Death

"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."