Some Inspirational Quotes About Death

If you have read all of my previous blog posts, which I'm sure you have, you will have noticed that I like to collect inspirational quotes.  You may also have noticed that I've taken a lot of breaks from blogging.  This was not, as you might expect, because my blog has become so famous that I barely have to post any more.  No.  I have been spending my time building a collection of inspirational quotes about death.  This research is preparation for the children's book I'm writing for my niece, who apparently doesn't want to go to kindergarten next fall because she thinks that if she goes, it means she will eventually grow up and die.  I have made it my challenge to figure out how to convince her that she needs to go to school anyway.  It is certainly a challenge to write something a 5-year-old can grasp concerning the positive aspects of death, and therefore of school.  She made me a very informative and well-illustrated book about bugs, however, so I feel it's only a fair trade.

Please feel free to inform me of it if I have missed any good quotes about death.

Death Quotes

"May you live all the days of your life."
Jonathan Swift

"I've told my children that when I die, to release balloons in the sky to celebrate that I graduated. For me, death is a graduation."
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

"Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live."
Henry Van Dyke

"'Tis very certain the desire of life prolongs it."
Lord Byron

"To himself everyone is immortal; he may know that he is going to die, but he can never know that he is dead."
Samuel Butler

"Be open to your dreams, people. Embrace that distant shore. Because our mortal journey is over all too soon."
David Assael, Northern Exposure, It Happened in Juneau, 1992

"I am going to concentrate on what's important in life. I'm going to strive everyday to be a kind and generous and loving person. I'm going to keep death right here, so that anytime I even think about getting angry at you or anybody else, I'll see death and I'll remember."
Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, Northern Exposure, Do The Right Thing, 1992

"I hope the leaving is joyful; and I hope never to return."
Frida Kahlo (1907 - 1954)

"Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh."
George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)

"There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval."
George Santayana (1863 - 1952), Soliloquies in England, 1922, "War Shrines"

"No one knows whether death, which people fear to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good."
Plato (BC 427-BC 347) Greek philosopher.

"Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them."
George Eliot (1819-1880) British writer.

"Death is the wish of some, the relief of many, and the end of all."
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC-65) Roman philosopher and playwright.

"After your death you will be what you were before your birth."
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) German philosopher.

"There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval. The dark background which death supplies brings out the tender colors of life in all their purity."
George Santayana (1863-1952) American philosopher and poet.

"It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time."
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) British author.

"A person doesn't die when he should but when he can."
Gabriel García Márquez (1928-?) Colombian writer.

"Nothing can happen more beautiful than death."
Walt Whitman (1819-1892) American poet.

"Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is, knows how deep a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our race. He brought death into the world."
Mark Twain (1835-1910) U.S. humorist, writer, and lecturer.

"To fear death is to misunderstand life."
Unknown Source

"Every man wishes to live long, but no man wishes to be old."
Jonathan Swift