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Quotes about life and death

656 quotes from 337 people

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There is nothing to life that has value, except the degree of power⁠—assuming that life itself is the will to power.
Friedrich Nietzsche1844–1900The Will to Power (1888), Book 1, sec. 55 (10 June 1887)
- Power
The Fear of Death often proves Mortal, and sets People on Methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them.
Joseph Addison1672–1719The Spectator (1711–1714), No. 25 (29 March 1711)
- Fear
The temple of fame stands upon the grave: the flame that burns upon its altars is kindled from the ashes of dead men.
William Hazlitt1778–1830Lectures on the English Poets (1818), Lecture VIII, “On the Living Poets”
- Fame
The best life is the one in which the creative impulses play the largest part and the possessive impulses the smallest.
Bertrand Russell1872–1970Political Ideals (1917)
Death is better than a vegetating ignorant life; it is better to die on the battle-field than to live a life of defeat.
Swami Vivekananda1863–1902Call to the Nation
Madame, all stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no true-story teller who would keep that from you.
Ernest Hemingway1899–1961Death in the Afternoon (1932), Ch. 11
- Writing
I desire to have both heaven and hell ever in my eye, while I stand on this isthmus of life, between two boundless oceans.
John Wesley1703–1791Letter to Charles Wesley
Eternity! thou pleasing dreadful thought!
Through what variety of untried being,
Through what new scenes and changes must we pass!
Joseph Addison1672–1719Cato, A Tragedy (1713)
- Time
I used to measure the heavens, now I measure the shadows of Earth. Although my mind was heaven-bound, the shadow of my body lies here.
Johannes Kepler1571–1630Epitaph he composed for himself a few months before he died, as quoted by Steven G. Krantz, Brian E. Blank, Calculusː Multivariable (2006) p. 126.
- Science
Life is action, the use of one’s powers. As to use them to their height is our joy and duty, so it is the one end that justifies itself.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.1841–1935Speech to the Bar Association of Boston, in Speeches (1913), p. 85.
It takes time for the absent to assume their true shape in our thoughts. After death they take on a firmer outline and then cease to change.
Colette1873–1954“The Captain”, Earthly Paradise (1966) ed. Robert Phelps
I compare human life to a large mansion of many apartments, two of which I can only describe, the doors of the rest being as yet shut upon me.
John Keats1795–1821To John Hamilton Reynolds (May 3, 1818)
If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl.
H. L. Mencken1880–1956“Epitaph” from Smart Set (December 1921)
- Forgiveness
We’re all alive, but we don’t know why or what for; we’re all searching for happiness; we’re all leading lives that are different and yet the same.
Anne Frank1929–1945The Diary of a Young Girl (1942—1944), 6 July 1944 (A version)
- Happiness
One can only live while one is intoxicated with life; as soon as one is sober it is impossible not to see that it is all a mere fraud and a stupid fraud!
Leo Tolstoy1828–1910Confession (1882), Ch. 4