Life or death

“ O, what hadst thou to do with cruel Death, Who wast so full of life, or Death with thee, That thou shouldst die before thou hadst grown old! ”

“ Life like a moment passed seemed then to be;
⁠A transient dream this raiment that it wore;
While spelled my hand out its mortality
⁠Made certain all that had seemed doubt before:
Proved — O how vaguely, yet how lucidly! —
⁠How much death does; and yet can do no more. ”

“ If death be death, have passed into the past;
If death be life, live, though their semblance dies.
Hope and high faith inviolate of distrust
Shone strong as life inviolate of the grave
Through each bright word and lineament serene. ”

“ Oh! for a thousand tongues to declare the truths which are now fast dawning upon my bewildered mind! Death, the great leveller, need have no more terrors for us, for it has been conquered by the Great Spirit, in giving us a never-ending life in the glorious spheres of immortal bliss. ”

“ Of what I shall do to-morrow? What will be the outcome of all my life? Why should I live? Why should I do anything? Is there in life any purpose which the inevitable death which awaits me does not undo and destroy? ”

“ Till birth and death be one in sight of life;
Fate, heard and seen of no man's eyes or ears,
To no man shown through light of smiles or tears,
And moved of no man's prayer to fold its wings;
Fate, that is night and light on worldly things;
Fate, that is fire to burn and sea to drown,
Strength to build up and thunder to cast down;
Fate, shield and screen for each man's lifelong head,
And sword at last or dart that strikes it dead;
Fate, higher than heaven and deeper than the grave,
That saves and spares not, spares and doth not save ”

“ Life is its state of action, and the store Of all events is aggregated there 545 That variegate the eternal universe; Death is a gate of dreariness and gloom, That leads to azure isles and beaming skies And happy regions of eternal hope. Therefore, O Spirit! ”

“ Even the worm begotten of death, springing from corruption, we name Life in matter; making Life a product of death and death a product of Life. When will the age awake to reason on being, as fairly as on other subjects. ”

“ Then life came, to be quickly followed by death. They made Nothing the head, Life the trunk, and Death the tail of existence, claiming as friends whoever knew that existence and non-existence, and life and death were all One. ”

“ It is from Thee it comes, so must be right, The Pow’r that rules all things, that put me here And takes me hence, will clasp me in its arms And make me still a part of endless Life, Part of the Mighty Universe divine, Part of that matter indestructible, Whose very death creates and recreates, Fashioning Life from out of all decay. ”

“ The same in mind and heart,
Nor joy, nor grief, nor time, nor place,
Nor life, nor death can part.
But let us hasten to the day
Which shall our flesh restore,
When death shall all be done away,
And bodies part no more! ”

“ But can I fail, while I live, to ask the meaning of life? The flame flickers until the torch goes out. How can life do other than question until it is quenched by death? Maybe death is already within me; perchance the questioner is no longer life, but death. ”

“ And Life replied:
“Sorrow, unceasing struggle, disappointment;
after these
Darkness and silence.” The Soul said unto Death:
“What dos thou offer me?” And Death replied:
“In the beginning what Life gives at last.”
Turning to Life: “And if I live and struggle?”
“Others shall live and struggle after thee
Counting it easier where thou hast passed.” ”

“ Then, when body and soul are fitted for the change, there comes what ordinary mortals call death; and the pure being closes his eyes, to awake forthwith in his original glory from the sleep which mortals call life. ”

“ Which is the stronger, life or death? said. Life, which bears such ills. And the ninth being interrogated, Up to what point it is good for a man to live? said, Till he does not think that to die is better than to live. ”

“ Shall I exchange for you this beautiful contexture of things? ‘Tis the condition of your creation; death is a part of you, and whilst you endeavour to evade it, you evade yourselves. This very being of yours that you now enjoy is equally divided betwixt life and death. ”

“ But if that centre, That tiny part of eye, be eaten through, Forthwith the vision fails and darkness comes, Though in all else the unblemished ball be clear. 'Tis by like compact that the soul and mind Are each to other bound forevermore.
THE SOUL IS MORTAL Now come: that thou mayst able be to know That minds and the light souls of all that live Have mortal birth and death, I will go on Verses to build meet for thy rule of life, Sought after long, discovered with sweet toil. ”

“ I am almost ashamed to say, that I believe the souls of the dead in some way reënter and pervade the souls of the living: so that life is always the life of living creatures, and death is always our affair. ”

“ The next was asked, which was the stronger, life or death. He answered, "Life, because it endures such terrible suffering." ”

“ It is when death seizes for its victims those who are, by ‘a head and shoulders, taller than all the rest,’ that we feel most deeply the uncertainty of human affairs, and that ‘the glories of our mortal state are shadows, not substantial things.’ It is, sir, in such instances as the present that we can best study by the light of example the true objects of life, and the wisest ends of human pursuit. ”

“ And, as we stand there, death seems a very little thing. What really matters is the life with its moral quality, its personal characteristics, its intense and vivid charm, its individual experiences, its personal story ”

“ How the death-thought sometimes springs like a beast of prey from its ambush upon youth when life is most intense and how it blights, sears, stings, and wounds but nevertheless charms and fascinates! Here is the first of all dualisms, the greatest of all contrasts, and the most universal of all conflicts. ”

“ Here the eternal problems grow,
And with each day are solved and done,
When some spent life, like melting snow,
Breathes forth its essence to the sun.
As death is, life is—without end;
Wrong with right mingles, joy with pain;
Forbid two meeting streams to blend,
'Twere not more hopeless, nor more vain.
Though Death with Life, though Wrong with Right,
Are bound within the scheme of things,
Yet can our souls, on soaring wings,
Gain to a loftier purer height,
Where death is not, nor any life,
Nor right nor wrong, nor joy nor pain ”

“ And as no one's character can be understood until death places the episodes of his life in their right light and proportions, so the nature of spirit remains enigmatic until the riddle of death is solved. ”

“ Nature, that begat us, expels us, and a better and a safer place is provided for us. And what is death but a ceasing to be what we were before? ”

“ Must all men die? Can none at all escape death? Do rich men likewise die, and leave their riches for others? Do princes also fall and die like one of their people? Can you then escape it? You do not think so. You know death is as sure as if you felt it already: as if you was now gasping for life, sweating and trembling in those last pangs, till the soul started off from the quivering lips, into the boundless ocean of eternity.
2. And are you to be judged? How is this to be? Why, the Son of God shall come in his glory, and all his holy angels with him ”

“ Who bid it welcome, and are glad when they can find the grave and see themselves stepping into it. If the miseries of this life can prevail, contrary to nature, to make death itself desirable, shall not much more the hopes and prospects of a better life, to which death is our passage, make it so, and set us quite above the fear of it? ”

“ Is not the mighty mind, that son of heaven!
By tyrant life dethroned, imprison’d, pain’d?
By death enlarged, ennobled, deified? 457
Death but entombs the body; life the soul. ”

“ Diogenes.
Read it.
Plato. (reads.)
"Sayest thou not that death is the opposite of life, and that they spring the one from the other?" "Yes." "What springs then from the living?" "The dead." "And what from the dead?" "The living." "Then all things alive spring from the dead." ”

“ Chuse any life, but the life of God and heaven, and you chuse death; for death is nothing else but the loss of the life of God. The creatures of this world have but one life, and that is the life of this world: this is their one life, and one good. Eternal beings have but one life, and one good ”

“ UPON DEATH. Strictly speaking, the sojourn which we make on earth, in the days of our flesh and which we call life, is rather death than life, since "every moment leads us from the cradle to the grave." ”

“ Let every one's conscience be awake, and this will appear their awful meaning:—"O! ye sons of men, in the midst of life you are in death. No state, no circumstances, can ascertain your preservation a single moment. ”

“ Therefore believe and love, and hold fast to the conviction that the forces of life are divine and eternal, and their laws written [Pg 217] in the reason and consciences of men, and that death is only a transition from our world to another of greater beauty and perfection. ”

“ And here 'tis observable how the same act of man is made the condition both of his life and death: ‘put forth thy hand and pull and eat and die,’ or ‘put forth thy hand and pull and eat and live for ever.’ 'Tis not to be conceived that there was any physical virtues in either of these Trees whereby to cause life or death ”

“ and the more I live, the more I dread death, even while I abhor life. Such an enigma is man--born to perish--when he wars, as I do, against the established laws of his nature. ”

“ I have nearly run my span of life. Death may, in the natural order of things, claim me at any moment. Say it claims me to-morrow, and I die without a will, what will become of the great fortune I shall leave behind me? ”

“ At this, the skull opened its eyes wide and knitted its brows and said, “How should I cast aside happiness greater than that of a king, and mingle once again in the toils and troubles of mortality?” [3]
IV.
Life is a state which follows upon Death. Death is a state which precedes Life. Which of us understands the laws that govern their succession?
The life of man is the resultant of forces. The aggregation of those forces is life: their dispersion, death. ”

“ I want you to take me at my word. If life is a monastery then I choose death. If life is asceticism then I choose death. If life is classes and superiors and owners then I choose death. If life is a stockade. ”

“ At Fortune’s caprices, the whims of Chance,
To reflect that, if added, years will not,
Whatever the number, affect one jot
The accounts between life and death.
No strife
Can be, infinite Death with finite Life.
What that called “Death”? A sea beyond, before;
Boundless, everlasting; no port, no shore.
And “Life”? An accident. Whether at birth it fall,
Or in a thousand years, concerns not Death at all!
[121]
Earth’s Decay Bk. II. vv. 1145-1175
Ah! ”

“ As, at the approach of death, the powers of the mind rally, and the mortal, faint and feeble, with but a few sparks of decaying life within him, arouses to a sense of his condition, and puts forth all his energies, to meet the hour of parting with earth and turning his face to heaven ”

“ CHAPTER II. HISTORY OF DEATH. DEATH is not an entity, but an event; not a force, but a state. Life is the positive experience, death the negation. Yet in nearly every literature death has been personified, while no kindred prosopopoeia of life is anywhere to be found. ”

“ “That which is alive and hath known death, and that which is dead yet can never die, for in the Circle of the Spirit life is naught and death is naught. Yea, all things live for ever, though at times they sleep and are forgotten.” ”

“ Then we have (not to dwell on a matter already spoken of) a peculiar privilege in the peculiar{205} loveliness which the image of Death assumes to us. In our long leisure, all sweet and soothing associations of rest,—of relief from anxiety and wearing thought,—of re-entrance upon society,— (a society how sanctified!) —of the realisation of our best conceptions of what is holy, noble, and perfect,—all affections, all aspirations gather round the idea of Death, till it recurs at all our best moments, and becomes an abiding thought of peace and joy. ”

“ No cold gradations of decay,
Death broke, at once, the vital chain,
And freed his soul the nearest way. ”

“ Life is the triumph of our mouldering clay;
Death, of the spirit infinite! ”

“ The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins? ”