Quotes

"There is nothing I desire more to be informed of, than of the death of men: that is to say, what words, what countenance, and what face they show at their death ... Were I a composer of books, I would keep a register, commented of the diverse deaths, which in teaching men to die, should after teach them to live."
Montaigne, Essays

Andre Gide's last words were reported to have been: "I am afraid my sentences are becoming grammatically incorrect".

Well, someone has got to have the last word. Here is a selection of EPITAPHS from some of our great writers. I'd like to change them every so often, so if you have any epitaphs or last words from famous writers, please do email me.

And alien tears will fill for him
Pity's long broken urn,
For his mourners will be outcast men,
And outcasts always mourn

Oscar Wilde
1854-1900

Homo sum! The adventurer.

D.H. Lawrence
1885-1930

"Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea ..."

Dylan Thomas
1914-1953

Here lyes
(expecting the second Comminge of our Saviour
Christ Jesus)
the body of Edmond Spencer, the Prince of Poets in his time;
whose divine spirit needs no other witness
than the works he left behind.

Edmond Spencer
1510-1596

COR CORDIUM
"Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange."

Percy Bysshe Shelley
1792-1822

Good friend for Jesus sake forbear,
To dig the dust enclosed here:
Blest be the man that speares these stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones.

William Shakespeare
1564-1616

To
The beautiful memory
Of Kenneth Grahame
Husband of Elspeth
and
Father of Alastair
who passed the river
on the 6th of July 1932
leaving
Childhood and literature
through him the more blest
for all time.

Kenneth Grahame
1859-1932

Reader, I am to let you know,
Donne's body only lies below;
For could the grave his soul comprise,
Earth would be richer than the skies.

John Donne
1572-1631

"Of those immortal dead who live again
In minds made better by their presence"

Here lies the body
Of "George Eliot"
Mary Ann Cross

George Eliot
1819-1880

Here lies the body of Jonathan Swift, Professor of Holy Theology,
Dean of this cathedral church,
where savage indignation can tear his heart no longer.
Go, traveller,
and if you can imitate one who with his utmost
strength protected liberty.

Jonathan Swift
1667-1745

Sleep after toile, port after stormie seas,
Ease after warre, death after life, does greatly please.

Joseph Conrad
1857-1924

In loving remembrance
Of
Jerome Klapka Jerome.
Died June 14th 1927
Aged 68 years.
"Foe we are labourers together with God."

Jerome K. Jerome
1859-1927

Steel True
Blade straight
Arthur Conan Doyle
Knight
Patriot, Physician and Man of Letters.

Arthur Conan Doyle
1859-1930

When I am dead, I hope it may be said:
"His sins were scarlet, but his books were read."

Hilaire Belloc
1870-1953

Here lies W.C.Fields.
On the whole I would rather be living in Philadelphia.

W.C.Fields
1880-1946