92 Profound Life And Death Quotes

Life and death are two of the most profound and inevitable experiences we encounter. They inspire reflection, provoke deep emotions, and challenge us to understand our purpose and existence. Throughout history, thinkers, poets, and philosophers have sought to articulate the complexities and mysteries of life and death, leaving us with words that resonate across generations. In this compilation of 92 profound quotes, you will find wisdom that offers comfort, provokes thought, and encourages introspection on the essence of our journey. Whether you're seeking solace or inspiration, these quotes invite you to explore the delicate balance between life and its inevitable counterpart—death.

1. “I am quite a wise old bird, but I am no desert hermit who can only prophesy when his guts are knotted with hunger. I am deep in the old man’s puzzle, trying to link the wisdom of the body with the wisdom of the spirit until the two are one.” - Robertson Davies

2. “The only thing that’s been a worse flop than the organization of nonviolence has been the organization of violence.” - Joan Baez

3. “The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our separate ways, I to die, and you to live. Which of these two is better only God knows.” - Socrates

4. “All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses, And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.” - Walt Whitman

5. “If you make every game a life-and-death thing, you’re going to have problems. You’ll be dead a lot.” - Dean Smith

6. “Anya looked upon Nin admirably. Having him as a partner-in-crime—if only on this one occasion, which she hoped would only be the start of something more—was more revitalizing than the cheap thrills of a cookie-cutter shallow, superficial romance, where the top priority was how beautiful a person was on the outside.” - Jess C. Scott

7. “My name is Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered.” - Alice Sebold

8. “I assure you; while I look like a ghost, I'm no spirit or demon. I'm nothing but a girl struggling to make her way in an intolerant world. I bleed, I love, and someday, I'll die.” - Leanna Renee Hieber

9. “Do you shovel to survive, or survive to shovel?” - Kobo Abe

10. “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

11. “I don't think you should die until you're ready. Until you've wrung out every last bit of living you can.” - Libba Bray

12. “You're still alive. That means you're winning.” - Rachel Cotterill

13. “Only when you accept that one day you'll die can you let go, and make the best out of life. And that's the big secret. That's the miracle.” - Gabriel Bá

14. “Krishna was once asked what was the most miraculous thing in all creation, and he replied, "That a man should wake each morning and believe deep in his heart that he will live forever, even though he knows that he is doomed.” - Christopher Pike

15. “We trouble our life by thoughts about death, and our death by thoughts about life.” - Michel de Montaigne

16. “Everything Dies. That is the law of life-the bitter unchangeable law” - David Clement-Davies

17. “The battle over flesh and blood cannot compare to the battle for the heart.” - Ted Dekker

18. “Maybe we're standing like coins on the edge?"Allie considered this. "Meaning?""Meaning, we might be able to shake things up a little, and find a way to come up heads.""Or tails," suggested Allie."What are you talking about?" said Lief."Life and death.” - Neal Shusterman

19. “One life, One love, One breath, One people, One chance to make a difference. If we are not one in LIFE we surely will be one on DEATH.” - Tonny K. Brown

20. “All things that have form eventually decay." -Orochimaru” - Masashi Kishimoto

21. “Two Songs For The World's End I Bombs ripen on the leafless tree under which the children play. And there my darling all alone dances in the spying day. I gave her nerves to feel her pain, I put her mortal beauty on. I taught her love that hate might find, its black work the easier done. I sent her out alone to play; and I must watch, and I must hear, how underneath the leafless tree, the children dance and sing with Fear. II Lighted by the rage of time where the blind and dying weep, in my shadow take your sleep, though wakeful I. Sleep unhearing while I pray - Should the red tent of the sky fall to fold your time away, wake to weep before you die. Die believing all is true that love your maker said to you Still believe that had you lived you would have found love, world, sight, sound, sorrow, beauty - all true. Grieve for death your moment - grieve. The world, the lover you must take, is the murderer you will meet. But if you die before you wake never think death sweet.” - Judith Wright

22. “If there is an afterlife, I want my soul intact. And then maybe I'll see you there."I smiled, somehow calm now that I was facing something inevitable. I was getting the good-bye I'd always wanted. - Nikki” - Brodi Ashton

23. “Yes; poor Bunbury is a dreadful invalid.Well, I must say, Algernon, that I think it is high time that Mr. Bunbury made up his mind whether he was going to live or to die. This shillyshallying with the question is absurd.” - Oscar Wilde

24. “After all, how often do we get a second chance?” - Jay Asher

25. “Why do we always begin to think about people when they die? I think we should think about people while they're still alive! That way, they can know that we're thinking about them! I always tell people when I'm thinking about them, or that I thought about them, or that I have been thinking about them and it almost always scares them away, but so what, I am practicing the art of life and if that is frightening to them then maybe they need to start living while they're still alive!” - C. JoyBell C.

26. “No matter how many plans you make or how much in control you are, life is always winging it.” - Carroll Bryant

27. “You think that it’s not magic that keeps you alive? Just ‘cause you understand the mechanics of how something works, doesn’t make it any less of a miracle. Which is just another word for magic. We’re all kept alive by magic, Sookie. My magic’s just a little different from yours, that’s all.” - Charlaine Harris

28. “Life moved, as inconstant and fickle as Wind Baby, frolicking, sleeping, weeping, but never truly still. Never solid or finished. Always like water flowing from one place to the next. Seed and fruit. Rain and drought, everything traveled in a gigantic circle, an eternal process of becoming something new. But we rarely saw it. Humans tended to see only frozen moments, not the flow of things.” - Kathleen O'Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear

29. “Why can’t you remember your Shakespeare and forget the third-raters. You’ll find what you’re trying to say in him- as you’ll find everything else worth saying. 'We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with sleep.''- 'Fine! That’s beautiful. But I wasn’t trying to say that. We are such stuff as manure is made on, so let’s drink up and forget it. That’s more my idea.” - Eugene O'Neill

30. “On the death of a friend, we should consider that the fates through confidence have devolved on us the task of a double living, that we have henceforth to fulfill the promise of our friend's life also, in our own, to the world.” - Henry David Thoreau

31. “You just want to give up, he said when he was able to speak. Only you keep going. You still have to get up in the morning and pour the cereal in the bowls. You keep on breathing, whether you want to or not. Nobody's around to tell you how it's supposed to work. The usual rules just don't apply anymore. He was still talking, but she wasn't even sure if it was to her. When it started, he said, I thought nothing could be worse than those first days. And it wasn't only us, but everyone else you'd see, wandering around like they'd landed on a whole different planet. Instead of just dealing with your own heart getting ripped into pieces, wherever you looked you knew there were other people dealing with the same thing. You couldn't even be alone with it. Like you're out in the ocean and the undertow catches you and you start yelling for help, but then you look around, and all around you in the water for as far as you can see, there's all these other people flailing too. He sat there for a moment, shaking his head. You keep getting up in the morning and knowing this will continue maybe ten thousand more mornings. You wish you were the one who died. How much better would that be?” - Joyce Maynard

32. “Personally I don’t endorse the notion of mortality. It’s fine for other folk, but I disapprove of the concept for me and my loved ones. Seems unfair that we’re not allowed to vote on the matter and not one of us is excused. Who made up that rule?" - Kinsey Millhone” - Sue Grafton

33. “Der Tod verändert auch die Lebenden.” - Markus Heitz

34. “The flesh would shrink and go, the blood would dry, but no one believes in his mind of minds or heart of hearts that the pictures do stop.” - Saul Bellow

35. “Who would endure life if it were not for the hope of death?” - L.M. Montgomery

36. “For the very first time Andrew realized that life, real life, had no connection with the way people spent their days, whose lips they kissed, what medals were pinned on them, or the shoes they mended. Life, real life went on soundlessly...ultimately there was no difference between Queen Victoria and the most wretched beggar in London: both were complex machines made up of bone, organ, and tissue, whose fuel was the breath of God.” - Félix J. Palma

37. “Life may suck but death is worse.” - Alane Wilson

38. “If i were to lose a friend...then i couldn't die in peace!” - Sawada Tsunayoshi

39. “The true terror Jonah thought the true mystery of life was not that we are all going to die but that we were all born that we were all once little babies like this unknowing and slowly reeling in the world gathering it loop by loop like a ball of string. The true terror was that we once didn't exist and then through no fault of our own we had to.” - Dan Chaon

40. “Between the dark, heavily laden treetops of the spreading chestnut trees could be seen the dark blue of the sky, full of stars, all solemn and golden, which extended their radiance unconcernedly into the distance. That was the nature of the stars. and the trees bore their buds and blossoms and scars for everyone to see, and whether it signified pleasure or pain, they accepted the strong will to live. flies that lived only for a day swarmed toward their death. every life had its radiance and beauty. i had insight into it all for a moment, understood it and found it good, and also found my life and sorrows good.” - Hermann Hesse

41. “When you depart I'll blow you a Kiss take it to the Loved ones I already Miss.” - Stanley Victor Paskavich

42. “I've been to weddings and I've been to wakes in either setting Love takes no breaks.” - Stanley Victor Paskavich

43. “If you have a warm and caring heart, you're loved ones will ensure you never depart. For long after you've turned that final page you'll still be right there on center stage.” - Stanley Victor Paskavich

44. “I hope to die with dignity and not be on my death bed pondering the afterlife wearing a diaper named Depends.” - Stanley Victor Paskavich

45. “I'm sucking on a cancer stick trying to think of something inspiring to say to help someone have a better life. That's "Irony".” - Stanley Victor Paskavich

46. “We are bound to expireEven metal which is sturdiest,Rusts.Even oxygen, the breath of life,Soon transpires. 8/6/11 -Luis Medina” - luigi komrad

47. “As yet we know nothing of what goes to create or evoke the active spark of life.” - Bram Stoker

48. “When you're young your reality is accepted by most. When you're older, your reality changes and that seems to upset most people.” - Solange nicole

49. “I am Josephine Darly, and I intend to live forever.” - Tessa Gratton

50. “To be alive, it seemed to me, as I stood there in all kinds of sorrow, was to be both original and reflection, and to be dead was to be split off, to be reflection alone.” - Teju Cole

51. “Everywhere we shine death and life burn into something new…” - Aberjhani

52. “Death is the destination we all share, no one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be because death is very likely the single best invention of life.” - Steve Jobs

53. “In the grueling light that passed for day...” - Cormac McCarthy

54. “There is no book and your fathers are dead in the ground.” - Cormac McCarthy

55. “Pale Death with impartial tread beats at the poor man's cottage door and at the palaces of kings.” - Horace

56. “Death truly does have life, and walks with and lives through us everyday.” - Nicholas A. McGirr

57. “Things stayed peaceful in there, even as the crashing vehicles and the cries of the injured and dying reached a crescendo outside. "I fry mine in butter!" indeed.” - Kurt Vonnegut

58. “What is this?! I couldn't die back when I would've been glad to die anywhere, anytime, but now that dying would take hardly any effort, suddenly I can't afford to yet? What the hell am I supposed to do?” - Yukako Kabei

59. “Death is the privilege of human natureAnd life without it were not worth our takingThither the poor, the unfortunate, and MournerFly for relief & lay their burdens down.” - Elizabeth Fama

60. “Hanya ada satu kepastian, yaitu kepastian tentang masa lampau. Sedangkan tentang masa depan, yang ada hanyalah kepastian tentang kematian” - Erich Fromm

61. “O fim de uma viagem é apenas o começo de outra” - José Saramago

62. “This was the first time I thought of S— that day. Her music was beautiful, her voice was beautiful, her body was beautiful. Even the dirty little pads of her feet were beautiful. I cursed myself then. For once, heaven had sent me Beauty in its most perfected form and I abandoned it. She might not have been a girl after all but an angel: a force to guide me on this hazardous path of life I hurry down. How can life be hazardous if it can only end in death?” - Roman Payne

63. “We definitely don't exist just for the sake of welcoming death someday; I believe we live for the sake of living on." —Kazuto Kirigaya "Kirito" (Sword Art Online)” - Reki Kawahara

64. “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

65. “You walk around feeling like a teenager and immortal your whole life, and suddenly there isn't much time left.” - Stieg Larsson

66. “The only really frightening thing about Cinnamon Hill belongs in the realm of the living and serves to remind me that some of them-just a few of them, a tiny minority-are much more dangerous than all the dead put together.” - Johnny Cash

67. “When death tells a story yo really have to listen” - Markus Zusak

68. “Prisoner of Her Own Captivity” - Brandalynn Davis

69. “Certainly there is life and there is death, but even in death, if we look closely enough, we will find grace.” - Jeffrey R. Anderson

70. “Odd: I wish I could believe in reincarnation.Chief Porter: Not me. Once down the track is enough of a test. Pass me or fail me, Dear Lord, but don't make me go through high school again.Odd: If there's something we want so bad in this life but we can't have it, maybe we could get it the next time around.Chief Porter: Or maybe not getting it, accepting less without bitterness and being grateful for what we have is a part of what we're here to learn.” - Dean Koontz

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

72. “If the inevitably of human oblivion worries you, I encourage you to ignore it. God knows that's what everyone else does.” - John Green

73. “كن في الدنيا كأنك غريب أو عابر سبيل وعدّ نفسك من أصحاب القبور” - محمد عليه الصلاة والسلام

74. “What's so horrible about being dead forever, and not feeling anything, and not even dreaming? What's so great about feeling and dreaming?” - Jonathan Safran Foer

75. “Take the matter of being born. What does being born mean to most people? Catastrophe unmitigated. Socialrevolution. The cultured aristocrat yanked out of his hyperexclusively ultravoluptuous superpalazzo,and dumped into an incredibly vulgar deterioncamp swarming with every conceivable species of undesirable organism. Mostpeople fancy a guaranteed birthproof safetysuit of nondestructible selflessness. If mostpeople were to be born twice they'd improbably call it dying.you and I are not snobs. We can never be born enough.” - E. E. Cummings

76. “All paths lead to death, our premature sacrifice for future spawn(from Elixir)” - Bryan Murphy

77. “We're always on breath away from something--living or dying--, sometimes it just can't be helped.” - Heather Gudenkauf

78. “We're always one breath away from something, living or dying, sometimes it just can't be helped.” - Heather Gudenkauf

79. “People don’t always value life, even their own, as much as they should.” - Alex Potvin

80. “I just want to be enough for you, but I never can be. This can never be enough for you. But this is all you get. You get me, and your family, and this world. This is your life. I'm sorry if it sucks. But you're not going to be the first man on Mars and you're not going to be an NBA star, and you're not going to hunt Nazis.” - John Green

81. “Death is only as strong as you believe it to be.” - Amy Neftzger

82. “For men and women alike, this journey is a the trajectory between birth and death, a human life lived. No one escapes the adventure. We only work with it differently.” - Jon Kabat-Zinn

83. “To them he’s the slightly less frightening alternative to the grim reaper.” - Kat Kruger

84. “wszystko jest stratą czasu, chyba że człowiek pieprzy się w najlepsze, tworzy w najlepsze, ma się jak najlepiej albo zmierza w kierunku ułudy pod tytułem miłość i szczęście. Wszyscy kończymy w gnojówce porażki - czy nazwiemy to śmiercią czy błędem.” - Charles Bukowski

85. “In the end, age in numbers is no more than an empty bag. The only way to truly tell a person's years is by examing the contents they have filled it with.” - Thurman P. Banks Jr.

86. “One of the best parts of being a Guardian is that we get a chance to grow and change. We get to exist in both worlds. We know the secret of life and have the knowledge of death” - Mackie Burt

87. “I needed, I decided, to really know her, because I needed more to remember. Before I could begin the shameful process of forgetting the how and the why of her living and dying, I needed to learn it: How. Why. When. Where. What.” - John Green

88. “Our life is a series of moments. Let them all go. Moments. All gathering towards this one.” - Now Is Good

89. “I was a puzzle. An enigma. I was nothing. And then I was again.” - Daniel Xiao Wang

90. “Te leven betekent strikt genomen niets anders dan dag voor dag zelfmoord op te schuiven.” - Stig Dagerman

91. “The world, as it is, is not a permanent reality, but is a temporary product of our choices as creators.” - Bryant McGill

92. “So many people die with their dreams in their hands.” - Alex Rogers