Mortality Quotes

“Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity.”

“Unsubstantial Death is amorous.”

“Time, that takes survey of all the world,Must have a stop.”

“Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,So do our minutes hasten to their end;Each changing place with that which goes before,In sequent toil all forwards do contend.”

“I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.”

“Have you not a moist eye, a dry hand, a yellow cheek, a white beard, a decreasing leg, an increasing belly? Is not your voice broken, your wind short, your chin double, your wit single, and every part about you blasted with antiquity?”

“Ay, but to die, and go we know not where.”

“We are time's subjects, and time bids be gone.”

“Retire me to my Milan, whereEvery third thought shall be my grave.”

“Look on beauty, and you shall see 'tis purchased by the weight; which therein works a miracle in Nature, making them lightest that wear most of it: so are those crisped snaky golden locks which make such wanton gambols with the wind upon supposed fairness, often known to be the dowry of a second head, the skull that bred them in the sepulchre.”

“A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm”

“He knows what it's like to strut and fret his hour upon the stage and then be heard no more.”

“If thou art rich, thou art poor; for, like an ass, whose back with ingots bows, thou bearest thy heavy riches but a journey, and death unloads thee.”

“By medicine life may be prolonged, yet death will seize the doctor too.”

“I wasted time, and now doth time waste me; For now hath time made me his numbering clock: My thoughts are minutes; and with sighs they jar Their watches on unto mine eyes, the outward watch, Whereto my finger, like a dial's point, Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears. Now sir, the sound that tells what hour it is Are clamorous goans, which strike upon my heart, Which is the bell: so sighs and tears and groans Show minutes, times, and hours.”

“My way of lifeIs fall'n into the sear and yellow leaf.”

“O momentary grace of mortal men,Which we more hunt for than the grace of God!”

“In me thou see'st the twilight of such day As after sunset fadeth in the west, Which by and by black night doth take away Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. -Sonnet 73”

“Live how we can, yet die we must.”

“And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe.And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot;And thereby hangs a tale.”

“Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once. Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, It seems to me most strange that men should fear; Seeing that death, a necessary end, Will come when it will come.”

“For death remembered should be like a mirror, Who tells us life’s but breath, to trust it error.”

“Come my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers; they hold up Adam's profession.”

“Do not speak like a death's-head, do not bid me remember mine end.”

“This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong, to love that well which thou must leave ere long”