Quotes About Mortality

My days are like lengthening shadows, and I wither away like grass.

As for man, his days are like grass—he blooms like a flower of the field;

Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.

When his spirit departs, he returns to the ground; on that very day his plans perish.

At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent,

There is no remembrance of those who came before, and those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow after.

For there is no lasting remembrance of the wise, just as with the fool, seeing that both will be forgotten in the days to come. Alas, the wise man will die just like the fool!

I said to myself, “As for the sons of men, God tests them so that they may see for themselves that they are but beasts.”

For the fates of both men and beasts are the same: As one dies, so dies the other—they all have the same breath. Man has no advantage over the animals, since everything is futile.

All go to one place; all come from dust, and all return to dust.

So I admired the dead, who had already died, above the living, who are still alive.

As a man came from his motherís womb, so he will depart again, naked as he arrived. He takes nothing for his labor to carry in his hands.

even if he lives a thousand years twice over but fails to enjoy his prosperity. Do not all go to the same place?

In my futile life I have seen both of these: A righteous man perishing in his righteousness, and a wicked man living long in his wickedness.

This is an evil in everything that is done under the sun: There is one fate for everyone. Furthermore, the hearts of men are full of evil and madness while they are alive, and afterward they join the dead.

For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, because the memory of them is forgotten.

Their love, their hate, and their envy have already vanished, and they will never again have a share in all that is done under the sun.

on the day the keepers of the house tremble and the strong men stoop, when those grinding cease because they are few and those watching through windows see dimly,

when men fear the heights and dangers of the road, when the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper loses its spring, and the caper berry shrivels—for then man goes to his eternal home and mourners walk the streets.

Remember Him before the silver cord is snapped and the golden bowl is crushed, before the pitcher is shattered at the spring and the wheel is broken at the well,

Put no more trust in man, who has only the breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?

They will all respond to you, saying, “You too have become weak, as we are; you have become like us!”

All the kings of the nations lie in state, each in his own tomb.

But look, there is joy and gladness, butchering of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”