Henry David Thoreau Quotes

Go on, get out - last words are for fools who haven't said enough. To his housekeeper, who urged him to tell her his last words so she could write them down for posterity.

A hanging in a good quarrel is an easy death they say, though I could never hear of any that came back to say so.

There's an academic tradition called the 'Last Lecture.' Hypothetically, if you knew you were going to die and you had one last lecture, what would you say to your students? Well, for me, there's an elephant in the room. And the elephant in the room, for me, it wasn't hypothetical.

I want to thank you for taking time out of your day to come and witness my hanging.

'Tis ill talking of halters in the house of a man that was hanged.

9/11 revealed that those about to die do not seem afraid or plead for forgiveness for their sins, if they think about them at all. They all have one thing in mind - those they love - and they all do the same thing: They call them up - spouses, family or friends - to tell them they love them.

I thought, 'If I'm going to die, I'm going to videotape it.' So I got out my little video recorder and was taping goodbyes to my family.

Your Excellency, the weight of my body would break the gallows with a noise loud enough to be heard in America.

If a man confessed anything on his death bed, it was the truth; for no man could stare death in the face and lie.

In the presence of death I affirm and reaffirm the truth of all that I have said against the superstitions of the world. I would say that much on the subject with my last breath.

Go away. I'm all right. [last words]

But a lot of times, people die how they live. And so last words tell me a lot about who people were, and why they became the sort of people biographies get written about.

Speak me fair in death.

Everyone sounded the same when they died.

If I don't survive," I say, "tell Tobias I didn't want to leave him.

It was an indulgence, learning last words. Other people had chocolate; I had dying declarations.

When the day shall come that we do part," he said softly, and turned to look at me, "if my last words are not 'I love you'-ye'll ken it was because I didna have time.

for some reason, dying men always ask the question they know the answer to. perhaps it's so they can die being right.

If you must mount the gallows, give a jest to the crowd, a coin the hangman, and make the drop with a smile on your lips.

Good-bye -- if you hear of my being stood up against a stone wall and shot to rags please know that I think that a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease or falling down the cellar stairs.

He puls with a long rope, that waits for anothers death.

How do people choose their final words? Do they realize their gravity? Are they fated to be wise?

Goodbye, everybody! (Suicide note)

We heard recently the touching story of a young flier who was killed in action. Before he died, he had time to scrawl only a few words as a brief final message to his parents back home. The note read: "Dear Mom and Pop; I had time to say my prayers. Jack."

I think the dying pray at the last not "please," but "thank you," as a guest thanks his host at the door.