DEATH QUOTES XXV

quotations about death

We live as we die, and die as we live.

EDWARD COUNSEL

Maxims


I ... shall die, I do suppose, with a full consciousness of my being and with a great fear in my eyes. And though many die decrepit and senile, that is not the normal death of men, for men have in them something of a self-creative power, which pushes them on to the further realization of themselves, right up to the edge of their doom.

HILAIRE BELLOC

On Nothing & Kindred Subjects


I don't mean to imply that I'm afraid of Death. I'm just not ready to go out on a date with him.

DEAN KOONTZ

Odd Thomas


Remember the coffin where men
All must to dust be returning.

HENRI CAZALIS

"Always"


Most of us were not afraid of death, only of the act of dying; and there were times when we overcame even this fear. At such moments we were free--men without shadows, dismissed from the ranks of the mortal; it was the most complete experience of freedom that can be granted a man.

ARTHUR KOESTLER

Dialogue with Death


Birds of Hell awaiting
With the wings on fire
Insane old Phoenix, baby
It's your death desire
The birds of Hell awaiting
With the wings on fire

MARILYN MANSON

"Birds of Hell Awaiting", The Pale Emperor


Now death is death! and yet is not one death
Another death? Stabbing is not the same
As shooting! Would you say a strangled man
Was drown'd? The end is one, the means are many,
And there the difference lies!

SHERIDAN KNOWLES

True Unto Death


Death is just--to the just.

EDWARD COUNSEL

Maxims


No matter how much you've been warned, Death always comes without knocking. Why now? is the cry. Why so soon? It's the cry of a child being called home at dusk.

MARGARET ATWOOD

The Year of the Flood


The dying need but little, dear,
A glass of water's all,
A flower's unobtrusive face
To punctuate the wall,
A fan, perhaps, a friend's regret
And certainty that one
No color in the rainbow
Perceive, when you are gone.

EMILY DICKINSON

"The Dying need but little, Dear"


Dying is like coming to the end of a long novel--you only regret it if the ride was enjoyable and left you wanting more.

JEROME P. CRABB

Death Quotes and Quibbles


Life is what you celebrate. All of it. Even its end.

JOANNE HARRIS

Chocolat


Life was to these a dream fulfilled,
And death a starry night.

HERMAN MELVILLE

"Chattanooga"


The longest-lived and the shortest-lived man, when they come to die, lose one and the same thing.

MARCUS AURELIUS

Meditations


Death is like an old whore in a bar--I'll buy her a drink but I won't go upstairs with her.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY

To Have and Have Not


He steps upon death that stirs a foot.

THOMAS DEKKER

Blurt


Death is the monster we all fear, yet with each day, we walk toward it, and can't help doing so; we can't help but walk toward the one thing we're most trying to avoid.

BILL MAHER

"On Being Over 50", HuffPost, Oct. 3, 2011


I don't necessarily view death as something negative. Death gives meaning to life. Living in fear of death is living in denial. Actually, it's not really living at all, because there is no life without death. It's two sides of the one. You can't pick up one side and say, "I'm just going to use the 'heads' side." No. It doesn't work like that. You have to pick up both sides because nothing is promised to anyone in this world besides death.

50 CENT

From Pieces to Weight


When Death puts out our Flame, the Snuff will tell,
If we were Wax, or Tallow by the smell.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Poor Richard's Almanack, 1739


Weep strong men must,
Since all before us now is lifeless dust;
Majestic clay
Is all, good friends, death leaves to us today.

ELIZA ALLEN STARR

"Col. James A. Mulligan"