“I repulse death with all my strength. If I accepted it, I would be a murderer.”
J. Agee, trans. (1989), p. 142
Das Geheimherz der Uhr [The Secret Heart of the Clock] (1987)
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Elias Canetti 43
Bulgarian-born Swiss and British jewish modernist novelist,… 1905–1994Related quotes
180:10:1
Sermons
Context: I too have sworn heedlessly and all the time, I have had this most repulsive and death-dealing habit. I’m telling your graces; from the moment I began to serve God, and saw what evil there is in forswearing oneself, I grew very afraid indeed, and out of fear I applied the brakes to this old, old, habit.
The Sunset Limited (2006)
“If I knew that I could die, I would live. My life, my death, my choice.”
Final lines of his Richard Dimbleby lecture Shaking Hands With Death on euthanasia and assisted suicide, quoted in "Terry Pratchett: my case for a euthanasia tribunal" in The Guardian (2 February 2010) http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/feb/02/terry-pratchett-assisted-suicide-tribunal
General sources
Context: I dare say that quite a few people have contemplated death for reasons that much later seemed to them to be quite minor. If we are to live in a world where a socially acceptable "early death" can be allowed, it must be allowed as a result of careful consideration.
Let us consider me as a test case. As I have said, I would like to die peacefully with Thomas Tallis on my iPod before the disease takes me over and I hope that will not be for quite some time to come, because if I knew that I could die at any time I wanted, then suddenly every day would be as precious as a million pounds. If I knew that I could die, I would live. My life, my death, my choice.
Blog of author, 9 IX 2007 AD http://korwin-mikke.blog.onet.pl/Naturalna-smierc,2,ID258154142,n
Source: The Hiding Place: The Triumphant True Story of Corrie Ten Boom
20 October 2016
Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/20/politics/donald-trump-i-will-totally-accept-election-results-if-i-win/index.html
2010s, 2016, October
Modernized rendition: I had reasoned this out in my mind; there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty, or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other; for no man should take me alive; I should fight for my liberty as long as my strength lasted, and when the time came for me to go, the Lord would let them take me.
The phrase "Liberty or Death" is a slogan made famous during the independence struggle of several countries.
1880s, Harriet, The Moses of Her People (1886)
As quoted in "Правила жизни Чулпан Хаматовой" in Esquire https://esquire.ru/rules/6929-chulpan-khamatova/#part0