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Immortality: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
It must be so-Plato, thou reasonest well!- Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, This longing after immortality? Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror, Of falling into nought? Why shrinks the soul Back on herself, and startles at destruction? 'Tis the divinity that stirs within us; 'Tis heaven itself, that points out an hereafter, And intimates eternity to man.— ADDISON — Cato. Act V. Sc. 1.
The stars shall fade away, the sun himself Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years, But thou shall flourish in immortal youth, Unhurt amidst the wars of elements, The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds.— ADDISON — Cato. Act V. Sc. 1.
No, no! The energy of life may be Kept on after the grave, but not begun; And he who flagg'd not in the earthly strife, From strength to strength advancing-only he His soul well-knit, and all his battles won, Mounts, and that hardly, to eternal life.— MATTHEW ARNOLD — Sonnet.
Immortality. On the cold cheek of Death smiles and roses are blending, And beauty immortal awakes from the tomb.— JAMES BEATTIE — The Hermit. St. 6.
Last lines. There is nothing strictly immortal, but immortality. Whatever hath no beginning may be confident of no end.— SIR THOMAS BROWNE — Hydriotaphia. Ch. V.
I have been dying for twenty years, now I am going to live.— JAS. DRUMMOND BURNS — His Last
Words, A good man never dies.— CALLIMACHUS — Epigrams. X.
Immortality is the glorious discovery of Christianity.— S. WM. ELLERY CHANNING — Immortality.
'Tis immortality to die aspiring, As if a man were taken quick to heaven.— GEO. CHAPMAN — Byron's Conspiracy. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 254.
There is, I know not how, in the minds of men, a certain presage, as it were, of a future existence! and this takes the deepest root, and is most discoverable, in the greatest geniuses and most exalted souls. и.— CICERO
One short sleep past, we wake eternally, And Death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.— DONNE — Sonnet.
Yet spirit immortal, the tomb cannot bind thee, But like thine own eagle that soars to the sun Thou springest from bondage and leavest behind thee A name which before thee no mortal hath won.— LEONARD HEATH — The Grave of
Bonaparte. 'Tis true; 'tis certain; man though dead retains Part of himself; the immortal mind remains.— HOMER — Iliad. Bk. XXIII. L. 122.
Pope's trans. But all lost things are in the angels' keeping, Love; No past is dead for us, but only sleeping, Love; The years of Heaven with all earth's little pain Make good, Together there we can begin again In babyhood.— HELEN HUNT — At Last. St. 6.
He ne'er is crowned with immortality Who fears to follow where airy voices lead.— KEATS — Endymion. Bk. II.
*** I long to believe in immortality. If I am destined to be happy with you herehow short is the longest life. I wish to believe in immortality-I wish to live with you forever.— KEATS — Letters to Fanny Brawne.
For spirits that live throughout Vital in every part, not as frail man, In entrails, heart or head, liver or reins, Cannot but by annihilating die.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. VI. L. 345.
For who would lose, Though full of pain, this intellectual being, Those thoughts that wander through eternity, To perish rather, swallow'd up and lost In the wide womb of uncreated night, Devoid of sense and motion?— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. II. L. 146.
They eat, they drink, and in communion sweet Quaff immortality and joy.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. V. L. 637.
When the good man yields his breath (For the good man never dies).— MONTGOMERY — The Wanderer of Switzerland. Pt. V.
Immortality Alone could teach this mortal how to die.— D. M. MULOCK — Looking Death in the Face. L. 77.
All men desire to be immortal.— THEODORE PARKER — A Sermon on
Immortal Life. Sept. 20, 1846. I hold it ever, Virtue and cunning were endowments greater Than nobleness and riches: careless heirs May the two latter darken and expend; But immortality attends the former, Making a man a god.— Shakespeare — Pericles. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 26.
Look, here's the warrant, Claudio, for thy death: 'Tis now dead midnight, and by eight tomorrow Thou must be made immortal.— Shakespeare — Measure for Measure. Act IV. Sc. 2. L. 66.
Thy lord shall never die, the whiles this verse Shall live, and surely it shall live for ever: For ever it shall live, and shall rehearse His worthy praise, and vertues dying never,— LONGFELLOW — The Building of the Ship. Though death his soule do from his bodie
sever: And thou thyselfe herein shalt also live; Such grace the heavens doe to my verses give.— SPENSER — The Ruines of Time. L. 253.
S. Man is so created that as to his internal he cannot die; for he is capable of believing in God, and thus of being conjoined to God by faith and love, and to be conjoined to God is to live to eternity.— SWEDENBORG — The New Jerusalem and
Its Heavenly Doctrine. Par. 223. Ah, Christ, that it were possible, For one short hour to see The souls we loved, that they might tell us What and where they be.— TENNYSON — Maud. Pt. XXVI.
Though inland far we be, Our souls have sight of that immortal sea Which brought us hither.— WORDSWORTH — Ode. Intimations of Immortality. St. 9.
'Tis immortality, 'tis that alone, Amid life's pains, abasements, emptiness, The soul can comfort, elevate, and fill. That only, and that amply this performs. C.— YOUNG — Night Thoughts. Night VI. L. 573.
Nemo unquam sine magnâ spe immortalitatis se pro patriâ offerret ad mortem. No one could ever meet death for his country without the hope of immortality.— CICERO — Tusculanarum Disputationum.
I. 15. Dignum laude virum Musa vetat mori; Cœlo Musa beat. The muse does not allow the praise-deserving hero to die: she enthrones him in the heavens.— HORACE — Carmina. IV. 8. 28.
Exegi monumentum aere perennius Regalique situ pyramidum altius, Quod non imber edax, non Aquilo impotens Possit diruere aut innumerabilis Annorum series et fuga temporum. Non omnis moriar, multaque pars mei Vitabit Libitinam. I have reared a memorial more enduring than brass, and loftier than the regal structure of the pyramids, which neither the corroding shower nor the powerless north wind can destroy; no, not even unending years nor the flight of time itself. I shall not entirely die. The greater part of me shall escape oblivion.— HORACE — Carmina. III. 30. 1.
Tamque opus exegi quod nec Jovis ira nec ignes Nec poterit ferrum, nec edax abolere vetustas. Cum volet illa dies quæ nil nisi corporis hujus Jus habet, incerti spatium mihi siniat ævi; Parte tamen meliore mei super alta perennis Astra ferar, nomenque erit indelebile nostrum. And now have I finished a work which neither the wrath of Jove, nor fire, nor steel, nor all-consuming time can destroy. Welcome the day which can destroy only my physical man in ending my uncertain life. In my better part I shall be raised to immortality above the lofty stars, and my name shall never die.— OVID — Metamorphoses. XV. 871.
De nihilo nihil, in nihilum nil posse resciti. Out of nothing nothing can come, and nothing can become nothing.— PERSIUS — Satiræ. III. 84.
Postquam est mortem aptus Plautus: comedia luget Scena deserta, dein risus ludus jocusque Et numeri innumeri simul omnes collacrumarunt. Plautus has prepared himself for a life beyond the grave; the comic stage deserted weeps; laughter also and jest and joke; and poetic and prosaic will bewail his loss together. Epitaph of PLAUTUS, written by himself.