“That in a short while you will be nobody and nowhere; and the same of all that you now see and all who are now alive. It is the nature of all things to change, to perish and be transformed, so that in succession different things can come to be.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Page 119)
“On death. Either dispersal, if we are atoms: or, if we are a unity, extinction or a change of home.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Page 63)
“Soon you will have forgotten all things: soon all things will have forgotten you.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Page 61)
“In his final days, Daddio wasn’t worried about ACRAC. He wasn’t worried about money; he didn’t even care about food anymore. He had a single burning question about his ending: Was my life useful? Daddio needed to know that our lives were better because he was here. He wanted to be reassured that in spite of all of his shortcomings and fumbles and mistakes, that in the net analysis his assets outweighed his liabilities, and his life had been valuable.”
Will Smith, Will (Page 401)
“Every goodbye was complete and perfect because we were saying goodbye with the full knowledge that this might be our last. Every laugh, every story takes on weight and meaning in that simple fact. Death has a way of transforming the mundane into the magical.”
Will Smith, Will (Page 399)
“We all have to contend with the natural processes of destruction. Everything is impermanent—your body’s going to get old; your best friend is going to graduate and move to another city; that tree you used to climb in front of Stacey Brooks’s house is going to crash down in a storm. Your parents are going to die. Everything changes; it rises, and it falls. Nothing and no one is immune to the entropy of the universe. That is why self-destruction is such a terrible crime. It’s hard enough as it is.”
Will Smith, Will (Page 158)
“Premeditation of death is premeditation of freedom… He who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave. Knowing how to die frees us from all subjection and constraint.”
Michel De Montaigne, via The Daily Laws (Page 453)
“Everything in this world blooms, grows, and returns to its roots. Returning to one’s roots means becoming united with nature; becoming united with nature involves eternity. The destruction of your body holds no danger in itself.”
Lao-Tzu, via A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 354)
“For it’s always that way with the sacred value of life. We forget it as long as it belongs to us, and give it as little attention during the unconcerned hours of our life as we do the stars in the light of day. Darkness must fall before we are aware of the majesty of the stars above our heads.”
Stefan Zweig, via The Daily Laws (Page 423)
“Our body limits the spiritual divine spark which we call our soul. In the way that a vessel gives form to the liquid or gas which is put into it, our body gives form to our spiritual being. If the vessel is broken, that which was in it no longer retains the form it had and flows out. Does it receive a new form? Is it united with other beings? We know nothing of this. After death the soul becomes something different, something indescribable.”
Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 224)
“Our biggest desire is to live forever. But when we are freed from this body, we will not wish to come back. Is there such a child who, once born, would like to return to the womb of his mother? Is there a man who, freed from prison, would like to return to it? In the same way, a person would not be afraid about the future liberation from his body, if he is not connected too closely with this material life.”
Tables Of The Babids, via A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 212)
“How does ‘good’ apply to the worst of losses: the death of a loved one? It is easy to think that there is nothing ‘good’ in death. But then I remember the people I have lost throughout my life: the memories of them, the experiences, the fun, their unique personalities, and everything they gave me. Not only in their life, but in their death. What their life taught me, and what their death taught me. The mark they have left on me. And I realized, there is good; even in death.”
Jocko Willink, Discipline Equals Freedom (Page 62)
Sick on my journey,
only my dreams will wander
these desolate moors
Bashō, Narrow Road To The Interior (Page 179)
28 Timeless Morrie Schwartz Quotes from Tuesdays With Morrie
Excerpt: Morrie Schwartz was dying—and yet had so much left to give. Read our favorite Morrie quotes from Tuesdays With Morrie—the timeless classic.
Read More »28 Timeless Morrie Schwartz Quotes from Tuesdays With Morrie
“There is no death for the spirit; therefore, a person who lives a spiritual life is freed from death.”
Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 188)
