Good Death Quotes

Unlike in our society, where we hide it, death surrounded medieval people. They had few hospitals, and so churches, poorhouses, and homes handled the dying and dead. Death was not a distant prospect at the end of a long, healthy life. It was integrated into ordinary experience. Medieval life was transitory, a journey through this world that often ended too soon and too abruptly. Death was often violent and unexpected. Extended death, through illness and in one's own bed, was actually a blessing. Death was part of everyday life; medieval people considered their deaths regularly. Indeed, as one medieval historian puts it, "One of the chief obsessions of medieval Christians was the need to make a 'good death.'"38 ~ Diana Butler Bass

In such a regime, I say, you died a good death if your life had inspired someone to come forward and shoot your murderer in the chest-without asking to be paid. ~ Chinua Achebe

Fairytales by nature only talk about the victors. The survivors. Nobody speaks about what happens to those who failed, except in the abstract: as cautionary tales to guide others onto the path to success. How many brave knights fell to the dragon before he was slayed by the noble prince? How many children burned to a crisp and eaten before the wicked witch received her due? These stories are lost, but the lesson behind them is not: it is not enough to be merely pure and good. ~ Nenia Campbell

Don't give your sons money. Give them horses. Many a good son has been ruined through the acquisition of money but no good son has been ruined through the acquisition of horses. Unless they fell and broke their neck, which when taken at the gallop is a very good death to die. ~ Winston Churchill

Isn't it strange? It's like after they die, you're only allowed to remember the good. But no one's all good. ~ Victoria Schwab

Don't give your son money. As far as you can afford it, give him horses. No one ever came to grief, except honourable grief, through riding horses. No hour of life is lost that is spent in the saddle. Young men have often been ruined through owning horses, or through backing horses, but never through riding them; unless of course they break their necks, which, taken at a gallop, is a very good death to die. ~ Winston Churchill

For me, the good death includes being prepared to die, with my affairs in order, the good and bad messages delivered that need delivering. The good death means dying while I still have my mind sharp and aware; it also means dying without having to endure large amounts of suffering and pain. The good death means accepting death as inevitable, and not fighting it when the time comes. This is my good death, but as legendary psychotherapist Carl Jung said, "It won't help to hear what I think about death." Your relationship to mortality is your own. ~ Caitlin Doughty

If Norman had found a way, had stumbled on a path--or, indeed, if he had not found a way--then I wanted to know. I was after something more intimate, something less elegant and Kübler-Ross's stages of denial, anger, bargaining, grieving and acceptance. I simply wanted to know how to accomplish a good death. ~ Abraham Verghese

Eva, stop,' he moaned. 'A kiss from me could kill you...'
'Then it would be a good death,' I breathed, taking his face in my hands. And when our lips met, I knew that wherever this love took me, it was a place I wanted to go. ~ Dee Shulman

I've done quite a lot of dying on shows and in movies. To have a good death scene though - come on, it's brilliant. I love a good death scene! ~ Jared Harris

Two months ago my mother died. She made, as the expression goes, a good death. ~ Larry Watson

The truth is all around you, plain to behold. The night is dark and full of terrors, the day bright and beautiful and full of hope. One is black, the other white. There is ice and there is fire. Hate and love. Bitter and sweet. Male and female. Pain and pleasure. Winter and summer. Evil and good. Death and life. Everywhere, opposites. ~ George R R Martin

She snuggled close, nuzzling her hair beneath his chin. "Never leave me," she whispered back.
The siren chuckled sadly, the sound vibrating up through his chest and pleasantly against her ear. "But I must return to the sea every now and then or I will die." He sighed. "Some part of me believes it would be a good death. ~ Ash Gray

Therefore, it seems to me that everything that exists is good - death as well as life, sin as well as holiness, wisdom as well as folly. ~ Hermann Hesse

Our ultimate goal, after all, is not a good death but a good life to the very end. ~ Atul Gawande

It is good death
That puts an end to evil death and dies. ~ Wallace Stevens

No matter how devastating our struggles, disappointments, and troubles are, they are only temporary. No matter what happens to you, no matter the depth of tragedy or pain you face, no matter how death stalks you and your loved ones, the Resurrection promises you a future of immeasurable good. ~ Josh McDowell

Look at that house, so quiet and willing. If there is a good way to die, that's it out there. Graceful and calm in the face of inevitability.

It feels generous, almost. Beauty and reassurances are not for ourselves. Of course death will come. And of course there is no good way to die. There is no peace. A weight will not lift. A leaf will not fall. But we can pretend. ~ Joey Comeau

Worst fears: That God was not good. That the earth you stood upon shifted, and chasms yawned; that people, falling, clutched one another for help and none was forthcoming. That the basis of all things was evil. That the beauty of the evening, now settling in a yellow glow on the stone of The Cottage barns, the swallows dipping and soaring, a sudden host of butterflies in the long grasses in the foreground, was a lie; a deceitful sheen on which hopeful visions flitted momentarily, and that long, long ago evil had won against good, death over life... in the glow of the sun against the stone walls, as well as in the dancing of butterflies- that in this she had been mocked. ~ Fay Weldon

It was certainly a good death scene. I'm endlessly perishing in roles but it's a wonderful thing to be asked to do. ~ Emilia Fox

But the fact that, by 2012, one in thirty-five Dutch people sought assisted suicide at their death is not a measure of success. It is a measure of failure. Our ultimate goal, after all, is not a good death but a good life to the very end. The Dutch have been slower than others to develop palliative care programs that might provide for it. One reason, perhaps, is that their system of assisted death may have reinforced beliefs that reducing suffering and improving lives through other means is not feasible when one becomes debilitated or seriously ill. ~ Atul Gawande

Know one knows whether death, which people fear to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good. ~ Plato

How much of the "good death" is for the person dying and how much for the person helping him? ~ Sherwin B. Nuland

A good death is a death in solidarity with others. To prepare ourselves for a good death, we must develop or deepen this sense of solidarity. ~ Henri J.M. Nouwen

I have realized that we all have plague, and I have lost my peace. And today I am still trying to find it; still trying to understand all those others and not to be the enemy of anyone. I only know that one must do what one can to cease being plague-stricken, and that's the only way in which we can hope for some peace or, failing that, a decent death. This, and only this, can bring relief to men and, if not save them, at least do them the least harm possible and even, sometimes, a little good. ~ Albert Camus

Since human beings first began to write, they have recorded their wish for an idealized ending some call the "good death," as if any of us can ever be sure of it or have any reason to expect it. There are pitfalls of decision-making to be sidestepped and varieties of hope to seek, but beyond that we must forgive ourselves when we cannot achieve some preconceived image of dying right. ~ Sherwin B. Nuland

Funeral Blues

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message 'He is Dead'.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good. ~ W. H. Auden

London had so much death in its history, it was hard to find a spot without spirits. They formed a safety net. Still, you had to hope the ones you got were good. ~ Samantha Shannon

In quixotically trying to conquer death doctors all too frequently do no good for their patients' "ease" but at the same time they do harm instead by prolonguing and even magnifying patients' dis-ease. ~ Jack Kevorkian

See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil ... I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life. ~ Moses

Never to have been born is best But if we must see the light, the next best Is quickly returning whence we came. When youth departs, with all its follies, Who does not stagger under evils? Who escapes them?
Sophocles'
Sleep is good, death is better; but of course, The best would be never to have been born at all.
Heinrich Heine2 ~ David Benatar

There is no single best kind of death. A good death is one that is "appropriate" for that person. It is a death in which the hand of the way of dying slips easily into the glove of the act itself. It is in character, ego-syntonic. It, the death, fits the person. It is a death that one might choose if it were realistically possible for one to choose one's own death. ~ Edwin S. Shneidman

The one true freedom in life is to come to terms with death, and as early as possible, for death is an event that embraces all our lives. And the only way to have a good death is to lead a good life. The more we do God's will, the less unfinished business we leave behind when we die. ~ William Sloane Coffin

A good death does honour to a whole life. ~ Petrarch

It was not a good death."
"No such thing," Sorhatani said, wheezing. "It is never kind, Kublai. All we can do is ignore it until the time comes." The effort of speaking was enormous and he tried to stop her, but she waved his objections aside. "People do that so well, Kublai. They live knowing they will die, but no matter how many times they say the words, they don't truly believe it. They think somehow that they will be the one death passes by, that they will live and live and never grow old. ~ Conn Iggulden

The final desire of any warrior is a good death. ~ Lance Conrad

And everything soon must change. Men would set their watches by other suns than this. Or time would vanish. We would need no personal names of the old sort in the sidereal future, nothing being fixed. We would be designated by other nouns. Days and nights would belong to the museums. The earth a memorial park, a merry-go-round cemetery. The seas powdering our bones like quartz, making sand, grinding our peace for us by the aeon. Well, that would be good - a melancholy good. ~ Saul Bellow

Now let's get upstairs and fight, or all the good Death Eaters'll be taken. ~ J.K. Rowling

The merrel also knew its wing had not healed. But I could reach a great height once more before it failed me, it said. And from there I would fold my wings and plummet to the earth as if a hare or a fawn had caught my eye; but it would be myself I stooped toward. It would be a good flight and a good death. And so I eat their dead things cut up on a pole, dreaming of my last flight. ~ Robin McKinley

A culture that denies death is a barrier to achieving a good death. Overcoming our fears and wild misconceptions about death will be no small task, but we shouldn't forget how quickly other cultural prejudices--racism, sexism, homophobia--have begun to topple in the recent past. It is high time death had its own moment of truth. ~ Caitlin Doughty

Any death prior to the heat death of the universe is premature if your life is good. ~ Nick Bostrom

I feel something enter the room, coming in from the top right corner. I cannot see it but I know its there, plain as day. My real self recognizes the feeling, recognizes the place this being came from, where it lives. There are other realities that exist besides our own; it is foolish to think otherwise. The universe is conscious. This thing comes from the layers of energy beyond our physical perception. The place we go to after we die, the place we were before being conceived. These places holds us for millenia in Universe Time. We are on Earth and in flesh for only a moment. Before we are born, energy must be woven into spirit and then siphoned into a body. After we die the spirit must be consoled after the trauma of flesh and then unravelled back into energy. It feels good to remember this place, but the thing that has arrived here is not good. ~ Tanya Tagaq

The right to a good death is a basic human freedom. The [2006-JAN] Supreme Court's decision to uphold aid in dying allows us to view and act on death as a dignified moral and godly choice for those suffering with terminal illnesses. ~ John Shelby Spong

Approaches to death and dying reveal much of the attitude of society as a whole to the individuals who compose it. The development of ideas of what constitutes a good death can even be traced to prehistory. ~ Cicely Saunders

And it sends an important message to me, because I am sick to death to hear my opponent saying Republicans don't trust me. They do trust me, in landslide proportions, and they're proving it tonight. We're going to bury that for good. ~ Ben Nighthorse Campbell

Good kitchen equipment is expensive, but most items last a lifetime and will pay for themselves over and over again. ~ Delia Smith

No-one gets an iron-clad guarantee of success. Certainly, factors like opportunity, luck and timing are important. But the backbone of success is usually found in old-fashioned, basic concepts like hard work, determination, good planning and perseverance. ~ Mia Hamm

Without good humour, learning and bravery can only confer that superiority which swells the heart of the lion in the desert, where he roars without reply, and ravages without resistance. Without good humour virtue may awe by its dignity and amaze by its brightness, but must always be viewed at a distance, and will scarcely gain a friend or attract an imitator. ~ Samuel Johnson

Obama said, 'Now let me be clear, issues of women's equality are by no means simply an issue for Islam.' No, he said, 'the struggle for women's equality continues in many aspects of American life.' So on one hand, 12-year-old girls are stoned to death for the crime of being raped in Muslim countries. But on the other hand, we still don't have enough female firefighters here in America. ~ Ann Coulter

Quackery gives birth to nothing; gives death to all things. ~ Thomas Carlyle

In Invisible there's a lot about childhood, the death of the brother and then the relationship between the brother and sister. ~ Paul Auster

A noble heart should not belie its thoughts; it wants to reveal itself even to its inmost depths. There everything is good, at least everything is human. ~ Michel De Montaigne

With God, everything will work for my good. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

The never-ending ache of love and sorrow. Perhaps in some other life I could have refused, could have torn my hair and screamed, and made him face his choice alone. But not in this one. He would sail to Troy and I would follow, even into death. ~ Madeline Miller

How do geese know when to fly to the sun? Who tells them the seasons? How do we, humans know when it is time to move on? As with the migrant birds, so surely with us, there is a voice within if only we would listen to it, that tells us certainly when to go forth into the unknown. ~ Elisabeth Kubler Ross

I would just want to wish President Obama the best of luck, and that he should bear in mind that just as he is a good person, there are many of us presidents in Latin America who are also good people. ~ Rafael Correa

Genetically, I'm like my mum, and she looked great right up until her death in 1989. ~ Olivia Newton-John

John Calvin, brought characteristic rigor to the question. Luther dreamed of good princes, disliked law on principle, and had little interest in institutions. As a result, Lutheran churches ended up with a mishmash of governing structures. Calvin, by contrast, had trained as a lawyer, knew that structures matter, and favored more participatory government. ~ Alec Ryrie

A book is kind of like a good Horcrux, if we can imagine that
a piece of the writer's soul, preserved in a physical object for all time, and changing the lives of all those who come in contact with it. ~ Cheryl B. Klein

I was 17 and just learning what high fidelity was, what good sound was, and learning the mechanics of tape machines. It was a real education, going right from the consumer end to the record factory. ~ Alan Parsons

One death apiece is plenty. ~ Marty Rubin

But the more he strained to think, the clearer it became to him that it was undoubtedly so, that he had actually forgotten, overlooked in his life one small circumstance - that death would come and everything would end, that it was not worth starting anything and that nothing could possibly be done about it. Yes, it was terrible, but it was so. ~ Leo Tolstoy

Be a free spirit,
Never compromise on what you should & are capable of giving in love.
Do it, feel good!
But choose someone wisely as not everyone is deserving of what you give.

Hence they said:
"Seek love!"
Where there is choice,
Choose wisely! ~ Somya Kedia

(Ivan) Hold your tongue, or I'll kill you!
(The devil) You'll kill me? No, excuse me, I will speak. I came to treat myself to that pleasure. Oh, I love the dreams of my ardent young friends, quivering with eagerness for life! 'There are new men,' you decided last spring, when you were meaning to come here, 'they propose to destroy everything and begin with cannibalism. Stupid fellows! they didn't ask my advice! I maintain that nothing need be destroyed, that we only need to destroy the idea of God in man, that's how we have to set to work. It's that, that we must begin with. Oh, blind race of men who have no understanding! As soon as men have all of them denied God -- and I believe that period, analogous with geological periods, will come to pass -- the old conception of the universe will fall of itself without cannibalism, and, what's more, the old morality, and everything will begin anew. Men will unite to take from life all it can give, but only for joy and happiness in the present world. Man will be lifted up with a spirit of divine Titanic pride and the man-god will appear. From hour to hour extending his conquest of nature infinitely by his will and his science, man will feel such lofty joy from hour to hour in doing it that it will make up for all his old dreams of the joys of heaven. Everyone will know that he is mortal and will accept death proudly and serenely like a god. His pride will teach him that it's useless for him to repine at life's being a moment, and ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Never let the facts get in the way of a good national legend. ~ Phil Ball

Scars made good reminders. ~ Leigh Bardugo

A good impression is lost so quickly ... ~ Claude Monet

To be of good quality, you have to excuse yourself from the presence of shallow and callow minded individuals. ~ Michael Bassey

I've come to think understanding personality is like holding a good map. That map can't take you anywhere. It doesn't change your location; you're still right where you were before. But the map's purpose isn't to move you; it's to show you the lay of the land. ~ Anne Bogel

Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,
You do their work, and they shall have good luck:
Are not you he?'
'Thou speak'st aright;
I am that merry wanderer of the night. ~ William Shakespeare

At 1 o'clock all were assembled for dinner, which generally consisted of three courses - soup, meat, and dessert; or, soup, fish, and meat; or, fish, meat, and dessert; or sometimes only fish and meat. With the meat we always had potatoes, and either green vegetables or macaroni. I think we were all agreed that the fare was good; it would hardly have been better at home; for some of us it would perhaps have been worse. And we looked like fatted pigs; one or two even began to cultivate a double chin and a corporation. As ~ Fridjtof Nansen

Your best will never be good enough, to the ones constantly searching for your flaws. But for you to be the best, you need to ignore your flaws and do your best. ~ Gift Gugu Mona

Sit the comedy out, and that done, when the Play's at an end, let the Curtain fall down. ~ Thomas Flatman

Democracy is good. I say this because other systems are worse. ~ Jawaharlal Nehru

If a being from another world were to ask you, "How can I learn what it's like to be human?" a good answer would be, "Study mythology. ~ Joseph Campbell

The frantic desire to live, to live at any cost, is not a result of the life rhythm in us, but of the death rhythm. ~ Henry Miller

I guess that was the dichotomy of death. Sometimes it was frightening but every now and then in the right moment in life, it was warm and welcoming. ~ Donna Augustine

Seemed like no matter how much money people had, they were desperate to have more, desperate to look good compared to everyone else. Why bother to impress when all anyone else cared about was how impressive THEY were? ~ Stephanie Lehmann

We had something real," Nobley said, starting to sound a little desperate. "You must have felt it, seeping through the costumes and pretenses."
The brunette nodded.
"Seeping through the pretenses? Listen to him, he's still acting." Martin turned to the brunette in search of an ally.
"Do I detect any jealousy there, my flagpole-like friend?" Nobley said. "Still upset that you weren't cast as a gentleman? You do make a very good gardener."
Martin took a swing. Nobley ducked and rammed into his body, pushing them both to the ground. The brunette squealed and bounced on the balls of her feet.
"Stop it!" Jane pulled at Nobley, then slipped. He put out an arm and caught her midfall across her middle.
"Here, let me…" Nobley tried to give her a hand up and push Martin away at the same time.
"Get off me," Martin said. "I'll help her."
He kicked Nobley in the rear, followed by some swatting of hands. Jane planted her feet, grabbed Nobley's arm, and pulled him off. Martin was still swiping at Nobley from the ground. Nobley's cap fell off, then his trench coat twisted up around Martin, who batted at it crazily.
"Cut it out!" Jane said, pushing Nobley back and putting herself between them. She felt more like a teacher stopping a schoolboy scuffle than an ingénue with two brawling beaus.
"M-m-martin's gay!" Nobley said.
"I am not! You're thinking of Edgar."
"Who the hell is Edgar?"
"You know, that other gardener who always sm ~ Shannon Hale

I detested you, at the moment of my death ... My soul cannot move beyond that ... As long as you live, I cannot rest!
-Kikyo to Kagome ~ Rumiko Takahashi

When Nietzsche made his famous definition of tragic pleasure he fixed his eyes, like all the other philosophers in like case, not on the Muse herself but on a single tragedian. His "reaffirmation of the will to live in the face of death, and the joy of its inexhaustibility when so reaffirmed" is not the tragedy of Sophocles nor the tragedy of Euripides, but it is the very essence of the tragedy of Aeschylus. The strange power tragedy has to present suffering and death in such a way as to exalt and not depress is to be felt in Aeschylus' plays as in those of no other tragic poet. He was the first tragedian; tragedy was his creation, and he set upon it the stamp of his own spirit. It was a soldier-spirit. Aeschylus was a Marathon-warrior, the title given to each of the little band who had beaten back the earlier tremendous Persian onslaught. ~ Edith Hamilton

Each day, we're given many opportunities to open up or shut down. The most precious opportunity presents itself when we come to the place where we think we can't handle whatever is happening. It's too much. It's gone too far. We feel bad about ourselves. There's no way we can manipulate the situation to make ourselves come out looking good. No matter how hard we try, it just won't work. Basically, life has just nailed us. ~ Pema Chodron

There are times when I just can't bring myself to sit down and write and I'm never sure whether it's pure laziness or lack of courage - there's always the thought in the back of my mind that my writing won't be good enough. ~ Kate Cary

The good folk of Twitter were extremely helpful when I needed to double-check how much blackjacks and fruit salad sweets cost in the 1960s. Without them I might have written my book twice as fast. ~ Neil Gaiman

My fellow Americans, good evening. My name is Becca Goldman and I weep with all of you.
I texted one word to Megan, 'Gag'
She wrote back: 'My name is Becca Goldman, and I sleep with all of you ~ Jeri Smith-Ready

Had enough?" he asked, smiling at Helen's brazen admiration of his looks.
"Not yet," she said, a matching smile breaking across her face.
"Good. ~ Josephine Angelini

My wife Danielle and I love travelling, different cultures and good weather. ~ Gary Lineker

He waved and shouted, "All clear on the front! Also, to my fabulous faerie friends, good-bye and good riddance!" He let go of Carlee's hand, turned around, and dropped his pants.
Jack's brilliantly white, moonlit mooning of the unearthly crowd was strangely beautiful. Lend was less amused, rolling his eyes and muttering, "My mom's right there. Can't we send Jack, too? ~ Kiersten White

Certain majors [lables] just know what they're doin', and got a good grip on the dynamic of what's happening, and some don't. ~ Joe Budden

Face a man with death, let him come out shining, and you might call his bravery simple. Face a small town boy with fame, love, and death, all before legal drinking age, and you will call it anything but simple. ~ Jim Provenzano

ROTC programs at Ivy League campuses would liberalize the military. That can only be good for this country. ~ Evan Wright

[ ... ] morals are worn as a badge to make you look good and [ ... ] it's so much easier to talk about your beliefs than to live up to them ~ Marilyn Manson

I want to do a good job living today. ~ Katerina Stoykova Klemer