quotations about immortality
O glorious immortality! it is thine alone, to maintain the rights of virtue and humanity. Without thee, the beasts were our superiors, and the worst of men would have the advantage of the best in numberless instances. The dying raptures of the saints and of martyrs, and the misgiving horrors of the ungodly, are inspired by thee alone. And though thou wert a gay chimera, and but a pleasing deceit; yet were it the interest of mankind to hold thee fast, to refuse to let thee go.
WILLIAM MCEWEN
"On Immortality", Select Essays Doctrinal & Practical on a Variety of the Most Important and Interesting Subjects in Divinity
We're starting to reprogram the outdated software of life--the 23,000 little programs we have in our bodies, called genes. We're programming them away from disease and away from aging.
RAY KURZWEIL
"Reinvent Yourself", Playboy, April 19, Playboy, April 19, 2016
Think then what it is to live on here eternally and yet be human; to age in soul and see our beloved die and pass to lands whither we may not hope to follow; to wait while drop by drop the curse of the long centuries falls upon our imperishable being, like water slow dripping on a diamond that it cannot wear, till they be born anew forgetful of us, and again sink from our helpless arms into the void unknowable.
H. RIDER HAGGARD
Ayesha: The Return of She
Were the life of man prolonged, he would become such a proficient in villainy, that it would become necessary again to drown or to burn the world. Earth would become an hell; for future rewards when put off to a great distance, would cease to encourage, and future punishments to alarm.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
This life is one link in that golden chain of immortality.
M. D. CHATTERTON
Immortality of Man
The only thing wrong with immortality is that it tends to go on forever.
HERB CAEN
Herb Caen's San Francisco
Immortality is a ridiculous illusion, an empty word, a butterfly net chasing the wind.
MILAN KUNDERA
Immortality
Death's a fable. Did not Heaven inspire your equal Elements with living Fire blown from the Spring of Life? Is not that breath Immortal? Come; ye are as free from death as He that made ye: Can the flames expire which he kindled?
FRANCIS QUARLES
Emblems
In this matter of immortality, people's beliefs appear to go along with their wishes. The man who is content with annihilation thinks he will get it; those that want immortality are pretty sure they are immortal; and that is a very comfortable allotment of faiths. The few of us that are left unprovided for are those who do not bother themselves much about the matter, one way or another.
AMBROSE BIERCE
"Immortality", A Cynic Looks at Life
The immortality of the soul is assented to rather than believed; believed rather than lived.
ORESTES AUGUSTUS BROWNSON
Charles Elwood: Or, the Infidel Converted
Her immortal part with angels lives.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Romeo and Juliet
You have in you intuitions of immortality, trust them; they are right. Follow them; they will lead you to your Father's house.
REUEN THOMAS
Thoughts for the Thoughtful
Immortality has turned us all into cartoons.
NEAL SHUSTERMAN
Scythe
Every boy knows he is immortal, but his parents, they are not so sure.
GREGORY BENFORD
Against Infinity
Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Well we all shine on
Ev'ryone come on
JOHN LENNON
"Instant Karma"
Life goes on endlessly, but no more in human beings than in other animals, or, for that matter, than in vegetables. Life, collectively, must be immortal, human beings, individually, cannot be, as I see it, for they are not the individuals - they are mere aggregates of cells.
THOMAS EDISON
interview, The Columbian Magazine, January 1911
Only youth has a taste of immortality.
D. H. LAWRENCE
Lady Chatterley's Lover
We are chained to this life by a chain of gold, and we dare not sever it for fear of what lies beyond the drop.
CASSANDRA CLARE
Clockwork Prince
For with my singing I can make
A refuge for my spirit's sake,
A house of shining words, to be
My fragile immortality.
SARA TEASDALE
"Refuge"
It is true that even to the heathen death did not end all. They believed in something after death, but they knew not what--a vague, shadowy, unsatisfactory immortality.
LYMAN ABBOTT
The Other Room