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DEATH [PAGE 1 A-G]

.
.
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[QUOTES FOLLOW LINKS]

see:

BEREAVEMENT

CREMATION

DESPAIR

ENDINGS

EPITAPHS

EUTHANASIA

FUNERALS

GRAVEYARDS

GRIEF

HEARTBREAK

HEAVEN, HELL

IMMORTALITY

LAST WORDS

LEGACIES

MURDER

OBITUARY

PUNISHMENT

REINCARNATION

REMORSE

SORROW

SUICIDE

TEARS

WIDOWS

WILLS


^

Aeschylus [525—426 BC], Greek poet. Some
of his tragedies are the earliest complete plays
surviving from ancient Greek.

Aeschylus died and was buried at Gela in
Sicily. Ancient biographies record the tradition
that his death came about when an eagle,
which had seized a tortoise and was looking
to smash the reptile's shell, mistook the
poet's bald head for a stone and dropped
the tortoise upon him.

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.]

^

If a wife loses her husband by death, she cannot
marry another man. She has only to choose between
two things - either to remain a widow as long as she
lives or to burn herself; and the latter eventuality is
considered the preferable, because as a widow she is
ill-treated as long as she lives. As regards the wives
of kings, they [Hindus] are in the habit of burning
them, whether they wish it or not, by which they
desire to prevent any of them by chance committing
something unworthy of the illustrious husband.
They make an exception only for women of advanced
years and for those who have children; for the son is
the responsible protector of his mother.
--Alberuni (973—1048)
_Kitab-al-Hind_ (Book on India) [1030].

-

-

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 gloaming light.
“I know not,” said the second Shape,
“I only died last night!”

--Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836—1907)
American poet, short-story writer, and editor.
"Identity", in Edmund Clarence Stedman (ed.)
_An American Anthology, 1787—1900_ [1900].

-

-


I'm not afraid to die. I just don't
want to be there when it happens.
--Woody Allen [Allen Stewart Konigsberg] (b. 1935)
American actor, screenwriter, and director.
_Without Feathers_ [1975] "Death" (A one act play)


[Boris (Woody Allen) speaking:]
[T]here are worse things in life than death. If
you've ever spent an evening with an insurance
salesman, you know what I'm talking about.
--Woody Allen [Allen Stewart Konigsberg] (b. 1935)
American actor, screenwriter, and director.
"Love and Death" [1975 film]

-

Be not grieved above measure for thy deceased
friends. They are not dead, but have only finished
the journey which it is necessary for every one
of us to take. We ourselves must go to that great
place of reception in which they are all of them
assembled, and, in this general rendezvous of
mankind, live together in another state of being.
--Antiphanes (fl. early 4th cent. B.C.)
Greek comic poet.
Attributed in "The Lady's Magazine" [September 1781].

Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful.
It's the transition that's troublesome.
--attributed to Isaac Asimov (1920—1992)
Russian-born American author.

-

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West.
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever; I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

--W.H. [Wystan Hugh] Auden (1907—1973)
English-born poet and man of letters.
"Funeral Blues" from_Twelve Songs, No. 9_ [1936]

-

To a father, when his child dies, the future dies;
to a child, when his parents die, the past dies.
--Berthold Auerbach (1812—1882)
German novelist.
_On the Heights_, 7th bk. [1874 ed.]

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.
--Francis Bacon (1561—1626)
English philosopher and essayist.
_Essays_ [1625] "Of Death"

The sole equality on earth is death.
--Philip James Bailey (1816—1902)
English poet.
_Festus_ [1839]

-

Every time a child says, 'I don't believe in
fairies' there is a fairy somewhere that falls
down dead.
--Sir James Matthew Barrie (1860—1937)
Scottish writer and dramatist.
_Peter Pan_, act I [1928]


To die will be an awfully big adventure.
--Sir James Matthew Barrie (1860—1937)
Scottish writer and dramatist.
_Peter Pan_, act 3 [1928]

-

Let's meet and either do or die.
--Francis Beaumont (c. 1584—1616)
English Jacobean playwright and poet who collaborated with John
Fletcher on comedies and tragedies between 1606 and 1614.
_The Island Princess_, III, ii [c. 1619—1621]

Strange, when you come to think of it,
that of all the countless folk who have
lived before our time on this planet not
one is known in history or in legend as
having died of laughter.
--Sir Max Beerbohm (1872—1956)
English satirist and caricaturist.
_And Even Now_, p. 315 [1920]

-

"Henry King, [Who chewed bits of String,
and was early cut off in dreadful agonies]"
by Hilaire Belloc (1870—1953)
British poet, essayist, historian, and novelist.

The Chief Defect of Henry King
Was chewing little bits of String.
At last he swallowed some which tied
Itself in ugly Knots inside.
Physicians of the Utmost Fame
Were called at once; but when they came
They answered, as they took their Fees
'There is no Cure for this Disease.
Henry will very soon be dead.'
His Parents stood about his Bed
Lamenting his Untimely Death,
When Henry, with his Lastest Breath,
Cried--'Oh, my Friends, be warned by me,
That Breakfast, Dinner, Lunch, and Tea
Are all the Human Frame requires. . . '
With that, the Wretched Child expires.

-

What I like about Clive
Is that he is no longer alive.
There is a great deal to be said
For being dead.
--Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875—1956)
English novelist and humorist.
_Biography for Beginners_ [1905]

O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory?
--_Bible_
"1 Corinthians" 15:55

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 long as you change something
from the way it was before you touched it into something
that's like you after you take your hand away. The difference
between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is
in the touching, he said. The lawn cutter might just as well
not have been there at all; the gardener will be there for a
lifetime.
--Ray Bradbury (b. 1920)
American science fiction author.
_Fahrenheit 451_ [1953]

Do not fear death so much, but rather the inadequate life.
--Bertolt Brecht (1898—1956)
German dramatist.
_The Mother_ [1932]

-

A ship sails and I stand watching till she fades on
the horizon and someone at my side says 'She is
gone.' Gone where? Gone from my sight, that is
all, she is just as large as when I saw her. The
diminished size and total loss of sight is mine,
not in her and just at the moment when someone
at my side says 'She is gone,' there are others who
are watching her coming and other voices take up
a glad shout, 'There she comes!' and that is dying.
--Bishop Brent (1862—1929)
The first Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines.
"What Is Dying?"

-

If there is any substitute for love, it is memory.
--Joseph Brodsky [Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky] (1940—1996)
Russian-born American poet and winner of the 1987
Nobel Prize for Literature.
_Less Than One_ [1986]

[Mel Brooks] was approached by a woman who offered condolences
on the passing of his beloved wife, Anne Bancroft. 'I know how you
feel. I just lost my mother,' the woman said. 'How old was she?'
asked Mel. 'Ninety-six,' the woman replied. 'Well,' Mel said, 'she
was asking for it.'
--"New York Post" [23 August 2005]

'Tis impossible to be sure of any thing but Death and Taxes.
--Christopher Bullock
_The Cobler of Preston_ [1716], as quoted in
Fred R. Shapiro (ed.) _The Yale Book of Quotations_ [2006].

Tears are sometimes an inapproriate response
to death. When a life has been lived completely
honestly, completely successfully, or just
completely, the correct response to death's
perfect punctuation mark is a smile.
--Julie Burchill (b. 1959)
English journalist.
"Independent" (London) [5 December 1989]

-

When death's dark stream I ferry o'er
A time that surely shall come;
In Heaven itself, I'll ask no more,
Than just a Highland welcome.
--Robert Burns (1759—1796)
Scottish poet and songwriter.
"A verse...on taking Leave" [2 September 1787]


If there's another world, he lives in bliss;
If there is none, he made the best of this.
--Robert Burns (1759—1796)
Scottish poet and songwriter.
"Epitaph on a Friend" in _The Works of Robert Burns_, v. 4 [4 vols., 1800].

-

It costs a lot of money to die comfortably.
--Samuel Butler (1835—1902)
English novelist, essayist, and critic.
_The Note-Books of Samuel Butler_,
ed. Henry Festing Jones [1913 ed.]

What is the worst of woes that wait on age?
What stamps the wrinkle deeper on the brow?
To view each loved one blotted from life's page,
And be alone on earth, as I am now.
--Lord Byron [George Gordon Byron] (1788—1824)
English Romantic poet and satirist.
_Childe Harold's Pilgrimage_, canto II, st. 98 [1812]

To live in the hearts we leave
Is not to die.
--Thomas Campbell (1777—1844)
Scottish poet.
"Hallowed Ground" [1825]

-

In the midst of winter, I finally learned that
there was in me an invincible summer.
--Albert Camus (1913—1960)
French novelist, dramatist, and essayist who won the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature.
_L'Ιtι_ (The Summer) "Return to Tipasa" [1954]


I'll tell you a big secret, my friend. Don't wait
for the Last Judgment. It takes place every day.
--Albert Camus (1913—1960)
French novelist, dramatist, and essayist who won the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature.
_La Chute_ (The Fall) [1956]


Men are never convinced of your reasons, of your sincerity,
of the seriousness of your sufferings, except by your death.
So long as you are alive, your case is doubtful; you have a
right only to their skepticism.
--Albert Camus (1913—1960)
French novelist, dramatist, and essayist who won the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature.
_La Chute_ (The Fall) [1956]

-

The man who dies . . . rich, dies disgraced.
--Andrew Carnegie (1835—1919)
American businessman and philanthropist of Scottish birth.
In "North American Review" [June 1889] "Wealth".

I look upon life as a gift from God. I did nothing to earn it.
Now that the time is coming to give it back, I have no right
to complain.
--Joyce Cary [Arthur Joyce Lunel Cary] (1888—1957)
Irish novelist and artist.
Quoted in Barbara Fisher _Joyce Cary: The Writer and His Theme_ [1980].

Through gloom and shadow look we
On beyond the years;
The soul would have no rainbow
Had the eyes no tears.
--John Vance Cheney (1848—1922)
American poet.
"Tears" [1892]

-

[Let] nothing but good be said of the dead.
--Chilon (6th cent. B.C.)
One of the Seven Sages of Greece.

or

Do not speak ill of the dead.
--The Seven Sages (c. 650—550 BC)
(From Diogenes Laertius, _Lives of Eminent Philosophers_, I, 77)

-

On a gravestone, every life is contained on the little dash
between two dates. That is humbling. It puts our passions
and disappointments in perspective. It reminds us to trust
in a power more abiding than our own.
--Forrest Church (1948—2009)
American theologian and author.
Sermon, "Return of the Native" [10 November 2002]

-

The life of the dead consists in being
present in the minds of the living.
--Marcus Tullius Cicero (106—43 B.C.)
Roman orator and statesman.
_Orationes Phillipiae_ [c. 60 B.C.]


I have no regret at having lived, for I have so conducted my life that
I do not feel that I was born to no purpose. I cheerfully quit from life
as if it were an inn, not a home; for Nature has given us a hostelry in
which to sojourn, not to abide.
--Marcus Tullius Cicero (106—43 B.C.)
Roman orator and statesman.
_De Senectute_ [ 45 B.C.]

-

-

The only things in which we can be said to have any property are
our actions. Our thoughts may be bad, yet produce no poison; they
may be good, yet produce no fruit. Our riches may be taken away
from us by misfortune, our reputation by malice, our spirits by
calamity, our health by disease, our friends by death. But our
actions must follow us beyond the grave; with respect to them
alone, we can not say that we shall carry nothing with us when
we die, neither that we shall go naked out of the world.
--C.C. Colton (1780—1832)
English clergyman and writer.
_Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words ..._, # LII [1821 ed.]


Death is the liberator of him whom freedom cannot release,
the physician of him whom medicine cannot cure, and the
comforter of him whom time cannot console.
--C.C. Colton (1780—1832)
English clergyman and writer.
_Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words ..._, # CC [1821 ed.]

-

Wouldst thou find my ashes? Look
In the pages of my book;
And, as these thy hands doth turn,
Know here is my funeral urn.
--Adelaide Crapsey (1878—1914)
American poet.
"The Immortal Residue" [1915]

The best of men cannot suspend their fate:
The good die early, and the bad die late.
--Daniel Defoe (1660—1731)
English novelist and journalist.
_Character of the late Dr. S. Annesley_ [1715]

I get my exercise serving as a pallbearer
to my friends who take exercise.
--Chauncey Depew (1834—1928)
American orator, politician, and railroad president.
Quoted in "L.A. Times" [4 May 1954].

-

The memory of those who lie below passes away so soon.
At first they tend them, morning, noon, and night; they
soon begin to come less frequently; from once a day, to
once a week; from once a week to once a month; then
at long and uncertain intervals; then, not at all.
--Charles Dickens (1812—1870)
English novelist.
_The Old Curiosity Shop_, ch. 54 [1841]


Old Marley was as dead as a doornail.
--Charles Dickens (1812—1870)
English novelist.
_A Christmas Carol_ [1843]


He'd make a lovely corpse.
--Charles Dickens (1812—1870)
English novelist.
_Martin Chuzzlewit_, ch. 25 [1844]

-

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
--Emily Dickinson (1830—1886)
American poet.
_The Chariot_, l. 1 [1890]

But Jesus, when you don't have any money, the
problem is food. When you have money, it's sex.
When you have both, it's health, you worry about
getting ruptured or something. If everything is
simply jake then you're frightened of death.
--J. P. Donleavy (b. 1926)
American dramatist and novelist.
O'Keefe, in _The Ginger Man_, ch. 5 [1955].

-

Death be not proud, though some have called
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so.
--John Donne (1572—1631)
English poet and dean of St. Paul's [1621—1631].
"Holy Sonnets" [1609]


No Man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man
is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine;
if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe
is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as
well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne
were; any Mans death diminishes me, because I
am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never
send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for
thee.
--John Donne (1572—1631)
English poet and dean of St. Paul's [1621—1631].
"Devotions upon Emergent Occasions", no. 17 [1624]


Great sorrows cannot speak.
--John Donne (1572—1631)
English poet and dean of St. Paul's [1621—1631].
Elegy XI _Death_

-

In 1952 when ... my mother was dying. I held
her frail hand in mine for hours,looking at the
pale face of my ma. That's what I always called
her--not Mum, not Momma, not Mother--just Ma. . . .

Her startling last words still echo somewhere deep
inside of me. My mother, in her last moments, was
concerned about me. She was a real mother who
took care of me till the very end of her life.

Now, lying in my hospital bed, I wondered: What
happens when you die? Could I see my mother
again? I would like that. But maybe, after death,
you come before that mythical Man with a long
beard, sitting on a throne. You stand before Him,
puny and timid. Then you ask, "Is this heaven?"
And He roars back, "Heaven! You just came from
there!"

And as your eyes widen, He continues, "Ingrate!
Didn't you like the sunrise, the sunset, the moon,
and the stars? Weren't you pleased with the
mountains, forests, rivers, and streams that I
gave you?"

I remain silent as the voice roars. "Didn't you
like the fragrant flowers and fruits and vegetables
I gave you? And when I nurtured those plants with
rain, you complained because you couldn't play golf.
Ingrate! That was heaven!"

--Kirk Douglas [Issur Danielovitch] (b. 1916)
American film actor and producer.
_My Stroke of Luck_ [2002], "Death Takes a Holiday"

-

-

They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,
Love and desire and hate;
I think they have no portion in us after
We pass the gate.

They are not long, the days of wine and roses;
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream.

--Ernest Dowson (1867—1900)
English poet.
"Vitae Summa Brevis" [1896]

-

-

Death in itself is nothing; but we fear
To be we know not what, we know not where.
--John Dryden (1631—1700)
English poet, critic, and dramatist.
_Aureng-Zebe_, IV, i [1676]


Dead men tell no tales.
--John Dryden (1631—1700)
English poet, critic, and dramatist.
_Absalom and Achitophel_ [1681]

-

How many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
--Bob Dylan [Robert Allen Zimmerman] (b. 1941)
American singer and songwriter.
"Blowin' in the Wind" [1962 song]

-

I have to apologize to you that I am still among
the living. There will be a remedy for this
however.
--Albert Einstein (1879—1955)
German-American physicist who developed the
special and general theories of relativity.
(Letter of 25 August 1946 to Tyffany Williams,
a child in South Africa who expressed surprise
on learning that Einstein was still alive.)


To one bent on age, death will come as a release.
I feel this quite strongly now that I have grown
old myself and have come to regard death like an
old debt, at long last to be discharged. Still,
instinctively one does everything possible to
postpone the final settlement. Such is the game
that Nature plays with us.
--Albert Einstein (1879—1955)
German-American physicist.
[To Gertrud Warschauer on 5 February 1955.]

-

-

When death, the great Reconciler, has come, it is never
our tenderness that we repent of, but our severity.
--George Eliot [Mary Ann Evans] (1819—1880)
English novelist.
_Adam Bede_, ch. IV [1859]


Oh may I join the choir invisible
Of those immortal dead who live again
In minds made better by their presence.
--George Eliot [Mary Ann Evans] (1819—1880)
English novelist.
"Oh May I Join the Choir Invisible" [1867 poem]

-

In my beginning is my end.
--T.S. Eliot (1888—1965)
Anglo-American poet, critic, and dramatist.
_Burnt Norton_ [1936]

Every man is entitled to be valued by his best moment.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.
_The Conduct of Life_ [1860], "Beauty"

Death is nothing to us, since when we are, death has
not come, and when death has come, we are not.
--Epicurus (341—270 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.
In Diogenes Laλrtius _Lives of the Eminent Philosophers_.

-

A sweet thing, for whatever time, to revisit
in dreams the dear dead we have lost.
--Euripides (485?—406 B.C.)
Greek dramatist.
_Alcestis_, l. 355 [438 B.C.]


Who knows but life be that which men call death,
And death what men call life.
--Euripides (485?—406 B.C.)
Greek dramatist.
"Phrixus" Frag. 830

-

It hath often been said, that it is not
death, but dying, which is terrible.
--Henry Fielding (1707-1754)
English novelist and dramatist.
_Amelia_, bk. 3, ch. 4 [1751]

Mrs. Browning's Death is rather a relief to me, I must say: no
more Aurora Leighs, thank God! A woman of real genius, I
know; but what is the upshot of it all? She and her Sex had
better mind the Kitchen and their Children, and perhaps the
Poor: except in such things as little Novels, they only devote
themselves to what Men do much better, leaving that which
Men do worse or not at all.
--Edward Fitzgerald (1809—1883)
English scholar and poet.
Letter to W.H. Thompson [15 July 1861].

If Mr. [George] Selwyn calls again, show him up:
if I am alive, I shall be delighted to see him; and
if I am dead, he will be delighted to see me.
--Henry Fox (1705—1774)
English Whig politician
Quoted in "The London Quarterly Review" [April 1850].
(Mr. Selwyn had a fondness for seeing dead bodies.)

-

Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glint on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you wake in the morning hush,
I am the swift, uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starlight at night.

Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there — I did not die.

--Mary Elizabeth Frye (1905—2004)
American poet.
"Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep" [1932]

-

We hold reunions, not for the dead, for there is nothing
in all the earth that you and I can do for the dead. They
are past our help and past our praise. We can add to
them no glory and we can give to them no immortality.
They do not need us, but forever and forever more we
need them.
--James A. Garfield (1831—1881)
20th President of the United States [1881].
Speech in Geneva, Ohio [3 August 1880].

[Working, and informed that his wife was dying:]
Ask her to wait a moment - I am almost done.
--Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777—1855)
German mathematician and scientist.

Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.
--attributed to Theodor Seuss Geisel [Dr. Seuss] (1904—1991)
American writer and illustrator of children's books.

[Edmund Nagle attempting to inform
George IV that Napoleon is dead:]
'Sir, your bitterest enemy is dead.'
'Is she, by God!' said the tender husband.
--King George IV (1762—1830)
King of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland [1820—1830].
Quoted in the _Journal of Hon. Henry Edward Fox_ (entry for 25 August 1821).

-

"Tender-Heartedness"
by Harry Graham (1874—1936)
British writer and journalist.

Billy, in one of his nice new sashes,
Fell in the fire and was burnt to ashes;
Now, although the room grows chilly,
I haven't the heart to poke poor Billy.


"L'enfant Glace"
by Harry Graham (1874—1936)
British writer and journalist.

When Baby's cries grew hard to bear
I popped him in the Frigidaire.
I never would have done so if
I'd known that he'd be frozen stiff.
My wife said, "George, I'm so unhappe!
Our darling's now completely frappe!'

-

And isn't it funny, she thought, that it takes two
generations to kill off a man?. . . First him, and
then his memory.
--Shirley Anne Grau (b. 1929)
American author.
_The Keepers of the House_ [1965]

The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
--Thomas Gray (1716—1771)
English poet.
"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" l. 36 [1751]

[Replying on his deathbed to George Seaton's
remark, 'I guess dying can be very hard':]
Yes, but not as hard as playing comedy!
--Edmund Gwenn (1875—1959)
English actor.
Quoted in Don Widener _Lemmon: A Biography_ [1975].


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