The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without.
Dwight D. EisenhowerMy only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me.
Thomas JeffersonI don’t expect to live forever, but I do intend to hang on as long as possible.
Isaac AsimovAge doesn’t bother me. So many of my heroes were older guys. It’s the lack of years left that weighs far heavier on me than the age that I am.
David BowieYou’re born. You suffer. You die. Fortunately, there’s a loophole.
Billy GrahamOnly on the edge of the grave can man conclude anything.
Henry AdamsTo eat is to appropriate by destruction.
Jean-Paul SartreMan weeps to think that he will die so soon; woman, that she was born so long ago.
H. L. MenckenFear of death increases in exact proportion to increase in wealth.
Ernest HemingwayMy personal telephone book is a book of the dead now. I’m so old. Almost all of my friends have died, and I don’t have the guts to take their names out of the book.
Ray BradburyI don’t think I’ve ever felt that same kind of peace, the kind of serenity that I felt after acknowledging that maybe I was going to die of this TB.
Desmond TutuMen should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries – for heavy ones they cannot.
Niccolo MachiavelliPrevious generations understood about death, and undoubtedly would have seen a reasonable amount of death. Once you get into the Victorian era, you might well have seen the funerals of many of your siblings before you were very old.
Terry PratchettDeath to me means nothing as long as I can die fast.
Bob DylanFrom the middle of life onward, only he remains vitally alive who is ready to die with life.
Samuel JohnsonFor in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s futures. And we are all mortal.
John F. KennedyRadical Islamist extremists surely hope that an attack on Iraq will kill many people and destroy much of the country, providing recruits for terrorist actions.
Noam ChomskyWhen I was very young I was sort of floored by the fact that my mother and my father and everyone I knew was going to die one day, and myself too. I had a sort of a philosophical crisis. I couldn’t believe that we were mortal.
Lana Del ReyLife is tragic simply because the earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time.
James BaldwinWar is a way of shattering to pieces… materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable and… too intelligent.
George OrwellWithout health life is not life; it is only a state of langour and suffering – an image of death.
BuddhaDon’t look forward to the day you stop suffering, because when it comes you’ll know you’re dead.
Tennessee WilliamsWhy are our days numbered and not, say, lettered?
Woody AllenDeath wasn’t part of God’s original plan for humanity, and the Bible calls death an enemy – the last enemy to be destroyed.
Billy GrahamYou don’t see too many atheists on the deathbed. They all start cramming then.
Dolly PartonIf anyone thinks they’d rather be in a different part of history, they’re probably not a very good student of history. Life sucked in the old days. People knew very little, and you were likely to die at a young age of some horrible disease. You’d probably have no teeth by now. It would be particularly awful if you were a woman.
Elon MuskMillions of people die every day. Everyone’s got to go sometime. I’ve came by this particular tumor honestly. If you smoke, which I did for many years very heavily with occasional interruption, and if you use alcohol, you make yourself a candidate for it in your sixties.
Christopher HitchensTo build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.
Winston ChurchillMen ought either to be indulged or utterly destroyed, for if you merely offend them they take vengeance, but if you injure them greatly they are unable to retaliate, so that the injury done to a man ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared.
Niccolo MachiavelliHence it comes about that all armed Prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed Prophets have been destroyed.
Niccolo MachiavelliA beautiful body perishes, but a work of art dies not.
Leonardo da VinciWe all know we have a finite period of time. I just feel if I’m going to be alive, I want to be challenged – to be as immortal as possible. The path to that isn’t an easy way, but it’s a rewarding way.
Frank OceanThe bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Whoever will be born must destroy a world.
Hermann HesseI’ve looked that old scoundrel death in the eye many times but this time I think he has me on the ropes.
Douglas MacArthurThe act of dying is one of the acts of life.
Marcus AureliusEvery time I think that I’m getting old, and gradually going to the grave, something else happens.
Elvis PresleyOne has children in the expectation of dying before them. In fact, you want to make damn sure you die before them, just as you plant a tree or build a house knowing, hoping that it will outlive you. That’s how the human species has done as well as it has.
Christopher HitchensBetween us and heaven or hell there is only life, which is the frailest thing in the world.
Blaise PascalFrom the dust of the earth, from the common elementary fund, the Creator has made Homo sapiens. From the same material he has made every other creature, however noxious and insignificant to us. They are earth-born companions and our fellow mortals.
John MuirLife levels all men. Death reveals the eminent.
George Bernard ShawThe last act is bloody, however pleasant all the rest of the play is: a little earth is thrown at last upon our head, and that is the end forever.
Blaise PascalColleges are like old-age homes, except for the fact that more people die in colleges.
Bob DylanLife is a gamble. You can get hurt, but people die in plane crashes, lose their arms and legs in car accidents; people die every day. Same with fighters: some die, some get hurt, some go on. You just don’t let yourself believe it will happen to you.
Muhammad AliSooner or later, I hate to break it to you, you’re gonna die, so how do you fill in the space between here and there? It’s yours. Seize your space.
Margaret AtwoodI’ve reached the point where I hardly care whether I live or die. The world will keep on turning without me, and I can’t do anything to change events anyway.
Anne FrankAs a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.
Leonardo da VinciI’m not resigned, but I’m realistic too. The statistics in my case are very poor. Not many people come through esophageal cancer and live to talk about it, or not for long. And the other wager is, the part of the wager, it’s a certainty you’ll have a terrible time and you may wish you were dying because it’s an awful process.
Christopher HitchensWhether you like it or not, you’re forced to come to the realisation that death is out there. But I don’t fear death, I’m a fatalist. I believe when it’s your time, that’s it. It’s the hand you’re dealt.
Clint EastwoodAlas, I am dying beyond my means.
Oscar WildeMust not all things at the last be swallowed up in death?
PlatoIf you look back at the history of the twentieth century, Germany alone had practically destroyed Russia several times.
Noam ChomskyIn the brute physical world, and the one encompassed by medicine, there are all too many things that could kill you, don’t kill you, and then leave you considerably weaker.
Christopher HitchensEvery existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness, and dies by chance.
Jean-Paul SartreMy gold, my money couldn’t stop cancer from appearing on my body. If they can’t save me, then I don’t need them.
Mr. TOne always dies too soon or too late. And yet, life is there, finished: the line is drawn, and it must all be added up. You are nothing other than your life.
Jean-Paul SartreThere are more people dying of malaria than any specific cancer.
Bill GatesIt is natural to die as to be born.
Francis BaconMillions of people die every day. Everyone’s got to go sometime.
Christopher HitchensThere’s something about death that is comforting. The thought that you could die tomorrow frees you to appreciate your life now.
Angelina JolieThat we must all die, we always knew; I wish I had remembered it sooner.
Samuel Johnson