I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction.
—Clarence Darrow, 1932
I didn’t attend his funeral, but sent a nice letter saying that I approved of it.
—Anonymous
16
They say such nice things about people at their funerals that it makes me sad to realize that
I’m going to miss mine by just a few days.
—Garrison Keillor, 2005
It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.
—Marcus Aurelius, second century AD
A man should be mourned at his birth, not his death.
—Montesquieu, 1721
The tragedy of modern man is not that he knows less and less about the meaning of his own
life, but that this bothers him less and less.
—Václav Havel, 1988
What remains of most people, is only a dash between two dates.
—Georgi Polonsky, 1968
17
Let life happen to you.
—Rainer Maria Rilke, 1904
You can’t do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its
width and depth.
—Evan Esar, 1924
Life has a value only when it has something valuable as its object.
—Georg Wilhelm Freidrich Hegel, 1832
It’s not the things we do in life that we regret on our death bed, it is the things we do not.
—Randy Pausch, 2008
18
It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives.
—Samuel Johnson, 1769
You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.
—Anonymous
19
16
This popular joke, frequently misattributed to Mark Twain, is actually just a paraphrase of a
longer statement by Ebenezer R. Hoar, made in 1884.
17
Polonsky was the screenwriter of Stanislav Rostovsky’s movie We’ll Live Till Monday, in that
this phrase is pronounced, but I am not confident that it was fully original at that time. Later (in
1996) this idea was used by Linda Ellis as the basis of her popular poem The Dash.
18
From the author’s famous Last Lecture, given knowing of his impending death of cancer in a
few months.
19
I have seen a rather questionable attribution of this quote to Mae West.
204
On the World and Time, Life and Death
—Clarence Darrow, 1932
I didn’t attend his funeral, but sent a nice letter saying that I approved of it.
—Anonymous
16
They say such nice things about people at their funerals that it makes me sad to realize that
I’m going to miss mine by just a few days.
—Garrison Keillor, 2005
It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.
—Marcus Aurelius, second century AD
A man should be mourned at his birth, not his death.
—Montesquieu, 1721
The tragedy of modern man is not that he knows less and less about the meaning of his own
life, but that this bothers him less and less.
—Václav Havel, 1988
What remains of most people, is only a dash between two dates.
—Georgi Polonsky, 1968
17
Let life happen to you.
—Rainer Maria Rilke, 1904
You can’t do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its
width and depth.
—Evan Esar, 1924
Life has a value only when it has something valuable as its object.
—Georg Wilhelm Freidrich Hegel, 1832
It’s not the things we do in life that we regret on our death bed, it is the things we do not.
—Randy Pausch, 2008
18
It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives.
—Samuel Johnson, 1769
You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.
—Anonymous
19
16
This popular joke, frequently misattributed to Mark Twain, is actually just a paraphrase of a
longer statement by Ebenezer R. Hoar, made in 1884.
17
Polonsky was the screenwriter of Stanislav Rostovsky’s movie We’ll Live Till Monday, in that
this phrase is pronounced, but I am not confident that it was fully original at that time. Later (in
1996) this idea was used by Linda Ellis as the basis of her popular poem The Dash.
18
From the author’s famous Last Lecture, given knowing of his impending death of cancer in a
few months.
19
I have seen a rather questionable attribution of this quote to Mae West.
204
On the World and Time, Life and Death