Quotes about die
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Philip Roth photo
Frederick Douglass photo

“I dwell mostly upon the religious aspects, because I believe it is the religious people who are to be relied upon in this Anti-Slavery movement. Do not misunderstand my railing—do not class me with those who despise religion—do not identify me with the infidel. I love the religion of Christianity—which cometh from above—which is a pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of good fruits, and without hypocrisy. I love that religion which sends its votaries to bind up the wounds of those who have fallen among thieves.
By all the love I bear such a Christianity as this, I hate that of the Priest and the Levite, that with long-faced Phariseeism goes up to Jerusalem to worship and leaves the bruised and wounded to die. I despise that religion which can carry Bibles to the heathen on the other side of the globe and withhold them from the heathen on this side—which can talk about human rights yonder and traffic in human flesh here…. I love that which makes its votaries do to others as they would that others should do to them. I hope to see a revival of it—thank God it is revived. I see revivals of it in the absence of the other sort of revivals. I believe it to be confessed now, that there has not been a sensible man converted after the old sort of way, in the last five years.”

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman

As quoted in The Cambridge Companion to Frederick Douglass (2009), by Maurice S. Lee, Cambridge University Press, pp. 68-69

Jack Vance photo
Dave Eggers photo
Yuval Noah Harari photo
L. Ron Hubbard photo
Alonzo Cushing photo

“I stay right here and fight it out or die in the attempt.”

Alonzo Cushing (1841–1863) Union Army soldier

Manley, B. (2015). Union Officer to Receive Medal of Honor for Heroics at Gettysburg. Military History, 31(5), 8.
Upon his decision to remain at his position in the face of a 12,500-man Confederate assault.

Miguel de Unamuno photo

“For the mockers are those who die comically, and God laughs at their comic ending, while the nobler part, the part of tragedy, is theirs who endured the mockery.”

Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) 19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher

The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), Conclusion : Don Quixote in the Contemporary European Tragi-Comedy

Happy Rhodes photo

“Why couldn't someone have patience for me?
Why couldn't someone be wise to my fears?
Tell me why couldn't somebody cry for me
This time? And if I should die, who'll be the first to cry?”

Happy Rhodes (1965) American singer-songwriter

"The First To Cry" - Live performance New Haven, CT (4 April 2003) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjxKnOLRFiA
Rhodes Volume I (1986)

George Eliot photo

“The immortal name of Jubal filled the sky,
While Jubal lonely laid him down to die.”

George Eliot (1819–1880) English novelist, journalist and translator

The Legend of Jubal (1869)
Context: But ere the laughter died from out the rear,
Anger in front saw profanation near;
Jubal was but a name in each man's faith
For glorious power untouched by that slow death
Which creeps with creeping time; this too, the spot,
And this the day, it must be crime to blot,
Even with scoffing at a madman's lie:
Jubal was not a name to wed with mockery.
Two rushed upon him: two, the most devout
In honor of great Jubal, thrust him out,
And beat him with their flutes. 'Twas little need;
He strove not, cried not, but with tottering speed,
As if the scorn and howls were driving wind
That urged his body, serving so the mind
Which could but shrink and yearn, he sought the screen
Of thorny thickets, and there fell unseen.
The immortal name of Jubal filled the sky,
While Jubal lonely laid him down to die.

James Russell Lowell photo

“The soil out of which such men as he are made is good to be born on, good to live on, good to die for and to be buried in.”

James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat

Garfield (24 September 1881)

Guy De Maupassant photo
Poul Anderson photo

““Are you that afraid to die?”
“No. I simply like to live.””

Source: Tau Zero (1970), Chapter 7 (p. 78)

Swami Vivekananda photo
Albert Camus photo
H. G. Wells photo
Warren Buffett photo
Richard Fuller (minister) photo

“We have communion in Christ's sufferings as we die with Him unto self, and rise with Him to our proper life — the life of self- surrender to the will of God.”

Richard Fuller (minister) (1804–1876) United States Baptist minister

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 543.

Isaac de Benserade photo

“In bed we laugh, in bed we cry;
And, born in bed, in bed we die.
The near approach a bed may show
Of human bliss to human woe.”

Isaac de Benserade (1613–1691) French writer

Théâtre des ris et des pleurs
Lit! où je nais, et où je meurs,
Tu nous fais voir comment voisins
Sont nos plaisirs et chagrins.
Translated by Samuel Johnson, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Jean Paul Sartre photo
Charles Lyell photo
Louis van Gaal photo
Glen Cook photo

“But, no. It was too late. Fortune’s die was cast. The cruel game had to be played to its end, no matter what anyone wanted.”

Source: Soldiers Live (2000), Chapter 104, “Taglios: View from the Protector’s Windows” (p. 676)

Robert Louis Stevenson photo

“Them that die will be the lucky ones!”

Source: Treasure Island (1883), Ch. 20, Silver's Embassy.

Johnny Cash photo
Brian Clevinger photo
Charles Stross photo
Thomas Browne photo
Charles Stross photo
George Wither photo

“Shall I, wasting in despair,
Die because a woman’s fair?
Or make pale my cheeks with care,
’Cause another’s rosy are?
Be she fairer than the day,
Or the flowery meads in May,
If she be not so to me,
What care I how fair she be?”

George Wither (1588–1667) English poet

The Shepherd's Resolution; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare: "If she undervalue me, What care I how fair she be?", Sir Walter Raleigh, Poem.

Ralston Bowles photo

“I just believe that life is more than rehearsing how to die.”

Ralston Bowles (1952) American musician

From the song "Draper" on the album Carwreck Conversations (2004)

Paulo Coelho photo
Billy Joel photo
Jennifer Lee photo
Giorgio Morandi photo

“.. before I die I should like to bring two paintings to completion. What matters is to touch the limit, the essence of things.”

Giorgio Morandi (1890–1964) Italian painter

in an interview, Sept. 1939; as quoted in Morandi 1894 – 1964, ed: M. C. Bandera & R. Miracco, Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna, 2008; p. 44
1925 - 1945

Morrissey photo
Chief Seattle photo
Juan Ramón Jimenéz photo
Sid Vicious photo

“I'll probably die by the time I reach 25. But I'll have lived the way I wanted to.”

Sid Vicious (1957–1979) English bassist and vocalist

Daily Mirror, June 11, 1977, as reported in Fred Vermorel, Judy Vermorel, Sex Pistols: The Inside Story (1987), p. 169.

Donald J. Trump photo

“Life is what you do while you're waiting to die.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Fred Ebb, Zorba (1968)
Misattributed

John Campbell Shairp photo
Morrissey photo
Plutarch photo

“It was the saying of Bion, that though the boys throw stones at frogs in sport, yet the frogs do not die in sport but in earnest.”

Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher

Which are the most crafty, Water or Land Animals?, 7
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Agatha Christie photo
Robert Olmstead photo
Christopher Hitchens photo
Zane Grey photo

“!-- Recipe for greatness — --> To bear up under loss — to fight the bitterness of defeat and the weakness of grief — to be victor over anger — to smile when tears are close — to resist evil men and base instincts — to hate hate and to love love — to go on when it would seem good to die — to seek ever after the glory and the dream — to look up with unquenchable faith in something evermore about to be — that is what any man can do, and so be great.”

Zane Grey (1872–1939) American novelist

As quoted in The North American Almanac (1931), p. 54, this sometimes published with a prefix "Recipe for greatness —" but this does not appear in the earliest versions of it yet located.<!-- also in 1000 Brilliant Achievement Quotes: Advice from the World's Wisest (2004) by David DeFord, p. 92 -->

Swami Vivekananda photo
Kate Bush photo

“No, we never die for long,
While we've got that little life
To live for, where it's hid inside.”

Kate Bush (1958) British recording artist; singer, songwriter, musician and record producer

Song lyrics, The Kick Inside (1978)

Bernard Lewis photo
MS Dhoni photo

“When you die, you die. You don't think which is a better way to die.”

MS Dhoni (1981) Indian cricket player

MS Dhoni was asked which series whitewash hurt more, the 2011 tour of England or the one of Australia later that year. This is how he responded. https://www.scoopwhoop.com/sports/ms-dhoni/

Shraddha Kapoor photo

“I am a die hard fan of dancing and would take my dad's clothes and my mom's clothes and dance in front of the mirror. I loved my dad's clothes as they had a lot of glitter in them. My whole family speaks in this sing song way and, for a short period of time, I would practice these air hostess speeches. While my dad was comfortable with me being an actor, the only thing he said no was to becoming an air hostess.”

Shraddha Kapoor (1987) Indian film actress & Singer

I was most upset with the way people were talking about my dad: Shraddha via The Times of India (April 21, 2013) http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news-interviews/I-was-most-upset-with-the-way-people-were-talking-about-my-dad-Shraddha/articleshow/19649087.cms

Fortunato Depero photo
Noel Coward photo
Alphonse Allais photo

“To leave is to die a little, but to die is to leave a lot.”

Alphonse Allais (1854–1905) French writer and humourist

citation needed
Partir, c'est mourir un peu... mais mourir, c'est partir beaucoup.
A pun on the first verse of the poem Rondel de l'adieu by Edmond Haraucourt.

Octavio Paz photo
Shimon Peres photo

“Optimists and pessimists die the same way. They just live differently. I prefer to live as an optimist.”

Shimon Peres (1923–2016) Israeli politician, 8th prime minister and 9th president of Israel

As quoted in Serving "60 Years to Life", Newsweek Europe (12 December 2005)

Pat Cadigan photo
Daniel Handler photo
Marcus Manilius photo

“As we are born we die, and the end commences with the beginning.”
Nascentes morimur, finisque ab origine pendet.

Book IV, line 16. Quoted by Michel de Montaigne in Essays (1580), Book I, Chapter 19.
Variant translation: When we are born we die, our end is but the pendant of our beginning.
Astronomica

Hermann Hesse photo
George S. Patton photo

“I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor, dumb bastard die for his country.”

George S. Patton (1885–1945) United States Army general

Spoken by George C. Scott in the film Patton.
Variants:
No man ever won a war by dying for his country. Wars were won by making the other poor bastard die for his.
You don't win a war by dying for your country. You win a war by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his.
War is not meant to be you dying for your country-it is by making the other bastard die for his.
Misattributed

Percy Bysshe Shelley photo

“People are always dying in the Times who don't seem to die in other papers, and they die at greater length and maybe even with a little more grace.”

James Reston (1909–1995) Journalist, newspaper editor

New Leader (The New York Times (7 January 1963)

Marcus Tullius Cicero photo

“After death the sensation is either pleasant or there is none at all. But this should be thought on from our youth up, so that we may be indifferent to death, and without this thought no one can be in a tranquil state of mind. For it is certain that we must die, and, for aught we know, this very day. Therefore, since death threatens every hour, how can he who fears it have any steadfastness of soul?”
Post mortem quidem sensus aut optandus aut nullus est. Sed hoc meditatum ab adulescentia debet esse mortem ut neglegamus, sine qua meditatione tranquillo animo esse nemo potest. Moriendum enim certe est, et incertum an hoc ipso die. Mortem igitur omnibus horis impendentem timens qui poterit animo consistere?

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

section 74 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0039%3Asection%3D74
Cato Maior de Senectute – On Old Age (44 BC)

Simone de Beauvoir photo

“After wars peace, after peace, another war. Every day men are born and others die.”

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist

All Men are Mortal (1946)

“Even flowers, to exhale their perfume, must die a little.”

Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet

Hasta las flores, para emanar sus perfumes, han menester morirse un poco.
Voces (1943)

James Hamilton photo
Horace Mann photo

“It is more difficult, and it calls for higher energies of soul, to live a martyr than to die one.”

Horace Mann (1796–1859) American politician

Source: Thoughts Selected from the Writings of Horace Mann (1872), p. 213

Ernesto Che Guevara photo
Gottfried Leibniz photo

“De arte characteristica ad perficiendas scientias ratione nitentes in C. I. Gerhardt (ed.), Die philosophischen Schriften von Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (7 vols. 1875–1890) VII 125.”
quando orientur controversiae, non magis disputatione opus erit inter duos philosophus, quam inter duos computistas. Sufficiet enim calamos in manus sumere sedereque ad abacos, et sibi mutuo (accito si placet amico) dicere: calculemus

Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716) German mathematician and philosopher

"[...] if controversies were to arise, there would be no more need of disputation between two philosophers than between two calculators. For it would suffice for them to take their pencils in their hands and to sit down at the abacus, and say to each other (and if they so wish also to a friend called to help): Let us calculate."
The famous calculemus of Leibniz appears in several places of his writing; this is the most frequently quoted; variants are found in the Preface to his New Essays on Human Understanding, and in Dissertatio de Arte Combinatoria (1666). See R. Chrisley, Artificial Intelligence (2000), p. 14 https://books.google.ch/books?id=dLQ3bDy2tgYC&pg=PA14#v=onepage&q&f=false; H. Busche, Leibniz' Weg ins perspektivische Universum (1997), p. 134 https://books.google.ch/books?id=xAI4Wtp0GBoC&pg=PA134&lpg=PA134.

Albrecht Thaer photo
Christopher Marlowe photo

“Time passeth swift away;
Our life is frail, and we may die to-day.”

Mycetes, Act I, scene i, line 68
Tamburlaine (c. 1588)

John Masefield photo

“What is this creature, Music, save the Art,
The Rhythm that the planets journey by?
The living Sun-Ray entering the heart,
Touching the Life with that which cannot die?”

John Masefield (1878–1967) English poet and writer

" Where does the uttered Music go? http://www.williamwalton.net/works/choral/where_does_the_uttered_music_go.html" (1946)

L. Ron Hubbard photo
Glen Cook photo
Kent Hovind photo
Taisen Deshimaru photo

“You must not take out your sword because if you try to kill someone, you must die for it yourself. What you must do instead is kill yourself, kill your own mind.”

Taisen Deshimaru (1914–1982) Japanese Buddhist monk

As quoted in A Galaxy Not So Far Away : Writers and Artists on Twenty-five Years of Star Wars (2002) by Glenn Kenny, p. 99

Louisa May Alcott photo
Bob Dylan photo

“We're going all the way, till the wheels fall off and burn, till the sun peels the paint and the seat covers fade and the water moccasins die.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, Knocked Out Loaded (1986), Brownsville Girl (with Sam Shepard)

Jello Biafra photo
Maria Mitchell photo

“Study as if you were going to live forever; live as if you were going to die tomorrow.”

Maria Mitchell (1818–1889) American astronomer

The Book of Positive Quotations By John Cook, Leslie Ann Gibson (2nd ed. 2007), p. 283.
Attributed

Martin Bormann photo
Nisargadatta Maharaj photo
Poul Anderson photo

“A man isn't really alive till he has something bigger than himself and his own little happiness, for which he'd gladly die.”

Poul Anderson (1926–2001) American science fiction and fantasy writer

"Ghetto" (1954)
Short fiction

Will Eisner photo
Frederick William Robertson photo
Michael Johns photo