100 Quotes About Dying

I've been making a list of the things they don't teach you at school. They don't teach you how to love somebody. They don't teach you how to be famous. They don't teach you how to be rich or how to be poor. They don't teach you how to walk away from someone you don't love any longer. They don't teach you how to know what's going on in someone else's mind. They don't teach you what to say to someone who's dying. They don't teach you anything worth knowing. Neil Gaiman

I want to live the rest of my life, however long or short, with as much sweetness as I can decently manage, loving all the people I love, and doing as much as I can of the work I still have to do. I am going to write fire until it comes out of my ears, my eyes, my noseholes--everywhere. Until it's every breath I breathe. I'm going to go out like a fucking meteor! Audre Lorde

Let’s face it, life is trivial, and my guess is that dying imparts very little wisdom on those in process. Sue Grafton

She was a dead girl having the worst panic attack shed ever had. Not because she was afraid of dying, but because she knew that she would never live again. Tonya Hurley

All the things people carry in their hearts, love, hatred, fears, and they had to be shared with a friend or a loved one, because when we do not share them, sometime, all the things love, anger, hatred, fears ends up coming out of us mixed-up. We just become a shell with nothing inwards us, an empty soul with nothing in it, that is as bad as dying. Shaikh Ashraf

He'd seen that the young ones died quickly. He'd heard the staff talk about it. When they were ready they let go. Not like adults. Adults took a long time. It was as if adults had built such a thick, petrified husk around them that this alone gave them the strength, the form to hold on. And by the transient revival that so often came to the dying, adults seemed to find a last little puff of life before the end. They had a term for it here at the hospital -- hui guang fan zhao, the reflected rays of the setting sun. Children were lacking in this. They went quickly. He watched as the DOWN light came on and the elevator door slid open. He had a fear that his life now was just an interlude of hui guang fan zhao, a brief moment before it all came back, worse. And for so long now he had been in this state by himself. He stared up at the digital floor numbers flashing, descending. Nicole Mones

The Sunlight on the GardenThe sunlight on the garden Hardens and grows cold, We cannot cage the minute Within its nets of gold, When all is told We cannot beg for pardon. Our freedom as free lances Advances towards its end; The earth compels, upon it Sonnets and birds descend; And soon, my friend, We shall have no time for dances. The sky was good for flying Defying the church bells And every evil iron Siren and what it tells: The earth compels, We are dying, Egypt, dying And not expecting pardon, Hardened in heart anew, But glad to have sat under Thunder and rain with you, And grateful too For sunlight on the garden. Louis MacNeice

I am dying: it's a beautiful word. Like the long slow sigh of the cello: dying. But the sound of it is the only beautiful thing about it. Sonya Hartnett

It's nice to see how the suffering does away in time. It always does Kathrin Schmidt

I used to say why save money if I'll die tomorrow, I haven’t died yet and I have nothing to survive on Bangambiki Habyarimana

Tell Hugh, " she whispered. Tell Hugh your freaking self! He's right here! And you're not going anywhere. L.j. Smith

If this is dying, Chloe thought, I'd like to do it again sometime. Lucas Mangum

It was reasonable to struggle, to suffer, perhaps even to die, for a more just, a more compassionate society, but not in a world with no future where, all to soon, the very words "justice, " "compassion, " "society, " "struggle, " "evil, " would be unheard echoes on an empty air. P.D. James

The world can't die. Many generations have thought the world was dying. But it was only their world which was dying. Tadeusz Konwicki

Dying seems less sad than having lived too little. Gloria Steinem

The best way to die is when your living Alice Hoffman

Sensible people get the greater part of their own dying done during their own lifetime Samuel Butler

Its hard to die. Harder to live Dan Simmons

We are always dying, all the time. That's what living is; living is dying, little by little. It is a sequenced collection of individualized deaths. Chuck Klosterman

With a sigh, he grabbed hold of his chair and lifted himself out of it, then wrote on the blackboard: How will we ever get out of this labyrinth of suffering? - A.Y.'I'm going to leave that up for the rest of the semester, ' he said.' Because everybody who has ever lost their way in life has felt the nagging insistence of that question. At some point we all look up and realize we are lost in a maze, and I don't want us to forget Alaska, and I don't want to forget that even when the material we study seems boring, we're trying to understand how people have answered that question and the questions each of you posed in your papers--how different traditions have come to terms with what Chip, in his final, called 'people's rotten lots in life. John Green

You have to learn how to die if you wanna be alive. Jeff Tweedy

You live and then you die, I thought. It's good to have some good times. Natalie Goldberg

That's what it means to die, to not be able to stop looking at whatever's in front of you. Some darn thing placed directly there, with nothing you can do about it... Philip K. Dick

Live to the fullest or die;and die you will anyway, so start living! Christopher S. Hyatt

The harassed look is that of a desperately tired swimmer or runner; yet there is no question of stopping. The creature we are watching will struggle on and on until it drops. Not because it is heroic. It can imagine no alternative. Staring and staring into the mirror, it sees many faces within its face - the face of the child, the boy, the young man, the not-so-young-man - all present still, preserved as fossils, dead. Their message to this live dying creature is: Look at us - we have died -what is there to be afra . Christopher Isherwood

The Coming of Wisdom with TimeThough leaves are many, the root is one, Through all the lying days of my youth I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun; Now I may wither into the truth. W.b. Yeats

The only thing worse than living with regret, is dying with regret. Jewel E. Ann

Don’t waste your time dying over the past, spend it living in the present. Saim Cheeda

How strange that as I'm dying, you're calmly alive. Taijun Takeda

It's peculiar to me, ' she said, 'that everybody pays so much attention to living and so little to dying. Why are these high-powered scientists always screwing around trying to prolong life instead of finding pleasant ways to end it? There must be a hell of a lot of people in the world like me--who want to die but haven't got the guts. Horace McCoy

I know a little of living and a little of dying. I know how to survive, i have mastered it as a soldier gains mastery of his weapons. Yet i prefer dying, for in dying i learn to live. Paul Bamikole

In the midst of life we are in death, '" said Miss Ophelia. Harriet Beecher Stowe

I want to tell them that almost dying is awfully easy. Its the living that's hard. Jennifer Holm

A life's meaning comes not from the manner in which one dies, but in the manner in which one lives. Mike Kalmbach

The only thing your life teaches you is how to live your life. And that’s only if you’re very lucky. And you listen very hard. Mark Slouka

Get busy living or get busy dying.Ӊۥ Stephen King, The Shawshank Redemption Stephen King

Just make sure that the thing you're living for is worth dying for." --Levi Jill Williamson

Be happy that after living so many lives, I finally found something to die for Stephenie Meyer

From now on it is not dying we must fear, but living. Arundhati Roy

Every day was there to be lived or to mark one's departure from this world. Paulo Coelho

I think that the dying pray at the last not "please, " but "thank you, " as a guest thanks his host at the door. Falling from airplanes the people are crying thank you, thank you, all the way down the air; and the cold carriages draw up for them on the rocks. Annie Dillard

First I was dying to finish high school and start college. And then I was dying to finish college and start working. And then I was dying to marry and have children. And then I was dying for my children to grow old enough for school so I could return to work. And then I was dying to retire. And now, I am dying... and suddenly I realize I forgot to live. Anonymous

Life went on, despite all the dying. Unknown

Once I was in the cold dim room, without furniture or carpet or rugs, only a dollhouse that wasn't as wonderful as the original, I opened the tall and narrow closet door and began my ascent up the steep and narrow stairs. On my way to the attic. On my way to where I'd find my Christopher, again... V.C. Andrews

I had heard the wind from the mountains calling me last night, telling me it was my time to go, and I woke up, knowing what to do. V.C. Andrews

It's different when the person you love dies. There's an awful finality to death. But it is final. The end. And there's the funeral, family gatherings, grieving, all of those necessary rituals. And they help, believe me. When the object of your love just disappears, there's no way to deal with the grief and pain. Barbara Taylor Bradford

With ringworm, lice bites, and a million bugs. Men so sick they are dying Sebastian Barry

He wore the memory of her embrace like armor, and though he knew it would not save his life, it would be all that was left to him to ease his passage into whatever lay beyond. Andrew Levkoff

Some people say dying alone is a fate worse than death itself. Well, they should try being alone during the living part sometimes. There's no quicker way to make you wonder why the hell you ever thought you'd want to return. John Corey Whaley

I have to set an example, now more than ever. Facing death is the ultimate test of character. — Cmdr. William Riker Unknown

I don't have to kill myself, living my life is just the same. Aaron Scheerer

Depression is not a side effect of cancer. Depression is a side effect of dying. John Green

As long as we can love each other, and remember the feeling of love we had, we can die without ever really going away. All the love you created is still there. All the memories are still there You live on--in the hearts of everyone you have touched and nurtured while you were here..... Death ends a life, not a relationship" -Morrie Schwartz Unknown

Modern society drinks in streams of information while dying of wisdom thirst. Orrin Woodward

Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die. Kim Heacox

Dying for someone is easy." J.T. murmured now; as if reading my mind." Living for yourself, that's hard. Lisa Gardner

I don’t actually think “true love” is such a good term because love can only be true. If it isn’t true it can’t be love. Aidan Chambers

Sometimes, I think, that in the mornings when you first wake up, every thing that happened in the previous day rushes through our mind so fast, we, A: Don't realize it. B: Become more tired, die a little inside, and become groggy. Since everyday, we die a little inside we age closer and closer to death. We constantly grow older, and we're constantly dying. Therefore, don't wake me up early, or I'll take it that you wanted to kill me. Melanie Kay Taylor

Maybe he was going to hell. Except, he could’ve sworn that was where he’d been the past ten years. Kelly Moran

Piece by piece, my mother is being stolen from me. Dorothy Allison

Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there. It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime. . Ray Bradbury

We just did an awesome job of not dying. John Green

I don't really care. I shouldn't have to care. I shouldn't have to work this hard. I realize now that dying is easy. Living is hard. Gayle Forman

When you stop growing you start dying. William S. Burroughs

That's the good part of dying; when you've nothing to lose, you run any risk you want. Ray Bradbury

DON'T YOU DARE DIE ON ME, JEZEBEL! DON'T YOU DARE! Or I'll follow you to the next world and KILL you. L.j. Smith

I have offended God and mankind because my work didn't reach the quality it should have. Leonardo Da Vinci

Everybody will die, but very few people want to be reminded of that fact. Lemony Snicket

How ironic, she thought, as she fell to her certain death, that at that moment she would have given anything to be a giant goose again. Michael Buckley

Listen to me, Jez. There's no reason for you to die-" Wood...poison." No it isn't! Not to humans. And you're half human. You're vampire enough to survie something that would kill a human, but you're human enough not to be poisoned by wood. L.j. Smith

Death is a long process, " Archer says. "Your body is just the first part of you that croaks." Meaning: Beyond that, your dreams have to die. Then your expectations. And your anger about investing a lifetime in learning shit and loving people and earning money, only to have all that crap come to basically nothing. Really, your physical body dying is the easy part. Beyond that, your memories must die. And your ego. Your pride and shame and ambition and hope, all that Personal Identity Crap can take centuries to expire. Chuck Palahniuk

It's taken years for me to understand that dying doesn't end the story; it transforms it. Edits, rewrites, the blur, aand epiphany of one-way dialogue. Most of us wander in and out of one another's lives until not death, but distance, does us part-- time and space and heart's weariness are the blander executioners or human connection. Gail Caldwell

I always had understood that dying of love was mere poetic license. Unknown

Here, when I say I never want to be without you, somewhere else I am saying I never want to be without you again. And when I touch youin each of the places we meet, in all of the lives we are, it's with hands that are dyingand resurrected. When I don't touch you it's a mistake in any life, in each place and forever Bob Hicok

When we finally know we are dying, and all other sentient beings are dying with us, we start to have a burning, almost heartbreaking sense of the fragility and preciousness of each moment and each being, and from this can grow a deep, clear, limitless compassion for all beings. Sogyal Rinpoche

And all the winds go sighing, For sweet things dying Christina Rossetti

Silver’s sweet and gold’s our mother, but once you’re dead they’re worth less than that last shit you take as you lie dying. George R.r. Martin

I love walking in the rain because no one knows im dying Christopher Myers

He's lost his colour very far from here, Poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry Wilfred Owen

Why did it take the threat of dying to truly notice how exquisite a sunrise or sunset could be? Suzanne Woods Fisher

…and he wasn't reconciled to dying. Dora told him he was going to a better world. "Mebbe, mebbe, " says poor Ben, "but I'm sorter used to the imperfections of this one. L.m. Montgomery

There are moments when a rope's end, a pole, the branch of the tree, is life itself, and it is a frightful thing to see a living being lose his hold upon it, and fall like a ripe fruit. Victor Hugo

Oh, honey, ” she said, her tone echoing Wattie’s. “I’m not sick. I’m only dying. Joshilyn Jackson

A human textbook. Study me in my slow and patient demise. Watch what happens to me. Learn with me. Morrie would walk that final bridge between life and death, and narrate the trip. Mitch Albom

He told his friends that if they really wanted to help him, they would treat him not with sympathy but with visits, phone calls, a sharing of their problems - the way they had always.. because Morrie had always been a wonderful listener. Mitch Albom

Men so sick they are dying of death. Sebastian Barry

I have already lived long enough, Manon had written in late autumn, on an autumn day like today. I have lived and loved, I have had the best of this world. Why cry over the ending? Why cling to what remains? The advantage of dying is that you stop being afraid of it. There is a sense of peacefulness too. Nina George

Hunter woke suddenly. A noise. It was a noise unlike anything he’d ever heard before. Close! Very close. Like it was on him. Like it was .Just in one ear. He twisted his head. It was full night. Black as black in the woods far from the starlight. He couldn’t see anything. But with his hands he could feel. The thing on his shoulder. His ear . gone! A terrible fear wrung a cry of horror from Hunter.He couldn’t feel it, his ear, or his shoulder, couldn’t feel with anything but his fingers and he felt, reached beneath his shirt, felt the flesh of his belly pulse and heave. Like something inside him. No, no, no, it wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair! He was Hunter. The hunter. He was doing his best. He cried. Tears rolled down his cheeks. Who would bring meat for all the kids? It wasn’t fair. The sound of munching, crunching started again. Just in one ear. Hunter had only one weapon: the heat-causing power in his hands. He had used it many, many times to take the life of prey. He had fed the kids with that power. And in a moment of fear and rage he had accidentally taken the life of his friend, Harry.Maybe he could kill the thing that was eating his ear. But it was too late for that to help. Could he kill himself? He saw Old Lion’s head, eyes closed, hanging where he’d hung him for skinning. If Old Lion could die, so could Hunter.Maybe they would meet again, up in the sky. Hunter pressed both palms against his head. . Michael Grant

Dying is easy, but victory comes hard. George R.r. Martin

At that time, a number of myths were created by the young people of the smoking carriages and forests of hallucinogenic mushrooms, the hungry for the thirst of lysergic acid, who were too tired of the suffering they grew up in and needed to take refuge in dreams. In these children's universe there were unbelievable stories about places in the mountains that women sought to retreat to, places where people were united by music and love for a mutual spiritual growth. For Aunt Jeanine, who had grown up with the image of her father, an amputee due to the war, feeding on such stories was like a haven, one she would later try to turn into her home. And one of those stories, one particular one, stood in her memory until the last stage of her life, when she passed away at eighty-one, burned with fire. (..) At that time, kid, they said that if we searched enough, we would find a place where the world wouldn't end. Men would never know what hell of a place that was, totally unconquerable! A place where the dirty hands of men would never arrive. A place men would never know about. Don't you think I could find it? To have my body disappearing in the woods, as I saw happening to kids in Japan, in that forest that swallows them to its core. Flesh turned to powder, my essence disappearing in the middle of life. They said that, when you die at a place, you'll stay at that place forever. That was why everyone was afraid to go to war. They weren't afraid of dying, kid, they were afraid of dying there. Pat R

It's not the dying but the manner of it. Wilbur Smith

He wanted to show her how to live, even after he was gone. Kass Morgan

Back then everyone was saying: "We're going to die, we're going to die. By the year 2000, there won't be any Belarussians left. Svetlana Alexievich

We may achieve climate, but weather is thrust upon us. Santone, then, cannot be blamed for this cold gray fog that came and kissed the lips of the three thousand, and then delivered them to the cross. That night the tubercles, whose ravages hope holds in check, multiplied. The writhing fingers of the pale mist did not go thence bloodless. Many of the wooers of ozone capitulated with the enemy that night, turning their faces to the wall in that dumb, isolated apathy that so terrifies their watchers. On the red stream of Hemorrhagia a few souls drifted away, leaving behind pathetic heaps, white and chill as the fog itself. Two or three came to view this atmospheric wraith as the ghost of impossible joys, sent to whisper to them of the egregious folly it is to inhale breath into the lungs, only to exhale it again, and these used whatever came handy to their relief, pistols, gas or the beneficent muriate. - A Fog in Santone (1898-1901) . O. Henry