
Source: The Gay Science
Source: The Collected Poems
Source: The Gay Science
“But I believe that God is overhead
And as life is to the living, so death is to the dead.”
The Two Mysteries (1904).
Source: Hawthorn and Lavender (1901), XXI
Context: Love, which is lust, is the Lamp in the Tomb.
Love, which is lust, is the Call from the Gloom.
Love, which is lust, is the Main of Desire.
Love, which is lust, is the Centric Fire.
So man and woman will keep their trust,
Till the very Springs of the Sea run dust.
Yea, each with the other will lose and win,
Till the very Sides of the Grave fall in.
For the strife of Love's the abysmal strife,
And the word of Love is the Word of Life.
And they that go with the Word unsaid,
Though they seem of the living, are damned and dead.
“The tragedy of life is not death but what we let die inside of us while we live.”
Hamlet, Don Quixote, Mr. Pickwick and others
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XIV - Higgledy-Piggledy
“Death is not the opposite of life but an innate part of it. By living our lives, we nurture death.”
Variant: Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it.
Source: Norwegian Wood
Founding Address (1876), Life and Destiny (1913)
Context: Let us learn from the lips of death the lessons of life. Let us live truly while we live, live for what is true and good and lasting. And let the memory of our dead help us to do this. For they are not wholly separated from us, if we remain loyal to them. In spirit they are with us. And we may think of them as silent, invisible, but real presences in our households.