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Death
Death, the state of non-existence in the physical world.
Living With Death
- "Even at our birth, death does but stand aside a little. And every day he looks towards us and muses somewhat to himself whether that day or the next he will draw nigh." --Robert Bolt
- "If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call to make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting? --Stephen Levine Poet, Author
- "To the well-organised mind, death is but the next great adventure." --Albus Dumbledore
- Every blade in the field,
Every leaf in the forest,
Lays down its life in its season,
As beautifully as it was taken up.
--Henry David Thoreau
Looking Towards Death
- [Regarding the idea that death is nothing but a kind of sleep] "...the difference is that when you're dead and somebody yells, 'Everybody up, it's morning,' it's very hard to find your slippers." --Woody Allen, "My Apology"
- "Life is eternal; and love is immortal; and death is only a horizon; and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight." --R.W. Raymond
- "Men fear death, as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other." --Francis Bacon
- "Our fear of death is like our fear that summer will be short, but when we have had our swing of pleasure, our fill of fruit, and our swelter of heat we say we have had our day." --Ralph Waldo Emerson
- "Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome." --Isaac Asimov
- [Mozart's letter to his dying father Leopold ] "I have formed during the last few years such close relationships with this best and truest friend of mankind that death's image is not only no longer terrifying to me, but is indeed very soothing and consoling, and I thank my God for graciously granting me the opportunity...of learning that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness." --Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- "It's not that I'm afraid of death. I just don't want to be there when it happens." --Woody Allen
- "I do not believe in death because I hadn't seen it, at least not yet. Be afraid of death only when you die." -- Edwin Y.
Coming To Terms With Death
- "Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because dawn has come." --Rabindranath Tagore
- "...when we finally know we are dying, and all other sentient beings are dying with us, we start to have a burning, almost heartbreaking sense of the fragility and preciousness of each moment and each being, and from this can grow a deep, clear, limitless compassion for all beings." --Sogyal Rinpoche
- "Death row is a state of mind." --Doris Ann Foster
- The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist. The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just that way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them. It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever. --Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
- Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion. --Albert Einstein
Death
- "A samurai once asked Zen Master Hakuin where he would go after he died. Hakuin answered 'How am I supposed to know?'
- 'How do you know? You're a Zen master!' exclaimed the samurai.
- 'Yes, but not a dead one,' Hakuin answered." ~Zen mondo
- "Death, the most dreaded of evils, is therefore of no concern to us; for while we exist death is not present, and when death is present we no longer exist." ~Epicurus
- "When you are born, you cry, and the world rejoices. When you die, you rejoice, and the world cries." ~Kabir
- "We look at death from the selfish side, like: "That guy died. Oh, it's so sad." Why is it sad? He's away from all of this bad stuff that's here on Earth. I mean, at the worst, he's just somewhere quiet, no nothing. At best, he's an angel... or he's a spirit somewhere. What is so bad about that? " ~Tupac Shakur
- "Must not all things at the last be swallowed up in death?" ~Plato
Death and Relationships
- "Death ends a life, not a relationship." --Jack Lemmon
- Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal. --from a headstone in Ireland
- we are all dying a slow and painful death called life --james sacksteder
The Meaning of Life
- "Ancient Egyptians believed that upon death they would be asked two questions and their answers would determine whether they could continue their journey in the afterlife. The first question was, 'Did you bring joy?' The second was, 'Did you find joy?'" --Leo Buscaglia
- "The meaning of life is helping other people. That, at least, is the strong conviction of other people. --Gerhard Kocher
- "I said to Life, I would hear Death speak. And Life raised her voice a little higher and said, You hear him now." --Kahlil Gibran
- "Never the spirit was born, the spirit shall cease to be never. Never was time it was not, end and beginning are dreams." --The Bhagavad Gita
- "Death and death alone gives meaning to life and this meaning is entirely negative." --Georges Poulet
- "The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone." --Harriet Beecher Stowe
Personal Notes
- Empty-handed I entered the world
- Barefoot I leave it.
- My coming, my going
- Two simple happenings
- That got entangled.
- ~ Kozan Ichikyo Zen teacher
- notes: written on the morning of his death
Others
- "The dead if not separated from the living, bring madness upon them." ~ Nykusa proverb
- Never knock on Death's door. Ring the bell and run like hell. He hates that! ~ Anonymous
- Whether you're a king or a little street sweeper, sooner or later, you dance with the reaper! ~ Popularised in the movie Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991).
- I am death, not taxes. I turn up only once. ~ (Death, in Terry Pratchett's novel Feet of Clay )
See also
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