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Suicide: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
To each his suff'rings; all are men, Condemn'd alike to groan; The tender for another's pain, Th' unfeeling for his own. Yet ah! why should they know their fate, Since sorrow never comes too late, And happiness too swiftly flies? Thought would destroy their paradise.— GRAY — On a Distant Prospect of Eton College. St. 10,
Ho! why dost thou shiver and shake, Gaffer Grey? And why does thy nose look so blue?— THOMAS HOLCROFT — Gaffer Grey.
And taste The melancholy joys of evils pass'd, For he who much has suffer'd, much will know.— HOMER — Odyssey. Bk. XV. L. 434.
Pope's trans. They, the holy ones and weakly, Who the cross of suffering bore, Folded their pale hands so meekly, Spake with us on earth no more!— LONGFELLOW — Footsteps of Angels. St. 5
Mirth cannot move a soul in agony. S.— Shakespeare — Love's Labour's Lost. Act V. Sc. 2. L. 867,
For there are deeds Which have no form, sufferings which have no tongue.— SHELLEY — The Cenci. Act III. Sc. 1.
Those who inflict must suffer, for they see The work of their own hearts, and that must be Our chastisement or recompense.— SHELLEY — Julian and Maddalo. L. 494.
Who doubting tyranny, and fainting under Fortune's false lottery, desperately run To death, for dread of death; that soul's most stout, That, bearing all mischance, dares last it out.— BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER — The Honest Man's Fortune. Act IV. Sc. 1.
But if there be an hereafter, And that there is, conscience, uninfluenc'd And suffer'd to speak out, tells every man, Then must it be an awful thing to die; More horrid yet to die by one's own hand.— BLAIR — The Grave. L. 398.
Our time is fixed, and all our days are num ber'd; How long, how short, we know not:-this we know, Duty requires we calmly wait the summons, Nor dare to stir till Heaven shall give permis sion.— BLAIR — The Grave. L. 417.
Fool! I mean not slaughter; Oh no! the miserablest day we live There's many a better thing to do than die!— DARLEY — Ethelstan.
Ah yes, the sea is still and deep, All things within its bosom sleep! A single step, and all is o'er, A plunge, a bubble, and no more.— LONGFELLOW — Christus. The Golden Legend. Pt. V.
He That kills himself to avoid misery, fears it, And, at the best, shows but a bastard valour. This life's a fort committed to my trust, Which I must not yield up till it be forced : Nor will I. He's not valiant that dares die, But he that boldly bears calamity. C.— MASSINGER — The Maid of Honour. Act IV. Sc. 3.
Against self-slaughter There is a prohibition so divine That cravens my weak hand.— Shakespeare — Cymbeline. Act III. Sc. 4. L. 78.
Bravest at the last, She levell'd at our purposes, and, being royal, Took her own way.— Shakespeare — Antony and Cleopatra. Act V. Sc. 2. L. 338.
He that cuts off twenty years of life Cuts off so many years of fearing death. Julius Cæsar. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 101. The more pity that great folk should have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves, more than their even Christian.— Shakespeare — Hamlet. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 29.
You ever-gentle gods, take my breath from me; Let not my worser spirit tempt me again To die before you please!— Shakespeare — King Lear. Act IV. Sc. 6. L. 221.
There is no refuge from confession but suicide; and suicide is confession.— DANIEL WEBSTER — Argument on the
Murder of Captain White. April 6, 1830.