Quotes about die
page 32

“If someone insults our mother, we would rather die than tolerate it… for us, it is Bharat mata, our biological mother and gau mata.”

Sakshi Maharaj (1956) Indian politician

On the 2015 Dadri mob lynching, as quoted in " If someone insults our mother, we would rather die than tolerate it, warns BJP’s Sakshi Maharaj http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/cow-mother-country-are-alike-dont-insult-sakshi/", The Indian Express (7 October 2015)

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff photo
Octavia E. Butler photo
Jared Diamond photo
Tariq Aziz photo

“Do you expect me, after all my history as a militant and as one of the Iraqi leaders, to go to an American prison – to go to Guantanamo? I would rather die”

Tariq Aziz (1936–2015) Iraqi Foreign Minister under Saddam Hussein

Before the Invasion of Iraq, BBC News (April 24, 2003), "Tariq Aziz in U.S. Custody; New York Moves Closer to Rebuilding at Ground Zero" http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0304/24/se.00.html.

Richard Dawkins photo
Max Pechstein photo
Amory B. Lovins photo
Jean Paul Sartre photo
Dylan Moran photo

“(after coughing) …and then you cough and die.”

Dylan Moran (1971) Irish actor and comedian

Monster.
Other

Whittaker Chambers photo
Steven Erikson photo
Molière photo

“Nearly all men die of their remedies, and not of their illnesses.”

Molière (1622–1673) French playwright and actor

Presque tous les hommes meurent de leurs remèdes, et non pas de leurs maladies.
Le Malade Imaginaire (1673), Act III, sc. iii

Adam Roberts photo

““It happened that Mahmud had long been planning an expedition into Bhardana, and Gujarat, to destroy the idol temple of Somnat, a place of great sanctity to all Hindus. So as soon as he had returned to Ghazni from his Khurasan business, he issued a farman to the General of the army, ordering him to leave a confidential officer in charge of the fort of Kabuliz, and himself to join the court with his son Salar Mas‘ud…
“It is related in the Tarikh-i Mahmudi that the Sultan shortly after reached Ghazni, and laid down the image of Somnat at the threshold of the Mosque of Ghazni, so that the Musulmans might tread upon the breast of the idol on their way to and from their devotions. As soon as the unbelievers heard of this, they sent an embassy to Khwaja Hasan Maimandi, stating that the idol was of stone and useless to the Musulmans, and offered to give twice its weight in gold as a ransom, if it might be returned to them. Khwaja Hasan Maimandi represented to the Sultan that the unbelievers had offered twice the weight of the idol in gold, and had agreed to be subject to him. He added, that the best policy would be to take the gold and restore the image, thereby attaching die people to his Government. The Sultan yielded to the advice of the Khwaja, and the unbelievers paid the gold into the treasury.
“One day, when the Sultan was seated on his throne, the ambassadors of the unbelievers came, and humbly petitioned thus: ‘Oh, Lord of the world! we have paid the gold to your Government in ransom, but have not yet received our purchase, the idol Somnat.’ The Sultan was wroth at their words, and, falling into reflection, broke up the assembly and retired, with his dear Salar Mas‘ud, into his private apartments. He then asked his opinion as to whether the image ought to be restored, or not? Salar Mas‘ud, who was perfect in goodness, said quickly, ‘In the day of the resurrection, when the Almighty shall call for Ãzar, the idol-destroyer, and Mahmud, the idol-seller, Sire! what will you say?’ This speech deeply affected the Sultan, he was full of grief, and answered, ‘I have given my word; it will be a breach of promise.’ Salar Mas‘ud begged him to make over the idol to him, and tell the unbelievers to get it from him. The Sultan agreed; and Salar Mas‘ud took it to his house, and, breaking off its nose and ears, ground them to powder.
“When Khwaja Hasan introduced the unbelievers, and asked the Sultan to give orders to restore the image to them, his majesty replied that Salar Mas‘ud had carried it off to his house, and that he might send them to get it from him. Khwaja Hasan, bowing his head, repeated these words in Arabic, ‘No easy matter is it to recover anything which has fallen into the hands of a lion.’ He then told the unbelievers that the idol was with Salar Mas‘ud, and that they were at liberty to go and fetch it. So they went to Mas‘ud’s door and demanded their god.
“That prince commanded Malik Nekbakht to treat them courteously, and make them be seated; then to mix the dust of the nose and ears of the idol with sandal and the lime eaten with betel-nut, and present it to them. The unbelievers were delighted, and smeared themselves with sandal, and ate the betel-leaf. After a while they asked for the idol, when Salar Mas‘ud said he had given it to them. They inquired, with astonishment, what he meant by saying that they had received the idol? And Malik Nekbakht explained that it was mixed with the sandal and betel-lime. Some began to vomit, while others went weeping and lamenting to Khwaja Hasan Maimandi and told him what had occurred…”
“Afterwards the image of Somnat was divided into four parts, as is described in the Tawarikh-i-Mahmudi. Mahmud’s first exploit is said to have been conquering the Hindu rebels, destroying the forts and the idol temples of the Rai Ajipal (Jaipal), and subduing the country of India. His second, the expedition into Harradawa and Guzerat, the carrying off the idol of Somnat, and dividing it into four pieces, one of which he is reported to have placed on the threshold of the Imperial Palace, while he sent two others to Mecca and Medina respectively. Both these exploits were performed at the suggestion, and by the advice, of the General and Salar Mas‘ud; but India was conquered by the efforts of Salar Mas‘ud alone, and the idol of Somnat was broken in pieces by his sold advice, as has been related. Salar Sahu was Sultan of the army and General of the forces in Iran…”

Ghazi Saiyyad Salar Masud (1014) semi-legendary Muslim figure from India

Somnath (Gujarat), Mir‘at-i-Mas‘udi Elliot and Dowson, History of India as told by its own historians, Vol. II. p. 524-547

John Dryden photo
John Major photo

“Oh, Lord, if I must die today,
Please make it after Close of Play.
For this, I know, if nothing more,
I will not go, without the score...”

John Major (1943) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Excerpt of poem variously titled "Cricket Match" or "A Cricket Prayer" http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,23069-1768078,00.html http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1768342,00.html
1990s, 1997

Clive Barker photo

“For the lion to to prosper the deer must die. All the world is combat.”

ibid
Drenai series, Waylander II: In the Realm of the Wolf

John J. Pershing photo
Aron Ra photo

“Remember, [in the Bible] it's adultery only if the woman is already married. It doesn't matter if the man is married. If he is, she may just become another one of his wives, and a man can have sex with other women who aren't his wives, and that's not cheating either, as long as they live with him, because a man is also allowed to have concubines, and a concubine is a sort of sexual servant who serves no other purpose and has no claim to your estate. Your wife may not have a claim to your estate either, because when you die your wife may become your brother's sexual property. That's how the Bible defines marriage! The Bible does not prohibit multiple wives or incest either. In fact, both are promoted. However, when your father dies, your mother does not become your wife, and you can't inherit any of his other wives either, and the reason that the Bible gives for that is because that would be like looking up your father's skirt… So, a man can have multiple wives and a collection of personal harlots, but he can also have sex with his slaves, and that's not cheating either. You've heard of friends with benefits? You can call this your property rights. That's the only way that makes sense, because according to the Bible all women are property, and property doesn't have rights. Now, some people equate having sex with slaves to rape, because the slave doesn't have any choice. But, according to the Bible, women don't have any choice anyway, and rape can be a prelude to matrimony; if you're a Bronze Age Israelite and you see some young cutie walking unescorted, if you like her, you want her, you can have her, even if she doesn't want you. Now, if you rape a married woman, that's a death sentence for both of you (because the Bible is stupid like that). But if she's not promised to someone else, and you rape her and you get caught, you have to pay her father fifty shekels of silver and she's yours. He may not want her back after that, even his own child, because an unmarried woman who wasn't a virgin was considered damaged goods back then, so they had this rule that "if you pop it, you buy it." So your victim becomes your bride and you're stuck together forever, and can never get divorced (so be careful who you rape). There's actually a cheaper [and] easier way to get a bride; if a man takes a wife and decides he doesn't like her, if he can prove she wasn't a virgin (or if he can convince other people that was probably not a virgin), she she will be murdered on her father's doorstep because, according to the god of infinite mercy, that's the moral thing to do. But if she can prove that she was a virgin, then she must remain married forever to the man who hates her, because that's divine wisdom too. That unpleasant arrangement for both of you will also cost you a hundred shekels, whereas you can marry your rape victim for half the price. So, if you're a complete loser, and you can't get any woman who appeals to you by the normal way, just rape whoever you like and she's yours forever.”

Aron Ra (1962) Aron Ra is an atheist activist and the host of the Ra-Men Podcast

Youtube, Other, Biblical Family Values https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bldw8X5apnY (July 11, 2015)

Will Smith photo
Ravachol photo

“What can he do who lacks the necessary work, if he comes to be unemployed? He has nothing but to let himself die of hunger. Then a few phrases of pity will thrown on his cadaver. That's what I decided to leave to others. I preferred to make myself a black-marketer, forger, thief, murderer and assassin. I could have begged: it's degrading and cowardly and even punished by your laws that make a crime of poverty. If all those in need, instead of waiting, took wherever there was enough to be taken and by any means whatever, the satisfied would perhaps understand quicker that there is danger in trying to consecrate the current social condition, where worry is permanent and life threatened at every instant.”

Ravachol (1859–1892) French anarchist

Que peut-il faire celui qui manque du nécessaire en travaillant, s'il vient à chômer ? Il n'a qu'à se laisser mourir de faim. Alors on jettera quelques paroles de pitié sur son cadavre. C'est ce que j'ai voulu laisser à d'autres. J'ai préféré me faire contrebandier, faux-monnayeur, voleur, meurtrier et assassin. J'aurais pu mendier : c'est dégradant et lâche et même puni par vos lois qui font un délit de la misère. Si tous les nécessiteux, au lieu d'attendre, prenaient où il y a et par n'importe quel moyen, les satisfaits comprendraient peut-être plus vite qu'il y a danger à vouloir consacrer l'état social actuel, où l'inquiétude est permanente et la vie menacée à chaque instant.
Trial statement

William Wordsworth photo

“One of those heavenly days that cannot die.”

William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Romantic poet

Nutting.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Vasco Rossi photo

“"Better to die because of you, rather than dying still!"
(from Domani si adesso no, 1985)”

Vasco Rossi (1980) Italian singer-songwriter

Song lyrics

Derren Brown photo
Jacques-Yves Cousteau photo

“I said that the oceans were sick but they're not going to die. There is no death possible in the oceans — there will always be life — but they're getting sicker every year.”

Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910–1997) French naval officer, explorer, conservationist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and …

Interview (March 1996)

George Borrow photo
Ernest Hemingway photo

“And how much better to die in all the happy period of undisillusioned youth, to go out in a blaze of light, than to have your body worn out and old and illusions shattered.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Letter to his family (18 October 1918); published in Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters 1917–1961 (1981) edited by Carlos Baker. It was also published in The Oak Parker (Oak Park, IL) on 16 November 1918. Only 19 years old at the time, Hemingway was recovering from wounds suffered at the front line while serving as a Red Cross volunteer.

Harry Turtledove photo
Ismail ibn Musa Menk photo

“Then we have Sūrat al-Sharḥ, also known as al-Inshirāḥ. I need to make mention of this because in it is a lot of comfort for myself and yourselves. We have a problem in life. When we have a problem Allah says, "Don't worry, with that difficulty, there is ease." You will never know what ease is all about unless you've been through difficulty. Those who have a beautiful life, sometimes they are still worried and depressed because they don't know what it is like to have suffered a little bit. So Allah's blessing, he makes us suffer slightly so that when there's a little bit of ease, mashallah. You know, a man who's always driven a Rolls-Royce will never know what it's like to ride a bicycle to work. Two ways of making them ride. One is, the doctor tells you you're about to die, Allahu Akbar, and you need to ride to work. Immediately everything is given up. Why? Because we're worried about dear life. That's why. If you see people – Subhan Allah – I've seen a man who had a carrot, and he was pretending like he's smoking this carrot and nibbling on it. And I told him, I said: "My brother, what made you nibble on this carrot?" He says: "My doctor told me I can't smoke, and a good replacement is a carrot." I said: "Allahu Akbar, you're stuffing your mouth with a carrot because of a doctor, but when Allah told you smoking is bad, then you didn't want to listen…" Allahu Akbar. May Allah make us from amongst those who eat carrots rather than smoking cigarettes. Really. So, my brothers and sisters, it's a reality. Whenever there is a person who has tasted goodness alone, and they don't know what difficulty is about, there comes a time when they do not appreciate what they have. So like I was saying, two ways. One is, Allah snatches it away from you, so you now have nothing. So many people have climbed the peak in terms of materialistic items, and then they've dropped down the mountain. They say it's easier to drop from the top than it is from the bottom. Allahu Akbar. When you arrive at the top, a small movement and you roll down, you're with the avalanche, one time. And when you're at the bottom, they can kick you – if you drop, you stand up again and you're walking – same level, masshalah, it's all about altitude. May Allah protect us. Another thing is, when you drop from the top, greater likelihood of breaking more bones. When you drop from the bottom, "Ah, I might have just hurt my head slightly", just say "Ouch" and carry on. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us and grant us humbleness. So, remember, sometimes Allah wants you to go down, so that you appreciate the bicycle after you had nothing, yet ten years ago you had the Rolls-Royce. May Allah bless us. So Allah says, and I'm sure we know verses, verse number five and six:
فَإِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرً
إِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا
"Indeed, with every difficulty [or, with difficulty] there is ease.
And indeed, with the difficulty there is ease."
[…] May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala alleviate the suffering that we are all going through in our own little ways. Remember it's a gift of Allah. To keep you in check sometimes. To keep you calling out to Him. May Allah open our doors.”

Ismail ibn Musa Menk (1975) Muslim cleric and Grand Mufti of Zimbabwe.

" Do you have problems in life? Watch This! by Mufti Menk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgp2zbE9Ofg", YouTube (2013)
Lectures

Jacques Derrida photo
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner photo
Geert Wilders photo

“Islam looks like a religion but in reality it is a dangerous totalitarian ideology which wants to bring the whole world under Shariah law. Islam means submission … It's either submit or die and I suggest that we will do neither of them.”

Geert Wilders (1963) Dutch politician

"Geert Wilders: I Won’t Stop Warning the West About Islam" by Matthew Vadum, FrontPage Magazine (5 May 2015) http://www.frontpagemag.com/2015/matthew-vadum/geert-wilders-i-wont-stop-warning-the-west-about-islam/
2010s

Algernon Sidney photo
Ovadia Yosef photo

“I'll never stop working. I want to die in the saddle. A day is wasted for me if I haven't done something even mildly creative.”

Bob Monkhouse (1928–2003) English entertainer

Obituary on BBC news website http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/3353445.stm

Van Morrison photo
G. I. Gurdjieff photo

“One of the best means for arousing the wish to work on yourself is to realize that you may die at any moment. But first you must learn how to keep it in mind.”

G. I. Gurdjieff (1866–1949) influential spiritual teacher, Armenian philosopher, composer and writer

Aphorisms

Immortal Technique photo
Taisen Deshimaru photo

“You have to practice until you die.”

Taisen Deshimaru (1914–1982) Japanese Buddhist monk

As quoted in Leading from Within : Martial Arts Skills for Dynamic Business and Management (1999) by Robert Pater, p. 223

“Man is always ready to die for an idea, provided that idea is not quite clear to him.”

Paul Eldridge (1888–1982) American writer

Quoted in Reader's Digest, (February 1963) http://books.google.com/books?id=K3c6AQAAIAAJ&q=%22Man+is+always+ready+to+die+for+an+idea+provided+that+idea+is+not+quite+clear+to+him%22&pg=PA37#v=onepage
Quote s

Michael Savage photo

“ You're listening to the sounds of the reason we're about to die as a nation. The vermin in the media…they all yesterday said it was a white man. There was Bloomberg saying it was a deranged man with a political agenda. Not one of them would say if it was a Muslim. Not one of them would say if it was a Middle-Easterner. Not one of them if it hit them in the face would acknowledge what's going on around them, which is why we must defend ourselves—we have a bunch of overly race-conscious government dupes running everything in this country. There were the news anchors and the reporters, you heard it with your own ears, just yesterday. Repeating "white male", "white male", "white male", "white male", "white male", "white male", "white male", "white male", "white male", "white male", "white male", "white male", "white male". Because they believe in blackmail, blackmail, blackmail, blackmail. They blackmail the entire white race into a corner. They blackmail the entire white race into a corner. And they're killing us. The Muslims are running wild in this country. The Muslims are running wild in this country, and the police are afraid of them. The police are afraid of CAIR. The police are afraid of the ACLU. The police are afraid of everybody but you. "White male", "white male", "white male", "white male", "white male", "white male". You haven't heard, "Muslim male", "Muslim male", "Muslim male", "Muslim male", "Muslim male", "Muslim male", "Muslim male", did you? After they found who it was? The guy gave himself up, and they won't say "Muslim male", "Muslim male", "links to Islam", "Islam", "Muslim", "Muslim", "Islam", "Islam", "Muslim!"”

Why won't they say it? Because they're a bunch of morons. And that's why we're in trouble. You heard it with your own damn ears, what more do I have to say to you?
The Savage Nation
The Savage Nation (1995- ), 2010-05-04
Radio (Audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaE2YA8vFEs)
2010

Benjamin Franklin King, Jr. photo

“If I should die to-night
And you should come in deepest grief and woe—
And say: "Here's that ten dollars that I owe,"
I might arise in my large white cravat
And say, "What's that?"”

Benjamin Franklin King, Jr. (1857–1894) American humorist and poet

If I should die, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare: "If I should die to-night, / My friends would look upon my quiet face / Before they laid it in its resting-place, / And deem that death had left it almost fair", Belle E. Smith.

Ba Jin photo
Thomas Carlyle photo

“It is a most earnest thing to be alive in this world; to die is not sport for a man. Man's life never was a sport to him; it was a stern reality, altogether a serious matter to be alive!”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

1840s, Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840), The Hero as Divinity

Peter Greenaway photo
Oliver Sacks photo
George Pope Morris photo

“In teaching me the way to live
It taught me how to die.”

George Pope Morris (1802–1864) American publisher

My Mother's Bible, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
Robert Jordan photo
Louisa May Alcott photo
Common (rapper) photo
Josh Homme photo

“You live 'till you die.”

Josh Homme (1973) American musician

"In the Fade", Rated R (2000)
Lyrics, Queens of the Stone Age

Alice Walker photo

“I think unless the people are given information about what is happening to them, they will die in ignorance. And i think that's the big sin. I mean if there is such a thing as a sin, that's it, to destroy people and not have them have a clue about how this is happening.”

Alice Walker (1944) American author and activist

Poet, Author Alice Walker Meets the Inner Journey with Global Activism in "The Cushion in the Road" http://www.democracynow.org/2013/5/28/poet_author_alice_walker_meets_the (May 28, 2013).

Thomas Carlyle photo

“The fine arts once divorcing themselves from truth are quite certain to fall mad, if they do not die.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

Latter Day Pamphlet, No. 8. (1850).
1820s, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827–1855)

Dave Matthews photo

“So why would you care
To get out of this place?
You and me and all our friends,
Such a happy human race.
Eat, drink and be merry,
For tomorrow we die.”

Dave Matthews (1967) American singer-songwriter, musician and actor

Tripping Billies
Remember Two Things (1993)

Stevie Smith photo

“So I fancy my Muse says, when I wish to die,
Oh no, Oh no, we are not yet friends enough,
And Virtue also says:
We are not yet friends enough.”

Stevie Smith (1902–1971) poet, novelist, illustrator, performer

"Exeat"
The Best Beast (1966)

Jim Butcher photo
Sri Aurobindo photo
Franklin D. Roosevelt photo
Jean Paul Sartre photo
Arundhati Roy photo

“He is Karna, whom the world has abandoned. Karna Alone. Condemned goods. A prince raised in poverty. Born to die unfairly, unarmed and alone at the hands of his brother. Majestic in his complete despair. Praying on the banks of the Ganga. Stoned out of his skull.
Then Kunti appeared. She too was a man, but a man grown soft and womanly, a man with breasts, from doing female parts for years. Her movements were fluid. Full of women. Kunti, too, was stoned. High on the same shared joints. She had come to tell Karna a story.
Karna inclined his beautiful head and listened.
Red-eyed, Kunti danced for him. She told him of a young woman who had been granted a boon. A secret mantra that she could use to choose a lover from among the gods. Of how, with the imprudence of youth, the woman decided to test it to see if it really worked. How she stood alone in an empty field, turned her face to the heavens and recited the mantra. The words had scarcely left her foolish lips, Kunti said, when Surya, the God of Day, appeared before her. The young woman, bewitched by the beauty of the shimmering young god, gave herself to him. Nine months later she bore him a son. The baby was born sheathed in light, with gold earrings in his ears and a gold breastplate on his chest, engraved with the emblem of the sun.
The young mother loved her first-born son deeply, Kunti said, but she was unmarried and couldn't keep him. She put him in a reed basket and cast him away in a river. The child was found downriver by Adhirata, a charioteer. And named Karna.
Karna looked up to Kunti. Who was she? Who was my mother? Tell me where she is. Take me to her.
Kunti bowed her head. She's here, she said. Standing before you.
Karna's elation and anger at the revelation. His dance of confusion and despair. Where were you, he asked her, when I needed you the most? Did you ever hold me in your arms? Did you feed me? Did you ever look for me? Did you wonder where I might be?
In reply Kunti took the regal face in her hands, green the face, red the eyes, and kissed him on his brow. Karna shuddered in delight. A warrior reduced to infancy. The ecstasy of that kiss. He dispatched it to the ends of his body. To his toes. His fingertips. His lovely mother's kiss. Did you know how much I missed you? Rahel could see it coursing through his veins, as clearly as an egg travelling down an ostrich's neck.
A travelling kiss whose journey was cut short by dismay when Karna realised that his mother had revealed herself to him only to secure the safety of her five other, more beloved sons - the Pandavas - poised on the brink of their epic battle with their one hundred cousins. It is them that Kunti sought to protect by announcing to Karna that she was his mother. She had a promise to extract.
She invoked the Love Laws.”

pages 232-233.
The God of Small Things (1997)

Suzanne Collins photo
George Whitefield photo

“Lord Jesus, I am weary in Thy work, but not of it. If I have not yet finished my course, let me go and speak for Thee once more in the field, seal Thy truth, and come home to die.”

George Whitefield (1714–1770) English minister and preacher

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 518.

Mengistu Neway photo

“I must die so as to see again those who died before, and to tell them the seed we sowed has taken root.”

Mengistu Neway (1919–1961) Commander of the Ethiopian Imperial Bodyguard

March 30, 1961, as quoted in Edmund J. Keller (1991) Revolutionary Ethiopia: From Empire to People's Republic, Indiana University Press, page 131

Bill Hicks photo

“I'll smoke, I'll cough, I'll get the tumors, I'll die, deal? Thank you America. [salutes].”

Bill Hicks (1961–1994) American comedian

Sane Man (1989)

Confucius photo

“If I hear the Way [of truth] in the morning, I am content even to die in that evening.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

Source: The Analects, Chapter IV

Terry Eagleton photo
Billy Joel photo

“Some people hope for a miracle cure
Some people just accept the world as it is.
But I'm not willing to lay down and die
Because I am an innocent man.”

Billy Joel (1949) American singer-songwriter and pianist

An Innocent Man.
Song lyrics, An Innocent Man (1983)

Douglas Coupland photo
Germaine Greer photo

“Most people die in improvised circumstances of harassment and confusion, whether in hospital or out of it.”

Germaine Greer (1939) Australian feminist author

"Not a time to die" (3 December 1972), p. 147
The Madwoman's Underclothes (1986)

Gamal Abdel Nasser photo
Harlan F. Stone photo
Ed Bradley photo

“I've always said when I die and if I do get to the pearly gates and St. Peter says, what have you done to deserve entry, I'd ask him if he'd saw my Lina Horn piece. It's always been a favorite of mine.”

Ed Bradley (1941–2006) News correspondent

[Larry King, Interview with Ed Bradley, http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0402/08/lkl.00.html, February 8, 2004, Larry King Live, CNN]

Ippen photo

“To become solitary and simple in utter aloneness -- living wholly unconcerned about the multitude of worldly affairs, and abandoning and disentangling yourself from all things -- is to die. We are born alone; we die alone.”

Ippen (1239–1289) Japanese Buddhist monk, founder of the Jishu school.

"Words Handed Down by Disciples" (Chapter 9).
No Abode: The Record of Ippen (1997)

Lois McMaster Bujold photo
Bruce Friedrich photo
John Ashcroft photo

“Islam is a religion in which God requires you to send your son to die for him. Christianity is a faith in which God sends his son to die for you.”

John Ashcroft (1942) American politician

As quoted in an interview with Cal Thomas (November 2001), he later indicated that the remarks "do not accurately reflect what I believe I said", as quoted in "Ashcroft Invokes Religion In U.S. War on Terrorism" in The Washington Post (20 February 2002) http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0220-03.htm

Paulo Coelho photo
Omar Khayyám photo

“And that inverted Bowl they call the Sky,
Whereunder crawling coop'd we live and die,
Lift not your hands to It for help — for It
As impotently moves as you or I.”

Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) Persian poet, philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer

The Rubaiyat (1120)

John Ruysbroeck photo
J. M. Barrie photo