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Classical antiquity8 quotes
To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know. — Socrates · 399 BCEither death is a state of nothingness and utter unconsciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from this world to another. Now if death be of such a nature, I say that to die is to gain; for eternity is then only a single night. — Socrates · 339 BCFor I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth; And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God. — Job · 500 BCBut already it is time to depart, for me to die, for you to go on living; which of us takes the better course, is not known to anyone except God. — Socrates · 399 BCThe immortals will send you to the Elysian plain at the ends of the earth, where fair-haired Rhadamanthys is. There life is supremely easy for men. No snow is there, nor ever heavy winter storm, nor rain, and Ocean is ever sending gusts of the clear-blowing west wind to bring coolness to men. — Homer · 700 BCDeath is, you see, one or the other of two things: either to be dead is to be non-existent, as it were, and a dead person has no awareness of anything at all; or else, as we are told, the soul undergoes some sort of transformation, or exchanging of this present world for another. — Socrates · 399 BCAll 8 quotes →The Renaissance3 quotes
To be or not to be—that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And, by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep—
No more—and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep—
To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. — William Shakespeare · 1616The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of? — William Shakespeare · 1616Ay, but to die, and go we know not where,
To lie in cold obstruction and to rot,
This sensible warm motion to become
A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit
To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside
In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice. — William Shakespeare · 1616Ancient Egypt2 quotes
There is no one who returns from beyond
that he may tell of their state
that he may tell of their lot
that he may set our hearts at ease
until we make our journey
to the place where they have gone. — Harper's Songs · 1700 BCRemember: it is not given to man to take his goods with him.
No one goes away and then comes back. — The Song of the Harper · 2600 BCNew Testament Era1 quote
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. — Apostle Paul · 56Old Testament Era1 quote
The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence. — Psalm 115:17 · 450 BC