Quotes about life and death
656 quotes from 337 people
Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life. Security is an insipid thing.
William Congreve1670–1729Love for Love (1695), Act IV, scene xxThere is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the infinite passion of life.
Federico Fellini1920–1993Fellini on Fellini (1976) edited by Anna Keel and Christian Strich; translated by Isabel Quigly.Eternity is best spent under a general anesthetic – which is what is going to happen.
Richard Dawkinsborn 1941Interview with Joe Rogan on The Joe Rogan Experience (2019); (20 January 2019)I bet the worst part about dying is the part where your whole life passes before you.
Lily Tomlinborn 1939The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (1985)As a day well spent procures a happy sleep, so a life well employed procures a happy death.
Leonardo da Vinci1452–1519XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.Life’s meaning has always eluded me and I guess it always will. But I love it just the same.
E. B. White1899–1985Letter to Mary Virginia Parrish (29 August 1969)Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you’re alive, it isn’t.
Richard Bachborn 1936Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)
J. D. Salinger1919–2010Seymour: An Introduction (1959)
Kurt Vonnegut1922–2007A Man Without a Country (2005)
Francis Bacon1561–1626The Advancement of Learning (1605), Book II, xx, 8
Graham Greene1904–1991The Ministry of Fear (1943), Bk. 1, ch. 3, sct. 2
Anne Sexton1928–1974Live or Die (1966), “Wanting to Die”
Jean-Paul Sartre1905–1980Existentialism Is a Humanism (1946), p. 58
George Santayana1863–1952The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress (1905-1906), Vol. I, Reason in Common Sense
Dag Hammarskjöld1905–1961Vägmärken · Markings (1963), 1950