Quotations on Death

THE BHAGAVAD GITA (500 ? BC)

He who, at the time of death, thinking of Me alone, goes forth, leaving the body, he attains unto my Being.

Quoted in The Soul : An Archeology, Claudia Setzer

SOCRATES (469-399 BC)

You too, gentlemen of the jury, must look forward to death with confidence, and fix your minds on this one belief, which is certain: that nothing can harm a good man either in life or after death, and his fortunes are not a matter of indifference to the gods. This present experience of mine has not come about accidentally; I am quite clear that the time had come when it was better for me to die and be released from my distractions. That is why my sign (guiding spirit) never turned me back.

Plato’s Apology

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

(1564-1616)

Fear no more the heat of the sun Nor the furious winter’s rages; Thou thy worldly task hast done, Home art gone and ta’en thy wages.Golden lads and girls all must, As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.

Cymbeline,IV,2258
To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream": ay, there’s the rub: For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there’s the respect That makes calamity of so long life …
Hamlet
All that live must die, Passing through nature to enternity.
Hamlet,I,2

Ay, but to die and go we know not where;

To lie in cold obstrution and to rot;

This sensible warm notion to become

A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit

To bathe in fiery floods or to reside

In thrilling regions of deep-ribbed ice;

To be imprison’d in the viewless winds,

And blown in the restless violence round about

The pendant world.
Measure for Measure

He that dies pays all debts.
Tempes

KHALIL GIBRAN

You would know the secret of death. But now shall ….. shall you truly dance.

Death is not nearer to the aged than to the new born; neither is life.

Birth and death are the two noblest expressions of bravery.

When you have solved all the mysteries of life you long for death for it is blat another mystery of life.

Almitra the seeress, asks the prophet to speak of death. He said:

"You would know the secret of death."

"But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?"

"The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light."

"If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life."

"For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one."

"In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;

And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring."

"Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity."

"Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honor."

"Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king?"

"Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?"

"For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?"

"And what is it to cease breathing but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?"

"Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing."

"And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb."

"And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance."

From The Prophet