brings his own "necropolitics" to a whole new level — in which his political actions are also centralized on the large scale production of the death of his own base — thus setting the stage for a tragedy greater than Jonestown."

"Among older adults, the median age of COVID-19 deaths has "dropped precipitously," Osterholm said, especially when vaccination status is taken into account. "One of the things that I find troubling is the fact that people often write off [the death toll] as just, 'This is a bunch of old people,' " Osterholm said."

"According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the current "best estimate" for the fatality rate among Americans with COVID-19 symptoms is 0.4 percent. The CDC also estimates that 35 percent of people infected by the COVID-19 virus never develop symptoms."

"I just want to reiterate, because a lot of people have been asking, well, what would have happened if we did nothing? Did nothing, we just rode it out, and I’ve been asking that question to Tony and Deborah, and they’ve been talking to me about it for a long time, other people have been asking that question, and I think we got our most accurate study today, or certainly most comprehensive. Think of the number, potentially, 2.2 million people if we did nothing. If we didn’t do the distancing, if we didn’t do all of the things that we’re doing. When you hear those numbers, you start to realize that, with the kind of work we went through last week, with the $2.2 trillion, it no longer sounds like a lot, right? You’re talking about, when I heard the number today, first time I’ve heard that number, because I’ve been asking the same question that some people have been asking, I felt even better about what we did last week with the $2.2 trillion, because you’re talking about a potential of up to 2.2 million, and some people said it could even be higher than that. So you’re talking about 2.2 million deaths. 2.2 million people from this. If we can hold that down as we’re saying, to 100,000, it’s a horrible number. Maybe even less, but to 100,000, so we have between 100 and 200,000, we altogether have done a very good job. 2.2, up to 2.2 million deaths and maybe even beyond that? I’m feeling very good about what we did last week."

"We’re working to ensure that the supplies are delivered where and when they’re needed, and in some cases, we’re telling governors we can’t go there because we don’t think you need it and we think someplace else needs it. And pretty much, so far, we’ve been right about that. And we’ll continue to do it. As it really gets — this will be probably the toughest week between this week and next week. And there’ll be a lot of death, unfortunately, but a lot less death than if this wasn’t done. But there will be death."

"It is important to note once again that the prohibition of murder and abortion must be appreciated in a therapeutic, not a juridical or punitive light, with which such offenses are often regarded in most Western moral, philosophical, and theological systems: the goal is not to subject the sinner to just punishment, but to bring the sinner through repentance and God’s grace to holiness. Because of this perspective the Orthodox Church never endorsed a doctrine of double effect, such as developed in the West, which allowed Roman Catholicism to approve of indirect abortions. The doctrine of double effects holds that when an action produces two effects, one good and one evil, one may nevertheless act, as long as the act is not evil in itself, the good effect is not produced by the bad effect, the evil effect is not intended,, and there is a proportionate reason (more good will be produced than evil). According to the doctrine of double effect, when these conditions are fulfilled, one is held to be juridically innocent In contrast, the Orthodox Church recognizes that close causal involvement in the death of another, whether a guilty or an innocent person, may harm one’s spiritual life. Orthodox Christianity recognizes harms from both involuntary and “justifiable” homicide, including homicide in a just war, both of which incur excommunication not as punishment, but as spiritual therapy (Basil, 1983, Canon 13, pp. 801-802). It is in this spiritually therapeutic context that one should understand the absolution of women who miscarry. The absolution expresses the Orthodox Christian healing approach to the involuntary loss of life."

"The woman who has suffered a miscarriage is not held to be guilty in a juridical sense, but in need of God’s loving grace. It is within this therapeutic perspective that the Orthodox Church approaches decisions made by women to engage in operations that will also incidentally lead to the abortion of a child (e.g., the removal of a cancerous uterus containing an unborn child), which in Roman Catholic terms would not count as an abortion. In such cases, the spiritual father must help the patient through repentance and love to repair the spiritual damage from the serious evil of involvement in the death of another person."

"Because spontaneous miscarriage and self-managed abortion are medically indistinguishable in most cases, prohibitions on abortion will predictably lead to the investigation and detention of many women experiencing miscarriages as well as those self-managing abortions."

"The effect of long-term exposure to dirty air on the risk of miscarriage has been analysed previously. Studies from Brazil to Italy to Mongolia found a link, but others failed to do so. However, the latest study is the first to assess the impact of short-term exposure to air pollution. It found that raised levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution that are commonplace around the world increased the risk of losing a pregnancy by 16%. “It’s pretty profound,” said Dr Matthew Fuller, at the University of Utah’s department of emergency medicine and one of the research team. “If you compare that increase in risk to other studies on environmental effects on the foetus, it’s akin to tobacco smoke in first trimester pregnancy loss.” NO2 is produced by fuel burning, particularly in diesel vehicles."

"Few studies on job stress relative to pregnancy have been carried out, but both animal and epidemiological studies have shown effect of exposure to stressful conditions during pregnancy and adverse effects on the offspring."

"Obesity has become a major health problem across the world. In the UK, obesity affects one‐fifth of the female population ( Anonymous, 2001 ). Maternal obesity has been reported as a risk factor for adulthood obesity in offspring ( Parsons et al ., 2001 ). Obesity may also lead to a poor pregnancy out-come, such as sudden and unexplained intrauterine death ( Froen et al ., 2001 ), and in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) receiving infertility treatment is associated with an increased risk of miscarriage ( Hamilton‐Fairley et al ., 1992 ; Wang et al ., 2000 ). However, in the general population there is less evidence for a link between obesity and spontaneous miscarriage ( Risch et al ., 1990 )."

"Spontaneous miscarriage affects 12–15% of all pregnancies ( Zinman et al ., 1996 ). Eighty percent of miscarriages occur before 12 weeks of gestation, and the majority are due to chromosomal abnormalities (Harlap et al ., 1980). Our figures from this study population are consistent with previously published data. The risk of miscarriage after the detection of a fetal heart on ultrasound scan is reduced to 5%, except in patients who have had recurrent miscarriages ( van Leeuwen et al, 1993 ). Many factors have been described to increase the risk of spontaneous miscarriage; however, obesity was not found to be a risk factor by Risch et al . (1990). Recent evidence indicated that obese women undergoing infertility treatment were at increased risk of spontaneous miscarriage ( Hamilton‐Fairley et al, 1992; Wang et al, 2000 ). However, this point has also been controversial (Lashen et al, 1999; Roth et al., 2003 )."

"From a medical perspective, there is no physically significant difference between a medication abortion and a spontaneously occurring miscarriage. For example, the medicines used in medication abortion are used to help safely manage an incomplete miscarriage."

"Overweight women are more likely to miscarry a healthy baby, according to research involving 204 women who had suffered a miscarriage. The researchers said the findings back up advice that obese women should lose weight before trying to conceive. "The excess miscarriage rate in overweight and obese women is due to the loss of chromosomally normal embryos," said Dr Inna Landres of Stanford University School of Medicine. "It's important to identify elevated BMI [body mass index] as a risk factor for miscarriage and counsel those women who are affected on the importance of lifestyle modification"

"Occupational studies included in this review found that several occupational and non-occupational factors influenced reproductive outcomes. Occupational factors involved included standing, lifting, and exposure to chemicals—typically, individuals exposed to noise were also exposed to other occupational hazards. Important non-occupational factors were mother’s age, mother's weight and height, mother’s weight gain during pregnancy, smoking, education, race and socioeconomic status. Gravidity and parity, and chronic diseases of the mother were also important factors for the examination of spontaneous abortion or preterm labour."

"New multi-disciplinary research on brain–body interactions triggered by stress in early pregnancy has shown that maternal biological responses, including localised inflammation in uterine tissue and sustained depression of progesterone production, challenge the endocrine-immune steady state during pregnancy, leading to serious consequences for the fetal environment. Recent basic science findings and new theoretical development around a ‘pregnancy stress syndrome’ associated with over-activation of the HPA axis warrant a new look at the epidemiological evidence around the age-old question of whether or not stress can actually cause human reproductive failure."

"Dr Sarah Stock, at the University of Edinburgh and not part of the research team, said: “Air pollution is clearly detrimental to the health of millions of mothers, babies and children worldwide. Measures to reduce the impact of air pollution are crucial to ensure the health of future generations.”"

"We always write stories of tragedies because that's how we reach our human depth. How we get to the other side of it? We look at the cruelty, the darkness and horrific events that happened in our life, whether it be a miscarriage or a husband who is not faithful. Then you find this ability to transcend. And that is called the passion, like the passion of Christ. You could call this the passion of Frida Kahlo, in a way. When I talk about passion, and I'm not a religious person, but I absolutely am drawn and attracted to the power of religious art because it gets at that most extreme emotion of the human experience."

"Fetus death risk reduction is included in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. However, little is known about how missed abortion in the first trimester (MAFT) is related to maternal air pollution exposure. We quantify the link between air pollution exposure and MAFT in Beijing, China, a region with severe MAFT and air quality problems. We analyse the records of 255,668 pregnant women from 2009 to 2017 and contrast them with maternal exposure to air pollutants (particulate matter PM2.5, SO2, O3 and CO). We adjust for confounding factors such as sociodemographic characteristics, spatial autocorrelation and ambient temperature. We find that, for all four pollutants, an increased risk of MAFT is associated with rises in pollutant concentrations, and the adjusted odds ratios (ORs) of these associations increase with higher concentrations. For example, the adjusted OR of MAFT risk for a 10.0 μg m−3 increase in SO2 exposure is between 1.29 and 1.41 at concentrations of 7.1–19.5 μg m−3; it drops to 1.17 below this range and rises to 1.52 above it at higher SO2 concentrations. This means that the risk increase is not linear but becomes more severe the higher the pollutant concentration. The findings provide evidence linking fetus disease burden and maternal air pollution exposure."

"In the existing body of literature, exercise during pregnancy has generally not been associated with miscarriage,17–19 and one case–control study has even reported a protective effect of exercise during pregnancy.20 In contrast, Hjollund et al.21 found an increased risk of early miscarriage among women who reported a high physical strain around the time of implantation of the embryo. Furthermore, lay people have tried to use excessive physical exercise as an abortifacient, and older literature mentions physical activity (e.g. jumping, running, and horseback riding) as a cause of miscarriage. Considering the relatively sparse literature and the somewhat inconsistent results, we wanted to examine the association between exercise during pregnancy and miscarriage in a large population-based cohort."

"The main results based on the total data material showed that an increasing amount of time spent on exercise was associated with a greater risk of miscarriage compared with non-exercisers. Exercising 1–44 minutes/week was not associated with an increased risk of miscarriage."

"In this study, based on data from nearly 93,000 women, a dose-response relation was seen for the association between the amount of weekly exercise and the risk of miscarriage early in pregnancy. Certain types of exercise, and particularly high-impact types of exercise, were found to be associated with a higher risk of miscarriage. In the analyses based only on prospectively collected exposure data, the association did, however, attenuate, indicating a certain degree of recall bias. An alternative explanation to recall bias may be that exercise only in the early stages of pregnancy hurts the pregnancy outcome. In this case, the difference in the HRs between the analyses based on the total data material and the subcohort of only prospectively collected data is not as much a result of the mode of data collection as a reflection of the fact that the total data material encompasses the very early miscarriages. Even within the subperiods of gestational age, the miscarriages occur earlier for the pregnancies with retrospectively collected exposure information than for pregnancies with a first pregnancy interview (Figure 2). In addition, we did see a positive trend in the association between exercise and the risk of miscarriages in the earliest period of pregnancy (gestational weeks 11–14) in the subcohort using prospectively collected data only."

"It is difficult to investigate very early miscarriages using prospectively collected exposure information, since the time period, in which collection of exposure information must take place, that is, the time from detection of pregnancy to the occurrence of an early miscarriage, is short."

"Only a few previous studies have investigated the association between exercise and miscarriage. The only study that clearly supports our findings is a cohort study, which concluded that self-reported physical strain around the time of implantation (days 6–9 after ovulation) was associated with an increased risk of miscarriage (HR 2.5, 95% CI = 1.3–4.6). In contrast, Latka et al found a reduced risk of miscarriage with no chromosome defect in women who exercised compared with those who did not (OR = 0.5, 95% CI = 0.3–1.0). The case–control design was, however, based on a hypothesis that exercise cannot lead to chromosome aberrations in the fetus, as the control group consisted of women with miscarriages with chromosome aberrations. This assumption may be questioned since mode of action is unknown. In a small prospective study, Clapp found no statistically significant difference in risk of miscarriage between recreational runners (n = 49), aerobic dancers (n = 39) and a control group of active women, who had stopped exercising before the time of conception (n = 29). The study population was in excellent condition and had been exercising for years prior to the pregnancy, and the results may not be representative of the population at large. Two other studies have only investigated late miscarriages."

"Miscarriage remains the most common complication of pregnancy despite many advances in the understanding of early pregnancy. Loss of three or more consecutive pregnancies before 24 weeks of gestation is the most accepted definition for recurrent miscarriage (RMC) in Europe, but has recently been defined by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine as a disease with two or more failed pregnancies. Despite best efforts to identify the underlying causes for RMC, it remains ‘unexplained’ in the majority of cases. Chromosomal errors appear to be common in the pre-implantation developing embryos6, 7, which predispose to increased risk of pregnancy losses. High rates of chromosomally abnormal cells within human embryos mean that the reproductive success is dependent on the endometrial ability to distinguish between normal and abnormal embryos. In vitro studies have provided convincing evidence that perturbation in the bio‐sensor function of the decidualised endometrium is an important mechanism underpinning RMC."

"Our study findings are supportive of the concept that increased female BMI may have a negative influence on the early pregnancy outcome. We found a significant positive correlation between the BMI and first-trimester pregnancy losses and anembryonic miscarriages. There were also significantly more first-trimester miscarriages in obese women than in normal-weight or overweight women with recurrent miscarriage."

"A study that examined miscarriage type and fetal karyotypes in RMC women found that very early pregnancy losses (anembryonic and embryonic loss with embryo <3 mm) are more likely to be karyotypically normal, and embryonic miscarriage (with embryo ≥3 mm) and fetal demise to be karyotypically more likely abnormal.36 It is possible to speculate from our study findings that obesity is likely to be associated with an increased risk of first-trimester miscarriages and, in particular, increases the risk of miscarriage of anembryonic pregnancies, which are likely to be karyotypically normal. However, it remains uncertain whether BMI may have any significant effect on the embryo loss pattern, and further well‐controlled studies are required to analyse their association."

"It is likely that an alternate mechanism exists in obesity that may be responsible for ‘biological super-fertility’ in obese women. Teklenburg et al.40 elegantly showed that the endometrial stromal cells transform into biological sensors of embryo quality upon decidualisation. There is a good body of evidence, from in vitro studies, to suggest that the inability of the peri‐implantation endometrium to mount an adequate decidual response impairs embryo recognition and selection upon implantation,34, 40, 41, 43, which leads to shorter TTP intervals and predisposes to RMC. This abnormal phenotype results in an extended window of implantation, which reduces the endometrial ability to be ‘selective’ in response to embryo quality.8 This concept is consistent with the previously reported association of late implantation of embryos with an increased risk of early miscarriage.44 The findings from our study may suggest that an obesogenic environment might have a negative influence on the peri‐implantation endometrium, which would predispose women to RMC."

"Our study findings support the concept of ‘biological superfertility’ in women with RMC and present a unique finding that superfertility may be more prevalent in obese women with a history of RMC. Further prospective studies in women with idiopathic RMC are required to confirm the association of BMI, RMC and superfertility. If confirmed, further investigation is required to understand why obesity predisposes to superfertility. Superfertility may likely be linked to impaired endometrial development in the peri‐implantation period; further research to describe the peri‐implantation endometrium in obese women and to study the exact mechanism by which obesity affects the endometrium is required. Clinical trials with therapeutic targets to improve decidualisation and thus reproductive outcome in obese women could hold significant clinical potential."

"A significant number of the respondents were under misapprehensions as to what caused the loss of the pregnancy. Three-quarters believed that a stressful event could bring about a miscarriage, 64% thought that lifting a heavy object could be a cause, and a fifth that previous use of oral contraceptives could induce pregnancy loss."

"Of those who took part 15% said they or their partner had suffered a miscarriage, but the majority of respondents (55%) believed that miscarriages are uncommon (defined as less than 6% of all pregnancies). The truth is that miscarriages end one in four pregnancies and are by far the most common pregnancy complication, the paper says. A fifth of people incorrectly believed that lifestyle choices during pregnancy, such as smoking or using drugs or alcohol, were the single most common cause of miscarriage, more common than genetic or medical causes. In reality, 60% of miscarriages are caused by a genetic problem."

"The authors concluded: “Patients who have experienced miscarriage may benefit from further counselling by healthcare providers, identification of the cause, and revelations from friends and celebrities. Healthcare providers have an important role in assessing and educating all pregnant patients about known prenatal risk factors, diminishing concerns about unsubstantiated but prevalent myths and, among those who experience a miscarriage, acknowledging and dissuading feelings of guilt and shame.”"

"Q: The moment in your special that really made me gasp out loud is when you joke about how you suffered a miscarriage before, and how you were secretly relieved because they were twins. Do you think that joke only works because the audience could see that you got pregnant again, so there is redemption to the loss?"

"Ali Wong: I think that’s part of it, for sure. But it really helped me when I had a miscarriage to talk to other women and hear that they’d been through it, too. It’s one thing to hear the statistics, but it’s another to put faces to the numbers so you stop feeling like it’s your fault. I think that’s one of the reasons women don’t tell people when they’ve had a miscarriage – they think it’s their fault. I remember I worried what my in-laws would think, which is so crazy. I thought they’d think their son had married a terrible person. Also, because I made the mistake of telling people as soon as I got pregnant, I then had to tell them the bad news, and then I felt like I was burdening them. So being able to joke about it was such a relief. Comedy only works when it comes from an honest place, and the relief that I’d miscarried twins was real!"

"Life expectancy for Latinos is at least as high as that for non-Latino whites has been well-established in the demographic and epidemiologic literatures."

"There are approximately 370 million Indigenous Peoples worldwide, in over 90 countries. Although they make up 5 percent of the global population, they account for about 15 percent of the extreme poor. Indigenous Peoples’ life expectancy is up to 20 years lower than the life expectancy of non-indigenous people worldwide."

"The epidemic is having a lot of impacts over and above"

"What civilian? [It] has flown over Kamchatka! It [came] from the ocean without identification. I am giving the order to attack if it crosses the State border."

"The target is destroyed."

"Roger, Korean Air 007...ah, we are experiencing..."

"Stand by. Stand by. Stand by. Stand by. Set."

"Five days after the Soviets shot down KAL 007, I went on nationwide television to urge that all of us in the civilized world make sure such an atrocity never happens again. And I pledged to you that night, we would cooperate with other countries to improve the safety of civil aviation, asking them to join us in not accepting the Soviet airline Aeroflot as a normal member of the international civil air community -- not, that is, until the Soviets satisfy the cries of humanity for justice."

"There were no circumstances that can justify the unprecedented attack on an unarmed commercial aircraft."

"I don't know anything - just that my mother is dead."

"Help me get my daughter back - I want my daughter back! Please, please help me!"

"I am heartbroken and have had nightmares because my best friend is dead. My Daddy and Mummy told me that some Russian men killed her and many, many other people, too. I asked Daddy why the Russians are so cruel. Yuen Wai-Sum was eight and was my best friend. Now we can never play together again. Why? You are the leader of the Russians, can you tell me why Russians have to kill her? I want to name offerings to Wai-Sum, to give her some fresh flowers and to pay respect to her spirit. May I? You are the leader. If you say yes, then it must be okay."

"Question I asked myself when I heard of his death is “Why Loc, of all people?” It seemed so unfair. Why not some multiple murderer on death row or some drunken bum? Worst of all, why did he die the way he did? I could understand and handle the death of a friend from diseases, but for him to be shot down on an airliner hurts me to the bottom of my soul."

"We have been struggling for years to know what happened to our loved ones. Now we face the agonizing recognition that their death was neither painless nor instant."

"The plane was over Soviet territory for about two hours, so it can hardly be assumed that this was an unplanned action. We should make it clear in our statements that this was a gross violation of international conventions. It is no use keeping quiet now, we must go on the offensive."

"There have been many books written about KAL 007 in the West, but the only living eyewitnesses to this tragedy are in the Soviet Union. The world is interested in the facts of what happened. But for me, what is most important is that ordinary Soviet citizens are opening their lips after so many years of silence. By talking, we become normal people."

"I am far from thinking that the blame for this tragedy lies entirely on us. The passengers on board KAL 007 had become the hostages of two great powers colliding with each other. They were condemned to die."

"I was just next to him, on the same altitude, 150 meters to 200 meters away. I saw two rows of windows and knew that this was a Boeing. I knew this was a civilian plane. But for me this meant nothing. It is easy to turn a civilian type of plane into one for military use."

"I would have landed him on our airfield, and I wanted it very much. Do you think I wanted to kill him? I would rather have shared a bottle with him."

"Until we know what final explanation [the Soviets] give and we have made a judgment on that explanation, it is premature to say what we are going to do about it."

"We have found new material on KAL 007. I know that sixty percent of the passengers were American. I am prepared to give you all the materials we have found. Perhaps one possibility is if some family members could come over and meet with me and discuss this. They could bring the materials back to you, including the black box."

"The sophisticated provocation masterminded by the US special services with the use of a South Korean plane is an example of extreme adventurism in politics."

"Within hours, story began circulating in Washington that the Soviets have been involved."

"The recollections bring back some unpleasant feelings. Those events left scars and added some gray hairs to my head. I will always be convinced that I gave the right order. Sometimes, in strategic operations, we had to sacrifice battalions to save the army."

"Cold War international tensions rose to a peak in 1983, with the deployment of Cruise and Pershing missiles in Western Europe exciting Soviet concern and anger, and the Soviets fearing attack under the cover of Able Archer, a NATO military exercise held from 2 to 11 November. Reagan going aloft in his command plane during the exercise worried the Soviets. Moreover, the unrepentant Soviet shooting down on 1 September 1983, over Soviet airspace, of Korean Airlines flight 007, suspected of espionage, increased tension. Two hundred and sixty-nine people, including an American congressman, were on the plane."

"The destruction of the airliner and its immediate aftermath reaffirmed the Soviet Union's and the United States' essential distrust of each other and ended any hope of an immediate solution to the expanding nuclear arms race. Late November 1983 saw the failure of the European peace campaign as the West German parliament voted to accept 108 medium-range Pershing II missiles for deployment and the Reagan administration immediately began shipping missile components. The Soviets, as expected, broke off the strategic arms reduction negotiations in Geneva, accusing Washington of "wrecking" the talks and describing the Germans as "nuclear maniacs.""

"Those who ran the American government did not want to learn that the Soviets had been honestly confused and panic-stricken about the enemy intruder."

"“Endless Disaster, Disaster, Disaster,” declared one local headline in the wake of the Sampoong collapse. Not only had the public caught on to that pattern, but the investigation of the Sampoong Group and the government officials with which they dealt threw light on a staggering depth and breadth of corruption. Worse still, the thoroughgoing inspection of Seoul’s by then proudly characteristic towers found that one out of seven needed rebuilding, four out of five needed major repairs, and just one in 50 could qualify as safe."

"The investigation into the tragedy revealed that, in addition to the not well thought out fifth floor addition, the badly placed air conditioning units, and reducing the diameter and number of support columns, the collapse was a perfect storm of terrible engineering. Had the developers stuck to the original plans, the stucture would have been twice as strong as it needed to be. Given all of the errors, it was amazing that the structure had had stood for 6 years."

"52 hours after the collapse, there was jubilation from the rescue workers and the families who had gathered around, as 24 people were pulled alive from the wreckage. They were all cleaners, who had been fortunate enough to be inside a basement dressing room which remained intact. However, they had little air and no food or water. Some of them drank their own urine to survive."

"It was one of several man-made disasters that set off public hand-wringing over the human cost of South Korea's breakneck economic growth and drew attention to the sometimes lethal effects of corruption."

"Many of the casualties were women: sales clerks and housewives who had gone to the basement because the food department lowered prices on perishables in the late afternoon."

"Officials blamed the disaster on shoddy construction. Four executives of the shopping complex were arrested tonight on negligence charges. Police had said they knew the top floor was crumbling hours before the disaster but decided not to close and left without warning anyone."

"The owner, Lee Joon, has been arrested and there are demands from relatives of missing family members that he be tried for murder. Five civil servants, including two high-ranking ones, have been arrested on bribery and corruption charges for having allowed Mr. Lee to operate the building even though it did not meet safety code standards."

"The collapse of the fashionable store was one in a series of disasters in South Korea that were attributed to inadequate construction or to corruption. Several Seoul city officials face bribery charges relating to the collapse."

"From across the store there was a sound like a subway train entering a station, and when we heard that sound people started running here and there. Suddenly a piece of concrete dropped on my head and I was knocked unconscious. After I awakened I was completely surrounded by darkness and all sides around me were closed in. There wasn’t any room. I cried for help and banged on the steel pipe beside me, but they couldn’t hear me from outside."

"I can feel a hole in my head so large my finger can go through it, that’s how big it is. And I can feel something squiggly in a cut in my back, like my intestine. I don’t want to die. As I look around I think it’s just a wall that’s collapsed on me. I try calling out but there’s no answer. I think it’s just me who’s stuck here."

"I will pass over my flirtation with journalism as a way of making a living, an idea I dropped when I discovered that in the fifties — unlike now — female journalists always ended up writing the obituaries and the ladies' page."

"Three decades ago, my Midwestern friend, Joe Rosenfield, then in his 80s, received an irritating letter from his local newspaper. In blunt words, the paper asked for biographical data it planned to use in Joe’s obituary. Joe didn’t respond. So? A month later, he got a second letter from the paper, this one labeled “URGENT.”"

"I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction."

"It is my ambition to be, as a private individual, abolished and voided from history, leaving it markless, no refuse save the printed books... It is my aim, and every effort bent, that the sum and history of my life, which in the same sentence is my obit and epitaph too, shall be them both: He made the books and he died."

"Decency is not news; it is buried in the obituaries — but it is a force stronger than crime."

"I scrolled on down to the obituaries. I usually read the obituaries first as there is always the happy chance that one of them will make my day."

"In his prime, the young comic walked onto a stage with the confidence of a man who owned it, and by the time he walked off, he did."

"Luciano Pavarotti, who has died aged 71 of pancreatic cancer, grew up in the 1940s listening to the previous golden generation of tenor stars on record and radio... His family were enthusiastically musical and, aged four, he was apparently standing on the kitchen table singing the Duke of Mantua's La donna é mobile from Rigoletto as a party trick. He modelled himself on what he heard, and used recordings to take account of the competition, dead or alive, throughout his career. Nature equipped him with one of the most individual, unmistakable and beautiful voices there has been."

"Burned and scratched, some of the more fortunate survivors told of being hurled from the plane still attached to their seats, and of turning back in their escape from the burning jet to pull fellow passengers to safety."

"After the accident, Korean Air announced that it planned to spend more than $100 million over the next two years on safety initiatives, including changes in pilot training and maintenance operations."

"The wait for remains has been excruciating for the families of the victims, most of them South Korean. A scuffle broke out Thursday at a hotel used as a center for the families when mourners hungry for information saw a Korean Air representative hold a news conference for reporters instead of briefing the families."

"Witnesses said the plane plowed through the jungle trailing smoke and flames, before it came to rest. The first rescuers had to make a maddeningly slow journey to the wreckage, trudging in with flashlights after hacking their way through razor-sharp grass that came up to their shoulders. They were followed by a bulldozer that slowly leveled a path over the rocky ground, the witnesses said."

"Transcripts of cockpit voice recordings recovered from the wreckage show confusion in the cockpit, with crew members questioning one another repeatedly about the state of the instrument landing system and failing to follow procedures that would have kept them all aware of how close they were getting to the ground."

"The cause of the crash was attributed to failure to adequately brief and execute a non-precision approach, and the Federal Aviation Administration's intentional inhibition of the minimum safe altitude warning system at Guam, the report showed."

"Witnesses said the aircraft lost altitude rapidly, briefly skimmed treetops, then plowed a 500-yard furrow through the forest, breaking apart as it went. Its wings were sheared off, then it disintegrated in a huge explosion followed by a series of smaller explosions that touched off several brush fires."

"A woman who also witnessed the crash said she saw a body hanging from a tree after the explosion but rescue workers found little trace of human remains, apparently because of the force of the blast."

"The television news later showed scenes filmed by a helicopter-borne Polish crew. Amid smoldering tree trunks and mangled metal, charred bodies could be seen, and bits of fabric hung from branches like shrouds, apparently blown there by the force of the explosion."

"The Holy Father was very upset by the news of the accident. He was visibly upset and retired (to his private rooms) to say special prayers for the victims."

"The crew faced fire and loss of thrust in the two left-side engines, cabin decompression and, they soon realised, loss of pitch control. For the remainder of the flight they controlled pitch with the aircraft’s trim system. The flight engineer opened the valves to jettison some of the 70 tonnes of fuel the aircraft was carrying for its trans-Atlantic flight, but was disturbed to see that although the solenoid read as open, the fuel level did not fall. At nearly maximum take-off weight but with only two engines operating, the aircraft was in a gradual, but unstoppable, descent."

"Among the crew’s terse, unemotional remarks was a brief speculation that something, possibly connected with the military area, had hit the horizontal stabiliser and engines. By this time the fire alarm had ceased and the crew presumed the fire had gone out. The engineer reported only one of the aircraft’s four generators was operational. In response, the captain switched off the radar to save power."

"The Polish report into the crash found the shaft bearing in the engine had been installed with half the required number of roller bearings—13 instead of 26. Its failure caused the inner part of the disc to melt and the outer part to spin freely, destroying itself and becoming a rotary projectile. LOT never bought another Soviet aircraft and took delivery of its first Boeing 767 in 1990. Meanwhile, it fitted its Ilyushin 62M fleet with vibration gauges and warning lights."

"The crash, described as Poland's worst commercial airline disaster, left several close-knit Polish communities in the New York area - in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn and in parts of Connecticut and New Jersey - in a state of shock and mourning."

"Owing to the severity of the crash, 62 of the 183 bodies were never positively identified. The victims included 166 Polish citizens and 17 Americans."

"I shall argue that although suicide is always tragic (because it always involves serious costs), we ought to be less judgmental about it, whether psychiatrically or morally, than people usually are. Suicide is sometimes a reasonable—even the most reasonable— response to a particular human’s predicament (rather than to the human predicament in general)."

"Suicide is sometimes morally wrong, and it is sometimes the consequence of psychological problems. However, it is not always susceptible to such criticism. If we step back from our powerful survival instinct and our optimism bias, ending one’s life may seem much wiser than continuing to live, particularly when the burdens of life are considerable. Moreover, it would be indecent to condemn those who, having deliberated carefully about the matter, decide that they no longer wish to endure the burdens of a life to which they never consented. They ought to take the interests of others, especially family and friends, into account. This is particularly true of those (such as spouses and children) to whom obligations have been voluntarily undertaken. The presence of such connections and obligations will trump lesser burdens, morally speaking. However, once the burdens of life reach a certain level of severity (determined, in part, by the relevant person’s own assessment of his life’s value and quality), it becomes indecent to expect him to remain alive for the benefit of others."

"If your pet is dying in pain, you will be condemned for cruelty if you do not summon the vet to give him a general anaesthetic from which he will not come round. But if your doctor performs exactly the same merciful service for you when you are dying in pain, he runs the risk of being prosecuted for murder. When I am dying, I should like my life to be taken out under a general anaesthetic, exactly as if it were a diseased appendix. But I shall not be allowed that privilege, because I have the ill-luck to be born a member of Homo sapiens rather than, for example, Canis familiaris or Felis catus. At least, that will be the case unless I move to a more enlightened place like Switzerland, the Netherlands or Oregon. Why are such enlightened places so rare? Mostly because of the influence of religion."

"All our obligations to do good to society seem to involve doing something in return: I get the benefits of society, so I ought to promote its interests. But when I withdraw myself altogether from society, can I still be obliged to serve it? And even if our obligations to do good did last for ever, they certainly have some limits; I am not obliged to do a small good to society at the expense of a great harm to myself; so why should I prolong a miserable existence because of some trivial advantage that the public may perhaps receive from me? Suppose I am old and unwell: can’t I lawfully resign from whatever jobs I have, and spend all my time coping with these calamities and doing what I can to reduce the miseries of my remaining years? If so, why isn’t it lawful for me to cut short these miseries at once by suicide, an action that does no more harm to society? Now try three other suppositions. Suppose that I am no longer able to do any good for society, or that I am a burden to society, or that my life is getting in the way of some other person’s being much more useful to society. In such cases it must be not only lawful but praiseworthy for me to take my own life. And most people who are at all tempted to commit suicide are in some such situation; those who have health, or power, or authority, usually have better reason to be on good terms with the world."

"Suicide can often be consistent with self-interest and with one’s duty to oneself; this can’t be questioned by anyone who accepts that age, sickness, or misfortune may make life a burden that is even worse than annihilation. I don’t believe that anyone ever threw away his life while it was worth keeping. Our natural horror of death is too great to be overcome by small motives. It may happen that a man takes his own life although his state of health or fortune didn’t seem to require this remedy, but we can be sure that he was cursed with such an incurable depravity or depression as must poison all enjoyment and make him as miserable as if he had been loaded with the most grievous misfortunes."

"If suicide is a crime, only cowardice can drive us to it. If it is not a crime, both prudence and courage should lead us to rid ourselves of existence when it becomes a burden. If that time comes, suicide is our only way to be useful to society—setting an example which, if imitated, would preserve to everyone his chance for happiness in life, and effectively free him from all risk of misery."

"All I ask of persons to whom any form of euthanasia is morally repugnant is tolerance and understanding of the feelings of others who want the right to choose what happens to their bodies in a free society. To every person their own way of death."

"In quixotically trying to conquer death doctors all too frequently do no good for their patients’ “ease” but at the same time they do harm instead by prolonguing and even magnifying patients’ dis-ease."

"Dogs do not have many advantages over people, but one of them is extremely important: euthanasia is not forbidden by law in their case; animals have the right to a merciful death."

"There exists a right by which we take a man's life but none by which we take from him his death: this is mere cruelty."

"Over the years, the way in which society views the taking of one’s own life has varied enormously. Suicide has not always been seen as the act of a sick and depressed person. In ancient Greece, Athenian magistrates kept a supply of poison for anyone who wanted to die. You just needed official permission. For the Stoics of ancient times, suicide was considered an appropriate response, if the problems of pain, grave illness or physical abnormalities became too great. With the rise of Christianity, however, suicide came to be viewed as a sin (a violation of the sixth commandment). As Lisa Lieberman writes in her book Leaving You, all of a sudden ‘the Roman ideal of heroic individualism’ was replaced ‘with a platonic concept of submission to divine authority’."

"The most commonly cited harm inflicted by suicide is the harm to the surviving friends and relatives. What, exactly, does that harm consist of? Certainly, it is not merely the fact that the person has died. Everyone dies eventually; suicides are not unique in this. Our surviving family and friends must eventually come to terms with all of our deaths. The only special harm attributable to the suicide is that he has died early, depriving the survivors of an expected period of his company and support—specifically, that period between the time of suicide and the time he would have otherwise died. During that time, the lover or spouse no longer enjoys the affection of the suicide; the relative no longer enjoys his visits and presents and sidewalk-shoveling; the friend no longer enjoys his opinions and companionship; the parent may no longer hope for grandchildren. The problem is that little of this “company and support” (and reproductive capacity) is morally obligatory. A person may, without committing a moral wrong by modern standards, leave his spouse due to irreconcilable differences or move away from his friends and relatives to pursue a career or refuse to have children. Providing our company is a voluntary act, and we are under no moral obligation to do so. The company and support of a person is best viewed as a privilege, not a right."

"The harm inflicted by the suicide upon himself must be the deprivation of possible future experiences (keep in mind that sacred harms, such as religious harm, belong under different moral foundations). However, by committing suicide, a person affirms that, in his evaluation, the expected future gains from living are not worth the expected costs. Many people intuitively support this line of thinking when it comes to people dying of a terminal illness. But why would people dying of a terminal illness be the only people miserable enough to rationally want to die? Hope is not necessarily rational. Prohibiting suicide amounts to substituting one’s own (poorly informed) judgment for the suicide’s own (immeasurably better informed) judgment of the degree to which his life is worth living."

"They tell us that suicide is the greatest piece of cowardice; that only a madman could be guilty of it; and other insipidities of the same kind; or else they make the nonsensical remark that suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in the world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person."

"He that unburied lies wants not his hearse, For unto him a tomb's the Universe."

"Gilded tombs do worms infold."

"I would rather sleep in the southern corner of a little country churchyard, than in the tombs of the Capulets."

"And so sepulchred in such pomp dost lie; That kings for such a tomb would wish to die."

"Hark! from the tombs a doleful sound."

"Some of the followers of certain Mohammedan sects work all their lives to have a big tomb built for them when they die. I know sects among whom as soon as a child is born, a tomb is prepared for it; that is among them the most important work a man has to do and the bigger and the finer the tomb, the belter off the man is supposed to be."

"... Now when they had tidied all the room, They led the women from the well-built hall Between the round-house and the sacred fence About the court, and penned them in a strait Whence there was no escape. Then to the others First spake the wise Telemachus: ‘Now never by a clean death let me take These women’s lives, who on my head have poured Disgrace, and on my mother, and were used To lie beside the suitors.’ Upon the word he tied to a great column The cable of a blue-prowed ship, and slung it About the round-house, stretching it high up So that the feet of none might touch the ground. And, as when thrushes with long wings, or doves Dash right into a snare set in a thicket, When they are making for their rest, and ’tis A cruel bed that takes them, so the women Held in a row their heads, and round the necks Of all were nooses cast, that they might die A death most piteous. With their feet they writhed A little while—not long."

"And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself."

"If you're born to be hanged then you'll never be drowned."

"We have been rinsed and laundered by the rain, And by the sunlight dried and blackened too. Magpie and crow have plucked our eyeballs twain And cropped our eyebrows and the beards we grew."

"And my poor fool is hang'd! No, no, no life! Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, And thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more, Never, never, never, never, never!"

"O little did my mother think When first she cradled me, That I would turn a rovin’ boy And die on the gallows tree."

"He does not die a death of shame On a day of dark disgrace, Nor have a noose about his neck, Nor a cloth upon his face, Nor drop feet foremost through the floor Into an empty space.He does not sit with silent men Who watch him night and day; Who watch him when he tries to weep, And when he tries to pray; Who watch him lest himself should rob The prison of its prey.He does not wake at dawn to see Dread figures throng his room, The shivering Chaplain robed in white, The Sheriff stern with gloom, And the Governor all in shiny black, With the yellow face of Doom.He does not rise in piteous haste To put on convict-clothes, While some coarse-mouthed Doctor gloats, and notes Each new and nerve-twitched pose, Fingering a watch whose little ticks Are like horrible hammer-blows.He does not know that sickening thirst That sands one’s throat, before The hangman with his gardener’s gloves Slips through the padded door, And binds one with three leathern thongs, That the throat may thirst no more.He does not bend his head to hear The Burial Office read, Nor, while the terror of his soul Tells him he is not dead, Cross his own coffin, as he moves Into the hideous shed.He does not stare upon the air Through a little roof of glass: He does not pray with lips of clay For his agony to pass; Nor feel upon his shuddering cheek The kiss of Caiaphas."

"They hanged him as a beast is hanged: They did not even toll A requiem that might have brought Rest to his startled soul, But hurriedly they took him out, And hid him in a hole.They stripped him of his canvas clothes, And gave him to the flies: They mocked the swollen purple throat, And the stark and staring eyes: ..."

"What, still alive at twenty-two, A clean, upstanding chap like you? Sure, if your throat ’tis hard to slit, Slit your girl’s, and swing for it.Like enough, you won’t be glad, When they come to hang you, lad: But bacon’s not the only thing That’s cured by hanging from a string."

"Bill Stein: Howdy, folks, howdy. This is your old friend, Bill Stein, bringing you a jerk-by-jerk description of the triple hanging of the Mushroom Murder Mob. This broadcast is coming to you from Hangemall Prison. We’re at the gallows site, and it’s a beautiful day for a hanging."

"Quick? I thought of the Austrian executioners who had hung on to the legs of their strangling prisoner to finish the job, until I brought them the British method."

"Of course they embalm’d you! Yet not so sweet Were aloes and nard, as the youthful glow Which Amenti stole when the small dark feet Wearied of treading our world below."

"They told me, Francis Hinsley, they told me you were hung With red protruding eye-balls and black protruding tongue. I wept as I remembered how often you and I Had laughed about Los Angeles and now ’tis here you’ll lie; Here pickled in formaldehyde and painted like a whore, Shrimp-pink incorruptible, not lost nor gone before."

"When thy Lord inspired the angels, (saying): I am with you. So make those who believe stand firm. I will throw fear into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Then smite the necks and smite of them each finger."

"Now when you meet the unbelievers, strike the necks until, when you have subdued them, then make fast the bonds, and afterward either generosity or ransom until the war lays down its burdens. That, and if Allah willed, he could have punished them, but so that he may test some of you by means of others. And those who have been killed in the way of Allah, he does not make their actions useless."

"Strike them on their foreheads to tear them apart and over the necks to cut them off, and cut off their limbs, hands and feet."

"It happened that a man would go to strike at the neck of an unbeliever and his head would fall off before his sword was able to get there."

"Mounds were made of the bodies of the slain, pillars of their heads."

"An order was given to set up a pillar of pagan heads on the ... hill between which and our camp the battle had been fought. (...) About 1000 men, women and children were made prisoner ; there as also great slaughter, and a pillar of heads was raised."

"Not a week passed without the spilling of much Muslim blood and the running of streams of gore before the entrance of his palace. This included cutting people in half, skinning them alive, chopping off heads and displaying them on poles as a warning to others, or having prisoners tossed about by elephants with swords attached to their tusks."

"How many infidels' heads have you caused to be cut off? He said, 'There would be 200,000 heads so that there might be two rows of minarets of heads from Agra to Patna."

"As the same Muhammadan diarist records after a visit to Vrindavan: 'Wherever you gazed you beheld heaps of the slain; you could only pick your way with difficulty, owing to the quantity of bodies lying about and the amount of blood spilt. At one place that we reached we saw about two hundred dead children lying in a heap. Not one of the dead bodies had a head. The stench and effluvium in the air were such that it was painful to open your mouth or even to draw breath.'"

"From Buckever hither were above 200 Munaries' [minar, pillar], with heads mortered and plaistered in, leaveinge out nothing but their verie face, some 30, some 40, some more some lesse. This was Abdula Ckauns exploit (whoe is now Governour of Puttana), by the kings Order. For this way was soe pestered with Rebbells and Theeves, that there was noe passinge; soe that the Kinge sent Abdulla Ckaun, with 12,000 horse and 20,000 foote to suppresse them, whoe destroyed all their Townes', tooke all their goods, their wives and children for slaves, and the cheifest of their men, causeing their heads to bee cutt of and to be immortered as before [depicted]. To the Munares of dead mens heads made bv Abdulla Ckaun ['Abdullah Khan ] are added since our comeinge this way by Furzand Ckaun [Farzand Khan] about 60 more with 35 or 40 heads a peece, lately killed. Neere Etaya [Etawa] there was a new Munare a makeinge with a great heape of heads lyeing by them, ready to bee immortered."

"The beautiful coconut trees which once graced the gardens surrounding the city of Madura, have been cut down by these intruders, and in place of these, we have gruesome substitutes in the form of iron sula, which are adorned with garlands of decapitated human heads strung together."

"This was, at the beginning of the 2000s, the only way that the Tibetans, who remained in their country, found to protest against the Chinese occupation and atrocities: self-immolation by pouring gasoline all over the body and then dropping a match. This sacrifice, reminiscent of that of Buddhist monks in Vietnam who protested the American presence, captured the imagination of the world and embarrassed the Chinese. Dolma Tsering, a member of the Tibet Parliament in Exile, notes: “Chinese propaganda gives the image of a Tibet bathed in happiness, with a bright future. The fact that 149 people have set themselves on fire since 2009 is a sign that something is wrong. »"

"Dido, my deare, alas! is dead, Dead, and lyeth wrapt in lead. O heavie herse!"

"Underneath this sable herse Lyes the subject of all verse."

"On all the line a sudden vengeance waits, And frequent herses shall besiege your gates."

"Not even your Britain's groans can pierce The leaden silence of your hearse."