
“I can die when I wish to: that is my elixir of life.”
The Republic.
Ernest Renan: a Critical Biography (1964)
quora.com https://www.quora.com/What-is-your-stance-on-the-Arab-Israeli-conflict
“I can die when I wish to: that is my elixir of life.”
The Republic.
Ernest Renan: a Critical Biography (1964)
Source: Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility
-The Prayer
Music
My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold, (1802); the last three lines of this form the introductory lines of the long Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood begun the next day.
“I am the son of Hades. I go where I wish. The darkness is my birthright.”
Source: The Blood of Olympus
Words on his deathbed (9 - 10 May 1863); as quoted in "Stonewall Jackson's Last Days" by Joe D. Haines, Jr. in America's Civil War http://www.historynet.com/magazines/american_civil_war/3031406.html
“I wish I could tell my parents, " If you want to help me, help me die.”
Source: By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead
“I wish to speak but lips can shape no voice,
I wish to see but light has left my eye.”
Second of three poems ("Three Dirges") written by Tao Yuanming in 427, the same year he died at the age of 63, and often read as poems written for his own funeral.
John Minford and Joseph S. M. Lau (eds.), Classical Chinese Literature: An Anthology of Translations (2000), p. 513
Context: In former days I wanted wine to drink;
The wine this morning fills the cup in vain.
I see the spring mead with its floating foam,
And wonder when to taste of it again.
The feast before me lavishly is spread,
My relatives and friends beside me cry.
I wish to speak but lips can shape no voice,
I wish to see but light has left my eye.
I slept of old within the lofty hall,
Amidst wild weeds to rest I now descend.
When once I pass beyond the city gate
I shall return to darkness without end.
Preface (18 July 1819), p. 4
The Bank of Faith and Works United (1819)
Context: As I am not a member of any community, no society can answer for my irregular conduct; neither do I wish to apologize to the world for my procedure; as I believe the Lord is my Shepherd, and Bishop of my soul.
Duty to my Maker, excites me to faithfulness, knowing that life is the time to work for God; that I may be counted worthy to reign with the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in "the city of the Living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem."