“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
— Steve Jobs Primary source“You only live twice:
Once when you’re born,
Once when you look death in the face.”
“Up, sluggard, and waste not life; in the grave will be sleeping enough.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“The most obvious way of reconciling oneself to death is to make sure of enjoying life before death snatches it from us.”
— Arnold J. Toynbee Primary source“No catalogue of horrors ever kept men from war. Before the war you always think that it’s not you that dies. But you will die, brother, if you go to it long enough.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source“As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well used brings happy death.”
— Leonardo da Vinci Primary source“The questioners had that beautiful detachment and devotion to stern justice of men dealing in death without being in any danger of it.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source“Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than live as slaves.”
— Winston Churchill Primary source“But I am greedy for life. I do too much of everything all the time. Suddenly one day my heart will fail. The Iron Crab will get me as it got my father. But I am not afraid of The Crab. At least I shall have died from an honourable disease. Perhaps they will put on my tombstone. ‘This Man Died from Living Too Much’.”
— Ian Fleming Primary source“No one comes back from the dead; no one has come into the world without weeping. No one asks when one wants to come in; no one asks when one wants to go out.”
— Søren Kierkegaard Primary source“Dying is only bad when it takes a long time and hurts so much that it humiliates you.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source“I will not be triumphed over.”
— Cleopatra Disputed“There are, as is known, insects that die in the moment of fertilization. So it is with all joy: life’s highest, most splendid moment of enjoyment is accompanied by death.”
— Søren Kierkegaard Primary source“Let us not weep for those who have gone away when their lives were at full bloom and beauty. Who are we that we should mourn them and wish them back? Life at its every stage is good, but who shall say whether those who die in the splendor of their prime are not fortunate to have known no abatement, no dulling of the flame by ash, no slow fading of life’s perfect flower.”
— Helen Keller Primary source“Death is a dreamless sleep.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte DisputedWar Sleep Life Born Patriotism