Electra, before the dead Aegistheus, Act 2
The Flies (1943)
"Jim Bludso", Pike County Ballads http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pike_County_Ballads, (1871).
“These heroes are dead. They died for liberty — they died for us.”
Memorial Day Vision. Reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Attributed
Context: These heroes are dead. They died for liberty — they died for us. They are at rest. They sleep in the land they made free, under the flag they rendered stainless, under the solemn pines, the sad hemlocks, the tearful willows, the embracing vines. They sleep beneath the shadows of the clouds, careless alike of sunshine or storm, each in the windowless palace of rest. Earth may run red with other wars — they are at peace. In the midst of battles, in the roar of conflict, they found the serenity of death.
“It is good that a man's enemies want him dead, for it proves he has lived a life of worth.”
Source: The Outlaw Josey Wales
“Leave him alone. He has already met his judge. I wage war on the living, not the dead.”
In response to the Duke of Alva who proposed to desecrate the tomb of Martin Luther, burn his body, and scatter his ashes to the wind.
Source: Luther and His Times Michael Grzonka
“God is indeed dead.
He died of self-horror
when He saw the creature He had made
in His own image.”
Aphs.
The Whole Bloody Bird (1969)
