# Quotes about Death... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 14, 2016, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-about-death/749025 "2016-03-14T23:26:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-about-death/749025/21 "2016-03-16T13:46:56Z")
For days after death hair and fingernails continue to grow, but phone calls taper off. - Johnny Carson ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-about-death/749025/22 "2016-03-16T16:30:12Z")
Death is when the monsters get you. - Mark Petrie (Stephen King) ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-about-death/749025/23 "2016-03-16T17:10:38Z")
“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.” ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-about-death/749025/24 "2016-03-16T17:29:38Z")
The quote from the Capuchin Crypt in Rome (artistically arranged bones and skulls): “What you are now, we used to be; what we are now, you will be…” It sends shivers down my spine every time I hear it. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-about-death/749025/25 "2016-03-16T19:20:49Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > “I intend to live forever, or die trying.” > > – Groucho Marx Similarly, “Immortality is a long shot, but someone’s gotta be first.” ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-about-death/749025/26 "2016-03-17T19:35:54Z")
Some more appropriate Pratchettisms: “Time is a drug. Too much of it kills you.” “DON’T THINK OF IT AS DYING, said Death. JUST THINK OF IT AS LEAVING EARLY TO AVOID THE RUSH.” “And what would humans be without love?" "RARE, said Death.” “The reaper does not listen to the harvest.” “He said that there was death and taxes, and taxes was worse, because at least death didn’t happen to you every year.” “YOU FEAR TO DIE? "It’s not that I don’t want… I mean, I’ve always…it’s just that life is a habit that’s hard to break…” ---
**Author:** ![Barrett\_Bonden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5e9695/32.png) [@Barrett\_Bonden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barrett_Bonden)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-about-death/749025/27 "2016-03-17T20:48:52Z")
Two, mildly spiritual, courtesy of Ben Franklin. [QUOTE=Ben Franklin] We are spirits. That bodies should be lent us, while they can afford us pleasure, assist us in acquiring knowledge, or doing good to our fellow creatures, is a kind and benevolent act of God - when they become unfit for these purposes and afford us pain instead of pleasure-instead of an aid, become an incumbrance and answer none of the intentions for which they were given, it is equally kind and benevolent that a way is provided by which we may get rid of them. Death is that way. - from [letter to Elizabeth Hubbart](http://www.beliefnet.com/resourcelib/docs/41/Letter_from_Benjamin_Franklin_to_Elizabeth_Hubbart_1.html), 1756 [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Ben’s (unused) epitaph] The Body of B. Franklin Printer; Like the Cover of an old Book, Its Contents torn out, And stript of its Lettering and Gilding, Lies here, Food for Worms. But the Work shall not be wholly lost: For it will, as he believ’d, appear once more, In a new & more perfect Edition, Corrected and Amended By the Author. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-about-death/749025/28 "2016-03-17T21:13:41Z")
Where now are the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing? Where is the harp on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing? Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing? They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow; The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow. Who shall gather the smoke of the deadwood burning, Or behold the flowing years from the Sea returning? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-about-death/749025/29 "2016-03-17T21:21:31Z")
[Please Don’t Bury Me](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfBdMXhpQnU) (John Prine) “Please don’t bury me Down in that cold cold ground No, I’d druther have 'em cut me up And pass me all around Throw my brain in a hurricane And the blind can have my eyes And the deaf can take both of my ears If they don’t mind the size” ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-about-death/749025/30 "2016-03-17T21:52:11Z")
A C Clarke has a lot of good ones, but one of his best, and probably among his least known, is from his short story _Transience_: > [@](#): > > Under the level light of the sagging moon, beneath the myriad stars, the beach lay waiting for the end. It was alone now, as it had been at the beginning. Only the waves would move, and but for a little while, upon its golden sands. > For Man had come and gone. (You should read the whole story though!) ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2016, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-about-death/749025/31 "2016-03-18T16:49:59Z")
Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it.–W. Somerset Maugham ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2016, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-about-death/749025/32 "2016-03-18T17:12:10Z")
“Live fast, die young and leave a good-looking corpse.”–Willard Motley, “Knock on any door” ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2016, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-about-death/749025/33 "2016-03-18T19:04:48Z")
I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time… like tears in rain… Time to die. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-about-death/749025.md?page=1)