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Quotes about life and death

656 quotes from 337 people

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There interposed a fly,
With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz,
Between the light and me;
And then the windows failed, and then
I could not see to see.
Emily Dickinson1830–1886I heard a Fly buzz – when I died (1896)In context
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.
W. B. Yeats1865–1939An Irish Airman Foresees His Death (1919)In context
O, withered is the garland of the war,
The soldier’s pole is fallen; young boys and girls
Are level now with men. The odds is gone,
And there is nothing left remarkable
Beneath the visiting moon.
William Shakespeare1564–1616Antony and Cleopatra (c. 1606), Act IV, Scene XV, spoken by CleopatraIn context
- War & Peace
Give me my robe. Put on my crown. I have
Immortal longings in me.
William Shakespeare1564–1616Antony and Cleopatra (c. 1606), Act V, Scene II, spoken by CleopatraIn context
I am fire and air; my other elements
I give to baser life.
William Shakespeare1564–1616Antony and Cleopatra (c. 1606), Act V, Scene II, spoken by CleopatraIn context
They say the tongues of dying men
Enforce attention like deep harmony.
Where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain
William Shakespeare1564–1616Richard II (c. 1595), Act II, Scene I, spoken by GauntIn context
- Talking
The sense of death is most in apprehension;
And the poor beetle that we tread upon
In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great
As when a giant dies.
William Shakespeare1564–1616Measure for Measure (c. 1604), Act III, Scene I, spoken by IsabellaIn context
- Fear
The weariest and most loathed worldly life
That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment
Can lay on nature is a paradise
To what we fear of death.
William Shakespeare1564–1616Measure for Measure (c. 1604), Act III, Scene I, spoken by ClaudioIn context
- Fear
I could have better spared a better man.
William Shakespeare1564–1616Henry IV, Part 1 (c. 1597), Act V, Scene IV, spoken by PrinceIn context
Life is easy to chronicle, but bewildering to practice
E. M. Forster1879–1970A Room with a View (1908), Part Two, Chapter XIVIn context
- Experience
People have their own deaths as well as their own lives, and even if there is nothing beyond death, we shall differ in our nothingness.
E. M. Forster1879–1970Howards End (1910), Chapter 40In context
Death destroys a man, but the idea of death saves him
E. M. Forster1879–1970Howards End (1910), Chapter 41In context
Most of life is so dull that there is nothing to be said about it, and the books and talk that would describe it as interesting are obliged to exaggerate, in the hope of justifying their own existence.
E. M. Forster1879–1970A Passage to India (1924), Part II: Caves, Chapter XIVIn context
- Writing
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
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