Then I, however, showed again, by action, not in word only, that I did not care a whit for death ... but that I did care with all my might not to do anything unjust or unholy. Socrates
But already it is time to depart, for me to die, for you to go on living; which of us takes the better course, is not known to anyone except God. Socrates
Death may be the greatest of all human blessings. Socrates
Be of good cheer about death, and know this of a truth, that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death. Socrates
Death is not the worst that can happen to men. Plato
Must not all things at the last be swallowed up in death? Plato
Because of its tremendous solemnity death is the light in which great passions, both good and bad, become transparent, no longer limited by outward appearances. Soren Kierkegaard
Grim Reaper: I am the Grim Reaper. The Grim Reaper. I am Death ...
Guest 4: Well that’s cast rather a gloom over the evening, hasn’t it. Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life 1983 starring Graham Chapman & John Cleese & Terry Gilliam & Eric Idle & Terry Jones & Michael Palin & Carol Cleveland & Patricia Quinn & Judy Loe & Simon Jones & Matt Frewer & Jane Leeves et al, director Terry Jones
Bring out your dead. Nine pence. Monty Python and the Holy Grail 1974 starring Graham Chapman & John Cleese & Eric Idle & Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones & Michael Palin & Neil Innes & Connie Booth & Carol Cleveland & Bee Duffell & John Young & Rita Davies et al, directors Gilliam & Jones
It’s not pining – it’s passed on. This parrot is no more! It has ceased to be. It’s expired and gone to meet its Maker. This is a late parrot. It’s a stiff! Bereft of life. It rests in peace. If you hadn’t nailed it to the perch, it would be pushing up the daisies! It’s rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisible! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT! Monty Python’s And Now for Something Completely Different 1972
I’d rather be dead than cool. Kurt Cobain
We owe respect to the living; to the dead we owe only truth. Voltaire
We knew the world would not be the same. Few people laughed, few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, ‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ I suppose we all thought that, one way or another. J Robert Oppenheimer, cited The Decision to Drop the Bomb, 1965
The Lord said: ‘Time [death] I am, the destroyer of the worlds, who has come to annihilate everyone. Even without your taking part all those arrayed in the [two] opposing ranks will be slain!’ Bhagavad Gita
I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds. ibid.
On no subject are our ideas more warped and pitiable than on death ... Let children walk with nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life, and that the grave has no victory, for it never fights. All is divine harmony. John Muir, A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf ch4 – Camping Among the Tombs, 1916
Death: it tucks at your elbow like a forgotten friend. First the spirit dies ... Rab C Nesbitt s8e2: Heat, Father-in-law to Rab, BBC 1999
9,332. Death is the best night’s sleep I’ve had in years. Rab C Nesbitt s8e6: Bug, Andra
Death had become a way of life. The Comic Strip Presents ... Slags, Channel 4 1984
‘There is no death, daughter. People die only when we forget them,’ my mother explained shortly before she left me. ‘If you can remember me, I will be with you always.’ Isabel Allende, Eva Luna
He first deceased; she for a little tried
To live without him: liked it not, and died. Henry Wotton, 1651
If there wasn’t death, I think you couldn’t go on. Stevie Smith, Observer 9th November 1969
O cease! must hate and death return?
Cease! must men kill and die? Percy Bysshe Shelley, Hellas, 1822
The world is weary of the past,
Oh, might it die or rest at last! ibid.
How wonderful is Death,
Death and his brother Sleep! Percy Bysshe Shelley, Queen Mab
I weep for Adonais – he is dead!
O, weep for Adonais! though our tears
Thaw not the frost which binds so dear a head! Percy Bysshe Shelley, Adonis st1, 1821
He died,
Who was the Sire of an immortal strain,
Blind, old and lonely. ibid. st4
To that high Capital, where kingly Death
Keeps his pale court in beauty and decay,
He came. ibid. st7
Death is the veil which those who live call life;
They sleep and it is lifted. Percy Bysshe Shelley
The good die young. Late 17th century proverb
You can only die once. Mid-15th century proverb
The charm dissolves; th’ aerial music’s past;
The banquet ceases, and the vision flies. William Shenstone, Elegy 11
Whoe’er has travelled life’s dull round,
Where’er his stages may have been,
May sigh to think he still has found
The warmest welcome, at an inn. William Shenstone
Dear, beauteous death! the jewel of the just,
Shining nowhere but in the dark;
What mysteries do lie beyond thy dust,
Could man outlook that mark! Henry Vaughan, Silex Scintillans
Here lies a man who never lived,
Yet still from death was flying;
Who, if not sick, was never well;
And died – for fear of dying! James Thomson, Epitaph on Solomon Mendez, 1782
Death therefore is nothing to us nor does it concern us a scrap, seeing that the nature of the spirit we possess is something mortal. (Death & Spirit) Lucretius c.94-55 B.C. Roman Poet, De Rerum Natura
We can know there is nothing to be feared in death, that one who is not cannot be made unhappy, and that it matters not a scrap whether one might ever have been born at all, when death that is immortal has taken over one’s mortal life. ibid.
Why should I fear death? If I am, then death is not. If death is, then I am not. Epicurus
Better a life of wretchedness than a noble death. Euripides c.485-406 B.C. Greek dramatist
Pale Death breaks into the cottages of the poor as into the castles of kings. Horace, Odes
I shall not altogether die. ibid.
We are but dust and shadow. Horace
Death, in itself, is nothing; but we fear,
To be we know not what we know not where. John Dryden, 1631-1700, Aureng-Zebe
And doomed to death, though fated not to die. John Dryden, The Hind and the Panther
All human beings are subject to decay,
And, when fate summons, monarchs must obey. John Dryden MacFlecknoe