Quotes About Mortality

First, do no harm . . .' Commonly attributed to Hippokrates of Kos, c. 460 BC 'Every surgeon carries within himself a small cemetery, where from time to time he goes to pray – a place of bitterness and regret, where he must look for an explanation for his failures.' René Leriche, La philosophie de la chirurgie, 1951

ANGOR ANIMI n. the sense of being in the act of dying, differing from the fear of death or the desire for death.

No estábamos angustiados, pues los tres sabíamos que iba a morir, pero supongo que lo que sentíamos era sencillamente un amor intenso, un amor sin segundas intenciones, sin la vanidad y el interés de los que tan a menudo es expresión ese sentimiento.

Our fear of death is deeply ingrained. It has been said that our knowledge of our mortality is what distinguishes us from other animals, and is the motive force behind almost all human action and achievement.

In the attempt to defeat death man has been inevitably obliged to defeat life, for the two are inextricably related. Life moves on to death, and to deny one is to deny the other.

Always knowing you're going to die And until then knowing you've got to live.

Her mouth is a soft explosion of roses A burst of raw animal definition For a few moments I was mortal

If I could I would melt into your arms I would fall like ten dead languages I would not front I would not lie to you I don't think I could lie anymore I have grown too old for such youthful pursuits I want to love someone before I die Hurry It won't be long now

There are nights where I cannot sleep They happen all the time In these periods, I don't want to exist Wouldn't it be nice to be no one right now? When I'm lying there, I always think of two things Sex and suicide Wouldn't it be nice to be no one right now? Sometimes I lie there and hope that I'll die right then

What you possess in the world will be found at the day of your death to belong to someone else. But what you are will be yours forever.

The long mysterious Exodus of death.

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,Life is but an empty dreamFor the soul is dead that slumbers,and things are not what they seem.Life is real Life is earnestAnd the grave is not its goalDust thou art to dust returnest,Was not spoken of the soul.

You have come into a hard world. I know of only one easy place in it, and that is the grave.

He would not now conduct little Nell to the coast; he would not convey her by a steamer to Port Said, would not surrender her to Mr. Rawlinson; he himself would not fall into his father's arms and would not hear from his lips that he had acted like a true Pole! The end, the end! In a few days the sun would shine only upon the lifeless bodies and afterwards would dry them up into a semblance of those mummies which slumber in an eternal sleep in the museums in Egypt

O ?mierci nie warto my?le?, bo ona bez naszej pomocy o nas my?li.

The more mental effort he made the clearer he saw that it was undoubtedly so: that he had really forgotten and overlooked one little circumstance in life - that Death would come and end everything, so that it was useless to begin anything, and that there was no help for it, Yes it was terrible but true

It is as if I had been going downhill while I imagined I was going up. And that is really what it was. I was going up in public opinion, but to the same extent life was ebbing away from me. And now it is all done and there is only death.

But live while you live, tomorrow you die...

Life is fragile and absurd.

Just when the question of how to live had become clearer to him, a new insoluble problem presented itself - Death.

When you understand that you will die tomorrow, if not today, and nothing will be left, then everything is so unimportant!... So one goes on living, amusing oneself with hunting, with work - anything so as not think of death

I do value my work awfully; but in reality only consider this: all this world of ours is nothing but a speck of mildew, which has grown up on a tiny planet. And for us to suppose we can have something great - ideas, work - it's all dust and ashes.

Who is right and who is wrong? No one! But if you are alive—live: tomorrow you'll die as I might have died an hour ago. And is it worth tormenting oneself, when one has only a moment of life in comparison with eternity?

Does it ever happen to you," Natasha said to her brother, when they had settled in the sitting room, "does it ever happen to you that you feel there's nothing more - nothing; that everything good has already happened? And it's not really boring, but sad?" "As if it doesn't!" he said. "It's happened to me that everything's fine, everybody's merry, and it suddenly comes into my head that it's all tiresome and we all ought to die....