“To die is poignantly bitter, but the idea of having to die without having lived is unbearable.”
Erich Fromm (1900–1980) German social psychologist and psychoanalyst
Source: Man for Himself (1947), Ch. 4
“It is better to die for an idea that will live, than to live for an idea that will die.”
Quoted in Scott MacLeod, "South Africa: Extremes in Black and Whites" http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,975037,00.html, Time, March 9, 1992, p. 38 <br class="br">Quoted in "The Mind of Black Africa" (1996) by Dickson A. Mungazi, p. 159
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anti-apartheid activist in South Africa 1946–1977Related quotes
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D.H. Lawrence book Women in Love
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Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and …
“Better to die on your feet than live on your knees.”
Aeschylus (-525–-456 BC) ancient Athenian playwright
This is usually attributed to Emiliano Zapata, but sometimes to Aeschylus, who is credited with expressing similar sentiments in Prometheus Bound: "For it would be better to die once and for all than to suffer pain for all one's life".
Misattributed
Epictetus (50–138) philosopher from Ancient Greece
Fragment xxxii.
Golden Sayings of Epictetus, Fragments