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a2de504 As Luke knelt down beside his corpse, Clary couldn't help but remember what he had said about having loved Valentine once, about having been his closest friend. Luke, she thought with a pang. Surely he couldn't be sad -- or even grieved? But then again, perhaps everyone should have someone to grieve for them, and there was no one else to grieve for Valentine. grief death city-of-glass valentine-morgenstern luke-garroway the-mortal-instruments Cassandra Clare
7fcc545 Yes, it was too late, and Sabina knew she would leave Paris, move on, and on again, because were she to die here they would cover her up with a stone, and in the mind of a woman for whom no place is home the thought of an end to all flight is unbearable. death wandering moving Milan Kundera
2865ea8 Call no man happy, said Shadow, until he is dead death happiness Neil Gaiman
336ffed My father chose my name , and my last name was chosen by my ancestors . That's enough, I myself choose my way faith funny relationship death religion god humor life love truth inspirational friend Ali Shariati
8e24a7b Well, right now I'm dead. But when I am, it's like...I don't know, I guess it's like being inside a book that nobody's reading. [...] An old one. It's up on a library shelf, so you're safe and everything, but the book hasn't been checked out for a long, long time. All you can do is wait. Just hope somebody'll pick it up and start reading. death Tim O'Brien
724f540 "He did not know or care whether they were wizards or Muggles, friends or foes; all he cared about was that a dark stain was spreading across Dobby's front, and that he had stretched out his thin arms to Harry with a look of supplication. Harry caught him and laid him sideways on the cool grass. "Dobby, no, don't die, don't die -" The elf's eyes found him, and his lips trembled with the effort to form words. "Harry...Potter..." And then with a little shudder the elf became quite still, and his eyes were nothing more than great glassy orbs, sprinkled with light from the stars they could not see." harry-potter friends death love dobby why j-k-rowling sad loyalty J.K. Rowling
151680d "Through Rohan over fen and field where the long grass grows The West Wind goes walking, and about the walls it goes. What news from the West, oh wandering wind, do you bring to me tonight? Have you seen Boromir the Tall by moon or by starlight? 'I saw him ride over seven streams, over waters wide and grey; I saw him walk in empty lands, until he passed away Into the shadows of the North. I saw him then no more. The North Wind may have heard the horn of the son of Denethor.' Oh, Boromir! From the high walls westward I looked afar. But you came not from the empty lands where no men are. From the mouth of the sea the South Wind flies, From the sand hills and the stones; The wailing of the gulls it bears, and at the gate it moans What news from the South, oh sighing wind, do you bring to me at eve? Where now is Boromir the Fair? He tarries and I grieve. 'Ask me not where he doth dwell--so many bones there lie On the white shores and on the black shores under the stormy sky; So many have passed down Anduin to find the flowing sea. Ask of the North Wind news of them the North Wind sends to me!' Oh Boromir! Beyond the gate the Seaward road runs South, But you came not with the wailing gulls from the grey seas mouth. From the Gate of Kings the North Wind rides, And past the roaring falls And loud and cold about the Tower its loud horn calls. What news from the North, oh mighty wind, do you bring to me today? What news of Boromir the Bold? For he is long away. 'Beneath Amon Hen I heard his cry. There many foes he fought His cloven shield, his broken sword, they to the water brought. His head so proud, his face so fair, his limbs they laid to rest; And Rauros, Golden Rauros Falls, bore him upon its breast.' poem death lotr J.R.R. Tolkien
d4b0edd The worst part of writing fiction is the fear of wasting your life behind a keyboard. The idea that, dying, you'll realize you only lived on paper. Your only adventures were make-believe, and while the world fought and kissed, you sat in some dark room masturbating and making money. fear death existential-risks Chuck Palahniuk
f269aed For the first time in my life I tasted death, and death tasted bitter, for death is birth, is fear and dread of some terrible renewal. death demian hermann-hesse Hermann Hesse
030df7a "No - no - no!" someone was shouting. "No! Fred! No!" And Percy was shaking his brother, and Ron was kneeling beside them, and Fred's eyes stared without seeing, the ghost of his last laugh still etched upon his face." harry-potter loss death so-many-feels fred depressing why j-k-rowling sad J.K. Rowling
c8e2082 We see a hearse; we think sorrow. We see a grave; we think despair. We hear of a death; we think of a loss. Not so in heaven. When heaven sees a breathless body, it sees the vacated cocoon & the liberated butterfly. death Max Lucado
869d346 Death is our constant companion, and it is death that gives each person's life its true meaning. meaning death life Paulo Coelho
a70ccd9 We carry the dead with us only until we die too, and then it is we who are borne along for a little while, and then our bearers in their turn drop, and so on into the unimaginable generations. mourning grief loss immortality sorrow death life-goes-on memory John Banville
8c014f7 If men only felt about death as they do about sleep, all terrors would cease. . . Men sleep contentedly, assured that they will wake the following morning. They should feel the same about their lives. sleep death Richard Matheson
95b9f85 Life is what you celebrate. All of it. Even its end. death life Joanne Harris
2232f92 We say that flowers return every spring, but that is a lie. It is true that the world is renewed. It is also true that that renewal comes at a price, for even if the flower grows from an ancient vine, the flowers of spring are themselves new to the world, untried and untested. The flower that wilted last year is gone. Petals once fallen are fallen forever. Flowers do not return in the spring, rather they are replaced. It is in this difference between returned and replaced that the price of renewal is paid. And as it is for spring flowers, so it is for us. seasons death renewal Daniel Abraham
b7950e6 "I paid, got up, walked to the door, opened it. I heard the man say, "that guy's nuts." out on the street I walked north feeling curiously honored." irony poem poetry funny death life mental self honor crazy soul Charles Bukowski
c48514b [O]ur honeymoon will shine our life long: its beams will only fade over your grave or mine. marriage death life edward-fairfax-rochester honeymoon jane-eyre matrimony Charlotte Brontë
02d7c7c "Do you remember the sight we saw, my soul, that soft summer morning round a turning in the path, the disgusting carcass on a bed scattered with stones, its legs in the air like a woman in need burning its wedding poisons like a fountain with its rhythmic sobs, I could hear it clearly flowing with a long murmuring sound, but I touch my body in vain to find the wound. I am the vampire of my own heart, one of the great outcasts condemned to eternal laughter who can no longer smile. murder poetry death primal-scene horror vampires Charles Baudelaire
c787de9 Death is just the last scene of the last act. death Joyce Carol Oates
8edf6be The whole life of the individual is nothing but the process of giving birth to himself; indeed, we should be fully born when we die - although it is the tragic fate of most individuals to die before they are born. death self-development Erich Fromm
bf842b6 I like to imagine that, on the day after my last, my library and I will crumble together, so that even when I am no more I'll still be with my books. library death Alberto Manguel
2cc03d4 We are biology. We are reminded of this at the beginning and the end, at birth and at death. In between we do what we can to forget. death science life mary-roach Mary Roach
d838c1f "Do you understand what I'm saying?" shouted Moist. "You can't just go around killing people!" "Why Not? You Do." The golem lowered his arm. "What?" snapped Moist. "I do not! Who told you that?" "I Worked It Out. You Have Killed Two Point Three Three Eight People," said the golem calmly. "I have never laid a finger on anyone in my life, Mr Pump. I may be-- all the things you know I am, but I am not a killer! I have never so much as drawn a sword!" "No, You Have Not. But You Have Stolen, Embezzled, Defrauded And Swindled Without Discrimination, Mr Lipvig. You Have Ruined Businesses And Destroyed Jobs. When Banks Fail, It Is Seldom Bankers Who Starve. Your Actions Have Taken Money From Those Who Had Little Enough To Begin With. In A Myriad Small Ways You Have Hastened The Deaths Of Many. You Do Not Know Them. You Did Not See Them Bleed. But You Snatched Bread From Their Mouths And Tore Clothes From Their Backs. For Sport, Mr Lipvig. For Sport. For The Joy Of The Game." death life philosophy wisdom cruelty sport justice Terry Pratchett
a3e5b0d Beauty and love pass, I know... Oh, there's sadness, too. I suppose all great happiness is a little sad. Beauty means the scent of roses and then the death of roses- death sadness happiness roses fitzgerald rose F Scott Fitzgerald
56bbd33 "Do we not each dream of dreams? Do we not dance on the notes of lost sex shakespeare magic rain poems romance sacrifice death dreams music songs life carrack cityisle cityspire desolate fedora haunts horace-walpole mannequins phillip-k-dick puddles specters spectre amnesia androids haunting greek-mythology waking damnation count emily-dickinson magick tempest apocalypse reflections storms masquerade empty science-fiction gothic jazz ships ghosts water piano Nathan Reese Maher
e458520 Life rises out of death, death rises out of life; in being opposite they yearn to each other, they give birth to each other and are forever reborn. And with them, all is reborn, the flower of the apple tree, the light of the stars. In life is death. In death is rebirth. What then is life without death? Life unchanging, everlasting, eternal?-What is it but death-death without rebirth? death life equilibrium Ursula K. Le Guin
3238488 I never wanted to go away, and the hard part now is the leaving you all. I'm not afraid, but it seems as if I should be homesick for you even in heaven. death life love louisa-may-alcott little-women Louisa May Alcott
74459f8 She had no time for sleep, with the weight of the world upon her shoulders. And she feared to dream. Sleep is a little death, dreams the whisperings of the Other, who would drag us all into his eternal night. death fantasy dreams dance-with-dragons high-fantasy other song-of-ice-and-fire melisandre wolves epic-fantasy dragons lions series George R.R. Martin
ab1ab67 We're all ghosts. We all carry, inside us, people who came before us. liam-callanan the-cloud-atlas death ghosts Liam Callanan
4b62641 It's a hard thing to explain to somebody who hasn't felt it, but the presence of death and danger has a way of bringing you fully awake. It makes things vivid. When you're afraid, really afraid, you see things you never saw before, you pay attention to the world. You make close friends. You become part of a tribe and you share the same blood- you give it together, you take it together. war death friendship Tim O'Brien
48e39b0 Come here, let me share a bit of wisdom with you. Have you given much thought to our mortal condition? Probably not. Why would you? Well, listen. There's no one alive who can say if he will be tomorrow. Our fate moves invisibly! A mystery. No one can teach it, no one can grasp it. Accept this! Cheer up! Have a drink! But don't forget Aphrodite--that's You can let the rest go. Am I making sense? I think so. How about a drink. Put on a garland. I'm sure the happy splash of wine will cure your mood. We're all mortal you know. Think mortal. Because my theory is, there's no such thing as life, mortality death sadness happiness life cheer comedy Anne Carson
0e64d8b The rule is that if they have a weapon and want to take you someplace else, it is so they can kill you slower--Peter murder death vampire Laurell K. Hamilton
26ba7b1 You can't just make me different and then leave loss death love driving drunk lost dying John Green
0647d68 At the end of her life she was aware of heat but not pain. She had time to consider his eyes, eyes of that blue which is the color of the sky at first light of the morning. She had time to think of him on the Drop, riding Rusher flat out with his black hair flying back from his temples and his neckerchief rippling; to see him laughing with an ease and freedom he would never find again in the long life which stretched out for him beyond hers, and it was his laughter she took with her as she went out, fleeing the light and heat in to the silkly, consoling dark, calling to him over and over as she went, calling bird and bear and hare and fish. death susan susan-delgado wizard-and-glass dark-tower roland stephen-king fire Stephen King
adef29a How often the priest had heard the same confession--Man was so limited: he hadn't even the ingenuity to invent a new vice: the animals knew as much. It was for this world that Christ had died: the more evil you saw and heard about you, the greater the glory lay around the death; it was too easy to die for what was good or beautiful, for home or children or civilization--it needed a God to die for the half-hearted and the corrupt. sacrifice death god glory corruption vice evil sin Graham Greene
c46d6d0 There is some delight in ale and wine And some in girls with ankles fine But my delight, yes always mine Is to dance with Jak O' the Shadows We will toss the dice however they fall And snuggle the girls be they short or tall Then follow Lord Mat whenever he calls To dance with Jak O' the Shadows. death jak-o-shadows mat-cauthon Robert Jordan
aea400f It has always been this way. Death is followed by birth. To reach paradise, man must pass through inferno. - Bertrand Zobrist death inferno paradise Dan Brown
8a92b33 Life is better than death, I believe, if only because it is less boring, and because it has fresh peaches in it. funny death life peaches Alice Walker
eaa0a36 Tell him,' the colonel said, smiling, 'that a person doesn't die when he should but when he can. death smiling Gabriel García Márquez
2163002 If you go to your death rather than do everything you might to prevent what is happening, you are merely committing suicide and trying to make yourself feel better about it. That is the act of a coward. It is beneath contempt. death harry-dresden Jim Butcher
8bc2ae9 The only dream worth having, I told her, is to dream that you will live while you're alive and die only when you're dead. dream reality living death life existing truths carpe-diem life-and-death dead dying Arundhati Roy
3923d29 For some folks death is release, and for others death is an abomination, a terrible thing. But in the end, I'm there for all of them. death sandman gaiman postmodernism graphic-novel Neil Gaiman
78a228e Sometimes there's nothing you can do. [...] Sometimes they don't have enough to fight with. illness death flick henna helplessness sickness Tamora Pierce
1dcf117 "Kill you all!" The clown was laughing and screaming. "Try to stop me and I'll kill you all! Drive you crazy and then kill you all! You can't stop me!" murder death stephen it pennywise kill monster horror king Stephen King
3dcad92 I always say, if you must mount the gallows, give a jest to the crowd, a coin to the hangman, and make the drop with a smile on your lips. death smile Robert Jordan
2b38ece Your god, sir, is the World. In my eyes, you, too, if not an infidel, are an idolater. I conceive that you ignorantly worship: in all things you appear to me too superstitious. Sir, your god, your great Bel, your fish-tailed Dagon, rises before me as a demon. You, and such as you, have raised him to a throne, put on him a crown, given him a sceptre. Behold how hideously he governs! See him busied at the work he likes best -- making marriages. He binds the young to the old, the strong to the imbecile. He stretches out the arm of Mezentius and fetters the dead to the living. In his realm there is hatred -- secret hatred: there is disgust -- unspoken disgust: there is treachery -- family treachery: there is vice -- deep, deadly, domestic vice. In his dominions, children grow unloving between parents who have never loved: infants are nursed on deception from their very birth: they are reared in an atmosphere corrupt with lies ... All that surrounds him hastens to decay: all declines and degenerates under his sceptre. god is a masked Death. family-relationships hatred unhappiness injustice marriage women death disparity domestic-life false-belief lovelessness scorn unfreedom disharmony families preconceptions discord married-life worldliness idolatry decay demons matrimony force social-norms society hypocrisy disgust contempt vice expectations Charlotte Brontë
73ba7bf Occasionally they would hear a harsh croak or a splash as some amphibian was disturbed, but the only creature they saw was a toad as big as Will's foot, which could only flop in a pain-filled sideways heave as if it were horribly injured. It lay across the path, trying to move out of the way and looking at them as if it knew they meant to hurt it. 'It would be merciful to kill it,' said Tialys. 'How do you know?' said Lyra. 'It might still like being alive, in spite of everything.' 'If we killed it, we'd be taking it with us,' said Will. 'It wants to stay here. I've killed enough living things. Even a filthy stagnant pool might be better than being dead.' 'But if it's in pain?' said Tialys. 'If it could tell us, we'd know. But since it can't, I'm not going to kill it. That would be considering our feelings rather than the toad's.' They moved on. killing death toads Philip Pullman
9701970 I take no actions that I wouldn't publicly recount. If you can't speak your deeds, then don't do them. death Kresley Cole
16d32f9 We fall from womb to tomb, from one blackness and toward another, remembering little of the one and knowing nothing of the other ... except through faith. faith death Stephen King
4aa1e42 It was no accident, no coincidence, that the seasons came round and round year after year. It was the Lord speaking to us all and showing us over and over again the birth, life, death, and resurrection of his only begotten Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord. It was like a best-loved story being told day after day with each sunrise and sunset, year after year with the seasons, down through the ages since time began. death religion god life inspirational jesus-christ resurrection Francine Rivers
fcf58e4 Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs; Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth, Let's choose executors and talk of wills death William Shakespeare
23abf2b "I believe in reincarnation," [Bjorn] said. I KNOW. "I tried to live a good life. Does that help?" THAT'S NOT UP TO ME. Death coughed. OF COURSE... SINCE YOU BELIEVE IN REINCARNATION... YOU'LL BE BJORN AGAIN." death humor puns reincarnation discworld Terry Pratchett
800f84b Faith. Closely followed--in view of the overall shortage of time--by patience. faith death religion life virtues patience Christopher Hitchens
5b836ac You will die. You will not live forever. Nor will any man nor any thing. Nothing is immortal. But only to us is it given to know that we must die. And that is a great gift: the gift of selfhood. For we have only what we know we must lose, what we are willing to lose... That selfhood which is our torment, and our treasure, and our humanity, does not endure. It changes; it is gone, a wave on the sea. Would you have the sea grow still and the tides cease, to save one wave, to save yourself? death life Ursula K. Le Guin
eb1d979 Rebirth always follows death. death rebirth Neil Gaiman
34c38c6 This is the secret that none dares tell who fights for a cause. Dying, we are all alike. secret death Jacqueline Carey
ed3b8c1 Ignorance is fatal. death wisdom ray fatal ignorance knowledge Ray Bradbury
c3dce08 There will always be a part of you that misses her. You'll see something that reminds you of her and want to tell her about it, only to realize she's not there anymore. Then you'll feel her loss all over again. (Ravyn) You're not helping me, Ravyn. (Jack) I know, buddy. But you will eventually make peace with yourself, and that's the most important thing. Eventually, you'll even be able to smile again when you think about her. (Ravyn) loss death love death-of-a-loved-one missing-someone Sherrilyn Kenyon
ef4f519 It was an indulgence, learning last words. Other people had chocolate; I had dying declarations. death last-words John Green
d209568 "When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in bad condition in the particular moment, but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments. Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is "So it goes." death life favourite-quote excerpt so-it-goes novel Kurt Vonnegut
1b827d7 Men must endure Their going hence, even as their coming hither. Ripeness is all. death wisdom maturity William Shakespeare
0936a27 There are people like Senhor Jose everywhere, who fill their time, or what they believe to be their spare time, by collecting stamps, coins, medals, vases, postcards, matchboxes, books, clocks, sport shirts, autographs, stones, clay figurines, empty beverage cans, little angels, cacti, opera programmes, lighters, pens, owls, music boxes, bottles, bonsai trees, paintings, mugs, pipes, glass obelisks, ceramic ducks, old toys, carnival masks, and they probably do so out of something that we might call metaphysical angst, perhaps because they cannot bear the idea of chaos being the one ruler of the universe, which is why, using their limited powers and with no divine help, they attempt to impose some order on the world, and for a short while they manage it, but only as long as they are there to defend their collection, because when the day comes when it must be dispersed, and that day always comes, either with their death or when the collector grows weary, everything goes back to its beginnings, everything returns to chaos. death hobbies collecting order José Saramago
0646491 Birth and death: there was the same consciousness of heightened existence and of her own elevated importance death the-casual-vacancy j-k-rowling J.K. Rowling
5f15eb8 I've always figured it that you die each day and each day is a box, you see, all numbered and neat; but never go back and lift the lids, because you've died a couple of thousand times in your life, and that's a lot of corpses, each dead a different way, each with a worse expression. Each of those days is a different you, somebody you don't know or understand or want to understand. death change life maturing Ray Bradbury
c6ca037 One could argue that it's romantic to die for love. Of course, then you're dead and unable to take that honeymoon trip to the Alps with all the other fashionable young couples, which is a shame. death love truth romantic-ideals miss-moore libba-bray Libba Bray
fd8db8a If I convert it's because it's better that a believer dies than that an atheist does. christianity death religion god humor hitchens gods atheism atheist Christopher Hitchens
0c0c763 I just got a rather nasty shock. In looking for something or other I came across the fact that one of my cats is about to be nine years old, and that another of them will shortly thereafter be eight; I have been labouring under the delusion they were about five and six. And yesterday I happened to notice in the mirror that while I have long since grown used to my beard being very grey indeed, I was not prepared to discover that my eyebrows are becoming noticeably shaggy. I feel the tomb is just around the corner. And there are all these books I haven't read yet, even if I am simultaneously reading at least twenty... reading death old-age aging Edward Gorey
5f60366 Remember death. Even for those who wield great power, life is brief. There is only one way to triumph over death, and that is by making our lives masterpieces. We must seize every opportunity to show kindness and to love fully. life-quotes death inspirational robert-langdon origin Dan Brown
d3d649b In the end we all come to be cured of our sentiments. Those whom life does not cure death will. The world is quite ruthless in selecting between the dream and reality, even where we will not. Between the wish and the thing the world lies waiting. I've thought a great deal about my life and my country. I think there is little that can be truly known. My family has been fortunate. Others were less so. As they are often quick to point out. mortality death life Cormac McCarthy
4a18ec9 This is my child, he said. I wash a dead man's brains out of his hair. That is my job. death job child Cormac McCarthy
13cdaad The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness. Although the two are identical twins, man, as a rule, views the prenatal abyss with more calm than the one he is heading for. man existence light death darkness life cradle common-sense calm afterlife eternity life-after-death Vladimir Nabokov
fe345eb Modern romance, like Greek tragedy, celebrates the mystery of dismemberment, which is life in time. The happy ending is justly scorned as a misrepresentation; for the world, as we know it, as we have seen it, yields but one ending: death, disintegration, dismemberment, and the crucifixion of our heart with the passing of the forms that we have loved. tragedy death life love Joseph Campbell
a8fbbcd "Wait," said Butler. "Just wait, Holly. Artemis has a plan." He squinted through the green dome. "What is your plan, Artemis?" All Artemis could do was smile and shrug." sacrifice death Eoin Colfer
141d014 Was that what it was really like to be alive? The feeling of darkness dragging you forward? How could they live with it? And yet they did, and even seemed to find enjoyment in it, when surely the only sensible course would be to despair. Amazing. To feel you were a tiny living thing, sandwiched between two cliffs of darkness. How could they stand to be alive? death life despair Terry Pratchett
aaf417a Just as when we come into the world, when we die we are afraid of the unknown. But the fear is something from within us that has nothing to do with reality. Dying is like being born: just a change death-and-dying fear reality death change fear-of-unknown changes fear-of-death Isabel Allende
5154c87 "When the suicide arrived at the sky, the people there asked him: "Why?" He replied: "Because no one admired me." suicide heaven death Stephen Crane
064f0f3 Here lies one from a distant star, but the soil is not alien to him, for in death he belongs to the universe. universe stars death science gravestone science-fiction Clifford D. Simak
90c39ac Once a thing is set to happen, all you can do is hope it won't. Or will-depending. As long as you live, there's always something waiting, and even if it's bad, and you know it's bad, what can you do? You can't stop living. fate living death life inspirational Truman Capote
ceeb62f She blew more smoke toward me, a lazy game of cancer catch. death smoke cigarette cigarettes inevitable smoking Gillian Flynn
c78ae7a Not only are selves conditional but they die. Each day, we wake slightly altered, and the person we were yesterday is dead. So why, one could say, be afraid of death, when death comes all the time? death life self John Updike
468258f It is always consoling to think of suicide; it's what gets one through many a bad night. suicide death life Gillian Flynn
1a8ca9d Clearly God was in some kind of mood on my birthday. family death sadness jodi-picoult my-sister-s-keeper leukemia cancer kate jesse Jodi Picoult
419823e What he meant, of course, was that there would always be wars, that they were as easy to stop as glaciers. I believe that, too. And even if wars didn't keep coming like glaciers, there would still be plain old death. dark death truth favourite-quote Kurt Vonnegut
5e5f98d There was a filmy veil of soft dull mist obscuring, but not hiding, all objects, giving them a lilac hue, for the sun had not yet fully set; a robin was singing ... The leaves were more gorgeous than ever; the first touch of frost would lay them all low to the ground. Already one or two kept constantly floating down, amber and golden in the low slanting sun-rays. seasons winter time beauty death garden gardens north-and-south outside fall dusk Elizabeth Gaskell
9f189a6 Indeed, she often wondered if she were dead, or dying from the inside out, and that was the root of her calm, the reason she could surrender her character. resolve character death dissociation Gregory Maguire
cce09cc O, that this too too solid flesh would melt Thaw and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God! How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, Seem to me all the uses of this world! Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden, That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature Possess it merely. That it should come to this! But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two: So excellent a king; that was, to this, Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother That he might not beteem the winds of heaven Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth! Must I remember? why, she would hang on him, As if increase of appetite had grown By what it fed on: and yet, within a month-- Let me not think on't--Frailty, thy name is woman!-- A little month, or ere those shoes were old With which she follow'd my poor father's body, Like Niobe, all tears:--why she, even she-- O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, Would have mourn'd longer--married with my uncle, My father's brother, but no more like my father Than I to Hercules: within a month: Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, She married. O, most wicked speed, to post With such dexterity to incestuous sheets! It is not nor it cannot come to good: But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue. grief death soliloquy William Shakespeare
4e760f8 It struck Mort with sudden, terrible poignancy that Death must be the loneliest creature in the universe. In the great party of Creation, he was always in the kitchen. death humor Terry Pratchett
361afe6 the first quality of an honest man is contempt for religion, which would have us afraid of the most natural thing in the world, which is death; and would have us hate the one beautiful thing destiny has given us, which is life. death religion life irreligion Umberto Eco
065ae61 O my love, my wife! Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty. death love sucked breath wife William Shakespeare
91ddf5d How do you tell if something's alive? You check for breathing. death life the-book-thief Markus Zusak
73c1bf6 Self-awareness is a supreme gift, a treasure as precious as life. This is what makes us human. But it comes with a costly price: the wound of mortality. Our existence is forever shadowed by the knowledge that we will grow, blossom, and, inevitably, diminish and die. death life Irvin D. Yalom
5d4fc87 And then I crawled into his unmade bed, wrapping myself in his comforter like a cocoon, surrounding myself with his smell. I took out my cannula so I could smell better, breathing him and out, the scent fading even as I lay there, my chest burning until I couldn't distinguish among the pains. death hazel-grace sad John Green
602709f "Excuse me," she said politely. "But you can't have him. Not yet. He's going to come back with me." death god arguing Tamora Pierce
ad13f62 It felt as though the whole globe was dressed in snow. Like it has pulled it on, the way you pull on a sweater. Next to the train line, footprints were sunken to their shins. Trees wore blankets of ice. As you may expect, someone has died. world death white Markus Zusak
8182ede Think of all those ages through which men have had the courage to die, and then remember that we have actually fallen to talking about having the courage to live. death euthanasia G.K. Chesterton
7a77939 There is a certain seductiveness about dead things. You can ill treat, alter and recolour what's dead. It won't complain. death science life Jeanette Winterson
b686afb Papa was a man with silver eyes, not dead ones. Papa was an accordion! But his bellows were all empty. Nothing went in and nothing came out. fathers death Markus Zusak
9cae4f9 Some people believe that when you die, you cross the River of Death and have to pay the ferryman. People don't seem to worry about that these days. Perhaps there's a bridge now. death ferryman Terry Pratchett
a4a9abb If we stay where we are, where we're stuck, where we're comfortable and safe, we die there... When nothing new can get in, that's death. prayer death comfort-zone Anne Lamott
75286b9 When something horrible happens, it's human nature to want to blame it on someone. We want someone to be held accountable, even though sometimes things just happen. death Meg Cabot
a8278c6 I lived my grief; I slept mourning and ate sorrow and drank tears. I ignored all else. mourning grief loss depression sorrow death life hollow pass-by numb mourn empty ignore tears forget Robin Hobb
5c6e259 [W]hat makes patriotic and religious fanatics such dangerous opponents is not the deaths of the fanatics themselves, but their willingness to accept the deaths of a fraction of their number in order to annihilate or crush their infidel enemy. war death radicalism fanaticism Jared Diamond
f6f085f "Look, look,' cried the count, seizing the young man's hands - "look, for on my soul it is curious. Here is a man who had resigned himself to his fate, who was going to the scaffold to die - like a coward, it is true, but he was about to die without resistance. Do you know what gave him strength? - do you know what consoled him? It was, that another partook of his punishment - that another partook of his anguish - that another was to die before him. Lead two sheep to the butcher's, two oxen to the slaughterhouse, and make one of them understand that his companion will not die; the sheep will bleat for pleasure, the ox will bellow with joy. But man - man, who God created in his own image - man, upon whom God has laid his first, his sole commandment, to love his neighbour - man, to whom God has given a voice to express his thoughts - what is his first cry when he hears his fellowman is saved? A blasphemy. Honour to man, this masterpiece of nature, this king of the creation!" man nature death god fellowship the-count-of-monte-cristo Alexandre Dumas
5a205ca If there's any guy crazy enough to attack me, I'm going to show him the end of the world -- close up. I'm going to let him see the kingdom come with his own eyes. I'm going to send him straight to the southern hemisphere and let the ashes of death rain all over him and the kangaroos and the wallabies. girl-power confidence death strength kingdom-come wallabies kangaroos ashes end-of-the-world badass attack threat self-defense Haruki Murakami
ceaea5d "When along the pavement, Palpitating flames of life, People flicker around me, I forget my bereavement, loss death my-sisters-keeper submergence star D. H. Lawrence
01593f0 However hard he tried, he could never manage to make himself visible to human eyes and not because he can't, since for him nothing is impossible, it's simply that he wouldn't know what face to wear when introducing himself to the beings he supposedly created and who probably wouldn't recognize him anyway. There are those who say we're very fortunate that god chooses not to appear before us, because compared with the shock we would get were such a thing to happen, our fear of death would be mere child's play. Besides, all the many things that have been said about god and about death are nothing but stories, and this is just another one. death god life José Saramago
d520221 Birth and death were easy. It was life that was hard. death life Tom Robbins
ecf5d41 "For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel: death julius-caesar William Shakespeare
bef70d6 "Girls are always saying things like, "I'm so unhappy that I'm going to overdose on aspirin," but they'd be awfully surprised if they succeeded. They have no intention of dying. At the first sight of blood, they panic." suicide depression death diary-entry rachel-klein sad-girl teen-angst the-moth-diaries unhappy journal panic self-harm dying Rachel Klein
9c855a2 "Yes, alive," said Fudge. "That is -- I don't know -- is a man alive if he can't be killed? I don't really understand it, and Dumbledore won't explain properly -- but anyway, he's certainly got a body and is walking and talking and killing, so I suppose, for the purposes of our discussion, yes, he's alive." death prime-minister fudge walking J.K. Rowling
1dfb049 "We should do something," I said. "Can the something be play blind-guy video games while sitting on the couch?" "Yeah, that's just the kind of something I had in mind." So we sat there for a couple hours talking to the screen together, navigating this invisible labyrinthine cave without a single lumen of light. The most entertaining part of the game by was far trying to get the computer to engage with us in humorous conversation: Me: "Touch the cave wall." Computer: "You touch the cave wall. It is moist." Isaac: "Lick the cave wall." Computer: "I do not understand. Repeat?" Me: "Hump the cave wall." Computer: "You attempt to jump. You hit your head." Isaac: "Not jump. HUMP." Computer: "I don't understand." Isaac: "Dude, I've been alone in the dark in this cave for weeks and I need some relief. HUMP THE CAVE WALL." Computer: "You attempt to ju--" Me: "Thrust pelvis against cave wall." Computer: "I do not--" Isaac: "Make sweet love to the cave." Computer: "I do not--" Me: "FINE. Follow left branch." Computer: "You follow the left branch. The passage narrows." Me: "Crawl." Computer: "You crawl for one hundred yards. The passage narrows." Me: "Snake crawl." Computer: "You snake crawl for thirty yards. A trickle of water runs down your body. You reach a mound of small rocks blocking the passageway." Me: "Can I hump the cave now?" Computer: "You cannot jump without standing." Isaac: "I dislike living in a world without Augustus Waters." Computer: "I don't understand--" Isaac: "Me neither. Pause." death humor comic-relief video-games John Green
899af43 Of my conception I know only what you know of yours. It occurred in darkness and I was unconsenting... By some bleak alchemy what had been mere unbeing becomes death when life is mingled with it. death life conception Marilynne Robinson
95dc0fb Bones are patient. Bones never tire nor do they run away. When you come upon a man who has been dead many years, his bones will still be lying there, in place, content, patiently waiting, but his flesh will have gotten up and left him. Water is like flesh. Water will not stand still. It is always off to somewhere else; restless, talkative, and curious. Even water in a covered jar will disappear in time. Flesh is water. Stones are like bones. Satisfied. Patient. Dependable. Tell me, then, Alobar, in order to achieve immortality, should you emulate water or stone? Should you trust your flesh or your bones? immortality death life transitory stones permanence Tom Robbins
b2064be That we're going to die is something we know from the moment we are born, That's why, in some ways, it's as if we were born dead. death life José Saramago
e17fd53 "There is a stillness between us, a period of restlessness that ties my stomach sex shakespeare magic rain poems romance sacrifice death dreams music songs life carrack cityisle cityspire desolate fedora haunts horace-walpole mannequins phillip-k-dick puddles specters spectre amnesia androids haunting greek-mythology waking damnation count emily-dickinson magick tempest apocalypse reflections storms masquerade empty science-fiction gothic jazz ships ghosts water piano Nathan Reese Maher
c12d7f6 We are only lightly covered with buttoned cloth; and beneath these pavements are shells, bones and silence. silence death life thought Virginia Woolf
6384ce4 One grave in every graveyard belongs to the ghouls. Wander any graveyard long enough and you will find it - water stained and bulging, with cracked or broken stone, scraggly grass or rank weeds about it, and a feeling, when you reach it, of abandonment. It may be colder than the other gravestones, too, and the name on the stone is all too often impossible to read. If there is a statue on the grave it will be headless or so scabbed with fungus and lichens as to look like fungus itself. If one grave in a graveyard looks like a target for petty vandals, that is the ghoul-gate. If the grave wants to make you be somewhere else, that is the ghoul-gate. death graveyard Neil Gaiman
d03bb8f "God, there must be a meaning. Fiercely he was certain that there must be a meaning. Surely, while we live we are not lost. war fiction death hope last-lines the-long-green-shore wwii John Hepworth
ea641be Of the twelve companions of Thorin, ten remained. Fili and Kili had fallen defending him with shield and body, for he was their mother's elder brother. heroic death life J.R.R. Tolkien
e933dd3 Then he dreamed that he was in the open door of a plane several thousand feet above the earth and he had to jump holding a baby in his arms. It was his baby. He jumped, pulled the rip cord on the parachute, and it didn't open. The emergency release didn't work. He was falling fast. The wind tore at him fiercely. He was gripping the baby as tightly as he could but the wind pried under his arms, strained at his muscles, and suddenly the baby was loose, falling beside him, just out of reach. He flailed and groped in the air, trying to reach it. The baby was falling just a little bit faster than he was. It was below him, falling away from him as he fell after it. The earth screamed up at him. He knew that the baby was going to hit first and he would see it, would know it for a whole fraction of a second before he was smashed into a pulp himself. The terrible millisecond of that grief burst in him and he woke shrieking. He couldn't get the dream out of his head. He prayed that he would have the dream again but that this time he would fall faster and be allowed to die first. death dreams Katherine Dunn
345669d Every November of my boyhood, we put on red poppies and attended highly patriotic services in remembrance of those who had 'given' their lives. But on what assurance did we know that these gifts had really been made? Only the survivors--the living--could attest to it. In order to know that a person had truly laid down his life for his friends, or comrades, one would have to hear it from his own lips, or at least have heard it promised in advance. And that presented another difficulty. Many brave and now dead soldiers had nonetheless been conscripts. The known martyrs--those who actually, voluntarily sought death and rejoiced in the fact--had been the kamikaze pilots, immolating themselves to propitiate a 'divine' emperor who looked (as Orwell once phrased it) like a monkey on a stick. Their Christian predecessors had endured torture and death (as well as inflicted it) in order to set up a theocracy. Their modern equivalents would be the suicide murderers, who mostly have the same aim in mind. About people who set out to lose their lives, then, there seems to hang an air of fanaticism: a gigantic sense of self-importance unattractively fused with a masochistic tendency to self-abnegation. Not wholesome. The better and more realistic test would therefore seem to be: In what cause, or on what principle, would you your life? suicide war christianity friends sacrifice death religion christian-martyrs conscription kamikaze memorials poppies self-abnegation suicide-attack martyrs masochism orwell november comrades soldiers theocracy ugliness causes martyrdom self-importance patriotism principles fanaticism childhood torture Christopher Hitchens
8fde856 I can't do this to you,' he said, drawing back. Emily put her hand on his and pulled the gun to her temple. 'Then do it for me,' she said. suicide death love emily-gold Jodi Picoult
1e0cd17 For me it is the virgin birth, the Incarnation, the resurrection which are the true laws of the flesh and the physical. Death, decay, destruction are the suspension of these laws. I am always astonished at the emphasis the Church puts on the body. It is not the soul she says that will rise but the body, glorified. death incarnation catholicism resurrection Flannery O'Connor
f0b58b6 I'll have that someday, thought Peter. Someone who'll kiss me good-bye at the door. Or maybe just someone to put a blindfold over my head before they shoot me. Depending on how things turn out. death humor life funny-but-sad goals Orson Scott Card
92f7996 There, in the tin factory, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human being was crushed by books. books death ways-to-die hiroshima wwii japan world-war-ii John Hersey
f93db2b It was a hollow victory they gave me. A crown...it was the girl I prayed them for. Your sister, safe... and mine again as she was meant to be. I ask you, Ned, what good is it to wear a crown? prayer death love crown George R.R. Martin
ef8031f No death, no doom, no anguish can arouse the surpassing despair which flows from a loss of identity. - death identity identity-crisis doom despair H.P. Lovecraft
a6cf9c0 but as he plodded along a vague and almost hallucinatory pall hazed over his mind; he found himself at one point, with no notion of how it could be, a step from an almost certain fatal cliffside fall--falling humiliatingly and helplessly, he thought; on and on, with no one even to witness it. Here there existed no one to record his or anyone else's degradation, and any courage or pride which might manifest itself here at the end would go unmarked: the dead stones, the dust-stricken weeds dry and dying, perceived nothing, recollected nothing, about him or themselves. death degradation oblivion dying Philip K. Dick
d48c653 When the last autumn of Dickens's life was over, he continued to work through his final winter and into spring. This is how all of us writers give away the days and years and decades of our lives in exchange for stacks of paper with scratches and squiggles on them. And when Death calls, how many of us would trade all those pages, all that squandered lifetime-worth of painfully achieved scratches and squiggles, for just one more day, one more fully lived and experienced day? And what price would we writers pay for that one extra day spent with those we ignored while we were locked away scratching and squiggling in our arrogant years of solipsistic isolation? Would we trade all those pages for a single hour? Or all of our books for one real minute? time writing death life charles-dickens regret writers old-age Dan Simmons
75b5cf8 When your people are lying dead around you, don't come crying to me... leadership death Sarah J. Maas
c781ba0 Death has a body like a model, the clothes of a poet and the smile of your best friend. She wears a top hat for fun, her ankh necklace for power, and carries a big black umbrella for travelling to the 'sunless lands.' I wonder what she smells like? I'm sure it's fresh and clean and her laugh must be rinkly or maybe it's warm and chuckly, but whatever it is, Death laughs a lot. We talk about the 'miracle of birth' but what about the 'miracle of death'? We have the science of death pretty much figured out, but death's magic and inevitability have been feared and ignored for a long time now. What if Death is a person? death sandman Neil Gaiman
51ceec6 Being unheard is the ground floor of giving up, and giving up is the ground floor of doing yourself in. It's not so much, what's the point? It's more like, what's the difference? ground-floor suicide loss death life give-up unheard giving-up difference purpose point Mitch Albom
9294de2 To regret the exchange of earthly pleasures for the joys of Heaven, is as if the grovelling caterpillar should lament that it must one day quit the nibbled leaf to soar aloft and flutter through the air, roving at will from flower to flower, sipping sweet honey from their cups, or basking in their sunny petals. If these little creatures knew how great a change awaited them, no doubt they would regret it; but would not all such sorrow be misplaced? heaven fear death transformation Anne Brontë
e857af4 Old age is not as honorable as death, but most people seek it. death David Gemmell
60f29a3 Charitably... I think... sometimes, perhaps, one must change or die. And, in the end, there were, perhaps, limits to how much he could let himself change. death life Neil Gaiman
ddadd26 When we were alive, they told us that when we died we'd go to heaven. And they said that heaven was a place of joy and glory and we would spend eternity in the company of saints and angels praising the Almighty, in a state of bliss. That's what they said. And that's what led some of us to give our lives, and others to spend years in solitary prayer, while all the joy of life was going to waste around us and we never knew. Because the land of the dead isn't a place of reward or a place of punishment, it is a place of nothing. The good come here as well as the wicked, and all of us languish in this gloom forever, with no hope of freedom, or joy, or sleep, or rest, or peace. But now this child has come offering us a way out and I'm going to follow her. Even if it means oblivion, friends, I'll welcome it, because it won't be nothing. We'll be alive again in a thousand blades of grass, and a million leaves; we'll be falling in the raindrops and blowing in the fresh breeze; we'll be glistening in the dew under the stars and the moon out there in the physical world, which is our true home and always was. death life Philip Pullman
85b044b "Now for my pains, promise me-" And she hesitated. "What?" asked Marius. "Promise me!" "I promise you." "Promise to kiss me on the forehead when I'm dead. I'll feel it." She let her head fall back on Marius's knees and her eyelids closed. He thought the poor soul had gone. Eponine lay motionless, but just when Marius supposed her forever asleep, she slowly opened her eyes, revealing the somber depths of death, and said to him in an accent whose sweetness already seemed to come from another world, "And then, do you know, Monsieur Marius, I believe I was a little in love with you." She tried to smile again and died." death Éponine marius Victor Hugo
4816d17 ...nobody was ever really ready to turn off their mother's machine, no matter what they thought; to turn off the light of their childhood and walk away, just as if they were turning out a light and leaving a room. death death-of-a-loved-one dying Fannie Flagg
0046a34 And now let us love and take that which is given us, and be happy; for in the grave there is no love and no warmth, nor any touching of the lips. Nothing perchance, or perchance but bitter memories of what might have been. lovers mortality death life love H. Rider Haggard
263b895 America was, to them, the place that good people went to when they died. They were prepared to believe just about anything could happen in America. death Neil Gaiman
2f42011 Does it make you brave to stick your hand in a bear's mouth? Would you do it again just because you didn't die? death medieval fantasy-fiction Robert Jordan
8edb34a The human mind is so limited it can only build an arbitrary heaven -- and usually the physical comforts they endow it with are naively the kind that can be perceived as we humans perceive -- nothing more. No: perhaps I will awake to find myself burning in hell. I think not. I think I will be snuffed out. Black is sleep; black is a fainting spell; and black is death, with no light, no waking. death human-mind Sylvia Plath
558175f "It has been a week since Ami died and this morning I woke suddenly hours before dawn, indeed the same hour as when my mother died. It was not a dream that woke me, but a thought. And with that thought I could swear I heard Ami's voice. But I am not frightened. I am joyous. Joyous with realization. For I cannot help but think what a lucky person I am. Imagine that in all the eons of time, in all the possible universes of which Dara speaks, of all the stars in the heavens, Ami and I came together for one brief and shining sliver of time. I stop. I think. time gratitude death love space mother Kathryn Lasky
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