“Another dead body. Every year it is the same. Every year, another dead body…”
Source: Lion in the Valley
Quotes about the dead
page 11
“Knock her dead, my man."
"Oh no." Xcor shook his head."That shan't be necessary. This one I like.”
Jessica Bird
(1969) U.S. novelist
Source: The King
Woody Allen
(1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician
Source: Blood Promise
Source: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
“The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.”
Vita enim mortuorum in memoria vivorum est posita.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
(-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman
Philippica IX, 5.
Source: Philippicae – Philippics (44 BC)
Source: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Source: The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma
Source: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
“I'm alive but I have no life. I'm alive but also dead. I'm dead and alive.”
Source: Dead and Alive
Source: Love in the Time of Cholera
“To remain in the past means to be dead.”
José Ortega Y Gasset
(1883–1955) Spanish liberal philosopher and essayist
Source: After Dark
Source: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
“Christmas tree stands are the work of the devil and they want you dead.”
Bill Bryson
(1951) American author
Source: I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America after Twenty Years Away
“I got a shotgun and a backhoe and no one looks under a septic tank for a dead body. (Bubba)”
Sherrilyn Kenyon
(1965) Novelist
Source: Infinity
“Abraham," he said. "I'm pleased to see you alive, old friend."
"And I to see you dead.”
Seth Grahame-Smith
(1976) US fiction author
Source: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Jonathan Tropper
(1970) American writer
Source: This is Where I Leave You
“Achilles’ eyes lift. They are bloodshot and dead. “I wish he had let you all die.”
Source: The Song of Achilles
Source: Norwegian Wood
“I'm going to be dead before I read the books I'm going to read.”
Tom Stoppard
(1937) British playwright
“I thought my fireplace dead
and stirred the ashes.
I burned my fingers.”
Antonio Machado
(1875–1939) Spanish poet
Source: Border of a Dream: Selected Poems
“Life is about moving, it’s about change. And when things stop doing that they’re dead.”
Twyla Tharp
(1941) American choreographer
Variant: ... the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time.
Source: As I Lay Dying
Matthew Arnold
(1822–1888) English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools
Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse (1855)
Source: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“A person does not belong to a place until there is someone dead under the ground.”
Source: One Hundred Years of Solitude
Chuck Palahniuk
book
Damned
Source: Damned (2011)
Context: If you can watch much television, then being dead will be a cinch. Actually, watching television and surfing the Internet are really excellent practice for being dead.
“Red lips are not so red as the stained stones kissed by the English dead.”
Wilfred Owen
(1893–1918) English poet and soldier (1893-1918)
Source: The Poems Of Wilfred Owen
Source: The Handmaid's Tale
Og Mandino
(1923–1996) American author
George Sterling
(1869–1926) American poet and playwright
Source: The Thirst of Satan: Poems of Fantasy and Terror
“The dead should not rule the living.”
Thomas Jefferson
(1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America
“The operation was a success, but I'm afraid the doctor is dead.”
Steve Martin
(1945) American actor, comedian, musician, author, playwright, and producer
Source: Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way
“He's no more human than I am, ma petite."
At least I'm not dead."
That can be remedied.”
Source: The Lunatic Cafe
Ilona Andrews
American husband-and-wife novelist duo
Source: Burn for Me
Source: Conspiracy Game
“Anger as soon as fed is dead-
'Tis starving makes it fat.”
Emily Dickinson
(1830–1886) American poet
Source: Selected Poems
Albert Einstein
(1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
1930s, Mein Weltbild (My World-view) (1931)
Source: The World As I See It
Context: How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people — first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving....
“He who was living is now dead
We who were living are now dying
With a little patience.”
T.S. Eliot
book
The Waste Land
Source: The Waste Land
“But this long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead.”
John Maynard Keynes
(1883–1946) British economist
Source: A Tract on Monetary Reform (1923), Ch. 3, p. 80
Context: But this long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task, if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us, that when the storm is long past, the ocean is flat again.
“If you don't want a man dead, don't bludgeon him over the head repeatedly.”
Naomi Novik
book
Uprooted
Source: Uprooted
Albert Einstein
(1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
Variant translations: The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. He who knows it not and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle. It was the experience of mystery — even if mixed with fear — that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which are only accessible to our reason in their most elementary forms — it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man.
The finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion. Herein lies the germ of all art and all true science. Anyone to whom this feeling is alien, who is no longer capable of wonderment and lives in a state of fear is a dead man. To know that what is impenetrable for us really exists and manifests itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, whose gross forms alone are intelligible to our poor faculties — this knowledge, this feeling … that is the core of the true religious sentiment. In this sense, and in this sense alone, I rank myself among profoundly religious men.
As quoted in After Einstein : Proceedings of the Einstein Centennial Celebration (1981) by Peter Barker and Cecil G. Shugart, p. 179
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.
As quoted in Introduction to Philosophy (1935) by George Thomas White Patrick and Frank Miller Chapman, p. 44
The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle. To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is something that our minds cannot grasp, whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly: this is religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I am a devoutly religious man."
He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.
1930s, Mein Weltbild (My World-view) (1931)
Context: The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery — even if mixed with fear — that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man.
“There are a lot of things in this world to be afraid of, but a dead body isn't one of them.”
Amanda Stevens
(1977)
Source: The Restorer
Source: When We Were Very Young
Christopher Pike
(1954) American author Kevin Christopher McFadden
Source: The Starlight Crystal
“The dead see what they believe they will see. So do the living. That is the secret.”
Source: The House of Hades
“A man who can't uphold his beliefs is pathetic dead or alive - Hajime Saito”
Nobuhiro Watsuki
(1970) Japanese manga artist
Thich Nhat Hanh
(1926) Religious leader and peace activist
Source: You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment