# Famous last words: either this wall paper goes or........
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-last-words-either-this-wall-paper-goes-or/165317
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 31, 2003, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-last-words-either-this-wall-paper-goes-or/165317 "2003-03-31T00:03:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mozart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozart)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2003, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-last-words-either-this-wall-paper-goes-or/165317/1 "2003-03-31T00:03:30Z")
This may have been done to death here already. I’m new to the board, Anyway does anyone know some great exit lines from famous/infamous people? I know several but I will save them and add them if no one else does.
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2003, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-last-words-either-this-wall-paper-goes-or/165317/2 "2003-03-31T00:07:05Z")
Oscar Wilde, I believe.
How about: “More light!”
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### Author:  [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2003, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-last-words-either-this-wall-paper-goes-or/165317/3 "2003-03-31T00:14:34Z")
“Exit stage right”
Snagglepuss.
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### Author:  [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2003, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-last-words-either-this-wall-paper-goes-or/165317/4 "2003-03-31T00:33:02Z")
“Exit stage right”
Snagglepuss.
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### Author:  [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2003, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-last-words-either-this-wall-paper-goes-or/165317/5 "2003-03-31T00:35:14Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Northern Piper \*
> \*\*Oscar Wilde, I believe.
>
> How about: “More light!” \*\*
Either Goethe, or Dr. Hans Reinhardt.
Ranchoth
(“Goethe. Whenever in doubt, it must be Goethe.”)
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### Author:  [@Super\_Gnat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Super_Gnat)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2003, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-last-words-either-this-wall-paper-goes-or/165317/6 "2003-03-31T00:37:33Z")
“They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist–”
–Some general whose name I don’t remember giving a pep talk to his troops.
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### Author:  [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2003, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-last-words-either-this-wall-paper-goes-or/165317/7 "2003-03-31T01:20:31Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Super Gnat \*
> \*\*“They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist–”
>
> –Some general whose name I don’t remember giving a pep talk to his troops. \*\*
Union general John Sedgwick commenting on the effectiveness of the Confederate snipers he was exposing himself to while directing artillery fire.
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### Author:  [@bleach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bleach)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2003, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-last-words-either-this-wall-paper-goes-or/165317/8 "2003-04-01T21:28:11Z")
According to [this site](http://www.corsinet.com/braincandy/dying.html), Goethe’s last words were:
“Come my little one, and give me your hand,” (to his daughter, Ottilie).
O Henry’s last words were:
“Turn up the lights, I don’t want to go home in the dark.”
It’s an interesting website but I can’t vouch for its accuracy.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2003, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-last-words-either-this-wall-paper-goes-or/165317/9 "2003-04-01T21:45:02Z")
Sadly, those last words re: the wallpaper attributed to Oscar Wilde are a myth . . . Still, had he thought of it, I’m sure he would have made those his last words!
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### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2003, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-last-words-either-this-wall-paper-goes-or/165317/10 "2003-04-01T22:41:11Z")
Well, many of the best “last, dying words” are almost certainly mere legends. But I’d LIKE to think these are true:
1. As he was being burned to death, the martyr St. Laurence supposedly told his tormentors “Turn me over, I’m done on this side.”
2. As Revolutionary War general Ethan Allen was dying, legend has it that an attending clergyman told him, “The angels are waiting for you.” And, just before taking his last breath, Allen is supposed to have answered, “Waiting, are they? Let them wait!”
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### Author:  [@bradministrator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bradministrator)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2003, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-last-words-either-this-wall-paper-goes-or/165317/11 "2003-04-01T22:54:15Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by yabob \*
> \*\*Union general John Sedgwick commenting on the effectiveness of the Confederate snipers he was exposing himself to while directing artillery fire. \*\*
Sort of an urban legend. He did say “they couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance” right before he was shot, but he was not in mid-sentence.
[Account of the man standing next to Sedgwick at his death.](http://www.civilwarhome.com/sedgwickdeath.htm)
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### Author:  [@Wearia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wearia)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2003, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-last-words-either-this-wall-paper-goes-or/165317/12 "2003-04-01T23:06:50Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by yabob \*
> \*\*Union general John Sedgwick commenting on the effectiveness of the Confederate snipers he was exposing himself to while directing artillery fire. \*\*
At the Battle of Spotsylania Court House in 1864 ;).
I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have. -Leonardo da Vinci
Go on get out! Last words are for fools who haven’t said enough. -Karl Marx.
Dying is a very dull and dreary affair. And my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it. - Willam Maugham (British Author)
I don’t know what I may seem to this world. But as to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great of truth lay all undiscovered before me. - Sir Issac Newton.
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### Author:  [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2003, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-last-words-either-this-wall-paper-goes-or/165317/13 "2003-04-02T00:10:19Z")
Oh. _Last_ words. Sorry. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2003, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-last-words-either-this-wall-paper-goes-or/165317/14 "2003-04-02T00:25:05Z")
“Thomas Jefferson Lives” – John Adams, unaware that Jefferson had died earlier that day.