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Death and Bereavement Quotes

 

Top 35 Death and Bereavement Quotes

 

No 1 (Best quote!)Death and Bereavement Quotes

Do not go gentle into that good night, old age should burn and rave at close of day; rage, rage against the dying of the light.

(from Do not go gentle into that good night, 1952 poem).

- Dylan Thomas (1914-53), Welsh poet, pictured right,

 

 

No 2Death and Bereavement Quotes

Here lies a man who never lived, yet still from death was flying; who, if not sick, was never well; and died—for fear of dying!

- James Thomson (1700–48), Scottish poet, pictured right.

 Death and Bereavement Quotes

Isabella in Shakespeare’s, pictured right,  Measure for Measure agrees:

The sense of death is most in apprehension.

 

 

No 3Death and Bereavement Quotes

It seems to me most strange that men should fear; seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come,

(Julius Caesar in Julius Caesar)

- William Shakespeare (1564-1616), English playwright, pictured right.

 Death and Bereavement Quotes

Epicurus (341–271 BC), the Greek philosopher,pictured right, says something similar:

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,

 

 

No 4Death and Bereavement Quotes

The paths of glory lead but to the grave,

(from Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,a 1751 poem ).

- Thomas Gray (1716-71), pictured right, English poet.

 Death and Bereavement Quotes

Boethius (c.470-524) the Roman philosopher, pictured right, puts it another way:

Death equalizes the high and the low.

 

 

No 5Death and Bereavement Quotes

Do not stand at my grave and weep: I am not there. I do not sleep,

(from Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep a 1932 poem)

- Mary Elizabeth Frye (1905-2004), pictured right, American poet.

 Death and Bereavement Quotes

Christina Rossetti, pictured right, says something similar in her poem Remember (1862):

Better by far you should forget and smile

Than that you should remember and be sad.

 

 

No 6Death and Bereavement Quotes

The desire that every day might be my last, and the desire to make the most of every moment drives me on.

- Anita Roddick (1942- 2007), founder of the British cosmetics retailer, The Body Shop , pictured right.

Death and Bereavement Quotes

Marcus Aurelius (121-180), the Roman emperor and philosopher, pictured right, agrees:

Do every act of your life as if it were your last.

 

 

No 7Death and Bereavement Quotes

Death, where is thy sting ... Grave where is thy victory?,

 (from The Pilgrim's Progress)

- John Bunyan (1628-88), English writer, pictured right

 

 

No 8Death and Bereavement Quotes

Death cancels everything but truth; and strips a man of everything but genius and virtue. It is a sort of natural canonization.

- William Hazlitt (1778–1830), English writer, pictured right.

 

 

No 9Death and Bereavement Quotes

There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.

- George Santayana (1863–1952), Spanish-born American philosopher, pictured right.

 

 

No 10Death and Bereavement Quotes

It hath been often said, that it is not death, but dying, which is terrible.

(from the 1751 novel, Amelia)

- Henry Fielding (1707-54), pictured right, English writer.

 

 

No 11Death and Bereavement Quotes

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

- Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Italian painter, sculptor, architect and engineer, pictured right.

 

 

No12Death and Bereavement Quotes

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep

(from Stopping By the Woods On A Snowy Evening, a 1923 poem)

- Robert Frost (1874-1963), pictured right above, American poet.

 

 

No 13Death and Bereavement Quotes

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.

- Steve Jobs (1955- 2011), co-founder of Apple, pictured right.

 

 

No 14Death and Bereavement Quotes

Give sorrow words: the grief that does not speak whispers the o’er-fraught heart, and bids it break.

(Malcolm in Macbeth)
 

- William Shakespeare (1564-1616), English playwright, pictured right.

 

 

No 15Death and Bereavement Quotes

You matter because you are you, and you matter to the last moment of your life

- Cicely Saunders (1918-2005), English founder of the modern hospice movement, pictured right.

 

 

No 16Death and Bereavement Quotes

I tried to commit suicide one day...I turned on the gas and left all the windows open.

- Elton John (1947- ), English pop star, pictured right,

 

 

No 17Death and Bereavement Quotes

You can’t experience being alive without realizing that you have to die, she [Sophie] thought. But it’s just as impossible to realize you have to die without thinking how incredibly amazing it is to be alive.

(from Sophie's World).

- Jostein Gaarder (1952-), Norwegian writer, pictured right

 

 

No 18Death and Bereavement Quotes

I intend to live forever, or die trying,

- Groucho Marx (1890-1977), American comedian and film and TV star, pictured right.


 

 

No 19Death and Bereavement Quotes

But take comfort that I die at peace with the world and myself – not afraid,

- Robert Scott (1868-1912), English Antarctic explorer, pictured right.

 

 

No 20Death and Bereavement Quotes

Farewell to thee! but not farewell

To all my fondest thoughts of thee:

Within my heart they still shall dwell;

And they shall cheer and comfort me.

O, beautiful, and full of grace!

(from a 1848 poem, Farewell)

- Anne Brontë (1820-49), pictured right above, English writer.

 

 

No 21Death and Bereavement Quotes

The persons on whom I have bestowed my dearest love lie deep in their graves; but, although the happiness and delight of my life lie buried there too, I have not made a coffin of my heart.

(Mr. Brownlow in Oliver Twist)

- Charles Dickens (1812-70), English writer, pictured right

 

 

 

No 22Death and Bereavement Quotes

Death is nothing, but to live defeated and ingloriously, is to die every day,

- Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) ,pictured right, French leader.

 

Two other great people agree:Death and Bereavement Quotes

 

The worst evil of all is to leave the ranks of the living before one dies.

- Seneca (c.4 BC-65 AD), Roman philosopher, pictured right.

 Death and Bereavement Quotes

Every man dies. Not every man really lives.

- William Wallace (c.1272-1305), Scottish leader,pictured right.

 

 

No 23Death and Bereavement Quotes

If a man hasn’t discovered something he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.

- Martin Luther King (1929-68), pictured right, American civil rights leader.

 

 

No 24Death and Bereavement Quotes

Nothing  can be said to be  certain,  except death and taxes.

- Benjamin Franklin (1706-90), American politician and philosopher, pictured right.

 

 

No 25Death and Bereavement Quotes

Let me die a young man's death.

(title of a 1967 poem)

- Roger McGough (1937- ), pictured right, English poet 

 

 

No 26Death and Bereavement Quotes

It’s the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more.

(Dumbledore in the 2005 novel Half-Blood Prince)

- J.K. Rowling (1965- ), English writer, pictured right  

 

 

No 27Death and Bereavement Quotes

Life was a funny thing that happened to me on the way to the grave.

- Quentin Crisp (1908-99), English writer.

 

 

No 28Death and Bereavement Quotes

Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.

(Julius Caesar in Julius Caesar)

 - William Shakespeare (1564-1616), English playwright, pictured right.

 

 

No 29Death and Bereavement Quotes

But there are times when suddenly you realize you’re nearer the end than the beginning.

- Colonel Nicholson (in the film, The Bridge on the River Kwai, 1957, pictured right).

 

 

No 30Death and Bereavement Quotes

It's not about dying - it's about living fully until you die.

- Sister Frances Dominica (1942- ), Scottish pioneer of the hospice movement, pictured right,

 

 

No 31Death and Bereavement Quotes

We do best in life if we look at it with clear eyes, and I think that applies to coming up to death as well.

- Cicely Saunders (1918-2005), English founder of the modern hospice movement, pictured right.

 

 

No 32Death and Bereavement Quotes

I hope I die before I get old.

(from The Who's 1965 song, My Generation) 

- Pete Townsend (1945- ), pop musician and member of The Who (pictured right).

 

 

No 33Death and Bereavement Quotes

You think the dead we love ever truly leave us? You think that we don't recall them more clearly than ever in times of great trouble?

(Dumbledore in the Prisoner of Azkaban)

- J.K. Rowling (1965- ), English writer, pictured right  

 

 

No 34Death and Bereavement Quotes

The last stages of life should not be seen as defeat but rather as life's fulfilment.

- Cicely Saunders (1918-2005), English founder of the modern hospice movement, pictured right.

 

 

No 35Death and Bereavement Quotes

Live well and die happy. 

(Joe in Great Expectations)

- Charles Dickens (1812-70), English writer, pictured right

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