Death

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

"In the jaws of death."

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

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

"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."

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

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

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

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

"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."

"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!"

"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."

"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."

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

"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.""

"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."

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

"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."

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

"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."

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

"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."

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

"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."

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

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

"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."

"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."

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

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

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

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

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

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

"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?"

"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."

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

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

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

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

": Death levels all things."

"Omnia mors æquat."

"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."

"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."

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