John Barton Quotes

The long time to come when I shall not exist has more effect on me than this short present time, which nevertheless seems endless.

The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.

Time is numbered only to man.

Man weeps to think that he will die so soon; woman, that she was born so long ago.

Oh my God, if I know anything, I know I'm gonna die! I never forget that. I know I'll be forgotten in a minute, and that's just fine with me.

The only thing that is real is the being in you that is going to die.

Most people are dead. Did you know that? It's true, out of all the people that ever were, almost all of them are dead.

When we look on the roses and gaiety of youth, the mournful idea of mortality is altogether alien to our thoughts. We have heard of it as a speculation and a tale, but nothing but experience can bring it home to us.

Unlike other animals, all of which are undoubtedly oblivious to their eventual demise, humans are fully aware that their time on Earth is limited. This is a reality that for most individuals is difficult if not impossible to bear.

We all know that we're going to die, but we don't know when. That's not a blessing, that's a curse.

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

Believe me, if a man doesn't know death, he doesn't know life.

No, I regret nothing, all I regret is having been born, dying is such a long tiresome business I always found.

The disembodied spirit is immortal; there is nothing of it that can grow old or die. But the embodied spirit sees death on the horizon as soon as its day dawns.

We've spent the last few millennia aware that senescence is horrible but knowing nevertheless that it's inevitable. We've had to find some mechanism to put it out of our minds so we can get on with our miserably short lives.

I always know I can die at any moment.

You realize mortality is everywhere.

Death is a distant rumor to the young.

We're all terminal; none of us are getting out of this alive.

Happens to everybody. Horses, dogs, men. Nobody gets out of life alive.

There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.

I like thinking about the fragility of the human flesh and our bodies - our decay and eventual death.

For me, the first fact of human existence is the human body. But if you embrace the reality of the human body, you embrace mortality, and that is a very difficult thing for anything to do because the self-conscious mind cannot imagine non-existence. It's impossible to do.

Mortality defines the human condition.

The idea of forever is kind of ridiculous, which is unfortunate because it's kind of a nice thing to say, you know. I think it softens the blow of mortality and having to say goodbye to everything you know and everyone you love and all that kind of thing.