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Quotes about life and death

656 quotes from 337 people

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Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life. Security is an insipid thing.
William Congreve1670–1729Love for Love (1695), Act IV, scene xx
- Risk
No, it is impossible; it is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of one’s existence⁠—that which makes its truth, its meaning⁠—its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream⁠—alone.
Joseph Conrad1857–1924Heart of Darkness (1899), Part IIn context
The horror! The horror!
Joseph Conrad1857–1924Heart of Darkness (1899), Part IIIIn context
- Fear
‘Mistah Kurtz⁠—he dead.’
Joseph Conrad1857–1924Heart of Darkness (1899), Part IIIIn context
I have wrestled with death. It is the most unexciting contest you can imagine.
Joseph Conrad1857–1924Heart of Darkness (1899), Part IIIIn context
Perhaps all the wisdom, and all truth, and all sincerity, are just compressed into that inappreciable moment of time in which we step over the threshold of the invisible.
Joseph Conrad1857–1924Heart of Darkness (1899), Part IIIIn context
- Truth & Lies
- Wisdom
It’s extraordinary how we go through life with eyes half shut, with dull ears, with dormant thoughts. Perhaps it’s just as well; and it may be that it is this very dullness that makes life to the incalculable majority so supportable and so welcome.
Joseph Conrad1857–1924Lord Jim (1900), Chapter 13In context
- Thinking
I am on the hilltop and must go down into the valley; and when Uncas follows in my footsteps there will no longer be any of the blood of the Sagamores, for my boy is the last of the Mohicans.
James Fenimore Cooper1789–1851The Last of the Mohicans (1826), Chapter IIIIn context
- Family
It is better for a man to die at peace with himself than to live haunted by an evil conscience!
James Fenimore Cooper1789–1851The Last of the Mohicans (1826), Chapter VIIIIn context
- Morality
He had been to touch the great death, and found that, after all, it was but the great death. He was a man.
Stephen Crane1871–1900The Red Badge of Courage (1895), Chapter XXIVIn context
- Maturity
Life is not easy for any of us, but what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted in something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.
Marie Curie1867–1934Letter to her brother Józef (18 March 1894), quoted in Eve Curie, Madame Curie (1937)
- Motivation & Goals
We know life is futile. A man who considers that his life is of very wonderful importance is awfully close to a padded cell.
Clarence Darrow1857–1938
I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction.
Clarence Darrow1857–1938The Story of My Life (1932), Ch. 10 “Child Training”
- Comedy
As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds, and these, if vigorous, branch out and overtop on all sides many a feebler branch, so by generation I believe it has been with the great Tree of Life, which fills with its dead and broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever branching and beautiful ramifications.
Charles Darwin1809–1882On the Origin of Species (1859), Chapter IV (2 of 2)In context
- Nature
One general law, leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely, multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.
Charles Darwin1809–1882On the Origin of Species (1859), Chapter VIIIn context
- Nature