Death

"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."

"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.”"

"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."

"Butterflies Love and follow this flower wreath— that on the coffin lies"

"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."

"Cremation was the usual way for the dead. [in Ancient India]"

"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 . . ."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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"

"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"

"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"

"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."

"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"

"Post-cremation burials have been discovered ... distributed among strata of all periods [at Mohenjo Daro.]"

"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 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."

"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."

"So, Nancy, I want to say this to you: Today, America embraces you. We open up our arms."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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.""

"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."

"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!"

"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."

"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."

"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?"

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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?"

"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."

"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."

"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."