Death is something that affects us all and can evoke a variety of powerful emotions. While death is typically seen as a negative event, it can also be understood in different ways. The quotes below show some of the ways reflective people have interpreted death over time and since these interpretations vary so widely, they may just help you come to terms with your own thoughts on mortality. Read ahead to explore twenty thought-provoking and profound quotes about death from famous philosophers, authors, poets and others!
Profound Quotes About Death
When we have lost everything, including hope, life becomes a disgrace, and death a duty. – W. C. Fields
After your death you will be what you were before your birth – Arthur Schopenhauer
People can undergo a sudden change of thinking and loyalties under threat of death or intense social pressure and isolation from friends and family. – Keith Henson
I have sometimes imagined my own death and brought myself to tears. – Martin Short
The death of what’s dead is the birth of what’s living. – Arlo Guthrie
It’s better to burn out than to fade away. – Neil Young
Thought: This idea that one should go out with a resounding bang, doing something of great note and impact before one is finished, has resonated with many. It captures our desire as humans to leave an indelible mark on the world around us when our time comes – to be remembered for greatness and not simply for mediocrity or anonymity. For those who have a fire burning within them, Neil Young’s proverb offers an inspiring way forward and can serve as both a challenge and reminder of the importance of making bold moves while they still have the chance.
We are not victims of aging, sickness and death. These are part of scenery, not the seer, who is immune to any form of change. This seer is the spirit, the expression of eternal being. – Deepak Chopra
It is natural to die as to be born – Francis Bacon
We live in grief for having left the womb, for having left the teat, then school, then home. In my case, it was leaving marriages, and the death of my wife. – William Shatner
Do not fear death so much but rather the inadequate life. – Bertolt Brecht
We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will – Chuck Palahniuk
Death, they say, acquits us of all obligations. – Michel de Montaigne
Death doesn’t frighten me now I can think peacefully of ending a long life. – Jeanne Calment
What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal. – Albert Pike
To die for one’s country is such a worthy fate that all compete for so beautiful a death. – Pierre Corneille
Men fear death as children fear to go into the dark and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other. – Francis Bacon
Thought: Death is a concept that can invoke fear even in the strongest of us, and as children are naturally afraid of things unseen, such fears that come after hearing grim stories and death tales become more pronounced. Francis Bacon accurately reflects on this notion in his statement that men fear death as children fear to go into the dark, and when the element of mysteries and fearful narratives are thrown into the mix, it only serves to increase that innate fear amongst both adults and young people alike. Even if we deny what lies at the end of our mortality, it’s something that we cannot escape from and therefore must learn to accept with a sense of resolution.
Death is not a period that ends the great sentence of life, but a comma that punctuates it to more lofty significance. Death is not a blind alley that leads the human race into a state of nothingness, but an open door which leads man into life eternal. – Martin Luther King Jr.
Death is a release from the impressions of the senses, and from desires that make us their puppets, and from the vagaries of the mind, and from the hard service of the flesh. – Marcus Aurelius
Death may be the greatest of all human blessings – Socrates
We hope you enjoyed these inspirational quotes about death, and take some comfort even in the grief and despair of dealing with death.