Epitaph Quotes - Page 6

• I wish to have as my epitaph: 'Here lies a man who was wise enough to bring into his service men who knew more than he.'

  Andrew Carnegie

  Wise, Lying, Men

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• I will be satisfied if my epitaph shall be written thus: 'Here lies one who never rose to any eminence, who only courted the low ambition to have it said that he striven to ameliorate the condition of the poor, the lowly, the
  downtrodden of every race and language and color.'

  Thaddeus Stevens

  Lying, Ambition, Race

  Thaddeus Stevens (1997). “The Selected Papers of Thaddeus Stevens, Volume 1: April 1865-August 1868”, p.524, University of Pittsburgh Pre

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• I beseech those whose piety will permit them reverently to petition, that they will pray for this union, and ask that He who buildeth up and pulleth down nations will, the mercy preserve and unite us. For a Nation divided against itself cannot stand. I wish, if this Union must be dissolved, that its ruins may be the monument of my grave, and the graves of my family. I wish no epitaph to be written to tell that I survive the ruin of this glorious Union.

  Sam Houston

  Wish, Ruins, Unions

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• What a measly epitaph that would make: 'They saw it coming, but hadn't the wit to stop it happening.'

  Sara Parkin

  Saws, Wit, Happenings

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• His epitaph: Who, by vigor of mind almost divine, the motions and figures of the planets, the paths of comets, and the tides of the seas first demonstrated.

  Isaac Newton

  Sea, Mind, Vigor

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• People asked me what I want as an epitaph: 'He tried'

  Mario Cuomo

  People, Want

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• The epitaph that I would write for history would say: I conceal nothing. It is not enough not to lie. One should strive not to lie in a negative sense by remaining silent.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Lying, Writing, Negative

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• The truth is that capitalism has not only multiplied population figures, but at the same time, improved the people's standard of living in an unprecedented way. Neither economic thinking nor historical experience suggests that any other social system could be as beneficial to the masses as capitalism. The results speak for themselves. The market economy needs no apologists and propagandists. It can apply to itself the words of Sir Christopher Wren's epitaph in St. Paul's: Si monumentum requires, circumspice.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Thinking, People, Historical

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• We grew up with all the Fat Wreck Records and all the Epitaph bands, that era. We mixed it up together. We were never purists of being just pop or just pop-punk. We always wanted to blend everything that we love.

  Chuck Comeau

  Together, Band, Records

  "Simple Plan Reveal New Album Plans, Talk 5sos & Warped Tour". Interview with Maria Sherman, www.fuse.tv. July 22, 2015.

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• A mortgaged home, an empty stomach and a ragged back know no party. We will live to write the epitaphs of the old parties: "Died of general debility, old age, and chronic falsehoods."

  Mary Elizabeth Lease

  Party, Home, Writing

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• It was the saying of a great man, that if we could trace our descents, we should find all slaves to come from princes, and all princes from slaves; and fortune has turned all things topsy-turvy in a long series of revolutions; beside, for a man to spend his life in pursuit of a title, that serves only when he dies to furnish out an epitaph, is below a wise man's business.

  Seneca the Younger

  Wise, Men, Long

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• History: a collection of epitaphs.

  Elbert Hubbard

  History, Collections

  Elbert Hubbard (1911). “A Thousand & One Epigrams: Selected from the Writings of Elbert Hubbard”

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• Epitaphs are cheap, and they do a poor chap a world of good after he is dead, especially if he had hard luck while he was alive. I wish they were used more.

  Mark Twain

  Good Luck, Wish, Alive

  Mark Twain, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Mark Twain: All 13 Novels, Short Stories, Poetry and Essays”, p.2446, GENERAL PRESS

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• Epitaph on a scolding wife by her husband: Here my poor Bridget's corpse doth lie, she is at rest - and so am I!

  Benjamin Franklin

  Husband, Lying, Humorous

  Benjamin Franklin (2013). “Poor Richard's Almanack”, p.40, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• If you take epitaphs seriously, we ought to bury the living and resurrect the dead.

  Mark Twain

  Ought, Ifs

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• Would you like me to [kill you] now?" asked Snape, his voice heavy with irony. "Or would you like a few moments to compose an epitaph?

  J. K. Rowling

  Voice, Irony, Moments

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• I always remember an epitaph which is in the cemetery at Tombstone, Arizona. It says: 'Here lies Jack Williams. He done his damnedest.' I think that is the greatest epitaph a man can have - When he gives everything that is in him to do the job he has before him. That is all you can ask of him and that is what I have tried to do.

  Harry S. Truman

  Life, Jobs, Tombstone

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• His epitaph: This tomb hold Diophantus, Ah, what a marvel! And the tomb tells scientifically the measure of his life. God vouchsafed that he should be a boy for the sixth part of his life; when a twelfth was added, his cheeks acquired a beard; He kindled for him the light of marriage after a seventh, and in the fifth year after his marriage He granted him a son. Alas! late-begotten and miserable child, when he had reached the measure of half his father's life, the chill grave took him. After consoling his grief by this science of numbers for four years, he reached the end of his life.

  Diophantus

  Life, Children, Father

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• Epitaph on Newton: Nature and Nature's law lay hid in night: God said, "Let Newton be!," and all was light. [added by Sir John Collings Squire: It did not last: the Devil shouting "Ho. Let Einstein be," restored the status quo] [Aaron Hill's version: O'er Nature's laws God cast the veil of night, Out blaz'd a Newton's soul and all was light.

  George Polya

  Night, Law, Light

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• Someone once asked me what I want on my epitaph when I pass away. Just the words 'I tried.' That's what this game of life is all about. Trying. There's the tryers, the criers, and the liars.

  Mickey Rooney

  Liars, Games, Passing Away

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• Our generation does not want its epitaph to read, 'We kept charity overhead low.' We want it to read that we changed the world.

  Dan Pallotta

  Change, Our Generation, World

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• Lots of people can have girlfriends. But I can throw around guitars onstage! That'll be my epitaph: 'He never had a girlfriend, but you should've seen him smash a Les Paul!'

  Trent Reznor

  Girlfriend, Guitar, People

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• Every phrase and every sentence is an end and a beginning, every poem an epitaph.

  T. S. Eliot

  Phrases, Ends, Quartets

  T.S. Eliot (2015). “The Poems of T. S. Eliot Volume I: Collected and Uncollected Poems”, p.208, Faber & Faber

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• If I reprehend anything in this world, it is the use of my oracular tongue, and a nice derangement of epitaphs!

  Richard Brinsley Sheridan

  Nice, Use, World

  The Rivals act 3, sc. 3 (1775)

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• History fades into fable; fact becomes clouded with doubt and controversy; the inscription molders from the tablet: the statue falls from the pedestal. Columns, arches, pyramids, what are they but heaps of sand; and their epitaphs, but characters written in the dust?

  Washington Irving

  Fall, Character, Dust

  Washington Irving (2006). “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories From the Sketch Book”, p.144, Penguin

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