Quotes about death page 30
Josef Pieper (1904–1997) German philosopher
Source: Leisure, the Basis of Culture (1948), The Philosophical Act, pp. 67–68
Rebecca West (1892–1983) British feminist and author
"The Gospel According to Granville-Parker", in The Freewoman (7 March 1912); re-published in The Young Rebecca: Writings of Rebecca West, 1911-17 (1982), p. 21
André Breton (1896–1966) French writer
Le Manifeste du Surréalisme, Andre Breton (Manifesto of Surrealism; 1924)
Adolf Eichmann (1906–1962) German Nazi SS-Obersturmbannführer
Eichmann Before Jerusalem by Bettina Stangneth (2015).
Diogenes of Sinope (-404–-322 BC) ancient Greek philosopher, one of the founders of the Cynic philosophy
Diogenes Laërtius, vi. 44
Quoted by Diogenes Laërtius
“Pyrrhus: Mercy often means giving death, not life.”
Pyrrhus: Mortem misericors saepe pro vita dabit.
Troades (The Trojan Women), line 329; Translation by Emily Wilson
Tragedies
“I never thought before my death to see
Youth's vision thus made perfect.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley Epipsychidion
Source: Epipsychidion (1821), l. 41
Subhas Chandra Bose (1897–1945) Indian nationalist leader and politician
"Quotations by 60 Greatest Indians" at Institute of Information and Communication Technology http://resourcecentre.daiict.ac.in/eresources/iresources/quotations.html
Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Have You a Hobby?, Answers, 21 April 1934
Reproduced in The Collected Essays of Sir Winston Churchill, Vol IV, Churchill at Large, Centenary Edition (1976), Library of Imperial History, p. 288. ISBN 0903988453
The 1930s
Berthe Morisot (1841–1895) painter from France
Berthe Morisot, in a letter to her husband Eugene Manet, 1882; as cited in Impressionist quartet, ed. Jeffrey Meyers; publishers, Harcourt, 2005, p. 120
1881 - 1895
Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam
Biharul Anwar, Volume 96, Page 334
Shi'ite Hadith
Frederick William Faber (1814–1863) British hymn writer and theologian
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 369.
Garth Brooks (1962) American country music artist
Thicker Than Blood, written by Jenny Yates and G. Brooks.
Song lyrics, Scarecrow (2001)
Rebecca West (1892–1983) British feminist and author
Quoted in "There is nothing like a dame: Dame Rebecca West at ninety," Vogue (February 1983)
“Up the River of Death
Sailed the Great Admiral!”
Henry Howard Brownell (1820–1872) American writer and historian
The River Fight (published 1864).
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1960s, Keep Moving From This Mountain (1965)
James Montgomery (1771–1854) British editor, hymn writer, and poet
The Earth full of God's Goodness.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“One of the greatest delusions of the average man is to forget that life is death's prisoner.”
Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist
On the Heights of Despair (1934)
Ida Friederike Görres (1901–1971) Austrian writer and noble
Broken Lights Diaries 1957-59.
John Cunningham Geikie (1824–1906) Scottish Presbyterian minister and author
The Life and Words of Christ (1886), p. 607.
“Okay, we will divide the first [of two questions] and let the second die a crib death.”
Tony Snow (1955–2008) American White House Press Secretary
White House Press Briefing http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/07/20060706-2.html (2006-07-06).
Arthur C. Clarke book The City and the Stars
Source: The City and the Stars (1956), Chapter 13 (p. 99)
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) German philosopher
On a Supposed Right to Tell Lies from Benevolent Motives (1797)
“As men, we are all equal in the presence of death.”
Publilio Siro Latin writer
Maxim 1
Sentences, The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave
Cornelius Castoriadis (1922–1997) Greek-French philosopher
Je désire pouvoir, avec tous les autres, savoir ce qui se passe dans la société, contrôler l’étendue et la qualité de l’information qui m’est donnée. Je demande de pouvoir participer directement à toutes les décisions sociales qui peuvent affecter mon existence, ou le cours général du monde où je vis. Je n’accepte pas que mon sort soit décidé, jour après jour, par des gens dont les projets me sont hostiles ou simplement inconnus, et pour qui nous sommes, moi et tous les autres, que des chiffres, dans un plan ou des pions sur un échiquier et qu’à la limite, ma vie et ma mort soient entre les mains de gens dont je sais qu’ils sont nécessairement aveugles.
Source: The Imaginary Institution of Society (1975), p. 92.
Alan M. Dershowitz (1938) American lawyer, author
"'Civilian casualty'? That's a gray area", Los Angeles Times, 2006-07-22
Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957) Greek writer
Odysseus, Book VIII, line 560
The Odyssey : A Modern Sequel (1938)
Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) leader of the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland, and founder of the Swiss Reformed Churches
Letter to Vadian, ibid, March 7, 1526, p.252
Muriel Dowding, Baroness Dowding (1908–1993) British noble
Source: Interview by Rynn Berry, pp. 137-38
Joyce Kilmer (1886–1918) American poet, editor, literary critic, soldier
"Easter Week"
Main Street and Other Poems (1917)
“The death of one god is the death of all.”
Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) American poet
Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction (1942), It Must Be Abstract
G. I. Gurdjieff (1866–1949) influential spiritual teacher, Armenian philosopher, composer and writer
In Search of the Miraculous (1949)
Robert Fisk (1946) English writer and journalist
Zarqawi's end is not a famous victory, nor will it bring Iraq any nearer to peace http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13556.htm, June 9, 2006 <br class="br">2006
Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset (1536–1608) English politician and poet
Source: The Induction (1563), Line 50, p. 311
Mumia Abu-Jamal (1954) Prisoner, Journalist, Broadcaster, Author, Activist
"I spend my days preparing for life, not for death" The Guardian, Laura Smith (2007-10-25)
Robert L. Heilbroner (1919–2005) American historian and economist
Source: The Future As History (1960), Chapter I, Part 6, The Inevitability of Progress, p. 31
Warren Farrell book The Myth of Male Power
e.g., by joining the Army
Source: The Myth of Male Power (1993), Part III: Government as substitute husband, p. 314.
Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism
Source: 1840s, Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions (1845), p. 83
Alphonse de Lamartine book Méditations poétiques
Méditations Poétiques (1820), Second series, Sermon 15
“I want death to find me planting my cabbages.”
Michel De Montaigne book Essays
Je veux que la mort me trouve plantant mes choux.
Book I, Ch. 20
Essais (1595), Book I
“As far as I'm concerned, they can strike for a day, a month, until death.”
Tzachi Hanegbi (1957) Israeli politician
In reference to convicted Palestinian prisoners announcing a hunger strike. Hanegbi: Prisoners on hunger strike 'can starve to death' http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=464469 Haaretz, 14 August 2004
Tony Judt book Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945
Introduction
Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (2005)
“Nature has no compassion. Nature accepts no excuses and the only punishment it knows is death.”
Eric Hoffer (1898–1983) American philosopher
Section 36
Reflections on the Human Condition (1973)
“Nothing is more certain than death and nothing uncertain but its hour.”
Barbara W. Tuchman book A Distant Mirror
Enguerrand VII de Coucy, quoted on p. 570
A Distant Mirror (1978)
Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727)
Lascelles Abercrombie (1881–1938) Poet, academic, literary critic
Emblems of Love (1912)
Artimus Pyle (1948) American musician
"Rock Survivor: Lynyrd Skynyrd drummer Artimus Pyle keeps the music alive his way" http://tbrnews.com/lifestyle/rock-survivor-lynyrd-skynyrd-drummer-artimus-pyle-keeps-the-music/article_1c30bfee-1501-11e3-8bdb-001a4bcf887a.html, interview with The Beach Reporter (4 September 2013).
Luís de Camões (1524–1580) Portuguese poet
Lyric poetry, Não pode tirar-me as esperanças, Transforma-se o amador na cousa amada
Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian politician, led the October Revolution
As quoted in How to Organise Competition? Collected Works, Vol. 26, pages. 411, 414.
Attributions
“Guess now who holds thee?"—"Death," I said. But there
The silver answer rang—"Not Death, but Love.”
Elizabeth Barrett Browning book Sonnets from the Portuguese
No. I
Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850)
George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax (1633–1695) English politician
Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Reflections (1750), Moral Thoughts and Reflections
Ahmad Sirhindi (1564–1624) Indian philosopher
S.A.A. Rizvi, Muslim Revivalist Movements in Northern India in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Agra, 1965, pp. 248-249. Quoted from Goel, Sita Ram (1995). Muslim separatism: Causes and consequences. ISBN 9788185990262
From his letters
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1516–1547) English Earl
"The Lover Comforteth Himself with the Worthiness of his Love", line 1.
“Ah, Postumus! they fleet away,
Our years, nor piety one hour
Can win from wrinkles and decay,
And Death's indomitable power.”
Eheu fugaces, Postume, Postume,
labuntur anni nec pietas moram
rugis et instanti senectae
adferet indomitaeque morti.
Book II, ode xiv, line 1 (trans. John Conington)
Odes (c. 23 BC and 13 BC)
“Death is the currency of power.”
Adam Roberts book Jack Glass: The Story of a Murderer
Part 3, Chapter 8, “The Wrath of Diana” (p. 337).
Jack Glass (2012)
Ernst Kaltenbrunner (1903–1946) Austrian-born senior official of Nazi Germany executed for war crimes
Foreword in "Freemasonry: Ideology, Organization, and Policy," first published in 1944.
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist
The Warrior from The London Literary Gazette (25th October 1823) Sketch
The Improvisatrice (1824)
Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist
2000s, 2000, "Hostility Of America to Religion" (2000)
Roy Porter (1946–2002) British historian
Introduction, lead paragraph; as cited nytimes.com http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/p/porter-benefit.html 1998 <br class="br">The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity (1997)
Henry Clay Trumbull (1830–1903) Union Army chaplain
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 412.
Muhammad bin Tughluq (1290–1351) Turkic Sultan of Delhi
Lal, K. S. (1999). Theory and practice of Muslim state in India. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan. Chapter 3
“For we are mistaken when we look forward to death; the major portion of death has already passed. Whatever years be behind us are in death's hands.”
In hoc enim fallimur, quod mortem prospicimus: magna pars eius iam praeterit; quidquid aetatis retro est mors tenet.
Seneca the Younger (-4–65 BC) Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter I: On Saving Time
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)
1920s, Proclamation Upon the Death of Woodrow Wilson (1924)
Ali book Nahj al-Balagha
Nahj al-Balagha
Raymond Poincaré (1860–1934) 10th President of the French Republic
David Lloyd George, The Truth about the Peace Treaties. Volume II (London: Victor Gollancz, 1938), p. 1410.
About
Mengistu Haile Mariam (1937) Former dictator of Ethiopia
As quoted in Riccardo Orizio, Talk of the Devil: Encounters with Seven Dictators, (Walker and Company, 2003), p. 145
Charles-François Daubigny (1817–1878) French painter
Quote, as recorded by Albert Wolff, 1880's, in Notes upon certain masters of the XIX century, - printed not published MDCCCLXXXVI (1886), The Art Age Press, 400 N.Y. (written after the exhibition 'Cent Chefs-d'Oeuvres: the Choice of the French Private Galleries', Petit, Paris / Baschet, New York, 1883, p. 74
Daubigny's final thought for art in 1878 was appearently strongly connected with Corot.
1860s - 1870s
“Better be killed than frightened to death.”
Robert Smith Surtees (1805–1864) English writer
Mr. Facey Romford's Hounds (1865) ch. 39
James Branch Cabell (1879–1958) American author
Horvendile, in Ch. 13 : What a Boy Thought
The Way of Ecben (1929)
“A useless life is an early death.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Iphigenia in Tauris
Ein unnütz Leben ist ein früher Tod...
Act I, sc. ii
Iphigenie auf Tauris (1787)
“…death seemed the most prevalent feature of the landscape.”
Cormac McCarthy book Blood Meridian
Blood Meridian (1985)
John Crowe Ransom (1888–1974) American poet
"Janet Waking", line 25, from Two Gentlemen in Bonds (1927).
Torrey DeVitto (1984) actress, model, violinist
Quoted in the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) website https://web.archive.org/web/20120720131254/http://www.caringinfo.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3494 (2012).
J.C. Ryle (1816–1900) Anglican bishop
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 530.