Dying quotes
1.8K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside dying — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"In days gone by, we were afraid of dying in dishonor or a state of sin. Nowadays, we are afraid of dying fools. Now the fact is that there is no Extreme Unction to absolve us of foolishness. We endure it here on earth as subjective eternity."
"A theologian is born by living, nay dying and being damned, not by thinking, reading, or speculating."
"Life isn't worth living until you have found something worth dying for."
"It is not death, it is dying that alarms me."
"Death, they say, acquits us of all obligations."
"The music is all. People should die for it. People are dying for everything else, so why not the music?"
"to die tomorrow was no worse than dying on any other day. Every day was there to be lived or to mark one’s departure from this world."
"I have good hope that there is something after death."
"Let death and exile, and all other things which appear terrible be daily before your eyes, but chiefly death, and you win never entertain any abject thought, nor too eagerly covet anything."
"And those who say, "I'll try anything once," often try nothing twice, three times, arriving late at the gate of dreams worth dying for."
"A dying man can do nothing easy."
"In the end, living is defined by dying. Book-ended by oblivion, we are caught in the vice of terror, squeezed to bursting by the approaching end. Fear is ever-present, waiting to be called to the surface. Change brought fear, and fear brought destruction."
"There's no way to know what makes one thing happen and not another. What leads to what. What destroys what. What causes what to flourish or die or take another course."
"Those who had alleged that a million civilians were dying from sanctions were willing, nay eager, to keep those same murderous sanctions if it meant preserving Saddam!"
"I'm dying, but so are you"
"Oh, I am not going to die, am I? He will not separate us, we have been so happy."
"I mean, if we said right now, there's somebody in the next room who's dying, let's all go save their life, you know, everybody would just get up immediately and go get involved in that."
"The one who is not being born is dying."
"If you're not busy being born, you're busy dying."
"I pass death with the dying and birth with the new-wash'd babe, and am not contained between my hat and my boots."
