„Is death the last sleep? No, it is the last and final awakening.“
— Walter Scott Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet 1771 - 1832
Quotes about death
A collection of quotes on the topic of death.
Related topicsTotal 5746 quotes death, filter:
„I have had close relations with Dattopantji for the last 50 years. If one has to explain the personality of Dattopantji in one sentence, we can say that he was a dedicated Rashtrasevak. He lived his whole life as a karmayogi. The work he took up he aimed it out with full responsibility. He established a wide network of friends without compromising on his views and ideology. His thinking was not confined to labourers or economic issues alone it involved the entire life of the nation and the world. His death is a personal loss to me. A strong pillar of our work is no more.“
— Dattopant Thengadi Indian politician 1920 - 2004
L.K. Advani, The Organiser, 31 October 2004 issue. p. 13, Article Named- Dedicated Rashtrasevak https://web.archive.org/web/20120331123458/http://organiser.org/archives/historic/dynamic/modulesa3a9.html?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=48&page=13
„I've been dreaming of a time when
The English are sick to death of Labour and Tories
And spit upon the name Oliver Cromwell and denounce this royal line that still salutes him
And will salute him forever.“
— Morrissey English singer 1959
from the 2004 song "Irish Blood, English Heart"
From songs
„I don't think anybody's necessarily ready for death. You can only hope that when it approaches, you feel like you've said what you wanted to say. Nobody wants to go out in mid-sentence.“
— Johnny Depp American actor, film producer, and musician 1963
„Birth in the physical is death in the spiritual. Death in the physical is birth in the spiritual.“
— Edgar Cayce Purported clairvoyant healer and psychic 1877 - 1945
Source: Reincarnation & Karma
„O ye men, whoever amongst you worshipped Muhammad, let him know that Muhammad is dead, and whoever amongst you worshipped Allah, let him know that Allah is Living, there is no death for Him.“
— Abu Bakr First Muslim Caliph and a companion of Muhammad 573 - 634
Abu Bakr's speech after Muhammad's death; Bukhari, Volume 2, Chapter Manaqibe Abu Bakr; zitiert in: Dawat-ul-Amir http://www.alislam.org/library/articles/death1.htm, English translation: Invitation to Ahmadiyyat, First Edition, pg. 17-21, by Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad
„If then we would indeed be “filled with wisdom and spiritual understanding;” if we would “walk worthy of the Lord unto all well pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;” here let us fix our eyes! “Laying aside every weight, and the sin that does so easily beset us; let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Here best we may learn the infinite importance of Christianity. How little it can deserve to be treated in that slight and superficial way, in which it is in these days regarded by the bulk of nominal Christians, who are apt to think it may be enough, and almost equally pleasing to God, to be religious in any way, and upon any system. What exquisite folly it must be to risk the soul on such a venture, in direct contradiction to the dictates of reason, and the express declaration of the word of God! “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?”
LOOKING UNTO JESUS!
Here we shall best learn the duty and reasonableness of an absolute and unconditional surrender of soul and body to the will and service of God.—“We are not our own; for we are bought with a price,” and must “therefore” make it our grand concern to “glorify God with our bodies and our spirits, which are God’s.” Should we be base enough, even if we could do it with safety, to make any reserves in our returns of service to that gracious Saviour, who “gave up himself for us?” If we have formerly talked of compounding by the performance of some commands for the breach of others; can we now bear the mention of a composition of duties, or of retaining to ourselves the right of practising little sins! The very suggestion of such an idea fills us with indignation and shame, if our hearts be not dead to every sense of gratitude.
LOOKING UNTO JESUS!
Here we find displayed, in the most lively colours, the guilt of sin, and how hateful it must be to the perfect holiness of that Being, “who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.” When we see that, rather than sin should go unpunished, “God spared not his own Son,” but “was pleased[99], to bruise him and put him to grief” for our sakes; how vainly must impenitent sinners flatter themselves with the hope of escaping the vengeance of Heaven, and buoy themselves up with I know not what desperate dreams of the Divine benignity!
Here too we may anticipate the dreadful sufferings of that state, “where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth;” when rather than that we should undergo them, “the Son of God” himself, who “thought it no robbery to be equal with God,” consented to take upon him our degraded nature with all its weaknesses and infirmities; to be “a man of sorrows,” “to hide not his face from shame and spitting,” “to be wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities,” and at length to endure the sharpness of death, “even the death of the Cross,” that he might “deliver us from the wrath to come,” and open the kingdom of Heaven to all believers.
LOOKING UNTO JESUS!
Here best we may learn to grow in the love of God! The certainty of his pity and love towards repenting sinners, thus irrefragably demonstrated, chases away the sense of tormenting fear, and best lays the ground in us of a reciprocal affection. And while we steadily contemplate this wonderful transaction, and consider in its several relations the amazing truth, that “God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all;” if our minds be not utterly dead to every impulse of sensibility, the emotions of admiration, of preference, of hope, and trust, and joy, cannot but spring up within us, chastened with reverential fear, and softened and quickened by overflowing gratitude. Here we shall become animated by an abiding disposition to endeavour to please our great Benefactor; and by a humble persuasion, that the weakest endeavours of this nature will not be despised by a Being, who has already proved himself so kindly affected towards us. Here we cannot fail to imbibe an earnest desire of possessing his favour, and a conviction, founded on his own declarations thus unquestionably confirmed, that the desire shall not be disappointed. Whenever we are conscious that we have offended this gracious Being, a single thought of the great work of Redemption will be enough to fill us with compunction. We shall feel a deep concern, grief mingled with indignant shame, for having conducted ourselves so unworthily towards one who to us has been infinite in kindness: we shall not rest till we have reason to hope that he is reconciled to us; and we shall watch over our hearts and conduct in future with a renewed jealousy, [Pg 243] lest we should again offend him. To those who are ever so little acquainted with the nature of the human mind, it were superfluous to remark, that the affections and tempers which have been enumerated, are the infallible marks and the constituent properties of Love. Let him then who would abound and grow in this Christian principle, be much conversant with the great doctrines of the Gospel.
It is obvious, that the attentive and frequent consideration of these great doctrines, must have a still more direct tendency to produce and cherish in our minds the principle of the love of Christ.“
— William Wilberforce English politician 1759 - 1833
Source: Real Christianity (1797), p. 240-243.
„We're reaching for death
on the end of a candle
We're trying for something
that's already found us“
— Jim Morrison lead singer of The Doors 1943 - 1971
„…this guy is responsible for twenty or thirty more deaths at least, and there's a certain aspect of possessiveness in that. I think that's one way of describing it in rather bland terms, a possessiveness where the corpse could easily be as important as the live victim, in some respects. I mean, it's that physical possession and ownership, a taking, if you will, that is just part of the syndrome. I think that sense of power and ownership is one of the reasons why I think in some cases—not all, certainly—is why I think he might be individually intending to return to the scene to either view his victim, or in fact, interact with the body in some way.“
— Ted Bundy American serial killer 1946 - 1989
1984 interview with Detective Robert Keppel (regarding the Green River Killer)
„An ignorant doctor is the aide-de-camp of death.“
— Avicenna medieval Persian polymath, physician, and philosopher 980 - 1037
As quoted in Familiar Medical Quotations (1968) by Maurice B. Strauss
„Why have the majority of overseas Internet companies failed? Google fails, Yahoo failed, eBay and the like were all squashed to death by the locals? Is it because none are able to succeed in China? For every loser, excuses are abound, humans always try to search for excuses to justify failing, and tend not to search for direction towards success.“
— Jack Ma Chinese businessman 1964
马云调侃谷歌退出：中国将制定未来游戏规则 http://china.ibtimes.com/articles/20100120/-2014431602.htm
Original: (zh) 为什么外国互联网公司到中国大都失败了？谷歌也不行、雅虎也不行、eBay这些都被中国本土公司给搞死掉了？是不是中国不能做？任何一个失败的人是最容易找藉口的，人类总是为失败找藉口，不为成功找方向。
„We are products of a past world where sensitivities to certain things were a matter of life or death.“
— John D. Barrow British scientist 1952
The Artful Universe (1995)
Context: The Universe has imposed aspects of its structure upon us by the inevitability of the forces of Nature... In a world where adapters succeed, but non-adapters fail, one expects to find vestigial remnants... Many of these adaptations... give rise to a suite of curious byproducts, some of which have played a role in determining our aesthetic sense. We are products of a past world where sensitivities to certain things were a matter of life or death.<!-- Ch. 6, p.246
„I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,“
— Evelyn Beatrice Hall, book The Friends of Voltaire
Source: The Friends of Voltaire (1906), Ch. 7 : Helvetius : The Contradiction, p. 199; because of quote marks around the original publication of these words, they are often attributed to Voltaire, though Hall was not actually quoting him but summarizing his attitude with the expression. The statement was widely popularized when misattributed to Voltaire as a "Quotable Quote" in Reader's Digest (June 1934), but in response to the misattribution, Hall had been quoted in Saturday Review (11 May 1935), p. 13, as stating: I did not mean to imply that Voltaire used these words verbatim and should be surprised if they are found in any of his works. They are rather a paraphrase of Voltaire's words in the Essay on Tolerance — "Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too."
The paragraph in which the statement first appears reads:
Context: 'What a fuss about an omelette!' he had exclaimed when he heard of the burning. How abominably unjust to persecute a man for such an airy trifle as that! "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it," was his attitude now.
„In a country where the sole employer is the state, [opposition] means death by slow starvation. The old principle: 'who does not work shall not eat,' has been replaced with a new one: 'who does not obey shall not eat.“
— Leon Trotsky, book The Revolution Betrayed
Source: The Revolution Betrayed (1936), Ch. 11
„If you really come down to any large story that interests people – holds the attention for a considerable time … human stories are practically always about one thing, aren't they? Death. The inevitability of death.“
— John Ronald Reuel Tolkien British philologist and author, creator of classic fantasy works 1892 - 1973
Tolkien in Oxford (1968) http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/writers/12237.shtml, a BBC 2 television documentary (at 21:49)
„Death is an eternal sleep.“
— Joseph Fouché French statesman 1759 - 1820
Inscription placed by his orders on the Gates of the Cemeteries in 1794; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
