„It is better to fall in with crows than with flatterers; for in the one case you are devoured when dead, in the other case while alive.“

„There is only one dream worth having…to live while you are alive, and die only when you are dead.“

—  Arundhati Roy Indian novelist, essayist 1961

From a speech entitled Come September http://ada.evergreen.edu/~arunc/texts/politics/comeSeptember.pdf.
Speeches
Forrás: The Cost of Living

„Jim Crow is dead. But his sophisticated, college-educated, urbane first cousin J. Crow, Esquire, is alive and kicking.“

—  Yolanda King American actress 1955 - 2007

Statement during speech kicking off Black History Month (02 February 1986) http://articles.latimes.com/1986-02-02/local/me-3413_1_black-history-parade
1980s

„The dead know only one thing, it is better to be alive“

—  Stanley Kubrick American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and editor 1928 - 1999

„The body is never more alive than when it is dead; but it is alive in its units, and dead in its totality; alive as a congeries, dead as an organism.“

—  Annie Besant British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator 1847 - 1933

Death-And After http://books.google.co.in/books?id=0tIQ-MGW6F8C&pg=PA19, p. 19

„If while alive you hurt or disappoint people you love, there's no use continuing such behavior when you're dead.“

—  Anthony Swofford, könyv Jarhead

Forrás: Jarhead

„any live man is better than any dead man but no live or dead man is very much better than any other live or dead man“

—  William Faulkner, könyv The Sound and the Fury

Forrás: The Sound and the Fury

„We are all clever enough at envying a famous man while he is yet alive, and at praising him when he is dead.“

—  Mimnermus ancient Greek poet -670

Fragment 1.

„Pierre was right when he said that one must believe in the possibility of happiness in order to be happy, and I now believe in it. Let the dead bury the dead, but while I'm alive, I must live and be happy.“

—  Leo Tolstoy, könyv War and Peace

Forrás: War and Peace

„If you can't take care of me while I'm alive, you have made me dead anyway.“

—  Gillian Flynn, könyv Gone Girl

Forrás: Gone Girl

„You are either alive and proud or you are dead, and when you are dead, you can't care anyway.“

—  Steve Biko anti-apartheid activist in South Africa 1946 - 1977

On Death

„Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it.“

—  Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist 1817 - 1862

„In fact, the mere act of opening the box will determine the state of the
cat, although in this case there were three determinate states the cat
could be in: these being Alive, Dead, and Bloody Furious.“

—  Terry Pratchett, könyv Lords and Ladies

Forrás: Lords and Ladies

„A dead man in Spain is more alive than a dead man anywhere in the world.“

—  Federico García Lorca Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director 1898 - 1936

Un muerto en España está más vivo como muerto que en ningún sitio del mundo.
"Theory and Play of the Duende" from A Poet in New York (1940)

„This life is short, the vanities of the world are transient, but they alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive.“

—  Swami Vivekananda Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher 1863 - 1902

Pearls of Wisdom

„I was not surprised to wake up alive. I suppose one is surprised only when one awakens dead.“

—  Dan Simmons, könyv Endymion

Forrás: Endymion (1996), Chapter 4 (p. 20)

„I was never so amazed in my life as when the Sniffer drew his concealed weapon from its case and struck me to the ground, stone dead.“

—  Robertson Davies, könyv Murther and Walking Spirits

First line.
Murther and Walking Spirits (1991)

„The Autonomous. In the case of someone like Bertrand Russell or Toscanini, one feels an essential aliveness of spirit that reflexively keeps the body alive too, in the face of the inevitable physiological catabolisms. … Such men are not necessarily “balanced” or “well-adjusted” people: they may … get along well with very few people, or prefer the “company” of dead people. … One can see in such cases a passionate interest or preoccupation which has remained alive since childhood—though perhaps newly justified or rediscovered in middle life. … Such individuals are fairly immune to cultural changes, or to cultural definitions of their own physical changes: they carry their preservative, their “spirits,” within. … As long as the body does not actively prevent, these men are immortal because of their ability to renew themselves.“

—  David Riesman American Sociologist 1909 - 2002

“Clinical and Cultural Aspects of the Aging Process,” pp. 484-485
Individualism Reconsidered (1954)

„One morning you wake up and are afraid you are going to live. In my case, I was not frightened in the least bit at the thought that I might live because I was certain, quite certain, that I was already dead.“

—  Elizabeth Wurtzel, könyv Prozac Nation

Forrás: Prozac Nation

„If you love someone, you're not supposed to want them to come back. Better a peaceful sleep in the earth than the life of a zombie--not really dead but not really alive, either.“

—  Cassandra Clare American author 1973

Forrás: Zombies Vs. Unicorns