#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”

“Thy best of rest is sleep, And that thou oft provok'st; yet grossly fear'st Thy death, which is no more.”

“Death is my son-in-law. Death is my heir. My daughter he hath wedded. I will die, And leave him all. Life, living, all is Death’s.”

“Jesu, Jesu, the mad days that I have spent! And to see howmany of my old acquaintance are dead!”

“The sudden hand of Death close up mine eye!”

“A man can die but once.”

“For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground And tell sad stories of the death of kings.”

“And nothing can we call our own but deathAnd that small model of the barren earthWhich serves as paste and cover to our bones.For God's sake, let us sit upon the groundAnd tell sad stories of the death of kings.”

“My glass shall not persuade me I am old, So long as youth and thou are of one date; But when in thee time's furrows I behold, Then look I death my days should expiate.”

“Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.”

“Nature does require her time of preservation, which perforce, I her frail son amongst my brethren mortal, must give my attendance to.”

“He that dies this year is quit for the next.”

“Why, what is pomp, rule, reign, but earth and dust? And, live we how we can, yet die we must.”

“O, let me kiss that hand! KING LEAR: Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality.”

“Your worm is your only emperor for diet; we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots.”

“That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou seest the twilight of such day, As after sunset fadeth in the west, Which by-and-by black night doth take away.”

“There is nothing serious in Mortality”

“Fear no more the heat o' th' sun Nor the furious winters' rages; Thou thy worldly task hast done, Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages. Golden lads and girls all must, As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.”

“Is it not better to intimate our astonishment as we pass through this world if it be only for a moment ere we are swallowed up in the yeast of the abyss? I will lift up my hands and say Kosmos.”

“The sea is masculine, the type of active strength. Look, what egg-shells are drifting all over it, each one, like ours, filled with men in ecstasies of terror, alternating with cockney conceit, as the sea is rough or smooth. Is this sad-colored circle an eternal cemetery?”

“I'll give my jewels for a set of beads, My gorgeous palace for a hermitage, My gay apparel for an almsman's gown, My figured goblets for a dish of wood, My scepter for a palmer's walking staff My subjects for a pair of carved saints and my large kingdom for a little grave.”

“Nothing 'gainst Times scythe can make defence.”

“Teach me your mood, O patient stars. Who climb each night, the ancient sky. leaving on space no shade, no scars, no trace of age, no fear to die.”

“Death is a fearful thing.”

“O gentlemen, the time of life is short!To spend that shortness basely were too long,If life did ride upon a dial's point,Still ending at the arrival of an hour.”

“HAMLET [...] we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots. Your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service, two dishes, but to one table; that's the end. CLAUDIUS Alas, alas. HAMLET A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm. CLAUDIUS What dost thou mean by this? HAMLET Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.”