In a bit of a Gloom and Doom[sup]tm[/sup] mood of late, so am curious. If you could write your epitath what would it be, or how would you like to be remembered in the years to follow?
Me, it is simple. ‘He was a gentleman in thought and deed.’
This perhaps should be in MPSIMS, but wasn’t sure.
By an 18th century English jurist whose name I can’t remember at the moment:
“This alone I ask: That when I die, good men will say ‘He toiled in the service of Justice.’”
Of course we’ll have to change the gender, but that’s the one.
I’m terrified to fly, but I have to travel overseas often for my job. Well-meaning people often try to talk me out of being afraid of air travel. The one thing, I swear, that gets me through the flight is thinking “if this plane crashes, and I die, at least I will have the satisfaction of putting “I told you so” on my tombstone.”
I haven’t thought about what to do in the event of a non-air disaster demise yet.
There’s a tombstone that I saw, I think in Key West, that reads “I told you I was sick.” A kindred spirit, no doubt.
Something around the lines of “See you real soon, kids!” or
“Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it. THOSE WHO DO NOT REMEMBER THE PART ARE DOOMED TO REPEAT IT.”
“Watch your step”
I liked the one in the movie ‘Tombstone’
Here lies Les Moore
4 slugs from a .44
no les (sic)
no more
btw, its ‘epitaph’
Here lies brachyrhynchos,
Caws of death unknown.
She lived the basic ASCAR tenet with all her might,
Being a long-time member true and strong,
“All Corvis are always right and will be unequivocally supported by other Corvis unless they are wrong.”
When the AIDS Memorial quilt visited my town several years ago I saw, one one block, a variation oof some usual tombstone wording that I then and there decided to have put on MY stone. Instead of "born(date), died(date) it said "born(date), reborn(date). That fits my religious views perfectly.
Tristan
DOB: 12-16-1974
DOD: 10-31-2199
He will be missed.
I’m a cemetery enthusiast, and I’m really fond of the old school of tombstone design, especially the old-fashioned method of recording the deceased’s “vital” (HA!) statistics. However, I’m also concious of the opportunities and originality presented by modern materials and design. With that in mind, I’m planning on a full-length, black marble slab (NOT the mowover kind; those a total bullshit) inscribed with the following:
(a laser etched photo of me)
Juniper200
Born July 24, 1980, Hampton VA
Died (Date, Year, Location)
Aged (Years, Months, Days)
(an American Atheists logo)
“I don’t have to know how
And I don’t need to know why
And I don’t want to promise
And I don’t want to lie”
I know the quote comes from a context that is originally Christian, but I think it has a certain Atheist connotation when taken out of context. And I would think the logo would drive that point home as well.
I’m open to suggestions and improvements. I want my tombstone to…I almost said “rock” but then I realized how dumb that was, so let’s just say I want my tombstone to be really, really cool.
Being a big Grateful Dead fan, I hope to use the following line from “Truckin’”: ‘What a long, strange trip its been’. This sums up my life (at least to this point) fairly accurately.
Here lies JB12: He lived for the cause and rocked like a motherfucker.
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
-William Blake, Auguries of Innocence
Sums up what I’m hoping for in the afterlife
Or maybe my sig line 
Nice one, featherlou.
How about,
“Born, who knows,
Died, who cares”.
or
“Ain’t never had much of nothin’
and it’s too damned late now.”
Those are actually stolen from other headstones I’ve seen.
Hard to decide. Maybe:
Life was ever
since man was born,
licking honey
from a thorn.
Can’t remember who wrote it. Actually, I’m just to lazy to find my quote book. I’ll find it if anyone needs to know.
That or:
Something we were withholding made us weak
Until we realized it was ourselves.
That’s Robert Frost.
Tibs.
I’m still deciding, but I’ve got it narrowed down to:
“You’re stepping on my head!”, “Hey you kids, get off my lawn!” or “Don’t eat the clams.”
Death by misadventure.
“The rest is silence.”
–Hamlet, Act 2, Scene V
“But I didn’t even have the salmon mousse” is just as good.