Death

Death comes to no man
Sweet as to him who in fighting crushes his country's foeman.
~ William Allingham, from Irish Songs and Poems (1887). The Ban-Shee

No funeral gloom, my dears, when I am gone,
Corpse-gazings, tears, black raiment, graveyard grimness;
Yours still, you mine, remember all the best
Of our past moments, and forget the rest,
And so, to where I wait, come gently on.
~ William Allingham, in William Allingham: A Diary (1907). Chapter XXIII. 1888-1889

The dead are heavy, after all.
~ Will Christopher Baer

As an Egotist I hate death because I should cease to be I.
~ Wilhelm Nero Pilate (W.N.P.) Barbellion, in The Journal of a Disappointed Man (31 March 1919). 14 July 1912 entry

Young man, you have heard, no doubt, how great are the terrors of death. This night will probably afford you some experiment: but may you learn, and may you profit by the example, that a conscientious endeavour to perform his duty through life, will ever close a Christian's eyes with comfort and tranquillity.
~ William Battie, (last words; 13 June 1776).

I'm on the verge of suicide, so what's murder?
~ Bushwick Bill

This is as good a day to die as any.
~ Cherokee Bill (Crawford Goldsby), (17 March 1896).

The king never dies.
~ William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-69). Book I, Chapter VII: Of the King's Prerogative

Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead.
~ William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-93). Proverbs of Hell

Truth and History.
21 Men.
The Boy Bandit King --
He Died As He Lived.
~ William H. Bonney, Gravestone at Fort Sumner Cemetery; Fort Sumner, New Mexico

My days are spent, old age is come,
My strength it fails, my glass near run.
Now I will wait, when work is done,
Until my happy change shall come,
When from my labours I shall rest,
With Christ above for to be blest.
~ William Bradford, Providence and the Pilgrim (1657).

There is considerable empirical evidence and eyewitness testimony, however, which if correct would appear to demonstrate that ... death by electrical current is extremely violent and inflicts pain and indignities far beyond the "mere extinguishment of life." Witnesses routinely report that, when the switch is thrown, the condemned prisoner "cringes," "leaps," and "fights the straps with amazing strength." "The hands turn red, then white, and the cords of the neck stand out like steel bands." The prisoner's limbs, fingers, toes, and face are severely contorted. The force of the electrical current is so powerful that the prisoner's eyeballs sometimes pop out and "rest on [his] cheeks." The prisoner often defecates, urinates, and vomits blood and drool.
~ William Joseph Brennan, Jr. (dissenting opinion), Glass v. Louisiana, 471 U.S. 1080 (1985).

I tell you death, expect no smile of pride
from me. I bring you nothing in my empty hands.
~ William Bronk, The Empty Hands (1969). The Smile on the Face of a Kouros

Underneath this sable hearse
Lies the subject of all verse.
~ William Browne, of Tavistock, in Lansdowne MS. No. 777 Epitaph on the Countess Dowager of Pembroke (1623).

And 'tis the eternal doom of heaven
That man must view the grave with fear.
~ William Cullen Bryant, in the North American Review (1817). Introduction to Thanatopsis (written in 1811)

But if, around my place of sleep,
The friends I love should come to weep,
They might not haste to go.
Soft airs, and song, and light, and bloom
Should keep them lingering by my tomb.
~ William Cullen Bryant, from Poems (1832 edition). June

Loveliest of lovely things are they,
On earth, that soonest pass away.
The rose that lives its little hour
Is prized beyond the sculptured flower.
~ William Cullen Bryant, from Poems (1832 edition). A Scene on the Banks of the Hudson. Stanza 3

Pure was thy life; its bloody close
Hath placed thee with the sons of light,
Among the noble host of those
Who perished in the cause of Right.
~ William Cullen Bryant, The Death of Lincoln

Whose house is this? What street are we in? Why did you bring me here?
~ William Cullen Bryant (reported last words), in The New York Times (16 June 1878). Mr. Bryant's Last Words

You live your life, not in fear of death, but knowing that death is part of everyone's experience. In American society death is avoided. We try to make it go away. As monastics, we face the reality of death and overcome the fear of it and understand it.
~ Brother William Burns, The Associated Press (16 November 2001). Caskets Fill Niche for Trappists

If I lie down, I'll die.
~ Raymond (William Stacey) Burr (said to companion/business partner Robert Benevides 48 hours before dying on September 12th, 1993), in TV Guide Magazine (25 September-1 October, 1993). With Raymond Burr During His Final Battle

Death needs time for what it kills to grow in.
~ William S. Burroughs, Ah! Pook is Here

Love? What is it? Most natural painkiller. What there is ... LOVE.
~ William S. Burroughs, in New Yorker Magazine (18 August 1997). Final entry in journal (1 August 1997), the day before he died

No one owns life, but anyone who can pick up a frying pan owns death.
~ William S. Burroughs

When I become death, death is the seed from which I grow.
~ William S. Burroughs, Ah! Pook is Here

A zealous locksmith died of late,
And did arrive at heaven gate,
He stood without and would not knock,
Because he meant to pick the lock.
~ William Camden, Remaines of a Greater Worke, Concerning Britaine (1605). Puritanical Locksmith

For three days after death, hair and fingernails continue to grow but phone calls taper off.
~ "Johnny" William Carson, NBC TV. The Tonight Show

"You should not be discouraged; one doe not die of a cold," the priest said to the bishop. The old man smiled. "I shall not die of a cold, my son. I shall die of having lived."
~ Willa Sibert Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927).

And yes, I really do want to know if I am prone to a particular disease. The human body needs a good mechanic. I regret that I will never know the results of my own autopsy.
~ Bill Cheswick, in USENIX ;login: Magazine (February 1998). Interview with Bill Cheswick

The dumber people think you are, the more surprised they're going to be when you kill them.
~ William Clayton

Then there were the wits,
using their last breath to exhale a line,
a devastating capper, as if the world
were simply a large gallery buzzing with people,
and now it was time to throw on a long scarf
and make an exit, leaving
it to someone else to close the door.
~ Billy Collins, The Art of Drowning (1995). Death Bed

Is he then dead? What, dead at last, quite, quite for ever dead!
~ William Congreve, The Mourning Bride (1697). Act V, scene ii

Do you remember that politician who died with the fishnet tights and all that? Aw, his poor family. I wonder how they dress him in the coffin?
~ Billy Connolly

Far happier are the dead, methinks, than they
Who look for death, and fear it ev'ry day.
~ William Cowper, in The Life and Posthumous Writings of William Cowper, Esq., Volume II (1803). Appendix. No. 2. Translations of Greek Verses: On Invalids

We perished, each alone:
But I beneath a rougher sea,
And whelmed in deeper gulfs than he.
~ William Cowper, in The Life and Posthumous Writings of William Cowper, Esq., Volume II (1803). The Castaway (20 March 1799).

I shall ask leave to desist, when I am interrupted by so great an experiment as dying.
~ Sir William Davenant, His apology, in illness, for not having finished Gondibert

In every grave make room, make room!
The world's at an end, and we come, we come.
~ Sir William Davenant, in The Law Against Lovers (1662; first published in 1673).

O harmless Death! whom still the valiant brave,
The wise expect, the sorrowful invite,
And all the good embrace, who know the grave
A short dark passage to eternal light.
~ Sir William Davenant, in The Works of Sir William Davenant (1673). The Christian's Reply to the Philosopher

I can die but once in this world, and the only regret left is, that I have a large family of small children, and when I think of that, it unmans me, and I shall say no more.
~ William Davidson, Court Testimony, Trial for High Treason (28 April 1820).

What strikes men cold and dumb
Is that Death's time must come.
~ William Henry (W.H.) Davies, from Songs of Joy: And Others (1911). Man

Trust flattering life no more, redeem time past,
And live each day as if it were thy last.
~ William Drummond (of Hawthornden), from The Flowers of Zion; or Spiritual Poems (1623). Death's Last Will

In the jaws of death.
~ Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas, Divine Weekes and Workes (1578). Second Week, First Day

The individual succumbs, but he does not die if he has left something to mankind.
~ William James "Will" Durant

What if it is for life's sake that we must die? In truth we are not individuals; and it is because we think ourselves such that death seems unforgivable. We are temporary organs of the race, cells in the body of life; we die and drop away that life may remain young and strong. If we were to live forever, growth would be stifled, and youth would find no room on earth. Death, like style, is the removal of rubbish, the circumcision of the superfluous. In the midst of death life renews itself immortally.
~ William James "Will" Durant

Wonderful! Wonderful, this death!
~ William Etty (Reported last words; 13 November 1849).

In vain, alas! the sacred shades of yore
Would arm the mind with philosophic lore;
In vain they'd teach us, at the latest breath,
To smile serene amid the pangs of death.
~ William Falconer, The Shipwreck (1762). Canto III

I can remember how when I was young I believed death to be a phenomenon of the body; now I know it to be merely a function of the mind -- and that of the minds who suffer the bereavement. The nihilists say it is the end; the fundamentalists, the beginning; when in reality it is no more than a single tenant or family moving out of a tenement or a town.
~ William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying (1930).

I do not know what I was nor what I shall be. But because of death, I know that I am.
~ William Faulkner, in Harper's Magazine (September 1933). Beyond

Drown in a cold vat of whiskey? Death, where is thy sting?
~ W.C. Fields, Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941 film).

Here lies W.C. Fields. I would rather be living in Philadelphia.
~ W.C. Fields suggested epitaph for himself, in Vanity Fair (June 1925)

Man flatters himself when he remains indifferent to any death except the death of his own species. In those rare moments of illumination which occasionally visit us, all life appears inestimably precious, and the cessation of it in one small body as serious as its cessation in another. Such moments impinge on the mystical.
~ (William) Monk Gibbon, The Seals (1935).

We who are left how shall we look again
Happily on the sun or feel the rain
Without remembering how they who went
Ungrudgingly and spent
Their lives for us loved, too, the sun and rain?
~ Wilfred Wilson Gibson

If life a boon!
If so, it must befall
That death, whene'er he call,
Must call too soon.
~ William Schwenck (W.S.) Gilbert

Tell my friends to be brave and fearless and loyal to the great common people.
~ William J. Goebel (reported last words), (3 February 1930).

We need to be reminded that there is nothing morbid about honestly confronting the fact of life's end, and preparing for it so that we may go gracefully and peacefully.
~ Billy Graham

Death cancels every thing but truth, and strips a man of every thing but genius and virtue.
~ William Hazlitt, from The Spirit of the Age (1825). Lord Byron

Our repugnance to death increases in proportion to our consciousness of having lived in vain.
~ William Hazlitt, first published in The Examiner (15 January 1815). On the Love of Life

The most rational cure after all for the inordinate fear of death is to set a just value on life.
~ William Hazlitt, Table-Talk, or Original Essays on Men and Manners, 2nd series (1824). On The Fear of Death

We do not die wholly at our deaths: we have moldered away gradually long before.
~ William Hazlitt, first published in the Monthly Magazine (March 1827). On the Feeling of Immortality in Youth

Well, I've had a happy life.
~ William Hazlitt (last words), in Memoirs of William Hazlitt (1867).

When a man is dead, they put money in his coffin, erect monuments to his memory, and celebrate the anniversary of his birthday in set speeches. Would they take any notice of him if he were living? No!
~ William Hazlitt, Table-Talk; or, Original Essays (1821-1822). On Living to One's-self

As dust that drives, as straws that blow,
Into the night go one and all.
~ William Ernest (W.E.) Henley, in Poems (1920). Ballade of Dead Actors (composed 1898)

Death with his well-worn, lean, professional smile.
~ William Ernest (W.E.) Henley, from The Song of the Sword, and Other Verses (1892). London Voluntaries. III

From the winter's gray despair,
From the summer's golden languor,
Death, the lover of life,
Frees us for ever.
~ William Ernest (W.E.) Henley, from A Book of Verses (1888). In Hospital: Rhymes and Rhythms. XIV. Ave, Caesar!

So be my passing!
My task accomplished and the long day done,
My wages taken, and in my heart
Some late lark singing,
Let me be gathered to the quiet west,
The sundown splendid and serene,
Death.
~ William Ernest (W.E.) Henley, from A Book of Verses (1888). Life and Death (Echoes). XXXIV: Margaritæ Sorori. I.M. (1876)

What is Darkness,
Other than
Death to the Light?
~ Billy Henson

Man is the only animal that contemplates death, and also the only animal that shows any sign of doubt of its finality.
~ William Ernest (W.E.) Hocking, The Meaning of Immortality in Human Experience (1957).

Our civilization is founded on the shambles, and every individual existence goes out in a lonely spasm of helpless agony. If you protest, my friend, wait till you arrive there yourself!
~ William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902). Lectures VI and VII: The Sick Soul

The fear of death is as naturally inherent in us as hunger, thirst, and sleep; and only requires to be governed.
~ William Jay, Evening Exercises for the Closet: For Every Day in the Year (1832). September 27

They showed you a statue and told you to pray
They built you a temple and locked you away
But they never told you the price that you pay
For things that you might have done.
~ Billy Joel, from The Stranger (1977 album). Only the Good Die Young

There's only one time in a man's life when he should have a rope knotted around his neck, and that time ain't yet come for me.
~ "Canada Bill" Jones

You living friends who pass me by, as you are now, so once was I, as I am now, so you must be. Prepare for death and follow me.
~ Captain William Kidd, Inscription from William Kidd's Gravestone

Ded as a dore-nayle.
~ William Langland, A Vision of William Concerning Piers Plowman (or Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman; c. 1362).

No one can be more willing to send me out of life, than I am desirous to go.
~ William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (c. 10 January 1645)

Death is not more certainly a separation of our souls from our bodies than the Christian life is a separation of our souls from worldly tempers, vain indulgences, and unnecessary cares.
~ William Law, A Practical Treatise upon Christian Perfection (1726).

Think upon the vanity and shortness of human life, and let death and eternity be often in your minds; for these thoughts will strengthen and exalt your minds, make you wise and judicious, and truly sensible of the littleness of all human things.
~ William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1728). XIX

We dare not think too long on those who died,
While still so many yet must come to birth.
~ William Ellery Leonard, from Two Lives: A Poem (1923). Indian Summer

The tombstone is about the only thing that can stand upright and lie on its face at the same time.
~ Mary Wilson Little, from A Paragrapher's Reveries (1904). Part I. Solemn Thoughts

This is one game I cannot win but I will go down fighting.
~ William Dixon "Willie" Maddren, from Extra Time: Willie Maddren, the Autobiography (1998).

I'll clue you in on a secret: death is not the worst thing that could happen to you. I know we think that; we are the first society ever to think that. It's not worse than dishonor; it's not worse than losing your freedom; its not worse than losing a sense of personal responsibility.
~ Bill Maher, in HBO-TV special, Bill Maher: Be More Cynical (2000; Live performance at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco).

Suicide is man's way of telling God, "You can't fire me -- I quit."
~ Bill Maher, ABC TV (1995). Politically Incorrect

Dying is a very dull, dreary affair. And my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it.
~ W. Somerset Maugham (last words, 1965), quoted in Conversations with Willie (1978).

There was an immeasurable distance between the quick and the dead: they did not seem to belong to the same species; and it was strange to think that but a little while before they had spoken and moved and eaten and laughed.
~ W. Somerset Maugham

When my obituary notice at last appears in The Times, and they say: "What, I thought he died years ago," my ghost will gently chuckle.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, from A Writer's Notebook (1949). Preface

Every year without knowing it I have passed the day
When the last fires will wave to me
And the silence will set out
Tireless traveller
Like the beam of a lightless star.
~ William Stanley (W.S.) Merwin, from The Lice (1967). For the Anniversary of My Death

Men fear death, as if unquestionably the greatest evil, and yet no man knows that it may not be the greatest good.
~ William Mitford

I want a priest, a rabbi, and Protestant clergyman. I want to hedge my bets.
~ Wilson Mizner (said on his deathbed)

Those who welcome death have only tried it from the ears up.
~ Wilson Mizner

He did not die in the night,
He did not die in the day,
But in the morning twilight
His spirit passed away.
~ William Morris, The Defence of Guenevere, and Other Poems (1858). Shameful Death

Yes, death, -- the hourly possibility of it, -- death is the sublimity of life.
~ William Mountford, Euthanasy: Or, Happy Talk Towards the End of Life (1848). Chapter XXI

Let us be on our guard against saying that death is contrary to life. The living being is only a species of dead being, and is a very rare species.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Gay Science (1882). Book III

Many die too late and some die too early. Still the doctrine sounds strange: 'Die at the right time.'
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra (1885). Free Death

The man consummating his life dies his death triumphantly, surrounded by men filled with hope and making solemn vows.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra (1885). Free Death

Your soul will be dead even before your body: fear nothing further.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra (1885).

Our decision was made over a considerable period of time and was not carried out in acute desperation. Nor is it the expression of a mental illness. We have consciously, rationally, deliberately and of our own free will taken measures to end our lives today because of the physical limitations on our quality of life placed upon us by age, failing vision, osteoporosis, back and painful orthopedic problems.
~ Rear Admiral Chester William Nimitz, Jr., Suicide note (2 January 2002)

Beautiful is death, -- Consoler, Sanctifier, Redeemer, -- beautiful as life is beautiful, when to the best self true. Nor in death, nor in life, shall there be any loss, nor doubt, nor change, to the well-believing and deep-beloving heart.
~ William Douglas O'Connor, in Putnam's Monthly Magazine (January 1868). The Carpenter. A Christmas Story

Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still.
~ William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude (1693). Part II. Union of Friends

For Death is no more than a turning of us over from Time to Eternity.
~ William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude (1693). Part I. Religion

Oh, my country! how I leave my country!
~ William Pitt, the Younger (last words, February 1806), in Life of the Rt. Hon. William Pitt (1879).

Prostrate the beauteous ruin lies; and all
That shared its shelter perish in its fall.
~ William Pitt, The Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin. No. xxxvi

There are no gods, no purposes, and no goal-directed forces of any kind. There is no life after death. When I die, I am absolutely certain that I am going to be dead. That's the end of me. There is no ultimate foundation for ethics, no ultimate meaning in life, and no free will for humans, either. What an unintelligible idea.
~ William (Will) B. Provine, in Origins Research Volume 16, Number 1 (Fall/Winter 1994). Darwinism: Science or Naturalistic Philosophy?

When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.
~ Will Rogers

The life which passes mourns its wasted hour.
~ George William (A.E.) Russell, Collected Poems by A.E. (1913). Janus

Everybody has got to die, but I always believed an exception would be made in my case. Now what?
~ William Saroyan (said 5 days before his death in 1981), in The New York Times (31 October 1983).

I see death as a private event, the destruction of the universe in the brain and in the senses of man, and I cannot see any man's death as a contributing factor in the success or failure of a military campaign.
~ William Saroyan, Resurrection Of A Life (1935)

Alas! poor world, what treasure hast thou lost!
~ William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis (1593).

All that live must die,
Passing through nature to eternity.
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Act I, scene ii

And nothing can we call our own but death
And that small model of the barren earth
Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.
For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings.
~ William Shakespeare, King Richard II. Act III, scene ii

And now this pale swan in her watery nest
Begins the sad dirge of her certain ending.
~ William Shakespeare, The Rape of Lucrece

And, when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of Heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.
~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Ay, but to die and go we know not where;
To lie in cold obstrution 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 regions of thick-ribbed ice;
To be imprison'd in the viewless winds,
And blown with restless violence round about
The pendant world.
~ William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure

Come away, come away, death,
And in sad cypress let me be laid.
~ William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

Cry woe, destruction, ruin and decay:
The worst is death, and death will have his day.
~ William Shakespeare, King Richard II. Act III, scene ii

Death lies on her like an untimely frost
Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.
~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare,
To digg the dust encloased heare!
Blest be the man that spares thes stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones.
~ William Shakespeare, Gravestone at Holy Trinity Church; Stratford-on-Avon, England

He hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows.
~ William Shakespeare, The Tempest

He that dies pays all debts.
~ William Shakespeare, The Tempest. Act III, scene ii

I am dying, Egypt, dying.
~ William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra. Act IV, scene xv

I care not; a man can die but once; we owe God a death.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part II. Act III, scene ii

I honour'd him, I lov'd him; and will weep my date of life out, for his sweet life's loss.
~ William Shakespeare, King John. Act IV, scene iii

I would fain die a dry death.
~ William Shakespeare, The Tempest. Act I, scene i

If I must die,
I will encounter darkness as a bride,
And hug it in mine arms.
~ William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure. Act III, scene i

No longer mourn for me when I am dead
Then you shall hear the surly sullen bell
Give warning to the world that I am fled
From this vile world, with vilest worms to dwell:
Nay, if you read this line, remember not
The hand that writ it; for I love you so
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot
If thinking on me then should make you woe.
O, if, I say, you look upon this verse
When I perhaps compounded am with clay,
Do not so much as my poor name rehearse.
But let your love even with my life decay,
Lest the wise world should look into your moan
And mock you with me after I am gone.
~ William Shakespeare, Sonnet 71

Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it; he died as one that had been studied in his death to throw away the dearest thing he owed, as 't were a careless trifle.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth. Act I, scene iv

Now boast thee, death, in thy possession lies
A lass unparalleled.
~ William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra

Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince,
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Act V, scene ii

O comfort-killing night, image of hell,
Dim register and notary of shame,
Black stage for tragedies and murders fell,
Vast sin-concealing chaos, nurse of blame!
~ William Shakespeare, The Rape of Lucrece

O happy dagger!
This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die.
~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet. Act V, scene iii

O true apothecary!
Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.
~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet. Act V, scene iii

So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men,
And Death once dead, there's no more dying then.
~ William Shakespeare, Sonnet 146

The stroke of death is as a lover's pinch,
Which hurts and is desired.
~ William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra

The tongues of dying men
Enforce attention like deep harmony.
~ William Shakespeare, King Richard II

This fell sergeant, death,
Is swift in his arrest.
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Act V, scene ii

'Tis a vile thing to die, my gracious lord,
When men are unprepar'd and look not for it.
~ William Shakespeare, King Richard III. Act III, scene ii

We were born to die.
~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet. Act III, scene iv

When beggars die there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.
~ William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar. Act II, scene ii

Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,
And thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more,
Never, never, never, never, never!
Pray you, undo this button.
~ William Shakespeare, King Lear

Why, what is pomp, rule, reign, but earth and dust?
And, live we how we can, yet die we must.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part III. Act V, scene ii

Within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his court.
~ William Shakespeare, King Richard II

[I] know no other preparation for death, but living well: and thus we must every day prepare for death, and then we shall be well prepared when death comes; that is, we shall be able to give a good account of our lives, and of the improvement of our talents.
~ William Sherlock, A Practical Discourse Concerning Death (1689). Chapter IV: The Conclusion

Of all things, only we
have power to choose that we should die;
nothing else is free
in this world to refuse it.
~ William De Witt (W.D.) Snodgrass, Heart's Needle (1959). Heart's Needle

He read about the cases of people dying and being brought back to life, and how beautiful it was to die. He called death the best thing that could happen to you.
~ Billy Stanley (of Elvis Presley), in Elvis, We Love You Tender (1980).

My hour has come. False world adieu
Thy pleasures have betrayed me so
That I to death untimely go.
~ William Strachey, (c. 1621).

Those we love can but walk down to the pier with us -- the voyage we must make alone. Except for the young or very happy, I can't say I am sorry for any one who dies.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, in The Works of William Makepeace Thackeray, in Thirteen Volumes, Volume XII (1899). Introduction (Letter to Mrs. Procter; 26 November 1856)

I forgive all those who have ever done evil to me, and I want all those whom I have harmed to forgive me.
~ William Marcy "Boss" Tweed, (Reported last words; 12 April 1878).

Oh Lord, open the King of England's eyes!
~ William Tyndale (Reported last words; 6 October 1536).

Come to the mounds of death with me.
~ William Ross Wallace, from Meditations in America, and Other Poems (1851). The Mounds of America

There is no such thing as death. ... You have endless lifetimes.
~ William A. Warch, The New Thought Christian (1977).

'Tis infamy to die and not be miss'd.
~ Carlos Wilcox, in Remains of the Rev. Carlos Wilcox (1828). The Religion of Taste

Why dost thou shrink from my approach, O Man?
Why dost thou ever flee in fear, and cling
To my false rival, Life? I do but bring
Thee rest and calm. Then wherefore dost thou ban
And curse me?
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from Poems Of Sentiment (1906). Death's Protest

I now have no time to be tired.
~ Wilhelm I (Last words; 1888).

We both had faith and the belief that death provides access to Life and therefore we promised each other that our funerals would be completely in white.
~ Queen Wilhelmina Helena Pauline Orange-Nassau, Lonely but Not Alone (1959 autobiography).

The only thing we know about death is dat it's always fatal.
~ Egbert Austin "Bert" Williams

Thank you for all the love you gave me.
There could be no one stronger.
Thank you for the many beautiful songs.
They will live long and longer.
~ Hank Williams, Gravestone at Oakwood Cemetery; Montgomery, Alabama

JHW, Claudia and Dad all agree to be put into bio-stasis after we die. This is what we want, to be able to be together in the future, even if it is only a chance.
~ John-Henry Williams (a hand printed note dated Nov. 2, 2000, written on an oil-stained paper scrap, allegedly signed by Ted Williams), The Associated Press (25 July 2002). Williams wanted to be frozen, according to family pact

Death is nature's way of saying, "Your table's ready."
~ Robin Williams

Funerals are pretty compared with death.
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947).

Ignorance of mortality is a comfort. A man don't have that comfort, he's the only living thing that conceives of death, that knows what it is.
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955).

Death is an angel with two faces:
To us he turns
A face of terror, blighting all things fair;
The other burns
With glory of the stars, and love is there.
~ Theodore Chickering Williams, from Poems of Belief (1910). A Thanatopsis

The people died suddenly, and in great numbers, through the whole intermediate coast. It is said, some native tribes became extinct; and their bones were seen years afterward by the English, bleeching above ground, at and around the places of their former habitations. The specific disease is not certainly known.
~ William D. Williamson, History of the state of Maine; from its first discovery, A. D. 1602, to the separation, A. D. 1820, inclusive, Volume I and II. (1832)

Dead, we become the lumber of the world.
~ John Wilmot, 2nd Earl Of Rochester

Death ain't nothing but a fastball on the outside corner.
~ August Wilson, Fences (1985). Act I, scene 1

Death is the quiet haven of us all.
~ William Wordsworth, from Poems by William Wordsworth, Vol. II (1815). Epitaphs and Elegiac Poems. Epitaphs, translated from Chiabrera

The good die first,
And they whose hearts are dry as summer dust
Burn to the socket.
~ William Wordsworth, The Excursion (1814). Book I: The Wanderer

A shudder in the loins engenders there
The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
And Agamemnon dead.
~ William Butler Yeats, Leda and the Swan (1928)

Cast a cold eye
On life, on death
Horseman, pass by!
~ William Butler Yeats (Gravestone at Drumcliffe Cemetery; County Sligo, Ireland)

Nor dread nor hope attend
A dying animal;
A man awaits his end
Dreading and hoping all.
~ William Butler Yeats, Death (1933).

Test every work of intellect or faith,
And everything that your own hands have wrought
And call those works extravagance of breath
That are not suited for such men as come
proud, open-eyed and laughing to the tomb.
~ William Butler Yeats, from The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933). Vacillation

You have to die because no soul has passed
The heavenly threshold since you have opened school,
But grass grows there, and rust upon the hinge;
And they are lonely that must keep the watch.
~ William Butler Yeats, The Hour-Glass (1912 version).