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Link Quote Stars Tags Author
8c1dbb9 To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure. death inspirational J.K. Rowling
b02c8ab "I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo. "So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us." time death J.R.R. Tolkien
760ef5a "I DON'T CARE!" Harry yelled at them, snatching up a lunascope and throwing it into the fireplace. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH, I'VE SEEN ENOUGH, I WANT OUT, I WANT IT TO END, I DON'T CARE ANYMORE!" "You do care," said Dumbledore. He had not flinched or made a single move to stop Harry demolishing his office. His expression was calm, almost detached. "You care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it." pain harry-potter death life dumbledore hurt J.K. Rowling
b60a358 I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it. death inspirational Mark Twain
694bcc4 "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!" -- death life Hunter S. Thompson
887c786 We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and--in spite of True Romance magazines--we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely--at least, not all the time--but essentially, and finally, alone. This is what makes your self-respect so important, and I don't see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness. death life love growing-up birth growth self-respect lonely Hunter S. Thompson
52c3c27 When people don't express themselves, they die one piece at a time. death inspirational voice Laurie Halse Anderson
240cc36 "I meant," said Ipslore bitterly, "what is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile?" Death thought about it. CATS, he said eventually. CATS ARE NICE." death life Terry Pratchett
7983027 there is a place in the heart tha death inspirational Charles bukowski
55c633b Death is Peaceful, Life is Harder death life Stephenie Meyer
81dd58f When you're dead, they really fix you up. I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody. death funeral-rites holden J.D. Salinger
4eab512 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. faith death wisdom inspirational blindness Helen Keller
9d30ec9 No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they'd die for. death inspirational Martin Luther King Jr.
63ff8d9 A man with outward courage dares to die; a man with inner courage dares to live. courage death life inspirational moral-courage real-life Lao Tzu
c5ed5ee We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred? wonder death science inspirational Richard Dawkins
5625615 It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live. fear death inspirational Marcus Aurelius
aa278eb "When Great Trees Fall When great trees fall, rocks on distant hills shudder, lions hunker down in tall grasses, and even elephants lumber after safety. When great trees fall in forests, small things recoil into silence, their senses eroded beyond fear. When great souls die, the air around us becomes light, rare, sterile. We breathe, briefly. Our eyes, briefly, see with a hurtful clarity. Our memory, suddenly sharpened, examines, gnaws on kind words unsaid, promised walks never taken. Great souls die and our reality, bound to them, takes leave of us. Our souls, dependent upon their nurture, now shrink, wizened. Our minds, formed and informed by their radiance, fall away. We are not so much maddened as reduced to the unutterable ignorance of dark, cold caves. And when great souls die, after a period peace blooms, slowly and always irregularly. Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration. Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to us. They existed. They existed. poets poem poems poetry writing death life i-shall-not-be-moved when-great-trees-fall maya-angelou trees souls peace soul writers poet Maya Angelou
063e142 No one can say that death found in me a willing comrade, or that I went easily. mortality death clockwork-princess i-can-t-even omg-my-feels the-infernal-devices cassandra-clare dying Cassandra Clare
d19aeac Yea, all things live forever, though at times they sleep and are forgotten. sleep mortality immortality death life live-forever forgetting forget H. Rider Haggard
724b00c Because there is no glory in illness. There is no meaning to it. There is no honor in dying of. illness death John Green
51dc133 Nothing is ever certain. lies death truth phrases cruel sad Alice Sebold
c179897 Delaying death is one of my favorite hobbies death humor delaying leo the-mark-of-athena Rick Riordan
0e7aae7 I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race - that rarely do I even simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant...I AM HAUNTED BY HUMANS. words death the-book-thief Markus Zusak
6ad3a96 It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners. death intelligence scholars thinkers execution Albert Camus
117e428 "May she wake in torment!" he cried, with frightful vehemence, stamping his foot, and groaning in a sudden paroxysm of ungovernable passion. "Why, she's a liar to the end! Where is she? Not there--not in heaven--not perished--where? Oh! you said you cared nothing for my sufferings! And I pray one prayer--I repeat it till my tongue stiffens--May she wake in torment!" he cried, with frightful vehemence, stamping his foot, and groaning in a sudden paroxysm of ungovernable passion. "Why, she's a liar to the end! Where is she? Not there--not in heaven--not perished--where? Oh! you said you cared nothing for my sufferings! And I pray one prayer--I repeat it till my tongue stiffens--Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living; you said I killed you--haunt me, then! The murdered do haunt their murderers, I believe. I know that ghosts have wandered on earth. Be with me always--take any form--drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!" hate death love thwarted malediction obsession Emily Brontë
9e68659 What is called a reason for living is also an excellent reason for dying. living death life dying Albert Camus
54b5b57 You're Hell's Angels, then? What chapter are you from?' 'REVELATIONS. CHAPTER SIX. death humor hells-angels Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
6289488 But she wasn't around, and that's the thing when your parents die, you feel like instead of going in to every fight with backup, you are going into every fight alone. loss death back-up death-of-a-loved-one parents fight dying Mitch Albom
325c974 How could you go about choosing something that would hold the half of your heart you had to bury? mourning loss death heart love casket funeral Jodi Picoult
63ebd52 Whatever happens, they say afterwards, it must have been fate. People are always a little confused about this, as they are in the case of miracles. When someone is saved from certain death by a strange concatenation of circumstances, they say that's a miracle. But of course if someone is by a freak chain of events -- the oil spilled just there, the safety fence broken just there -- that must also be a miracle. Just because it's not nice doesn't mean it's not miraculous. fate death circumstance killed confusion miraculous miracles saved Terry Pratchett
3f32ad0 These were the lovely bones that had grown around my absence: the connections-sometimes tenuous, sometimes made at great cost, but often magnificent-that happened after I was gone. And I began to see things in a way that let me hold the world without me in it. The events that my death wrought were merely the bones of a body that would become whole at some unpredictable time in the future. The price of what I came to see as this miraculous body had been my life. death life inspirational Alice Sebold
c78a487 What greater thing is there for two human souls, than to feel that they are joined for life--to strengthen each other in all labor, to rest on each other in all sorrow, to minister to each other in all pain, to be one with each other in silent unspeakable memories at the moment of the last parting? marriage sorrow relationship death sadness love fellowship memory George Eliot
82a5fcc Things die. But they don't always stay dead. Believe me, I know. death inspirational Richelle Mead
d8a34b3 Death, taxes and childbirth! There's never any convenient time for any of them. death humor truth taxes Margaret Mitchell
fb7a294 I've crossed some kind of invisible line. I feel as if I've come to a place I never thought I'd have to come to. And I don't know how I got here. It's a strange place. It's a place where a little harmless dreaming and then some sleepy, early-morning talk has led me into considerations of death and annihilation. sleep death life insomnia place dreaming lost Raymond Carver
346eb0b Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not. death philosophy wisdom inspirational awful serenity peace Epicurus
fd25e59 I have noticed that even those who assert that everything is predestined and that we can change nothing about it still look both ways before they cross the street death destiny life Stephen W. Hawking
703dceb Everyone grieves in different ways. For some, it could take longer or shorter. I do know it never disappears. An ember still smolders inside me. Most days, I don't notice it, but, out of the blue, it'll flare to life. grief death Maria V. Snyder
df82952 Because children grow up, we think a child's purpose is to grow up. But a child's purpose is to be a child. Nature doesn't disdain what lives only for a day. It pours the whole of itself into the each moment. We don't value the lily less for not being made of flint and built to last. Life's bounty is in its flow, later is too late. Where is the song when it's been sung? The dance when it's been danced? It's only we humans who want to own the future, too. We persuade ourselves that the universe is modestly employed in unfolding our destination. We note the haphazard chaos of history by the day, by the hour, but there is something wrong with the picture. Where is the unity, the meaning, of nature's highest creation? Surely those millions of little streams of accident and wilfulness have their correction in the vast underground river which, without a doubt, is carrying us to the place where we're expected! But there is no such place, that's why it's called utopia. The death of a child has no more meaning than the death of armies, of nations. Was the child happy while he lived? That is a proper question, the only question. If we can't arrange our own happiness, it's a conceit beyond vulgarity to arrange the happiness of those who come after us. death happiness moment-of-being tom-stoppard utopias meaning-of-life Tom Stoppard
e2729c1 The absence of the will to live is, alas, not sufficient to make one want to die. death life inspirational boredom misery Michel Houellebecq
e3598b0 The death of a beloved is an amputation. death C.S. Lewis
8de4d46 There comes a time when we realize that our parents cannot save themselves or save us, that everyone who wades through time eventually gets dragged out to sea by the undertow- that, in short, we are all going. death inspirational John Green
acf4215 Before I go," he said, and paused -- "I may kiss her? sacrifice death love inspirational made-me-cry nobility Charles Dickens
af62972 Dogs do not have many advantages over people, but one of them is extremely important: euthanasia is not forbidden by law in their case; animals have the right to a merciful death. human-rights death euthanasia animals Milan Kundera
6b8423f ...Despite the mayhem that followed, Bruno found that he was still holding Shmuel's hand in his own and nothing in the world would have persuaded him to let go. death friendship life love inspirational wwii-fiction tear-jerker holocaust John Boyne
8bcdbf4 She had been given a wonderful gift: life. Sometimes it was cruelly taken away too soon, but it's what you did with it that counted, not how long it lasted. comfort death life inspirational nice Cecelia Ahern
cad7ca5 Sometimes dead is better death undead dead Stephen King
b2f4ee5 No man ever threw away life while it was worth keeping. suicide joy death strength optimism life truth inspirational endurance David Hume
13955d1 You are so young, Lyra, too young to understand this, but I shall tell you anyway and you'll understand it later: men pass in front of our eyes like butterflies, creatures of a brief season. We love them; they are brave, proud, beautiful, clever; and they die almost at once. They die so soon that our hearts are continually racked with pain. We bear their children, who are witches if they are female, human if not; and then in the blink of an eye they are gone, felled, slain, lost. Our sons, too. When a little boy is growing, he thinks he is immortal. His mother knows he isn't. Each time becomes more painful, until finally your heart is broken. Perhaps that is when Yambe-Akka comes for you. She is older than the tundra. Perhaps, for her, witches' lives are as brief as men's are to us. witches death Philip Pullman
6df908f If children were brought into the world by an act of pure reason alone, would the human race continue to exist? Would not a man rather have so much sympathy with the coming generation as to spare it the burden of existence, or at any rate not take it upon himself to impose that burden upon it in cold blood? death life pessimism Arthur Schopenhauer
f02ad5c You attend the funeral, you bid the dead farewell. You grieve. Then you continue with your life. And at times the fact of her absence will hit you like a blow to the chest, and you will weep. But this will happen less and less as time goes on. She is dead. You are alive. So live. grief death Neil Gaiman
608cee6 To be the father of growing daughters is to understand something of what Yeats evokes with his imperishable phrase 'terrible beauty.' Nothing can make one so happily exhilarated or so frightened: it's a solid lesson in the limitations of self to realize that your heart is running around inside someone else's body. It also makes me quite astonishingly calm at the thought of death: I know whom I would die to protect and I also understand that nobody but a lugubrious serf can possibly wish for a father who never goes away. fathers mortality death religion god daughters yeats fatherhood Christopher Hitchens
ccea51f Man cannot possess anything as long as he fears death. But to him who does not fear it, everything belongs. If there was no suffering, man would not know his limits, would not know himself. death inspirational Leo Tolstoy
ce06e7e "One of the first signs of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die. This life appears unbearable, another unattainable. One is no longer ashamed of wanting to die; one asks to be moved from the old cell, which one hates, to a new one, which one willl only in time come to hate. In this there is also a residue of belief that during the move the master will chance to come along the corridor, look at the prisoner and say: "This man is not to be locked up again, He is to come with me." suicide death cell stuck-in-a-rut crisis revelation prison Franz Kafka
1c129e8 "Draco, do it, or stand aside so one of us -" screeched the woman, but at that precise moment the door to the ramparts burst open once more and there stood Snape, his wand clutched in his hand as his black eyes swept the scene, from Dumbledore slumped against the wall, to the four Death Eaters, including the enraged werewolf, and Malfoy. "We've got a problem, Snape," said the lumpy Amycus, whose eyes and wand were fixed alike upon Dumbledore, "the boy doesn't seem able -" But somebody else had spoken Snape's name, quite softly. "Severus ..." The sound frightened Harry beyond anything he had experienced all evening. For the first time, Dumbledore was pleading. Snape said nothing, but walked forwards and pushed Malfoy roughly out of the way. The three Death Eaters fell back without a word. Even the werewolf seemed cowed. Snape gazed for a moment at Dumbledore, and there was revulsion and hatred etched in the harsh lines of his face. "Severus ... please ..." Snape raised his wand and pointed it directly at Dumbledore. "Avada Kedavra!" harry-potter death shock malfoy snape dumbledore terror J.K. Rowling
e3d948d If after I die, people want to write my biography, there is nothing simpler. They only need two dates: the date of my birth and the date of my death. Between one and another, every day is mine. poetry death life privacy intimacy Fernando Pessoa
f451863 Of all the wonders that I have heard death inspirational William Shakespeare
0dd87dd I DON'T HOLD WITH CRUELTY TO CATS. death Terry Pratchett
09d1c0d They say that war is death's best friend, but I must offer you a different point of view on that one. To me, war is like the new boss who expects the impossible. He stands over your shoulder repeating one thin, incessantly: 'Get it done, get it done.' So you work harder. You get the job done. The boss, however, does not thank you. He asks for more. war death Markus Zusak
a055e98 Oh, brothers! I don't care for brothers. My elder brother won't die, and my younger brothers seem never to do anything else. death friendship brothers Oscar Wilde
2c5da30 Death twitches my ear death-and-dying philosophical living death philosophy inspirational creepy seize-the-day carpe-diem Virgil
270e514 regret is mostly caused by not having done anything. poem poetry death life love truth regret regrets Charles Bukowski
a43c7e7 It's been a prevalent notion. Fallen sparks. Fragments of vessels broken at the Creation. And someday, somehow, before the end, a gathering back to home. A messenger from the Kingdom, arriving at the last moment. But I tell you there is no such message, no such home -- only the millions of last moments . . . nothing more. Our history is an aggregate of last moments. death life Thomas Pynchon
2b8f23d Death is part of who we are. It guides us. It shapes us. It drives us to madness. Can you still be human if you have no mortal end human death Christopher Paolini
ef3888b On no subject are our ideas more warped and pitiable than on death. ... Let children walk with nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life, and that the grave has no victory, for it never fights. joy beauty death life inspirational warped victory ideas John Muir
bba4dd5 Criminals do not die by the hands of the law. They die by the hands of other men. death punishment justice crime George Bernard Shaw
71cda0d Dead people can be our heroes because they cant disappoint us later; they only improve over time, as we forget more and more about them. heroes death life the-traitor tobias-eaton fourtris divergent four tris-prior veronica-roth Veronica Roth
b78b5bb You can't give her that!' she screamed. 'It's not safe!' IT'S A SWORD, said the Hogfather. THEY'RE NOT MEANT TO BE SAFE. 'She's a child!' shouted Crumley. IT'S EDUCATIONAL. 'What if she cuts herself?' THAT WILL BE AN IMPORTANT LESSON. lessons humour death humor discworld hogfather important-lessons swords Terry Pratchett
1d03ba9 Whatever happens to your body, your soul will survive, untouched... death life wisdom soul J.K. Rowling
a14f0b2 when we were kids laying around the lawn on our bellies we often talked about how we'd like to die and we all agreed on the same thing; we'd all like to die fucking (although none of us had done any fucking) and now that we are hardly kids any longer we think more about how not to die and although we're ready most of us would prefer to do it alone under the sheets now that most of us have fucked our lives away. kids sex poem poetry death life love bukowski growing-up die nostalgia Charles Bukowski
c90f516 To be heroic is to be courageous enough to die for something; to be inspirational is to be crazy enough to live a little. heroes heroic stand-out heroism clever courage living death motivational success life inspirational stand courageous winning definition living-life-to-the-fullest soldier warrior hero crazy Criss Jami
a6cada3 "Two turtle doves will show thee Where my cold ashes lie loneliness death dead-souls doves whisper crying sad Nikolai Gogol
286a506 The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones. good death reputation deeds legacy remembrance evil William Shakespeare
69298ec "Snape raised his wand and pointed it directly at Dumbledore. " " death snape dumbledore J.K. Rowling
7c95131 Everyone sounded the same when they died. death Sarah J. Maas
860dda3 Don't wake me for the end of the world unless it has very good special effects. death life simulacra post-modernism end-of-the-world cinema armageddon Roger Zelazny
9714114 Well I'd certainly hate to interrupt your pleasant night stroll with my sudden death. death night-stroll jace-wayland Cassandra Clare
2812d97 But he understood at last what Dumbledore had been trying to tell him. It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high. Some people, perhaps, would say that there was little to choose between the two ways, but Dumbledore knew -- , thought Harry, with a rush of fierce pride, -- that there was all the difference in the world. death dumbledore battle pride J.K. Rowling
f68bea8 Oh Lestat, you deserved everything that's ever happened to you. You better not die. You might actually go to hell. karma death deserved louis lestat lestat-de-lioncourt remorse punishment vampire hell Anne Rice
8493f94 Everyone must leave something behind when he dies . . . Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die . . . It doesn't matter what you do, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. death legacy soul Ray Bradbury
7305ffa having nothing to struggle against they have nothing to struggle for. struggle poem poetry death strength life love bukowski stronger strength-through-adversity Charles Bukowski
2552460 He had been bored, that's all, bored like most people. Hence he had made himself out of whole cloth a life full of complications and drama. Something must happen - and that explains most human commitments. Something must happen, even loveless slavery, even war or death. Hurray then for funerals! war slavery death complication Albert Camus
8f0f883 Everyone gets the time they get together, and no more. Maybe we're not so different that way. time death life Cassandra Clare
c633c15 there's nothing to discuss there's nothing to remember there's nothing to forget it's sad and it's not sad seems the most sensible thing a person can do is sit with drink in hand as the walls wave their goodbye smiles one comes through it all with a certain amount of efficiency and bravery then leaves some accept the possibility of God to help them get through others take it staight on and to these I drink tonight. poem independence poetry death sadness god life love bukowski goodbyes help goodbye forgetting forget sad Charles Bukowski
2760977 "Mad Eye' Moody on the Avada Kedavra curse: "Not nice," he said calmly. "Not pleasant. And there's no counter curse. There's no blocking it. Only one known person has ever survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me." harry-potter death mad-eye-moody survive curse J.K. Rowling
3595aac Whatever can die is beautiful -- more beautiful than a unicorn, who lives forever, and who is the most beautiful creature in the world. Do you understand me? death Peter S. Beagle
e185dd4 Life is fragile and temporary. The faces of today quickly become the faces of the past. Sorrow, pain, and anger... it all fades lee-argus qoutes-to-live-by romance quote death life love inspirational Lee Argus
dc57f20 What separates us from the animals, what separates us from the chaos, is our ability to mourn people we've never met. death terrorism David Levithan
f6546cd "the worst thing," he told me, "is bitterness, people end up so bitter." personality individuality poem poetry death life love in-the-end bukowski bitterness self soul Charles Bukowski
b3f935c Do not act as if you had ten thousand years to throw away. Death stands at your elbow. Be good for something while you live and it is in your power. goodness death inspirational charity help Marcus Aurelius
9ba820c God surely did not create us, and cause us to live, with the sole end of wishing always to die. I believe, in my heart, we were intended to prize life and enjoy it, so long as we retain it. Existence never was originally meant to be that useless, blank, pale, slow-trailing thing it often becomes to many, and is becoming to me, among the rest. suicide courage joy death strength optimism life steadfastness endurance Charlotte Brontë
27d54f2 Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody. death j-d-salinger holden-caulfield flowers wry-humor J.D. Salinger
3d8c645 "I died for beauty, but was scarce Adjusted in the tomb, When one who died for truth was lain In an adjoining room. He questioned softly why I failed? "For beauty," I replied. "And I for truth,--the two are one; We brethren are," he said. And so, as kinsmen met a night, We talked between the rooms, Until the moss had reached our lips, And covered up our names." poetry death truth keats emily dickinson
1f427bb When the body escaped mutilation, seldom did the heart go to the grave unscarred. death heart grave Virginia Woolf
f89e702 Who but the mad would choose to keep on living? In the end, aren't we all just a little crazy? madness death life Libba Bray
583bd53 "I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles. You will hardly know who I am or what I mean universe nature death good-health look Walt Whitman
6807140 What if she's all I give you in this life of ours, my love?" she asked quietly finnickin isaboe death love inspirational finn Melina Marchetta
1ac81c6 I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers gratitude death life love inspirational oliver-sacks thinking Oliver Sacks
b1e7f80 "That's a nice song," said young Sam, and Vimes remembered that he was hearing it for the first time. "It's an old soldiers' song," he said. "Really, sarge? But it's about angels." , thought Vimes, "As I recall, they used to sing it after battles," he said. "I've seen old men cry when they sing it," he added. "Why? It sounds cheerful." , thought Vimes. " death comrades soldiers singing Terry Pratchett
6cf9c55 "Once upon a time there was a young prince who believed in all things but three. He did not believe in princesses, he did not believe in islands, he did not believe in God. His father, the king, told him that such things did not exist. As there were no princesses or islands in his father's domains, and no sign of God, the young prince believed his father. But then, one day, the prince ran away from his palace. He came to the next land. There, to his astonishment, from every coast he saw islands, and on these islands, strange and troubling creatures whom he dared not name. As he was searching for a boat, a man in full evening dress approached him along the shore. Are those real islands?' asked the young prince. Of course they are real islands,' said the man in evening dress. And those strange and troubling creatures?' They are all genuine and authentic princesses.' Then God must exist!' cried the prince. I am God,' replied the man in full evening dress, with a bow. The young prince returned home as quickly as he could. So you are back,' said the father, the king. I have seen islands, I have seen princesses, I have seen God,' said the prince reproachfully. The king was unmoved. Neither real islands, nor real princesses, I have seen God,' said the prince reproachfully. The king was unmoved. Neither real islands, nor real princesses, nor a real God exist.' I saw them!' Tell me how God was dressed.' God was in full evening dress.' Were the sleeves of his coat rolled back?' The prince remembered that they had been. The king smiled. That is the uniform of a magician. You have been deceived.' At this, the prince returned to the next land, and went to the same shore, where once again he came upon the man in full evening dress. My father the king has told me who you are,' said the young prince indignantly. 'You deceived me last time, but not again. Now I know that those are not real islands and real princesses, because you are a magician.' The man on the shore smiled. It is you who are deceived, my boy. In your father's kingdom there are many islands and many princesses. But you are under your father's spell, so you cannot see them.' The prince pensively returned home. When he saw his father, he looked him in the eyes. Father, is it true that you are not a real king, but only a magician?' The king smiled, and rolled back his sleeves. Yes, my son, I am only a magician.' Then the man on the shore was God.' The man on the shore was another magician.' I must know the real truth, the truth beyond magic.' There is no truth beyond magic,' said the king. The prince was full of sadness. He said, 'I will kill myself.' The king by magic caused death to appear. Death stood in the door and beckoned to the prince. The prince shuddered. He remembered the beautiful but unreal islands and the unreal but beautiful princesses. suicide magic death god life philosophy John Fowles
3b6fedc And there stood Basta with his foot already on another dead body, smiling. Why not? He had hit his target, and it was the target he had been aiming for all along: Dustfinger's heart, his stupid heart. It broke in two as he held Farid in his arms, it simply broke in two, although he had taken such good care of it all these years. death dustfinger Cornelia Funke
a3daa30 "How terrible," said Eragon, "to die alone, separate even from the one who is closest to you." " death eragon Christopher Paolini
687d3f5 She died--this was the way she died; And when her breath was done, Took up her simple wardrobe And started for the sun. Her little figure at the gate The angels must have spied, Since I could never find her Upon the mortal side. death emily-dickinson rebirth Emily Dickinson
c2967dd Endings are not always bad. Most times they're just beginnings in disguise. death Kim Harrison
4a1b962 Rosencrantz: We might as well be dead. Do you think death could possibly be a boat? Guildenstern: No, no, no... Death is...not. Death isn't. You take my meaning. Death is the ultimate negative. Not-being. You can't not-be on a boat. Rosencrantz: I've frequently not been on boats. Guildenstern: No, no, no--what you've been is not on boats. death Tom Stoppard
089d7b5 Waking up was a daily cruelty, an affront, and she avoided it by not sleeping. immortality death insomnia Gregory Maguire
1fa700b Dead, we are revealed in our true dimensions, and they are surprisingly modest. death life inspirational Michael Cunningham
a35124d Right, well, he'd been sick for a while and his nurse said to him, 'You seem to be feeling better this morning,' and Isben looked at her and said, 'On the contrary,' and then he died. death halter henrik-isben miles pudge green john last-words looking dying John Green
e1b97a4 We all know we're going to die; what's important is the kind of men and women we are in the face of this. death life inspirational Anne Lamott
4838d9f You only get one life. Live it to the fullest. All your miseries will be forgiven when you will be dead. death life-lessons inspirational Santosh Kalwar
1cd47a1 One false step, and you'll fall all the way to Tartarus--and believe me, unlike the Doors of Death, this would be a one-way trip, a very hard fall! I will have you dying before you tell me your plan for my artwork. death doors-of-death arachne artwork weaving tartarus heroes-of-olympus percy-jackson-and-the-olympians the-mark-of-athena Rick Riordan
14da37f girls please give your bodies and your lives to the young men who deserve them besides there is no way I would welcome the intolerable dull senseless hell you would bring me and I wish you luck in bed and out but not in mine thank you. irony poem poetry women funny death life love bukowski dull girls misogyny rejection sexuality hell Charles Bukowski
8792d4f "Here's the thing about Hazel: Almost everyone is obsessed with leaving a mark upon the world. Bequeathing a legacy. Outlasting death. We all want to be remembered. I do, too. That's what bothers me most, is being another unremembered casualty in the ancient and inglorious war against disease. I want to leave a mark. But Van Houten: The marks humans leave are too often scars. You build a hideous minimall or start a coup or try to become a rock star and you think, "They'll remember me now," but (a) they don't remember you, and (b) all you leave behind are more scars. Your coup becomes a dictatorship. Your minimall becomes a lesion. ... We are like a bunch of dogs squirting on fire hydrants. We poison the groundwater with our toxic piss, marking everything MINE in a ridiculous attempt to survive our deaths. I can't stop pissing on fire hydrants. I know it's silly and useless--epically useless in my current state--but I am an animal like any other. Hazel is different. She walks lightly, old man. She walks lightly upon the earth. Hazel knows the truth: We're as likely to hurt the universe as we are to help it, and we're not likely to do either. People will say it's sad that she leaves a lesser scar, that fewer remember her, that she was loved deeply but not widely. But it's not sad, Van Houten. It's triumphant. It's heroic. Isn't that the real heroism? Like the doctors say: First, do no harm. The real heroes anyway aren't the people doing things; the real heroes are the people NOTICING things, paying attention. The guy who invented the smallpox vaccine didn't actually invent anything. He just noticed that people with cowpox didn't get smallpox. ... But then I wanted more time so we could fall in love. I got my wish, I suppose. I left my scar. ... What else? She is so beautiful. You don't get tired of looking at her. You never worry if she is smarter than you: You know she is. She is funny without ever being mean. I love her. I am so lucky to love her, Van Houten. You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world, old man, but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices. I hope she likes hers." dogs death love fire-hydrant eulogy making-a-difference hurt legacy disease survival choices scars beautiful dying John Green
1476e94 The dead do not hurt you; only the living do. living death life the-sinner tess-gerritsen hurt Tess Gerritsen
79be547 "For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride, poe poetry death love Edgar Allan Poe
ba180fc Yet, at the same time, as the Eastern sages also knew, man is a worm and food for worms. This is the paradox: he is out of nature and hopelessly in it; he is dual, up in the stars and yet housed in a heart-pumping, breath-gasping body that once belonged to a fish and still carries the gill-marks to prove it. His body is a material fleshy casing that is alien to him in many ways--the strangest and most repugnant way being that it aches and bleeds and will decay and die nature death inspirational Ernest Becker
bb8f740 I didn't tell him that the diagnosis came three months after I got my first period. Like: Congratulations! You're a woman. Now die. death John Green
16ef79a For as much as I hate the cemetery, I've been grateful it's here, too. I miss my wife. It's easier to miss her at a cemetery, where she's never been anything but dead, than to miss her in all the places where she was alive. mourning loss death John Scalzi
ae0a77a Plants are more courageous than almost all human beings: an orange tree would rather die than produce lemons, whereas instead of dying the average person would rather be someone they are not. be-yourself acting adage adages aphorisms audacity axiom axioms balls cojones conforming courageousness dictum dictums fit-in hardihood heroism herself human-being intrepidity made-me-think make-you-think maxims motivated moxie murder murdered oneself persons pluckiness pretender pretenders profound provoke-thought quotation spunk standout themselves true-grit daring humour bravery courage inspired people human fear quote inspiration inspire death motivational humor inspirational fearful actor saying lemons conform animal pluck courageous lemon plants nerve boldness motive plant words-to-live-by killed gnomes nonconformity orange maxim tree brave actors façades act grit epigram epigrams gnome produce deep fitting-in valour proverbs facade aphorism pretending quotations sayings pretend conformity gallantry peoples guts standing-out trees animals satire satirical self thought-provoking person himself yourself quotes human-beings thoughtful insightful proverb humans kill fearlessness dead fruit fruits die Mokokoma Mokhonoana
a512429 When you realize that eternity is right here now, that it is within your possibility to experience the eternity of your own truth and being, then you grasp the following: That which you are was never born and will never die. . . . (90) death life now eternity Joseph Campbell
d97b208 Her absence is like the sky, spread over everything. But no, that is not quite accurate. There is one place where her absence comes locally home to me, and it is a place I can't avoid. I mean my own body. It had such a different importance while it was the body of H.'s lover. Now it's like an empty house. grief loss faith death stillbirth grieving C.S. Lewis
2a0d701 What are the dead, anyway, but waves and energy? Light shining from a dead star? That, by the way, is a phrase of Julian's. I remember it from a lecture of his on the Iliad, when Patroklos appears to Achilles in a dream. There is a very moving passage where Achilles overjoyed at the sight of the apparition - tries to throw his arms around the ghost of his old friend, and it vanishes. The dead appear to us in dreams, said Julian, because that's the only way they can make us see them; what we see is only a projection, beamed from a great distance, light shining at us from a dead star... Which reminds me, by the way, of a dream I had a couple of weeks ago. I found myself in a strange deserted city - an old city, like London - underpopulated by war or disease. It was night; the streets were dark, bombed-out, abandoned. For a long time, I wandered aimlessly - past ruined parks, blasted statuary, vacant lots overgrown with weeds and collapsed apartment houses with rusted girders poking out of their sides like ribs. But here and there, interspersed among the desolate shells of the heavy old public buildings, I began to see new buildings, too, which were connected by futuristic walkways lit from beneath. Long, cool perspectives of modern architecture, rising phosphorescent and eerie from the rubble. I went inside one of these new buildings. It was like a laboratory, maybe, or a museum. My footsteps echoed on the tile floors.There was a cluster of men, all smoking pipes, gathered around an exhibit in a glass case that gleamed in the dim light and lit their faces ghoulishly from below. I drew nearer. In the case was a machine revolving slowly on a turntable, a machine with metal parts that slid in and out and collapsed in upon themselves to form new images. An Inca temple... click click click... the Pyramids... the Parthenon. History passing beneath my very eyes, changing every moment. 'I thought I'd find you here,' said a voice at my elbow. It was Henry. His gaze was steady and impassive in the dim light. Above his ear, beneath the wire stem of his spectacles, I could just make out the powder burn and the dark hole in his right temple. I was glad to see him, though not exactly surprised. 'You know,' I said to him, 'everybody is saying that you're dead.' He stared down at the machine. The Colosseum... click click click... the Pantheon. 'I'm not dead,' he said. 'I'm only having a bit of trouble with my passport.' 'What?' He cleared his throat. 'My movements are restricted,' he said. 'I no longer have the ability to travel as freely as I would like.' Hagia Sophia. St. Mark's, in Venice. 'What is this place?' I asked him. 'That information is classified, I'm afraid.' 1 looked around curiously. It seemed that I was the only visitor. 'Is it open to the public?' I said. 'Not generally, no.' I looked at him. There was so much I wanted to ask him, so much I wanted to say; but somehow I knew there wasn't time and even if there was, that it was all, somehow, beside the point. 'Are you happy here?' I said at last. He considered this for a moment. 'Not particularly,' he said. 'But you're not very happy where you are, either.' St. Basil's, in Moscow. Chartres. Salisbury and Amiens. He glanced at his watch. 'I hope you'll excuse me,' he said, 'but I'm late for an appointment.' He turned from me and walked away. I watched his back receding down the long, gleaming hall. unhappiness death dreams museum classics Donna Tartt
d1d793d My peak? Would I even have one? I hardly had had anything you could call a life. A few ripples. some rises and falls. But that's it. Almost nothing. Nothing born of nothing. I'd loved and been loved, but I had nothing to show. It was a singularly plain, featureless landscape. I felt like I was in a video game. A surrogate Pacman, crunching blindly through a labyrinth of dotted lines. The only certainty was my death. death featureless pacman peak peaks ripples rising video-games labyrinth nothing falling Haruki Murakami
96ccb47 Farewell is said by the living, in life, every day. It is said with love and friendship, with the affirmation that the memories are lasting if the flesh is not. mourning death R.A. Salvatore
a83fec3 That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou seest the twilight of such day As after sunset fadeth in the west, Which by and by black night doth take away, Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, As the death-bed whereon it must expire Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by. This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong, To love that well which thou must leave ere long. winter death love priceless fall William Shakespeare
aab3266 ... just because [butterflies'] lives were short didn't mean they were tragic... See, they have a beautiful life. death truth inspirational Lisa Genova
1fb3c02 "A Second Childhood." When all my days are ending And I have no song to sing, I think that I shall not be too old To stare at everything; As I stared once at a nursery door Or a tall tree and a swing. Wherein God's ponderous mercy hangs On all my sins and me, Because He does not take away The terror from the tree And stones still shine along the road That are and cannot be. Men grow too old for love, my love, Men grow too old for wine, But I shall not grow too old to see Unearthly daylight shine, Changing my chamber's dust to snow Till I doubt if it be mine. Behold, the crowning mercies melt, The first surprises stay; And in my dross is dropped a gift For which I dare not pray: That a man grow used to grief and joy But not to night and day. Men grow too old for love, my love, Men grow too old for lies; But I shall not grow too old to see Enormous night arise, A cloud that is larger than the world And a monster made of eyes. Nor am I worthy to unloose The latchet of my shoe; Or shake the dust from off my feet Or the staff that bears me through On ground that is too good to last, Too solid to be true. Men grow too old to woo, my love, Men grow too old to wed; But I shall not grow too old to see Hung crazily overhead Incredible rafters when I wake And I find that I am not dead. A thrill of thunder in my hair: Though blackening clouds be plain, Still I am stung and startled By the first drop of the rain: Romance and pride and passion pass And these are what remain. Strange crawling carpets of the grass, Wide windows of the sky; So in this perilous grace of God With all my sins go I: And things grow new though I grow old, Though I grow old and die." joy wonder death life love old G.K. Chesterton
285ea48 Of course, in a novel, people's hearts break, and they die, and that is the end of it; and in a story this is very convenient. But in real life we do not die when all that makes life bright dies to us. There is a most busy and important round of eating, drinking, dressing, walking, visiting, buying, selling, talking, reading, and all that makes up what is commonly called living, yet to be gone through... death cabin harriet stowe tom uncle Harriet Beecher Stowe
192b546 The real heroes anyway aren't the people doing things; the real heroes are the people NOTICING things, paying attention. The guy who invented the smallpox vaccine didn't actually invent anything. He just noticed that people with cowpox didn't get smallpox. death-and-dying romantic death cowpox smallpox cancer augustus-waters waters hazel-grace the-fault-in-our-stars grace beautiful hazel John Green
678e0c0 He said you were the only one who was bitter about S.'s suicide and the only one who really forgave him for it. The rest of us, he said, were outwardly unbitter and inwardly unforgiving. suicide family death forgiveness J.D. Salinger
8347750 "But somebody else had spoken Snape's name, quite softly. "Severus . . ." The sound frightened Harry beyond anything he had experienced all evening. For the first time, Dumbledore was pleading. Snape gazed for a moment at Dumbledore, and there was revulsion and hatred etched in the harsh lines of his face. "Severus . . . please . . ." Snape raised his wand and pointed it directly at Dumbledore. " " A jet of green light shot from the end of Snape's wand and hit Dumbledore squarely in the chest. Harry's scream of horror never left him; silent and unmoving, he was forced to watch as Dumbledore was blasted into the air. For a split second, he seemed to hang suspended beneath the shining skull, and then he fell slowly backward, like a great rag doll, over the battlements and out of sight." pain death killing-curse severus-snape dumbledore misery sad J.K. Rowling
481b584 And Harry remembered his first nightmarish trip into the forest, the first time he had ever encountered the thing that was then Voldemort, and how he had faced him, and how he and Dumbledore had discussed fighting a losing battle not long thereafter. It was important, Dumbledore said, to fight, and fight again, and keep fighting, for only then could evil be kept at bay, though never quite eradicated. . . . And Harry saw very clearly as he sat there under the hot sun how people who cared about him had stood in front of him one by one, his mother, his father, his godfather, and finally Dumbledore, all determined to protect him; but now that was over. He could not let anybody else stand between him and Voldemort; he must abandon forever the illusion he ought to have lost at the age of one, that the shelter of a parent's arms meant that nothing could hurt him. There was no waking from his nightmare, no comforting whisper in the dark that he was safe really, that it was all in his imagination; the last and greatest of his protectors had died, and he was more alone than he had ever been before. death darkness forest fighting safety protection J.K. Rowling
9af14e5 I've been doing this a long time, and I've come to learn that predictions don't mean much. Too much lies outside the realm of medical knowledge. A lot of what happens next comes down to you and your specific genetics, your attitude. No, there's nothing we can do to stop the inevitable, but that's not the point. The point is that you should try to make the most of the time you have left. death inspirational Nicholas Sparks
454a1e0 They say that somewhere in Africa the elephants have a secret grave where they go to lie down, unburden their wrinkled gray bodies, and soar away, light spirits at the end. death elephants Robert R. McCammon
dd3b490 The night before brain surgery, I thought about death. I searched out my larger values, and I asked myself, if I was going to die, did I want to do it fighting and clawing or in peaceful surrender? What sort of character did I hope to show? Was I content with myself and what I had done with my life so far? I decided that I was essentially a good person, although I could have been better--but at the same time I understood that the cancer didn't care mortality bravery morality death science inspirational cancer doctors belief medicine atheism inevitable knowledge honor Lance Armstrong
7103769 ... And the boy whose hair remained the color of lemons forever. color death lemon forever hair memory Markus Zusak
61591ab she wasn't very interesting but few people are. poem poetry people women humanity family death life love bukowski interesting conversation society Charles Bukowski
04d6d91 One of the inescapable encumbrances of leading an interesting life is that there have to be moments when you almost lose it. death life interesting Jimmy Buffett
546098c Death, especially violent death, will turn the meanest bastard in the world into a nice guy. Why is that? death speak-not-ill-of-the-dead Laurell K. Hamilton
6a75b18 The clear awareness of having been born into a losing struggle need not lead one into despair. I do not especially the idea that one day I shall be tapped on the shoulder and informed, not that the party is over but that it is most assuredly going on--only henceforth in my absence. (It's the second of those thoughts: the edition of the newspaper that will come out on the day after I have gone, that is the more distressing.) Much more horrible, though, would be the announcement that the party was continuing forever, and that I was forbidden to leave. Whether it was a hellishly bad party or a party that was perfectly heavenly in every respect, the moment that it became eternal and compulsory would be the precise moment that it began to pall. heaven death life obituary meaning-of-life eternal-life atheism despair hell Christopher Hitchens
4866b63 "I think that life would suddenly seem wonderful to us if we were threatened to die as you say. Just think of how many projects, travels, love affairs, studies, it-our life-hides from us, made invisible by our laziness which, certain of a future, delays them incessantly. death life inspirational Marcel Proust
b87ddee Soldiers live. He dies and not you, and you feel guilty, because you're glad he died, and not you. Soldiers live, and wonder why. death life wisdom Glen Cook
485c727 You lived what anybody gets, Bernie. You got a lifetime. No more. No less. death sandman Neil Gaiman
abb9f32 there's no clarity. there was never meant to be clarity. loneliness poem poetry death life love bukowski clarity nonsense lonely Charles Bukowski
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