
„Better to die fighting for freedom then be a prisoner all the days of your life.“
— Bob Marley Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician 1945 - 1981
A collection of quotes on the topic of life, sadness, pain, disease.
„Better to die fighting for freedom then be a prisoner all the days of your life.“
— Bob Marley Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician 1945 - 1981
„A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.“
— Joseph Stalin General secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union 1879 - 1953
Variants: One death is a tragedy. A million deaths is just a statistic.
A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.
When one dies, it is a tragedy. When a million die, it is a statistic.
In Портрет тирана (1981) (Portrait of a Tyrant), Soviet historian Anton Antonov-Ovseyenko attributes the following version to Stalin: "When one man dies it's a tragedy. When thousands die it's statistics." This is the alleged response of Stalin during the 1943 Tehran conference when Churchill objected to an early opening of a second front in France.<!-- The book appears to have a footnote sourceing the claim, but I couldn't access it. Could someone please try to scare up a paper copy and have a look at footnote 188? -->
In her review "Mustering Most Memorable Quips" of Konstantin Dushenko's 1997 Dictionary of Modern Quotations (Словарь современных цитат: 4300 ходячих цитат и выражений ХХ века, их источники, авторы, датировка), Julia Solovyova states: "Russian historians have no record of the lines, 'Death of one man is a tragedy. Death of a million is a statistic,' commonly attributed by English-language dictionaries to Josef Stalin."
This quotation may originate from "Französischer Witz" (1925) by Kurt Tucholsky: "Darauf sagt ein Diplomat vom Quai d'Orsay: «Der Krieg? Ich kann das nicht so schrecklich finden! Der Tod eines Menschen: das ist eine Katastrophe. Hunderttausend Tote: das ist eine Statistik!»" ("To which a Quai d'Orsay diplomat replies: «The war? I can't find it so terrible! The death of one man: that is a catastrophe. One hundred thousand deaths: that is a statistic!»")
Another possible source or intermediary may be the concluding words of chapter 8 of the 1956 novel The Black Obelisk by Erich Maria Remarque: "Aber das ist wohl so, weil ein einzelner immer der Tod ist — und zwei Millionen immer nur eine Statistik." ("But probably the reason is that one dead man is death—and two million are only a statistic." 1958 Crest Book reprint)
Mary Soames (daughter of Churchill) claims to have overheard Stalin deliver a variant of the quote in immediate postwar Berlin (Remembrance Sunday Andrew Marr interview BBC 2011) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hP2tpw9XEw
See also Jean Rostand, Thoughts of a Biologist, 1939: "Kill one man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god."
In an interview given for the 1983 three-part documentary Der Prozeß by Norddeutscher Rundfunk on the Third Majdanek trial, Simon Wiesenthal attributes the quote to the unpublished auto-biography of Adolf Eichmann. According to Wiesenthal, Eichmann had been asked by another member of the Reich Main Security Office during WWII what they should answer would they be questioned after the war about the millions of dead Jews they were responsible for, to which Eichmann according to his own testimony had replied with the quote.
Misattributed
Variant: The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic.
„A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.“
— Martin Luther King, Jr. American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement 1929 - 1968
Variant: If a man hasn’t found something he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.
Source: The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.
„If you're really a mean person you're going to come back as a fly and eat poop.“
— Kurt Cobain American musician and artist 1967 - 1994
As quoted in Monk Magazine (1992-10).
Interviews (1989-1994), Print
„A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.“
— Franz Kafka author 1883 - 1924
Letter to Oskar Pollak http://www.languagehat.com/archives/001062.php (27 January 1904)
Variant translations:
If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on our skulls, then why do we read it? Good God, we also would be happy if we had no books and such books that make us happy we could, if need be, write ourselves. What we must have are those books that come on us like ill fortune, like the death of one we love better than ourselves, like suicide. A book must be an ice axe to break the sea frozen inside us.
What we need are books that hit us like a most painful misfortune, like the death of someone we loved more than we love ourselves, that make us feel as though we had been banished to the woods, far from any human presence, like a suicide. A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.
A book should be an ice-axe to break the frozen sea within us.
A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul.
A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.
Variant: A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.
Context: I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we are reading doesn't wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for?... we need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.
„I've got the guts to die. What I want to know is, have you got the guts to live?“
— Tennessee Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Source: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
„It's necessary to have wished for death in order to know how good it is to live.“
— Alexandre Dumas, book The Count of Monte Cristo
Source: The Count of Monte Cristo
„People are strange, they neither wish to live nor die.“
— Epictetus philosopher from Ancient Greece 50 - 138
„No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they'd die for.“
— Martin Luther King, Jr. American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement 1929 - 1968
„Freedom for the wolves has often meant death to the sheep.“
— Isaiah Berlin Russo-British Jewish social and political theorist, philosopher and historian of ideas 1909 - 1997
Total 6088 quotes death, filter:
— Tupac Shakur rapper and actor 1971 - 1996
Variant: My Mama used to tell me if u can’t find something to live for, you best find something to die for.
Source: Resurrection, 1971-1996
„Big deal. Death always went with the territory. See you in Disneyland.“
— Richard Ramirez American serial killer 1960 - 2013
Statement to reporters after his death sentences, taken from The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/07/richard-ramirez-night-stalker-dies
„When the snow fall
and the white winds blow,
the lone wolf dies
but the pack survives.“
— George Raymond Richard Martin American writer, screenwriter and television producer 1948
— Charles Bukowski American writer 1920 - 1994
"The Meaning of Life: The Big Picture", Life Magazine (December 1988)
Interviews
„That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.“
— H.P. Lovecraft, book The Nameless City
Variant: That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.
Source: The Nameless City
„If nothing saves us from death, at least love should save us from life“
— Pablo Neruda Chilean poet 1904 - 1973
— Jane Goodall British primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist 1934
The Ten Trusts (2003), p. xv
„We’re gonna stay together until we die, I’m sure of it.“
— Freddie Mercury British singer, songwriter and record producer 1946 - 1991
Context: You know something? There's been a lot of rumors lately about a certain band called Queen. The rumors are that... The rumors are that we're gonna split up. What do you think? [audience replies "No!"] [Pointing to his posterior] They're talking from here! [audience replies "Yes"! ] My apologies, but I say what I want. You know what I mean? So forget those rumors. We’re gonna stay together until we die, I’m sure of it. I keep — I must tell you — I keep wanting to leave, but they won’t let me. Also, I suppose we’re not... We're not bad for four aging queens, are we? Really, what do you think?
"Queen: Live at Wembley" (1986), shortly before performing "Who Wants To Live Forever." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GNJ1SQpxFI
— John Ronald Reuel Tolkien British philologist and author, creator of classic fantasy works 1892 - 1973
„Someday death will take us to another star.“
— Vincent Van Gogh Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890) 1853 - 1890
— Michael Jackson American singer, songwriter and dancer 1958 - 2009
Earth Song
HIStory: Past, Present & Future, Book I (1995)
„We cannot be sure of having something to live for unless we are willing to die for it.“
— Ernesto Che Guevara Argentine Marxist revolutionary 1928 - 1967
As quoted in Wise Guys : Brilliant Thoughts and Big Talk from Real Men (2005) by Allan Zullo, p. 36
„I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death“
— Nas American rapper, record producer and entrepreneur 1973
N.Y. State of Mind
On Albums, Illmatic (1994)
„Trapped in life, only escape I know is death.“
— E.M.S Nigerian rapper, singer and record producer 1995
"Hidden"
— Sophie Scholl White Rose member 1921 - 1943
As quoted by Else Gebel, in letter to Robert Scholl (November, 1946). Original German text. http://www.mythoselser.de/texts/scholl-gebel.htm
„When I die I'm going to dance first in all the galaxies… I'm gonna play and dance and sing.“
— Elisabeth Kübler-Ross American psychiatrist 1926 - 2004
„The death of one is a tragedy, but death of a million is just a statistic.“
— Marilyn Manson American rock musician and actor 1969
Being from Manson's Fight Song of Holy Wood, this is actually a quote from German writer Erich Maria Remarque, also often misattributed to Josef Stalin.
Misattributed
„If you're born poor it's not your fault, but if you die poor it's your fault.“
— Bill Gates American business magnate and philanthropist 1955
Quoted in various publications, without any further sourcing. The quote is dubious in view of the Gates Foundation's public mission, "to lift people out of hunger and extreme poverty." Gates was born to an affluent family.
Misattributed
— Joseph Goebbels Nazi politician and Propaganda Minister 1897 - 1945
Dated 27 March 1942
Diary excerpts
— Witold Pilecki World War II concentration camp leader and resistor 1901 - 1948
After the announcement of the death sentence.
Source: Bartłomiej Kuraś, Witold Pilecki – w Auschwitzu z własnej woli, „Ale Historia”, w: „Gazeta Wyborcza”, 22 kwietnia 2013.
„The desire to die was my one and only concern; to it I have sacrificed everything, even death.“
— Emil M. Cioran Romanian philosopher and essayist 1911 - 1995
All Gall Is Divided (1952)
„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
— Dilma Rousseff 36th President of Brazil 1947
Responding http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tiyezo1fLRs to Senator José Agripino Maia - former member of ARENA, ruling party of the military dictatorship - in a Senate hearing, May 7. He suggested that, for having lied when she was interrogated by the political police, she could also have been lying about the leak of data of Fernando Henrique Cardoso's personal expenditures.
2008
„Not ignorance, but ignorance of ignorance is the death of knowledge.“
— Alfred North Whitehead English mathematician and philosopher 1861 - 1947
„A coward dies a thousand times, a soldier dies but once.“
— Tupac Shakur rapper and actor 1971 - 1996
— Tupac Shakur rapper and actor 1971 - 1996
Variant: Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside while still alive. Never surrender.
„It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.“
— Marcus Aurelius, book Meditations
Source: Meditations
„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
„I went to the worst of bars hoping to get killed but all I could do was to get drunk again.“
— Charles Bukowski American writer 1920 - 1994
— Anne Frank victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary 1929 - 1945
5 April 1944
The Diary of a Young Girl (1942 - 1944)
Original: (nl) Ik moet iets hebben naast man en kinderen waar ik me aan wijden kan! O ja, ik wil niet zoals de meeste mensen voor niets geleefd hebben. Ik wil van nut of plezier zijn voor de mensen, die om mij heen leven en die mij toch niet kennen.
Variant: I need to have something besides a husband and children to devote myself to! I don't want to have lived in vain like most people. I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I've never met.
„Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny.“
— Frank Zappa American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer 1940 - 1993
'Be-Bop Tango (Of the Old Jazzmen's Church)
Roxy & Elsewhere (1974)
Variant: Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny
„Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies within us while we live.“
— Norman Cousins American journalist 1915 - 1990
Quoted in History of Sikh Struggles (1989) by Gurmit Singh, p. 189.
— Erich von Manstein German general 1887 - 1973
To Leon Goldensohn (14 June 1946). Quoted in "The Nuremberg Interviews" - by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004
— Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, book Isis Unveiled
Eliphas Levi
Source: Isis Unveiled (1877), Volume I, Chapter XIII
„There is no one whose death I have not longed for, at one moment or another.“
— Emil M. Cioran Romanian philosopher and essayist 1911 - 1995
Drawn and Quartered (1983)
— Socrates classical Greek Athenian philosopher -470 - -399 BC
29a–b
Alternate translation: "To fear death, is nothing else but to believe ourselves to be wise, when we are not; and to fancy that we know what we do not know. In effect, no body knows death; no body can tell, but it may be the greatest benefit of mankind; and yet men are afraid of it, as if they knew certainly that it were the greatest of evils."
Plato, Apology
— Sitting Bull Hunkpapa Lakota medicine man and holy man 1831 - 1890
Recorded by Charles Larpenteur at Fort Union in 1867. Published in Utley, Robert M. The Lance and the Shield. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1993. p. 73.
— Oswald Mosley British politician; founder of the British Union of Fascists 1896 - 1980
Excerpt from My Life by Oswald Mosley (1968), Ch.16.
— Erich von Manstein German general 1887 - 1973
To Leon Goldensohn (14 June 1946). Quoted in "The Nuremberg Interviews" - by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004
— Shirin Ebadi Iranian lawyer, human rights activist, and Nobel Peace Prize recipient 1947
From 1999 interview.
Noted in the October 2003 BBC News profile of Ebadi. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3181992.stm (retrieved Oct. 15, 2008)
— Diogenes of Sinope ancient Greek philosopher, one of the founders of the Cynic philosophy -404 - -322 BC
Stobaeus, iv. 29a. 19
Quoted by Stobaeus
— Grigori Rasputin Russian mystic 1869 - 1916
Grigory Rasputin in a letter to the Tsarina Alexandra, 7 Dec 1916
— Thomas More, book Utopia
Source: Utopia (1516), Ch. 1 : Discourses of Raphael Hythloday, of the Best State of a Commonwealth
Context: I think putting thieves to death is not lawful; and it is plain and obvious that it is absurd and of ill consequence to the commonwealth that a thief and a murderer should be equally punished; for if a robber sees that his danger is the same if he is convicted of theft as if he were guilty of murder, this will naturally incite him to kill the person whom otherwise he would only have robbed; since, if the punishment is the same, there is more security, and less danger of discovery, when he that can best make it is put out of the way; so that terrifying thieves too much provokes them to cruelty.
„Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.“
— John Wayne American film actor 1907 - 1979
„I have a violence in me that is hot as death-blood.“
— Sylvia Plath American poet, novelist and short story writer 1932 - 1963
Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
„What I fear most, I think, is the death of the imagination.“
— Sylvia Plath American poet, novelist and short story writer 1932 - 1963