Neal Stephenson Quotes

In the last analysis, it is our conception of death which decides our answers to all the questions that life puts to us.

I've always been slightly preoccupied with death or whatever those kind of silly big questions people will tell you to not spend your time worrying about.

To be immortal is commonplace; except for man, all creatures are immortal, for they are ignorant of death; what is divine, terrible, incomprehensible, is to know that one is immortal.

The elimination of the fear of death transforms the individual's way of being in the world.

I was no longer, if I had ever been, afraid to die: I was now afraid not to die.

Although many of us fear death, I think there is something illogical about it.

It is not dying, but living, that is a preparation for Death.

He hath awakened from the dream of life.

Death, the most dreaded of evils, is therefore of no concern to us; for while we exist death is not present, and when death is present we no longer exist.

I don't want to die. I think death is a greatly overrated experience.

Everyone fears the cut of the blade. It doesn't matter after that. I know the spirit survives as there is so much evidence of the survival of the personality in the afterlife.

The poet does not fear death, not because he believes in the fantasy of heroes, but because death constantly visits his thoughts and is thus an image of a serene dialogue.

To himself everyone is immortal; he may know that he is going to die, but he can never know that he is dead.

Unbeing dead isn't being alive.

It is impossible to experience one's death objectively and still carry a tune.

I do think there must be some kind of interaction between your living life and the life that goes on from here.

If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume and come back as a new character, would you slow down? Or speed up?

When you've been in life-threatening situations, you become aware that life is not for ever.

So not only can you not imagine dying, you can't really imagine existence before you were born.

Life is the childhood of our immortality.

I am a soul. I know well that what I shall render up to the grave is not myself. That which is myself will go elsewhere. Earth, thou art not my abyss!

No man can pass into eternity, for he is already in it.

Nothing is more dreadful in life than the profound thought that death may only greet you with eternal nothingness.

For those who seek to understand it, death is a highly creative force. The highest spiritual values of life can originate from the thought and study of death.

Mortality applies to every aspect of life. The fear of death is the driving fear of life.