Death

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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!"

"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."

"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."

"If birth is a manifestation of life, death is another."

"Life and death merge in greatness."

"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."

"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."

": 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."

"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."

"The great world's altar-stairs That slope thro' darkness up to God."

"Death has made His darkness beautiful with thee."

"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."

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

"When I am dead, my dearest, Sing no sad songs for me; Plant thou no roses at my head, No shady cypress tree."

"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."

"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."

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

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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 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"