Thoughts on Death

I'm not afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens.
~ Woody Allen

To die is but to leave off dying and do the thing once for all.
~ Samuel Butler

Get old and stink.... and get very ugly...and die of fright by looking in a mirror.

Every man is born as many men and dies as a single one.
~ Martin Heidegger

Teach me to live that I may dread the grave as little as my bed.
~ Thomas Ken

We should weep for men at their birth, not at their death.
~ Charles De Montesquieu

One should die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche

I can die when I wish to: that is my elixir of life.
~ Ernest Renan

Most people would rather die than think: many do.
~ Bertrand Russell

Death is more universal than life; everyone dies but not everyone lives.
~ A. Sachs

Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live.
~ Henry Van Dyke

Death is the enemy. I spent 10 years of my life singlemindedly studying, practicing, fighting hand to hand in close quarters to defeat the enemy, to send him back bloodied and humble and I am not going to roll over and surrender.
~ Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider

The sword outwears its sheath, and the soul wears out the breast. And the heart must pause to breathe, and love itself have rest. ~ Lord Byron

All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. ~ John Donne

"Everything that gets born dies. The best way to deal with that is to live in a fully conscious, compassionate, loving way.... Don't wait until you're on your deathbed to recognize that this is the only way to live." ~ Professor Morrie Schwartz