mortality quotes

Man the individual consoles himself for his passing with the thought of the offspring or the works which he leaves behind.

Many people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.

Millions of people die every day. Everyone’s got to go sometime.

In 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.

I’ve got all the money I’ll ever need, if I die by four o’clock.

My father had died, and very swiftly, too, of cancer of the esophagus. He was 79. I am 61. In whatever kind of a ‚race‘ life may be, I have very abruptly become a finalist.

As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport.

I’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.

Previous 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.

Man weeps to think that he will die so soon; woman, that she was born so long ago.

My 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.

Life is so, so short. Bible says it’s like a vapor.

Death is a fearful thing.

We all die, we all get sick, we all feel hunger and lust and pain, and therefore human life is consistent from one generation to the other. We all – most of us, anyway – want connections with other people and spend our lives looking for them.

All diseases run into one, old age.

Knowing that you are going to die is, I suspect, the beginning of wisdom.

I am 55 years old now. It takes three years to write one book. I don’t know how many books I will be able to write before I die. It is like a countdown. So with each book I am praying – please let me live until I am finished.

Between us and heaven or hell there is only life, which is the frailest thing in the world.

I don’t know how much longer I’ll be around. I’ll probably be writing when the Lord says, ‚Maya, Maya Angelou, it’s time.‘

It is possible to provide security against other ills, but as far as death is concerned, we men live in a city without walls.

Do not try to live forever. You will not succeed.

My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me.

By the time you’ve reached your sixties, you do know that one day you will die, and knowing that is at least the beginning of wisdom.

When we talk about mortality, we are talking about our children.

Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.

We 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.

If we had a keen vision of all that is ordinary in human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow or the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which is the other side of silence.

Let us beware of saying that death is the opposite of life. The living being is only a species of the dead, and a very rare species.

Only on the edge of the grave can man conclude anything.

One has to pay dearly for immortality; one has to die several times while one is still alive.

If my survival caused another to perish, then death would be sweeter and more beloved.

Mortality is very different when you’re 20 to when you’re 50.

It is often said that before you die your life passes before your eyes. It is in fact true. It’s called living.

Life 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.

Life levels all men. Death reveals the eminent.

It’s not catastrophes, murders, deaths, diseases, that age and kill us; it’s the way people look and laugh, and run up the steps of omnibuses.

Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.

You’re going to die. You’re going to be dead. It could be 20 years, it could be tomorrow, anytime. So am I. I mean, we’re just going to be gone. The world’s going to go on without us. All right now. You do your job in the face of that, and how seriously you take yourself you decide for yourself.

Sooner 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.

Someone has to die in order that the rest of us should value life more.

I’ve looked that old scoundrel death in the eye many times but this time I think he has me on the ropes.

You’re born. You suffer. You die. Fortunately, there’s a loophole.

The 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.

Which death is preferably to every other? ‚The unexpected‘.

From the middle of life onward, only he remains vitally alive who is ready to die with life.

All this talk about equality. The only thing people really have in common is that they are all going to die.

Nature puts no question and answers none which we mortals ask. She has long ago taken her resolution.

One 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.

Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.

We have been so successful in the past century at the art of living longer and staying alive that we have forgotten how to die. Too often we learn the hard way. As soon as the baby boomers pass pensionable age, their lesson will be harsher still.

I think that a man should not live beyond the age when he begins to deteriorate, when the flame that lighted the brightest moment of his life has weakened.

No one can outrun death. It will catch up to all of us eventually.

Age 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.

The 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.

We all gonna die eventually from something or other, but don’t be a wimp. Put up a good fight.

Dying is a wild night and a new road.

Death is a commingling of eternity with time; in the death of a good man, eternity is seen looking through time.

Our 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.

That we must all die, we always knew; I wish I had remembered it sooner.

As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.