Death is a part of life, without death, there will never be birth and life.
The loss of a loved one is the hardest thing any of us will have to deal with in our lives. A lot of people have a different idea of death. We’ve scoured the web, and put together a collection of some of the greatest quotes about death.
Here’s a collection of the best quotes about death:
Table of Contents
The 100 Quotes About Death
1. “If life must not be taken too seriously, then so neither must death.” – Samuel Butler
2. “I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.” – Leonardo da Vinci
3. “Every exit is an entry somewhere else.” – Tom Stoppard
4. “Neither fire nor wind, birth nor death can erase our good deeds.” – Buddha
5. “It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.” – Samuel Johnson
6. “It’s better to burn out than to fade away.” – Neil Young
7. “I shall not die of a cold. I shall die of having lived.” – Willa Cather
8. “The meaning of life is that it stops.” – Franz Kafka
9. “Nothing is ever certain.” – Alice Sebold
10th of 100 Quotes About Death
10. “Religion is the human response to being alive and having to die.” – Forrest Church
11. “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” – Mahatma Gandhi
12. “My mama always used to tell me: ‘If you can’t find somethin’ to live for, you best find somethin’ to die for’.” – Tupac Shakur
13. “In the short term, you’ll see a thunderstorm. Once the thunderstorm is over, you’ll see flowers.” – Maxime Lagacé
14. “The idea is to die young as late as possible.” – Ashley Montagu
15. “Do not fear death so much but rather the inadequate life.” – Bertolt Brecht
16. “Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there’s a difference for me, you know. Because in that other room I shall be able to see.” – Helen Keller
17. “Death is a challenge. It tells us not to waste time… It tells us to tell each other right now that we love each other.” – Leo Buscaglia
18. “I’m not afraid of death because I don’t believe in it. It’s just getting out of one car, and into another.” – John Lennon
19. “Death is but a door, time is but a window.” – I’ll be back! Ghostbusters II
20th of 100 Quotes About Death
20. “Man cannot possess anything as long as he fears death. But to him who does not fear it, everything belongs.” – Leo Tolstoy
21. “Death never makes sense to our minds. Just let it go.” – Maxime Lagacé
22. “It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.” – Marcus Aurelius
23. “If we lose love and self-respect for each other, this is how we finally die.” – Maya Angelou
24. “Death is so terribly final, while life is full of possibilities.” – George R.R. Martin (Game of Thrones)
25. “Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them.” – George Eliot
26. “Death is the ultimate boundary of human matters.” – Horace
27. “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.” – Joseph Stalin
28. “Death is never an apology.” – Soul King
29. “The highest tribute to the dead is not grief but gratitude.” – Thornton Wilder
30th of 100 Quotes About Death
30. “All men think that all men are mortal but themselves.” – Edward Young
31. “By becoming deeply aware of our mortality, we intensify our experience of every aspect of life.” – Robert Greene
32. “Why should I fear death? If I am, death is not. If death is, I am not. Why should I fear that which cannot exist when I do?” – Epicurus
33. “You needn’t die happy when your time comes, but you must die satisfied, for you have lived your life from the beginning to the end.” – Stephen King
34. “Death takes no bribes.” – Benjamin Franklin
35. “There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.” – Washington Irving
36. “Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn.” – Mahatma Gandhi
37. “No art is possible without a dance with death.” – Kurt Vonnegut
38. “In my end is my beginning.” – Mary, Queen of Scots
39. “Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets.” – Arthur Miller
40th of 100 Quotes About Death
40. “Death is nothing, but to live defeated is to die every day.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
41. “What would life be worth if there were no death? Who would enjoy the sun if it never rained? Who would yearn for the day if there were no night?” – Glenn Ringtved
42. “Everyone dies but not everyone lives.” – William Wallace
43. “Death is like a mirror in which the true meaning of life is reflected.” – Sogyal Rinpoche
44. “End? No, the journey doesn’t end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it.” – J.R.R. Tolkien
45. “The hardest thing you overcome are the ones that give the most meaning.” – Maxime Lagacé
46. “No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they’d die for.” – Martin Luther King Jr
47. “For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun? And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.” – Kahlil Gibran
48. “Death is a distant rumor to the young.” – Andrew A. Rooney
49. “Life is hard. After all, it kills you.” – Katharine Hepburn
50th of 100 Quotes About Death
50. “While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.” – Leonardo da Vinci
51. “Everyone dies eventually, whether they have power or not. That’s why you need to think about what you’ll accomplish while you’re alive.” – Mary Macbeth
52. “I want to be all used up when I die.” – George Bernard Shaw
53. “The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity.” – Seneca
54. “Life has more meaning in the face of death.” – Robert Greene
55. “Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.” – Norman Cousins
56. “To die will be an awfully big adventure.” – Peter Pan
57. “Death never takes the wise man by surprise, he is always ready to go.” – Jean de La Fontaine
58. “They say you die twice. One time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time.” – Banksy
59. “Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.” – Amelia Burr
60th of 100 Quotes About Death
60. “Keep the prospect of death, exile, and all such apparent tragedies before you every day – especially death – and you will never have an abject thought, or desire anything to excess.” – Epictetus
61. “Death is a word, and it is the word, the image, that creates fear.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
62. “What we have once enjoyed deeply we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.” – Helen Keller
63. “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” – Mark Twain
64. “Give me liberty or give me death.” – Patrick Henry
65. “If you’re not ready to die for it, take the word “freedom” out of your vocabulary.” – Malcolm X
66. “For some moments in life, there are no words.” – David Seltzer
67. “Even trees do not die without a groan.” – Henry David Thoreau
68. “A normal human being does not want the Kingdom of Heaven: he wants life on earth to continue.” – George Orwell
69. “The fear of death is the beginning of slavery.” – Robert Anton Wilson
70th of 100 Quotes About Death
70. “I’m the one that’s got to die when it’s time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to.” – Jimi Hendrix
71. “Death is nothing else but going home to God, the bond of love will be unbroken for all eternity.” – Mother Teresa
72. “Though death be poor, it ends a mortal woe.” – William Shakespeare
73. “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” – Henry David Thoreau
74. “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.” – Unknown
75. “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” – Mark Twain
76. “We are born from a quiet sleep, and we die to a calm awakening.” – Zhuangzi
77. “Life without an ideal is spiritual death.” – Emma Goldman
78. “I feel monotony and death to be almost the same.” – Charlotte Brontë
79. “Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!” – Hunter S. Thompson
80th of 100 Quotes About Death
80. “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” – J.K. Rowling
81. “It is nothing to die. It is frightful not to live.” – Victor Hugo
82. “Death commences too early – almost before you’re half-acquainted with life – you meet the other.” – Tennessee Williams
83. “Death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life’s change agent, it clears out the old to make way for the new.” – Steve Jobs
84. “No one here gets out alive.” – Jim Morrison
85. “Death makes equal the high and low.” – John Heywood
86. “The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there’s no risk of accident for someone who’s dead.” – Albert Einstein
87. “Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes. Because for those who love with heart and soul there is no such thing as separation.” – Rumi
88. “Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.” – Rabindranath Tagore
89. “I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.” – Winston Churchill
90th of 100 Quotes About Death
90. “I don’t want to die without any scars.” – Chuck Palahniuk
91. “You’ll drift apart, it’s true, but you’ll be out in the open, part of everything alive again.” – Philip Pullman
92. “Everyone dies. But not everyone really lives.” – Unknown
93. “Life is like a very short visit to a toy shop between birth and death.” – Desmond Morris
94. “The phoenix must burn to emerge.” – Janet Fitch
95. “As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.” – Leonardo da Vinci
96. “It is the secret of the world that all things subsist and do not die, but retire a little from sight and afterwards return again.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
97. “Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once.” – William Shakespeare (Julius Caesar)
98. “When I shall die, let it be doing that I had designed.” – Ovid
99. “Death pays all debts.” – William Shakespeare
100. “The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?” – Edgar Allan Poe
Summary
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