Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.
We come and we cry, and that is life; we yawn and we depart, and that is death! [Fr., On entre, on crie, Et c'est la vie! On baille, on sort, Et c'est la mort!]
The real malady is fear of life, not of death.
Death and taxes and childbirth. There's never any convenient time for any of them.
Life is better than death, I believe, if only because it is less boring and because it has fresh peaches in it.
Life is a series of little deaths out of which life always returns.
Basically I am interrested in friendship, sex, and death.
There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.
Look, I don't want to wax philosophic, but I will say that if you're alive you've got to flap your arms and legs, you've got to jump around a lot, for life is the very opposite of death, and therefore you must at very least think noisy and colorfully, or you're not alive.
The death of Dr. Hudson is a loss to the republick of letters.
For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,And breathed in the face of the foe as he pass'd;And the eyes of the sleepers wax'd deadly and chill,And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still! - Destruction of Sennacherib, The.
'Humph!' grunted Mr. Romford, seeing his worst fears about to be realized. He had dreamt that he had timbled over a poodle in the drawing-room, and squirted a bottle of porter right into a lady's face. 'Who's goin' besides ourselves?' asked Romford, wishing to know the worst at once. 'Better be killed than frightened to death,' thought he. - Mr. Facey Romford's Hounds.
We read poetry because the poets, like ourselves, have been haunted by the inescapable tyranny of time and death; have suffered the pain of loss, and the more wearing, continuous pain of frustration and failure; and have had moods of unlooked-for release and peace. They have known and watched in themselves and others.
If the radiance of a thousand sunsWere to burst at once into the skyThat would be like the splendor of the Mighty one --I am become Death,The shatterer of Worlds. - Bhagavad Gita.
I was court-martial in my absence, and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence.
A son could bear with great complacency, the death of his father, while the loss of his inheritance might drive him to despair. [Lat., Gli huomini dimenticano piu teste la morte del padre, che la perdita del patrimonie.]
A DEEP-SWORN VOW Others because you did not keep That deep-sworn vow have been friends of mine. Yet always when I look death in the face, When I clamber to the heights of sleep, Or when I grow excited with wine, Suddenly I meet your face.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of everyday's Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints, -I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life! - and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.
The infant, on opening his eyes, ought to see his country, and to the hour of his death never lose sight of it. [Fr., Un enfant en ouvrant ses yeux doit voir la patrie, et jusqu'a la mort ne voir qu'elle.]
This is the third time; I hope good luck lies in odd numbers. Away; go. They say there is divinity in odd numbers, either in nativity, chance, or death.
Never chase a lie. Let it alone, and it will run itself to death. I can work out a good character much faster than anyone can lie me out of it.
No man is an island entire of itself; every man is part of the main ... Any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee. More mankind quotes coming soon. If you have a quote or proverb about mankind, please use the "Submit a Quote" form below to have your mankind quote reviewed by an editor. Suggestions or comments on this site? Send an email -John Donne.
It is the cause and not merely the death that makes the martyr.
It is the cause and not merely the death that makes the martyr.