As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport.
William ShakespeareCapitalism has destroyed our belief in any effective power but that of self interest backed by force.
George Bernard ShawShall I, that have destroyed my Preservers, return home?
Alexander the GreatLife 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 AliMost people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.
Bertrand RussellSooner 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 AtwoodTo walk through the ruined cities of Germany is to feel an actual doubt about the continuity of civilization.
George OrwellThere are more people dying of malaria than any specific cancer.
Bill GatesEvery existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness, and dies by chance.
Jean-Paul SartreIf my survival caused another to perish, then death would be sweeter and more beloved.
Khalil GibranThere’s something about death that is comforting. The thought that you could die tomorrow frees you to appreciate your life now.
Angelina JolieDalton’s records, carefully preserved for a century, were destroyed during the World War II bombing of Manchester. It is not only the living who are killed in war.
Isaac AsimovDo not try to live forever. You will not succeed.
George Bernard ShawPrevious 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 PratchettEach life makes its own immitation of immortality.
Stephen KingI’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 FrankDeath is just life’s next big adventure.
J. K. RowlingFor 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. KennedyHow young can you die of old age?
Steven WrightJohn Dalton’s records, carefully preserved for a century, were destroyed during the World War II bombing of Manchester. It is not only the living who are killed in war.
Isaac AsimovMen should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries – for heavy ones they cannot.
Niccolo MachiavelliFear of death increases in exact proportion to increase in wealth.
Ernest HemingwayI look upon death to be as necessary to our constitution as sleep. We shall rise refreshed in the morning.
Benjamin FranklinCan a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable.
C. S. LewisDeath to me means nothing as long as I can die fast.
Bob DylanYou are a little soul carrying around a corpse.
EpictetusGod is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. Yet his shadow still looms. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives; who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves?
Friedrich NietzscheIt’s not morbid to talk about death. Most people don’t worry about death, they worry about a bad death.
Terry PratchettDeath does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.
EpicurusColleges are like old-age homes, except for the fact that more people die in colleges.
Bob DylanHeathenism is a state of mind. You can take it that I’m referring to one who does not see his world. He has no mental light. He destroys almost unwittingly. He cannot feel any Gods presence in his life. He is the 21st century man.
David BowieRadical 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 ChomskyDeath is a commingling of eternity with time; in the death of a good man, eternity is seen looking through time.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheI think when you see an aircraft fire, these angry, black puffs of smoke, knowing that one of them could kill you that you – you – you understand the seriousness of the mission. And you understand your own mortality.
George H. W. BushMan weeps to think that he will die so soon; woman, that she was born so long ago.
H. L. MenckenI am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
Winston ChurchillTo destroy is always the first step in any creation.
E. E. CummingsOne thing that I find very unmotivating is the kind of Plan B argument: when Earth gets destroyed, you want to be somewhere else. That doesn’t work for me. We have sent robotic probes now to every place in the solar system, and this is the best one.
Jeff BezosAs a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.
Leonardo da VinciKnowing that you are going to die is, I suspect, the beginning of wisdom.
Terry PratchettDeath obsesses me, yes it does. I can’t really understand why it doesn’t obsess everyone – I think it does really, I’m just a little more out about it.
J. K. RowlingDying is one of the few things that can be done as easily lying down.
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 GrahamIt is natural to die as to be born.
Francis BaconI’ve got all the money I’ll ever need, if I die by four o’clock.
Henny YoungmanMust not all things at the last be swallowed up in death?
PlatoThe body politic, as well as the human body, begins to die as soon as it is born, and carries itself the causes of its destruction.
Jean-Jacques RousseauYou don’t see too many atheists on the deathbed. They all start cramming then.
Dolly PartonMan the individual consoles himself for his passing with the thought of the offspring or the works which he leaves behind.
Pierre Teilhard de ChardinOur most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.
John F. KennedyWar is a way of shattering to pieces… materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable and… too intelligent.
George OrwellDeath is one moment, and life is so many of them.
Tennessee WilliamsThe essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor.
George OrwellIsrael is following policies which maximise its security threats… policies which choose expansion over security… policies which lead to their moral degradation, their isolation, their delegitimation, as they call it now, and very likely ultimate destruction. That’s not impossible.
Noam ChomskyOnly on the edge of the grave can man conclude anything.
Henry AdamsHence it comes about that all armed Prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed Prophets have been destroyed.
Niccolo MachiavelliI’m sorry, it’s true. Having children really changes your view on these things. We’re born, we live for a brief instant, and we die. It’s been happening for a long time. Technology is not changing it much – if at all.
Steve JobsAs a single withered tree, if set aflame, causes a whole forest to burn, so does a rascal son destroy a whole family.
ChanakyaMen fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased by tales, so is the other.
Francis BaconMillions 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 Hitchens