Quotes about die
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“Sweetheart," Bill said formally, "I have always loved you, and I will be proud to die in your service. When I'm gone, say a prayer for me in a real church.”

Charlaine Harris (1951) American writer

Love

“The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live.”

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher

Suffering

“When the rich make war, it's the poor that die.”

Jean Paul Sartre book The Devil and the Good Lord

Quand les riches se font la guerre, ce sont les pauvres qui meurent.
The Devil and the Good Lord (1951)
Source: Le diable et le bon dieu

War

“But unlike you," said Jace, "there is nothing of hell in us."
"You are mortal; you age; you die," the Queen said dismissively. "If that is not hell, pray tell me, what is?”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Age, Hell

“Magnus did not take such suffering lightly, but even mortals did not die of broken hearts. No matter how cruel Grace had been, he told himself, James would heal. Even though he was a Herondale.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: The Midnight Heir

Suffering, Heart

“To be the object of desire is to be defined in the passive case.
To exist in the passive case is to die in the passive case – that is, to be killed.
This is the moral of the fairy tale about the perfect woman.”

Angela Carter (1940–1992) English novelist

Source: The Sadeian Woman: And the Ideology of Pornography

Perfection

“He cries. 'Please! I don't want to die.'
I lean over. My hair smothers him.
'Then you should never have been born,' I say.”

Christopher Pike book The Last Vampire

Source: The Last Vampire

“Still, in the end, we all die just the same.”

Haruki Murakami book Hear the Wind Sing

Source: Hear the Wind Sing

“There are parts of Texas where a fly lives ten thousand years and a man can't die soon enough. Time gets strange there from too much sky, too many miles from crack to crease in the flat surface of the land.”

Katherine Dunn book Geek Love

Source: Geek Love

Time, Parting, Flying

“There are some things to die for but none to kill for.”

Shane Claiborne The Irresistible Revolution

The Irresistible Revolution (2006)
Source: The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical

“Cliff said "damn" for me (I'm going to die). I didn't know he liked me enough to swear.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Night World, No. 1

“this song is for the guy who keeps yelling from the balcony, and it's called 'we hate you, please die.”

Bryan Lee O'Malley (1979) Artist

Source: Scott Pilgrim, Volume 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life

Hate, Guy

“Everything that's born has to die, which means our lives are like skyscrapers. The smoke rises at different speeds, but they're all on fire, and we're all trapped.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Speed

“Don't go there Rule" Lawe warned him softly. " I don't think your horoscope declared today to be a good day to die.”

Lora Leigh (1965) American writer

Source: Lawe's Justice

Law, Thinking

“The poor go to war, to fight and die for the delights, riches, and superfluities of others.”

Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher

War, Fight

“Here, therefore, huge and mighty warrior though you be, here shall you die.”

Homér Iliad

Source: Iliad

“When you realize that eternity is right here now, that it is within your possibility to experience the eternity of your own truth and being, then you grasp the following: That which you are was never born and will never die…. (90)”

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer

Source: Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor

Truth

“Most people are blind to magic. They move through a blank and empty world. They’re bored with their lives, and there’s nothing they can do about it. They’re eaten alive by longing, and they’re dead before they die.”

Lev Grossman The Magicians

Source: The Magicians

People, World, Dead

“Remember that any meal can be your last. You chose to travel with us, so tonight you will eat fish. Tomorrow, you may die.”

Robert Jordan The Dragon Reborn

Source: The Dragon Reborn

Travel, Fish

“People die… so love them every day.
Beauty fades… so look before it's gone.
Love changes… but not the love you give.
And if you love, you'll never be alone.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Witchlight

Love, People, Beauty, Change

“If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make who would you call and what would you say?
And why are you waiting?”

Stephen Levine (1937–2016) American poet and author

Waiting

“Its our actions that define us. What we choose. What we resist. What we're willing to die for.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

“The whole life of the individual is nothing but the process of giving birth to himself; indeed, we should be fully born when we die - although it is the tragic fate of most individuals to die before they are born.”

Erich Fromm The Sane Society

Source: The Sane Society

Life, Fate, Birth

“Nobody dies from the lack of sex. It's lack of love we die from.”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

Love, Sex

“When people die, our dreams of what they could be die with them. Even if ours is the hand that ends them.”

Cassandra Clare book Lord of Shadows

Source: Lord of Shadows

People, Dreams

“You are not my high school crush, idiot.”
“Great. I can die happy, then.”

Rachel Caine book Glass Houses

Source: Glass Houses

Happiness, School

“no one dies happy, you can only die well”

Stephen King book Different Seasons

Source: Different Seasons

Happiness

“If this continues, if this goes on, then when I die, your memories of me will be my greatest accomplishment. You memories will be my most lasting impressions.”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

Memory

“We live and we die and anything else is just a delusion.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Choke

Source: Choke

“I’m the god of funerals. I know every death custom in the world—how to die properly, how to prepare the body and soul for the afterlife. I live for death.”
“You must be fun at parties,” I said.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

Death, God, World, Soul

“The whole image is that eternal suffering awaits anyone who questions God's infinite love. That's the message we're brought up with, isn't it? Believe or die! Thank you, forgiving Lord, for all those options.”

Bill Hicks (1961–1994) American comedian

Rant in E-Minor (1997)
Variant: The whole image is that eternal suffering awaits anyone who questions God's infinite love. That's the message we're brought up with, isn't it? Beleive or die! Thank you, forgiving Lord, for all those options.

Love, God, Forgiveness, Question

“A lot of people refuse to do things because they don't want to go naked, don't want to go without guarantee. But that's what's got to happen. You go naked until you die”

Nikki Giovanni (1943) American writer and academic

People

“William Shakespeare: You will never age for me, nor fade, nor die.”

Marc Norman (1941) Screenwriter

Source: Shakespeare in Love: A Screenplay

Age

“When people are alive they love, when they die, they keep loving. If love ends when person dies, that is not real love”

Lisa See book Peony in Love

Source: Peony in Love

Love, People, Personality

“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.”

Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer

Dogs

“Listen to me, Jez. There's no reason for you to die-"
Wood… poison."
No it isn't! Not to humans. And you're half human. You're vampire enough to survie something that would kill a human, but you're human enough not to be poisoned by wood.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

“Words are like coin—it pays to hoard."
"Until you die on a bed of gold," Paran said.”

Steven Erikson book Gardens of the Moon

Source: Gardens of the Moon

“Good-bye Dr. Steve,' I said, then climbed the stairs and went to the fifth floor to die.”

Ally Carter Out of Sight, Out of Time

Source: Out of Sight, Out of Time

“To study philosophy is nothing but to prepare one’s self to die.”

Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman

Study

“Let it die. Let there be a new beginning. It’s awful. Goodnight.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

“I didn't think I should die but I did not know how I would Live.”

Julia Quinn (1970) American novelist

Source: The Lost Duke of Wyndham

Thinking

“Trying to drown me woman?"
'You can't drown a SEAL,' she said. 'How embarrassing would that be?'
'God yes. Shoot me, hang me, let me die of infection from a hangnail, but don't let me die in the water. They'd send me to hell on principle.”

Maya Banks (1964) Author

Source: The Darkest Hour

God, Hell, Water

“The thing is to understand myself: the thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die. That is what I now recognize as the most important thing.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Truth, Idea, Understanding

“I'm gonna barf," I whispered to Fang, wiping my sweaty hands on my jeans.
You'll be fine," he whipered back. "You always are.
I'm gonna die," I moaned.
You can't die," he said a hint of a smile in his voice."You're the indesructible Max.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Smile

“You were born original don't die a copy”

Ben Mikaelsen (1952) writer

Birthday

“I write as a function. Without it I would fall ill and die. It's as much a part of one as the liver or intestine, and just about as glamorous.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: Portions from a Wine-Stained Notebook: Uncollected Stories and Essays, 1944-1990

Parting

“You don't die. You just… get really angry and then after you're angry you hurt a lot and then the best thing is that one day you remember something she said or did and you laugh instead of crying.”

Melina Marchetta book Looking for Alibrandi

Source: Looking for Alibrandi

Hurt, Cry

“Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

Life

“As long as you have not grasped that you have to die to grow, you are a troubled guest on the dark earth.”

Mircea Eliade (1907–1986) Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer and philosopher

Attributed to Eliade in The Little Book of Romanian Wisdom (2011) edited by Diana Doroftei and Matthew Cross, this appears to be a translation of the last line of the poem "The Holy Longing" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, which, as translated by Robert Bly reads: And so long as you haven't experienced this: to die and so to grow, you are only a troubled guest on the dark earth.
Misattributed

“I'm a spy, Cam. I was born to do this- to be this. It's in my blood. And I will do it until the day I die. It's who I am… The thing is I don't think you realise is… it's who you are too.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: United We Spy

Thinking

“To hell with reality! I want to die in music, not in reason or in prose. People don't deserve the restraint we show by not going into delirium in front of them. To hell with them!”

Louis-ferdinand Céline (1894–1961) French writer

People, Music, Hell, Reality

“And what constitutes evil, real evil, is the taking of a single human life. Whether a man would die tomorrow or the day after or eventually… it doesn't matter. Because if God does not exist, then life… every second of it… Is all we have.”

Anne Rice book Interview with the Vampire

Source: Interview with the Vampire

Life, God, Evil

“Goddamn it. You’ll never be without me. We’re going to grow old together. Die together. I’m not going to live a single day without you.”

Sylvia Day (1973) American writer

Source: Captivated by You

“Worst of all, the inner vault is guarded by a live dragon, attended by fifty naked women armed with poisoned spears, each of them sworn to die in Requin's service. All redheads.
-You're just making that up, Jean.”

Scott Lynch book Red Seas Under Red Skies

Source: Red Seas Under Red Skies

Women

“Fang! Come Back!" I started pulling his hair. Shaking his head and shoulders. Hard. "Wake up! Snap out of it! You stupid jerk! I am going to kill you if you die on me!”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: Fang

Stupidity, Jerk

“Sam gave Captain Suicide a droll stare. "How did you die again? Oh wait, I know this. 'I can take 'em. I don't need to wait for reinforcements. I can do it myself.' How'd that work out for you again?”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: No Mercy

Suicide, Waiting

“One day
Time will die
And love will bury it”

Richard Brautigan (1935–1984) American novelist, poet, and short story writer

Love, Time

“Jem told me what Ragnor Fell said about my father,” Will said. “That for my father, there was only ever one woman he loved, and it was her for him, or nothing. You are that for me. I love you, and I will only ever love you until I die —”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Love

“If there were a map of the solar system, but instead of stars it showed people and their degrees of separation, my star would be the one you had to travel the most light-years from to get to his. You would die getting to him.”

Miranda July (1974) American performance artist, musician and writer

Source: No One Belongs Here More Than You

People, Travel, Star, Light

“to die tomorrow was no worse than dying on any other day. Every day was there to be lived or to mark one’s departure from this world.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Source: The Alchemist

World, Departure

“Jimmy: When you die, I die
Sora: Wow, that's some serious relationship!”

Shiro Amano (1976) Japanese manga artist

Source: Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, Vol. 2

“One of the greatest tragedies in life is to watch potential die untapped.”

Myles Munroe (1954–2014) Bahamian Evangelical Christian minister

Life

“I submit to you that if a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1960s, Cobo Center speech (1963)

“The tragedy of life, Howard, is not that the beautiful die young, but that they grow old and mean. It will not happen to me.”

Raymond Chandler book The Long Goodbye

Source: The Long Goodbye

Life, Beauty

“Fame is a fickle food
Upon a shifting plate,
Whose table once a Guest, but not
The second time, is set.
Whose crumbs the crows inspect,
And with ironic caw
Flap past it to the Farmer’s corn;
Men eat of it and die.”

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet

The Single Hound, p. 257
Collected Poems (1993)

Men, Food, Time, Past

“You can't have an ending. It's impossible. Because unlike in the movies, life goes on. You're never at the end until you die.”

E. Lockhart (1967) American writer of novels as E. Lockhart (mainly for teenage girls) and of picture books under real name Emily J…

Source: Real Live Boyfriends: Yes. Boyfriends, Plural. If My Life Weren't Complicated, I Wouldn't Be Ruby Oliver

Life

“I wonder if it hurts to live,
And if they have to try,
And whether, could they choose between,
They would not rather die.”

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet

Hurt, Hurtful

“It was not my intention to collapse; no, I would die standing.”

Knut Hamsun book Hunger

Source: Hunger

“where some god pissed a rain of
reason to make things grow
only to die”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

God

“Unfortunately, most people never observe the natural cycle of birth and death. They do not realize that for one living thing to survive, another living thing must die.”

Temple Grandin (1947) USA-american doctor of animal science, author, and autism activist

"Stairway to Heaven," Thinking in Pictures (1995), p. 202.
Source: Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism
Context: Most people don't realize that the slaughter plant is much gentler than nature. Animals in the wild die from starvation, predators, or exposure. If I had a choice, I would rather go through a slaughter system than have my guts ripped out by coyotes or lions while I was still conscious. Unfortunately, most people never observe the natural cycle of birth and death. They do not realize that for one living thing to survive, another living thing must die.

Death, People, Birth, Nature

“A girl calls and asks, "Does it hurt very much to die?"
"Well, sweetheart," I tell her, "yes, but it hurts a lot more to keep living.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Survivor

Source: Survivor

Girl, Hurt

“‎"Does all the beauty of the world stop when you die?"

"No," said the Old Oak; "it will last much longer - longer than I can even think of."

"Well, then," said the little May-fly, "we have the same time to live; only we reckon differently.”

Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet

Source: The Complete Fairy Tales

World, Beauty, Thinking, Time

“My love for you is elemental and immutable, and it will sustain me until I die.”

Sharon Shinn (1957) American science fiction writer

Source: Jenna Starborn

Love

“You know the legend. Stab them in the heart and they’ll die. (Ravyn)
Call me Buffy. I’m even blond, but don’t ask me to wear a halter top. Or corset. (Susan)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Dark Side of the Moon

Heart

“The very worst impulses of humankind can survive generations, centuries, even millennia. And the best of our individual efforts can die with us at the end of a single lifetime.”

Elizabeth Kostova book The Historian

Source: The Historian (2005), Ch. 9
Context: There is survival and survival, the historian learns to his grief. The very worst impulses of humankind can survive generations, centuries, even millennia. And the best of our individual efforts can die with us at the end of a single lifetime.
Context: My dear and unfortunate successor:
I shall conclude my account as rapidly as possible, since you must draw from it vital information if we are both to — ah, to survive, at least, and to survive in a state of goodness and mercy. There is survival and survival, the historian learns to his grief. The very worst impulses of humankind can survive generations, centuries, even millennia. And the best of our individual efforts can die with us at the end of a single lifetime.

Effort

“Vivo sin vivir en mí… muero porque no muero. (I live without really being alive… I die because I am not dying.)”

Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582) Roman Catholic saint

“We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.”

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000) American writer

"We ReaI CooI" , The Bean Eaters (1960)
The "We"—you're supposed to stop after the "We" and think about their validity, and of course there's no way for you to tell whether it should be said softly or not, I suppose, but I say it rather softly because I want to represent their basic uncertainty, which they don't bother to question every day, of course.
"An Interview with Gwendolyn Brooks", Contemporary Literature 11:1 (Winter 1970)
The WEs in "We Real Cool" are tiny, wispy, weakly argumentative "Kilroy-is-here" announcements. The boys have no accented sense of themselves, yet they are aware of a semi-defined personal importance. Say the "We" softly.
Report from Part One (1972)
Source: Selected Poems

School, Singing