“A man can die but once.”

— William Shakespeare, Henry IV

Feeble, Act III, scene ii.
Henry IV, Part 2 (1597–8)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 28, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "A man can die but once." by William Shakespeare?

William Shakespeare699

English playwright and poet 1564–1616

Related quotes

“It is the lot of man but once to die.”

Francis Quarles (1592–1644) English poet

Book V, no. 7.
Emblems (1635)

“A good many men will be killed, however, as long as no man can prove to me that a man can die more than once, I am not inclined to regard death for the individual as a misfortune.”

Alfred von Waldersee (1832–1904) Prussian Field Marshal

Waldersee in November, 1877, as quoted by Gordon Alexander Craig, "Germany, 1866-1945" (Oxford University Press, 1978) p.133

“What pity is it
That we can die but once to serve our country!”

Joseph Addison book Cato

Act IV, scene iv.
Cato, A Tragedy (1713)
Context: How beautiful is death, when earn'd by virtue!
Who would not be that youth? What pity is it
That we can die but once to serve our country!

“I can die but once; and it is all one to me, now or another time.”

Cornstalk (1720–1777) Native American in the American Revolution

Speech at Point Pleasant, on his mission to warn the settlers that other Shawnee intended to attack them, just prior to his death (November 1777), as quoted in "Cornstalk, the Shawanee Chief" by Rev. William Henry Foote, in The Southern Literary Messenger Vol. 16, Issue 9, (September 1850) pp. 533-540 http://victorian.fortunecity.com/rothko/420/aniyuntikwalaski/cornstalk.html <br class="br">Context: When I was a young man and went to war, I thought that might be the last time, and I would return no more. Now I am here among you; you may kill me if you please; I can die but once; and it is all one to me, now or another time.