Death Bed Quotes

[Nightshade]

humm... I was just wondering around and saw the Wilde's death bed quote "the wallpaper..." and I know the Nelson one "Kissmet Horatio" and all that and then there is Keats cant think of it but its quoted in the Fall of Hyperion ( the novel not the poem) so I was wondering f anyone new any other ones.

[Ellipsis]

"Go away! Last words are for fools who haven't said enough..."

- Karl Marx

[Nightshade]

Oh wow thanks that is definetly one of the best Ive ever heard! but was that really the last thing he said??

[Ellipsis]

well, I read that somewhere...plus seen it around on a couple of sites...guess it's true :)

[Miss Darcy]

Here are some favourites:

"Dear me, I believe I am becoming a god. An emperor ought at least to die on his feet."
Vespasian (9-79 AD), Roman emperor

Apparently he was joking about the Roman convention of deitising (dunno how you spell that) late emperors...

"This is no time to make new enemies." - Voltaire, when asked on his deathbed to forswear Satan

"I feel nothing, apart from a certain difficulty in continuing to exist."
Bernard de Fontenelle (1657-1757), French philosopher.

[atiguhya padma]

I might have posted this elsewhere, but one of my favourite death-bed quotes is from Oscar Wilde:

"Either that wallpaper goes or I do"

[Rachy]

What would you guys say if you were on your death bed?

[Miss Darcy]

"Until now, I've always been on time. Soon, though, I will be late..."

:D

[Basil]

What would you guys say if you were on your death bed?
CAN I PLEASE HAVE A DIFFERENT BED?!?

[mono]

What would you guys say if you were on your death bed?
Not sure, but the first things that comes to mind:
"Here goes nothing." :p

[Nightshade]

Roll camera.........

[Bianca Fransen]

Hmm.. I hope I will remember to use Charles Foster Kane's last word (from the movie Citizen Kane): Rosebud.

Maybe then it will dawn on me what he meant ;)

[Rachy]

I would say: "You'll regret it when they're gone and you can't take it back..." My own little thing there, I've always said that, but don't know why I would say it on my death bed! Lol.

[papayahed]

hehe, I wouldn't use this one, but it is pretty good:

"That's all folks" Like the Bugs Bunny cartoon.

[indrihama]

On my death bed I would say the following: "Good bye." Then I would laugh aloud as I slowly faded into oblivion.

[Beaumains]

As someone already mentioned, I think that the Roman emperor Vespasian has one of the most memorable death bed quotes. I already have my last words planned out. I'll gather my family close to the bedside as though I intend to give a grand farewell speech, and then break into a Foo Fighters song. That ought to be memorable. :lol:

[Morten]

"That's funny..." -Doc Holliday

[MacBeth]

I have always been rather fond of Walter de la Mare's deathbed utterance.
As he lay dying, de la Mare's daughter paid him a visit. "Is there anything I can get you?" she asked, "fruit, flowers?"
de la Mare replied: "too late for fruit, too soon for flowers."

[Gozeta]

now that one was funny

[Themis]

Ad Topic:
Goethe's last words were "More light."

[mono]

This reminds me, that I randomly happened to read a quote by Henry David Thoreau on his deathbed, when his aunt asked him if Thoreau had made peace with God:
"Why, I did not know we had quarreled."

[brshfr]

In the play Othello, Othello's last words are:
"I kissed thee er I killed thee. No way but this. killing myself, to die upon a kiss."

In regards to his just sensless murdering of his wife.

[YellowCrayola]

"I'm so bored with it all." - Winston Churchill

[blp]

humm... I was just wondering around and saw the Wilde's death bed quote "the wallpaper..." and I know the Nelson one "Kissmet Horatio" and all that and then there is Keats cant think of it but its quoted in the Fall of Hyperion ( the novel not the poem) so I was wondering f anyone new any other ones.

Actually, Horatio was Nelson's first name and the quote was either 'Kismet, Hardy' or 'Kiss me, Hardy' - no one's really sure. I guess if he meant 'Kismet' and then Hardy leant over and kissed him, he must have felt a bit peeved.

Apparently Wittgenstein's was 'Tell them I had a wonderful life', which may have been disingenuous, as in, not so much 'I had a wonderful life' as 'that'll do for public consumption'.

[Pendragon]

It is said that Aliester Crowley's last words were "I am perplexed." Strange for a man reputed to be the "wickedest man in the world"... My own I think would be "Thank God it's over!" :)

[brshfr]

I think on my death bed I'd rather not say anything, just give 'um a wink and go.

[Nightshade]

Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman UK PM 1906-1908
" This is not the end of me"

[rachel]

I would probably say something like"i know you will all do well in your lives and remember that i always loved you"

"i realize you could break your neck but that is a chance I am willing to take" wayne to dwayne in Rat Race.

oh i just remembered my absolute favorite death 'bed' quote. Sir Thomas Moore said to those assisting him up the stairs to his execution(he was very weak from his stay in the tower) "if you will be so kind as to assist me in getting up i shall make my own way down as best I can".

[starrwriter]

Two quotes come to mind.

When Henry David Thoreau was on his deathbed, his pious aunt asked if he was prepared for the next life. To which he replied: "One life at a time, please."

This is on a gravestone in a cemetary in Key West, Florida, but it would have made a good deathbed quote: "I told you I was sick."

As for what I will say on my deathbed, maybe I'll borrow some lyrics from singer Peggy Lee: "Is that all there is?"

[Satirical]

Karl Marx when asked his last quote before death for posterity was reported as saying,"leave me, final words are for those that have not said enough."

[denmans]

Lytton Stachley (don't know if correct spelling)
Not quite his last words but nearly-
"if this is dying, I don't think much of it"

King george the something (4th I think) on being told by his doctor that he will be able to go to the seaside at Bognor Regis when he feels better.
"Bugger Bogner"

[atiguhya padma]

King george the something (4th I think) on being told by his doctor that he will be able to go to the seaside at Bognor Regis when he feels better.
"Bugger Bogner">

It was George V, and it was a response to the request made on his death-bed, to give Bognor the royal title of Bognor Regis. Despite the King's proclamation, Bognor was still granted the request.

[subterranean]

It is not really a death bed quote, but I think this is an interesting words said to someone before she died. it is in this movie, a woman hanging in the edge of a cliff, with a man holding on to her; if the woman let go then they both will die. The man is obsessed with the woman, and she hate him. Then after a while the woman said, "my life is not more worthy than your death". Then she let go.

[Lesst]

I read this one once. It's by Erskine Childers before he was executed by firing sqaud on the 24th of November 1922. You see, he was a author and Irish patriot. It goes like this "Take a step forward, lads. It will be easier that way." That is my personal favorite. I my self would say something like "Who imagened that I would die by god's hands!"

[Wendigo_49]

It is reported that Hegel on his deathbed being disappointed by incomprehension of his writings said the following:"Only one man ever understood me." He fell silent for a while and then added, "And he didn't understand me"

My favorite isn't really a deathbed quote but from Rabelais' Last Will and Testament. It goes "I have nothing. Owe much. The rest I leave to the poor"

[MikeK]

For those American history buffs out there, both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826 (That's exactly 50 years after the Declaration of Independence). Their last words were reportedly:

Adams: "Thomas Jefferson still lives."

Jefferson: "Is it the Fourth?"

[Xamonas Chegwe]

This is on a gravestone in a cemetary in Key West, Florida, but it would have made a good deathbed quote: "I told you I was sick."

That is actually the epitaph of comedian Spike Milligan. However, in order for the local church authorities to allow it, it had to be translated into Irish Gaelic, "Duirt me leat go raibh me breoite", so as not to give offence to mourners.

You couldn't make it up!!

[beer good]

Gertrude Stein's last words: "What is the answer?...
[Silence]
...In that case, what is the question?"

And this one is almost too good to be true, but I've read it in every single "famous last words" collection. General Sedgewick during the Battle Of Spotsylvania, 1864 (American civil war):
"Don't worry, boys. They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist-"

[rachel]

that's terrible(ly funny)
"either that wallpaper goes or I do" Oscar Wilde as he laying dying in a hotel room in Paris.
But my alltime favorite is what Saint Thomas Moore said as he was being led up the steps to be beheaded under that ingrate Henry V111."If you would just help me up the steps I will make my own way down as best I can"

[water lily]

It's so peculiar to think that while their bodies were expiring rapidly, the minds of so many had something witty to say.

[dark_182_88]

mine would be: "I'll be back" :P

[Ryduce]

So it goes.

[Lesst]

And this one is almost too good to be true, but I've read it in every single "famous last words" collection. General Sedgewick during the Battle Of Spotsylvania, 1864 (American civil war):
"Don't worry, boys. They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist-"

You're joking!?! Thats hilarious! Haha, I really had a laugh at that! Did some googling on General Sedgewick and every source seems to say the same. So it must be true, and in that case, thats one of lifes greater ironies!

[atiguhya padma]

The short story writer, H H Munro, commonly known as Saki, was killed by a sniper on the Somme, I think it was. His last words were apparently "turn that bloody light out".

[WaxDoll]

I remember reading somewhere that the last words of Pancho Villa were "Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something."

[TBtheG]

The story of life is quicker than the blink of an eye
The story of love is hello and goodbye
Until we meet again

Jimi Hendrix last words in a poem found next to him on his deathbed.

[Loqurent]

What would you guys say if you were on your death bed?
'!Me duele!'
Oscar Wilde is easily one of my favorite people to quote, but his last words weren't so great. However, he was a deathbed convert so I'm willing to forgive.
James Dean (paraphrasing):
'Don't worry, he'll slow down before he reaches us.'
James Dean died in a vehicle wreck.

[the appletree]

I want my last words to be "Barbara Streisand? I never would have guessed!!"

[cuppajoe_9]

What would you guys say if you were on your death bed?"Well, that's enough of that."

Pancho Villa's last words: "Tell them I said somthing good." (Probably apocryphal)

[james duffy]

A friend of mine who died some 12 years ago to cancer at age 30, had the best death bed statement. His mother, who was present, said to him that it wasn't fair he should die at thirty.

He replied..." Better to have 30 good years than 60 ****ty ones"

His name was Paul Anthony Lennon and he is a saint now!

JD

[Dickensian]

What would you guys say if you were on your death bed?
"Enter dramatic music."
Here's another one my sister thought up: "Remember guys, play 'Another One Bites the Dust' at my funeral reception."

[Charles Darnay]

What would I say on my deathbed?

Hamlet's final line is always a good one: "the rest is silence"

I also like Beethoven's supposed last action. On a dark and stormy night he held his fist clenched in the har as lighting struck and thunder sounded - then he fell.

If I were to make up my own........ "We are here at last..... funny"

[MikeK]

I just read Chekhov's last words from yesterday's 'Today in Literature' website. Somewhat interesting, and at least worth mentioning. The last paragraph of the article:

Chekhov was a doctor; the custom among German and Russian doctors attending a colleague on his deathbed was to order champagne at the very end. Before it arrived, Chekhov sat up and said, in German, "I'm dying." When offered a glass, he drank, said "I haven't had champagne for a long time," lay down on his side and died within seconds.

The whole article: http://www.todayinliterature.com/stories.asp?Event_Date=7/9/1904


I wonder, was that "I haven't had champagne for a long time" in German too? Were Chekhov's last words in German?

[Dickensian]

"I can't sleep." -J.M. Barrie's last words (simple and yet very powerful, in my opinion).

[rabid reader]

What would you guys say if you were on your death bed?
"That ham sure tastes funny"

[TodHackett]

A book I just processed, apropos of the current discussion:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&isbn=0525475060&itm=1

[Luke.]

Has anyone mentioned this yet?

"My God, my God why have you forsaken me?"
-Jesus of Nazareth

Unless of course you believe in his resurrection.

[Logos]

Ok, not death bed but supposedly Mark Twain's last written words:

“Death, the only immortal who treats us all alike, whose pity and whose peace and whose refuge are for all—the soiled and the pure, the rich and the poor, the loved and the unloved.”

[B-Mental]

My last words....
"Stay away from the cans! He hates these cans! Oh no! More Cans!"

originally from the jerk, but the words are so compelling. More mysterious than Rosebud, thats for sure.

I've always loved the the following deathbed quote...

"Damn, I zigged when I should've zagged." -anonymous WW2 vet

[Nick Rubashov]

I found an interesting site with the last words of real people, and fictional characters. Interesting stuff.

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/6537/realidx.htm

[JackShea]

I don't know who said it but: "And now for the big secret."

What would I say?...I would probably look my heirs in the eyes, presuminng I had anything left, and utter: " Would you mind putting a mirror under my nose to confirm my demise!"

[THX-1138]

(Friends applaud, the comedy is over)

Ludwig van Beethoven

[alhara]

i think i will say something like what this guy said
Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionary leader:
"Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something…"

[keizi]

Azeglio Massino said " Ah louisa' you always arrive just as am leaving" I wonder who that will be for me.....

[Lily Adams]

Benjamin Franklin's is great. His daughter told him to move into a more comfortable position on his bed, and he said "A dying man does nothing easy." and died.

[tce]

αλλα γαρ ηδη ωρα απιεναι, εμοι μεν αποθανουμενω, υμιν δε βιωσομενοις: οποτεροι δε ημων ερχονται επι αμεινον πραγμα, αδηλον παντι πλην η τω θεω.

Sophocles' last words in Plato's Apology: "But now the hour is already upon us, for me to die and you all to keep on living. Which of us has got the better end of the deal is unknown to all except to god."

Pardon the lack of accents.

TCE

[vel]

The American Civil War has more than it's share of famous death-bed quotes...a dying general (of pneumonia) said..."Come. Let us walk under the elm trees and rest awhile in the shade." :bawling:

[musicman]

The general to whom the previous poster refers was Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson.

Beethoven, who had waited a supply of Rhenish wine to help control a lung condition was informed that the medicine had arrived. "Too late," he is quoted as saying before turning to the wall for the last time.

Puccini, comatose for days, suddenly sat up and cried, "My poor Butterfly."

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, who died of childbed fever, had puppies licking her nipples to relieve the pressure (I'm not making this up). She expired during one of these "cures" with the words, "I am in Heaven."

A criminal (whose name escapes me), unrepentant at his execution, spoke to reporters. "And whatever you write, don't let my last word be "please"!"

My own last words -- I hope I have the wit to say: "The vast treasure is hidden in the - the ---- aaaaargh!"

[cuppajoe_9]

My own last words -- I hope I have the wit to say: "The vast treasure is hidden in the - the ---- aaaaargh!"You'd better get the timing right. :D

Henrik Ibsen's sister: (to a visiting friend) Henrik is feeling much better today.
Henrik Ibsen: On the contrary! (dies)

[Lily Adams]

The Red Baron: "Kaput." (The end.)


Ahhh, so simple!

[cuppajoe_9]

H. D. Thoreu's last words: "Moose...indian..." (thinks to himself) Heh. That'll keep 'em guessing.

[Cheese King]

I hope no one's used this one already.

The last words of President Grover Cleveland always tug at my heartstrings:

"I have tried so hard to do what is right."

Doesn't it make you want to comfort him? "You did fine, old boy, you did fine."

[sea moraine]

"arriba, siempre arriba" (higher, ever higher)

— georges chavez, last words after crashing his bleriot airplane on his trailblazing flight over the alps, september 1910.

[hyperborean]

"life is an illness" - Socrates

[seasong]

"Beware italics" - from the Emily of New Moon series by L.M. Montgomery.

:D

[Daoloth]

I'd say something along the lines of "Rosebud", if only to confound my descendants.
Yes, I am that way.

[Adras]

I recently came into possession of a book known as, "Famous Last Words" it is an amazing book with great insight. Most of the quotes that were quoted here are in the book and many, many more!

Here are a few.

Leo Tolstoy- He had stormed off his estate after an arguement with his wife over giving away money to he poor. At 80 some odd years he was not up for the physical conditions and contracted pnuemonia and died at a stationmaster's house. According to that man his last words were.

"But the peasant...how do the peasants die?"

Marcus Aureliu- A Roman Emperor, and philospher. He spoke these last words as he was contemplating the rule his son would have as his the officer of the guardcame to his chambers. To ask for the days watch word and he made the below reply.

"Go to the rising sun; my sun is setting." ( Speaking of his sun, he was a philoper and Stoicist and thus would of never spoken of his actual son because that would of been to plain. )

And someone formerly posted that Jesus o Nazareth last words were Oh father why have though forsaken me. When actually h was on the cross and took one last breath of air and spoker these words.

"Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit." How could you mess up Jesus' last words honestly.

Also, Socrates last words were actually "Crito, I owa a cok to Asclepius; will you remember to pay the debt?" Because he was a very honorable man and could not bare the thought of dying in debt.

Che Guevara last words were as follows, "Shoot, you coward, you're going to killa man.

Another famous one was durng the Revolutionary war. I'm sure you have all heard this one. I love it so though. Nathan Hale as he was about to be executd after is request for a Bible and minister were denied.Were thus spoken, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."

Thanks I'll stop now.

P.S. My last words would be, "Were it possible, I would tell you the meaning of life. My dearest, you must understand though. That would take a lifetime."
Definately just made that up. Dead serious you can search that ****.I made it up.

[Mina Catarina]

Not a real person, but famous enough, "Thus with a kiss I die" from Romeo and Juliet.

My last words would probably be an inside joke with my friends from high school or something. Totally random that even I thought I'd forgotten, like "Charlie's Angels... Joey Sanchez?"

Probably one person would know what that meant and he'd tell everyone and then people could remember me as I was in high school and not as an old woman, if I end up dying at a ripe age.:sick:

[markymark]

A dying man needs to die, as a sleepy man needs to sleep, and there comes a time when it is wrong, as well as useless, to resist.
Stewart Alsop

[markymark]

here is another good one

Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it.
W. Somerset Maugham

[Lioness_Heart]

It always stirkes me as odd that people manage to say such profound things when they die. We were involved in a really bad car crash in december, and I thought that I was going to die... if I had (I'm so very grateful that I didn't), my last words would have just been 'Oh my god'. My last thought, however, would have been somewhat more interesting. I thought (remembering Artemis Fowl): I've got to stop clenching my teeth so hard, or they'll shatter when we crash

Do people think that these deathbed quotes are true?

[cardplay]

I wonder what the Vtech shooter would have said. A hundred billion deaths are not enough to repay my suffering?

[downing]

''The dark is coming''-George Bacovia, a Romanian decadent poet

[CountingSheep]

Comedian, and known atheist W. C. Fields was faced with his death and began spending time reading the Bible. When asked by a friend why he had taken such an interest in Scripture he replied with, "I'm looking for loopholes, my friend. Looking for loopholes." I'm not sure if those were his last words... but, he was close enough to death and I found that damn funny.

[Sylph]

"Let them bestow on every airth a limb;
Then open all my veins, that I may swim
To thee, my Maker! in that crimson lake;
Then place my parboiled head upon a stake—
Scatter my ashes—strew them in the air;—
Lord! since thou know'st where all these atoms are,
I'm hopeful thou'lt recover once my dust,
And confident thou'lt raise me with the just."


these lines r by a Scottish royalist general and poet; James Graham, these were written on the window of his jail the night before his execution.

[Scheherazade]

You have to admire people's literary dedication! Even when they are about to die, they can sit down and compose poetry, worrying about meters and rhymes and whatnot...

[Nightshade]

maybe its a means of distraction from the inevitable???

[chilloo]

My last words would be "I am sorry that I am not there to uplift the lifestyles of more people out there who donno what to do next."

[RaatKiRanii]

I guess i won't know till the moment comes, though i rather like this one:

"Now, now my good man, this is no time for making enemies."
-Voltaire, on his deathbed in response to a priest asking that he renounce Satan.

I laughed when i first read it. Wonder if he really did say it...

[JADJARHD]

Funny:
I am contemplating the immortal words of Socrates who said: "I drank what?"
(From an eighties movie with Val Kilmer)


Stirring:
"I go now to join my fathers in whose mighty company I shall not know feel ashamed."
Lord of the Rings


Mine:
Please don't let your last memory of me be that I lost control of my bodily functions

[NickAdams]

Maybe: "I can't go on, I'll go on."

[androcles]

"God bless you sister, may you give birth to a pope"

Brendan Behan, to a nun who was attempting to give him the last rights.

[sbmarti2]

I agree with the above. If Voltaire said what he said, it is the best deathbed quote I've ever heard.

[ballb]

humm... I was just wondering around and saw the Wilde's death bed quote "the wallpaper..." and I know the Nelson one "Kissmet Horatio" and all that and then there is Keats cant think of it but its quoted in the Fall of Hyperion ( the novel not the poem) so I was wondering f anyone new any other ones.

Not sure about Keats` last words. But his last letter to his friend Charles Brown [I think... Some time since I read this] contained the final sentence: "I do not know how to say goodbye to you even in a letter. I always made an awkward bow"

I also like the anonymous quote: " Don`t worry. They couldn`t hit a barn door from that dist..."

[Demian]

David Hume was on his deathbed and a friend came into the room and asked him, "Do you believe in an afterlife?"
"It's possible," he replied, "but not likely. If I take this piece of coal and throw it onto the fire it's possible that it won't burn-but unlikely. If there were an afterlife for all of us then new Universes would have to be created to preserve the trash from every age."

[s.santa]

Tiberio Claudio Nerone Domiziano Cesare, aka Nerone, Roman emperor, the one who burnt down half of Rome in 64 i think, killed himself (actually he ordered a slave to kill him) and dying he said "What an artist dies with me!"....

[B-Mental]

My Grandmother's last words to me..." Ohh Peter! You are here too! Everyone is here, and it is all so beautiful!"

My father's..."Don't you see this war coming!"
To which I replied, "The people of this country, will stand and amaze you. Everything will be fine."

My father looked to me and said, "Really?"
I said nonchalantly, "Of course." He passed that night in the arms of my mother, and I will never forget them. It was February, 2001.

[Etienne]

Gogol: "A ladder, quick! A ladder!"

[iorix]

i would say "there is no deity but Allah and Muhammed (peace be upon Him) is His prophet"

[Jane Jane]

Oh B, those words are all so dear. You have been through a lot. hugs.

The words of a dear little boy, very precious to me, just before he died. He very much wanted to live but he accepted the inevitable. He opened his eyes and then he said' which world am I in?" and then he went to sleep.

[dramasnot6]

I am so sorry for your loss B and Jane. Some powerful words.

[sparr0w]

"My chalk outline will stalk these grounds... just as they have stalked me".
-Cerpin Taxt (character in the story behind the concept album "De-Loused in the Comatorium" by the Mars Volta, based mostly on the life of Julio Venegas, who after waking up from a drug induced coma, committed suicide in 1996 by jumping off a bridge into oncoming traffic).
BTW, B, the first one, about your grandmother, made me cry. thank you so much for sharing.

[NikolaiI]

I don't know but I had a friend who killed himself with drugs. He was 16, and had one kid and one on the way. I remember he brought a gun to work one time, since people were harassing him. I can't think of him without grief. I think the last thing I said to him was something stupid- not bad, just stupid.

[_JadeRain_]

"Nothing, but death."
When asked by her sister, Cassandra, if there was anything she wanted.
~~ Jane Austen, writer, d. July 18, 1817

[sparr0w]

Wow, this was a great idea for a discussion... Id have to say the best I've heard so far would HAVE to be Voltaire (see RaatKiRanii on page 7)

[dramasnot6]

"Nothing, but death."
When asked by her sister, Cassandra, if there was anything she wanted.
~~ Jane Austen, writer, d. July 18, 1817

I never knew that...wow.

[Janine]

How about this one from Hamlet?

'To sleep, perchance to dream'....

That might be a nice final though....

[dogar sahab]

"God has given man both penis and brain but not enough blood to run both of them at the same time."
a comment by BUSH senior on the affair of CLINTON with MONICA......

[Foxxwh]

Bogart supposedly said "I should never have switched from scotch to martinis." I always thought that was a good one.

As for my own last words. I'd prefer them to be something enigmatic or enlightening. But more likely they will be something along the lines of "Oh, sh*t!"

[Etienne]

"I have nothing, I owe a great deal and the rest I leave to the poor."
-Rabelais' testament

[kiki1982]

Louis XIV, king of France, said on is deathbed in 1715: Why do you weep. Did you think I was immortal?

And the husband of my grandmother's sister asked that they would give his nicest shoes to his son and put on his old ones, in the coffin. His wife said: 'But, they are too small for you.' 'No problem,' he said, 'I won't feel it anyway.'

hihi

[Anza]

Qualis artifex, pereo! (Such an artist, I die)
Nero

[Eric Cioe]

"Send me up." Kierkegaard

[Shurtugal]

on my death bed i'd say....

"To die would be an awfully big adventure."

ya'll should know who said that. :D and while i say that i'll put on the biggest smile with an inner joy of the adventure to come glowing in my eyes.

[susanprice]

Nightshade: There were two penguins standing on the ice. The one penguin said to the other, "You look like you're wearing a tuxedo." To which the other replied, "What makes you think I'm not?"

[[email protected]]

I am not sure of his last words, but I know that, on his gravestone, Spike Milligan wished for "I told you I was ill" to be inscribed so the church, thinking it was unsuitable but wanting to obey his final wish, wrote it in Gaelic.

[Kirby]

"Now comes the mystery." - Henry Ward Beecher, brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe & also my great, great, great Uncle.

[littlelit]

"If this is dying, I don't think much of it."
-Lytton Strachey
"Is it not meningitis?"
-Louisa. m. alcott

[jonathan467]

"I wish I'd drunk more champagne." - John Maynard Keynes

[Adopt]

Beam me up, Scotty.

[Guinivere]

"Pardonnez-moi, monsieur. Je ne l'ai pas fait exprès." (transl. "Pardon me, sir. I did not do it on purpose.")

- Marie Antoinette

[Mortdefides]

Edgar Allan Poe uttered the last words "Lord Help My Poor Soul."

[Taliesin]

I was just toying with the idea of saying on my deathbed: "I wish I had spent more time at work and less with *insert the name of the family member closest to my deathbed*" and then watch their horrified expressions.

[Big Al]

My favorites:

"Either that wallpaper goes, or I do."
-Oscar Wilde

"I'm so bored with it all."
-Winston Churchill

"This is no time to make new enemies."
-Voltaire (after being asked to forsake Satan)

[book_jones]

I don't know the exact wording, but apparently when Groucho Marx died they found a note left behind in which he requested being buried on top of Marilyn Monroe.

I do wonder how many of these are actually true and which are just legends. I guess you shouldn't let a little think like the truth get in the way of a good quote though!

[AtomicCafe1]

I was just toying with the idea of saying on my deathbed: "I wish I had spent more time at work and less with *insert the name of the family member closest to my deathbed*" and then watch their horrified expressions.

haha! What a grand idea!

[mortalterror]

Also, Socrates last words were actually "Crito, I owa a cok to Asclepius; will you remember to pay the debt?" Because he was a very honorable man and could not bare the thought of dying in debt.

Asclepius was the god of healing. He was explaining how death is no evil but a cure to this long illness called life.

This one's from a movie: "Time is but a door. Death is but a window. I'll be back!" -Vigo The Carpathian, Ghostbusters 2

[PhilLFM]

Not so much a death bed quote but here is Hunter S. Thompson's suicide note

No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always *****y. No Fun -- for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax -- This won't hurt.

[Cellar Door]

So the heart be right, it is no matter which way the head lieth.
(Executed by beheading)
-Sir Walter Raleigh

[Child_20]

When I am on my death bed, I would probably say - "Finally, I can speak without any objections."

[Dante Stan]

My last words might be: "The world dies with me."

[Sk8ynat]

According to Wiki, the last words of Louisa May Alcott were; "Is it not meningitis?"

It wasn't meningitis. She died from the after effects of mercury poisoning.

[Guinivere]

"Why, I did not know we had quarreled."

Henry David Thoreau, when asked by his aunt if he had made his peace with God.

"Turn up the lights, I don't want to go home in the dark."

O. Henry (William Sidney Porter 1862-1910), US story writer

"This is no time to make new enemies."

Voltaire, when asked on his deathbed to forswear Satan.

[Tallon]

"Hurry it up, you Hoosier bastard. I could hang a dozen men while you're fooling around!" - Carl Panzram's last words.

[Petronius]

An old peasant, trapped by a flash flood in his adobe house in a remote village in Romania, was found the following day stiff, huddled in a corner, with a serene look on his face and his middle finger pointed at the Heavens.

Very telling and deeply human.

[xlxlauraxlx]

[QUOTE=Guinivere;646097]"Why, I did not know we had quarreled."

Thats funny, and also the one above is actually quite disturbing lol.

[quasimodo1]

In one account by Toklas, when Stein was being wheeled into the operating room for surgery on her stomach, she asked Toklas, "What is the answer?" When Toklas did not answer, Stein said, "In that case, what is the question?" {Gertride Stein}

[Cat_Brenners]

These are very interesting. I can't think of any right now. I seem to learn alot on the forums though.
Cat

[Pewnut]

Not sure if this counts but it's from Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle

"Now I will destroy the whole world." ... It’s what Bokonists always say when they are about to commit suicide.

[SecretUmbreon]

I like Oscar Wilde's quote about the wallpaper
"[I]My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One of us has to go.[I]"
It went something like that, anyway.
Anyway, if I were on my deathbed, I would probably say,"Darn! I can't think of anything to say!"

[dafydd manton]

humm... I was just wondering around and saw the Wilde's death bed quote "the wallpaper..." and I know the Nelson one "Kissmet Horatio" and all that and then there is Keats cant think of it but its quoted in the Fall of Hyperion ( the novel not the poem) so I was wondering f anyone new any other ones.

The popular opinion is that Horatio Nelson actually did say Kiss me, Hardy, and not Kismet. The latter was just a case of Victorian prurience. It was not unusual for men to greet each other with a kiss on the cheek, much as some Europeans do today. It's actually unlikely, since he had been at sea for long, that Nelson would have heard of the play "Kismet", even if he had any interest in the arts. Sadly, he was a complete Philistine!

Quite like Macchiavelli's who is supposed to have said when confronted by a priest, and asked if he renounced the Devil? "Renounce him? I hardly think this is the right time to antagonise him!"

[OhReally?]

I don't know if these have been used already (I didn't read the entire thread :P) :
'Go on, get out. Last words are for fools who haven't said enough'
-Karl Marx
'I knew it. I knew! Born in a hotel room - and goddamit - dying in a hotel room
-Eugene O'Neill
Shoot straight you bastards, and don't make a mess of it
Harry 'Breaker' Morant (executed by a firing squad)

[ksotikoula]

Charlotte Bronte's last words were actually tragic. She was only 9 months married and 3 months pregnant and her symptoms were excessive vomiting and fever. After some time that she was exhausted from famine, she went delirious and the final time she recovered her senses, she heard her husband praying that "the Lord would spare her". She said: "I am not going to die, am I? He will not separate us now. We have been so happy."

Archimedes' last words were "Do not disturb my circles" (Greek: μή μου τούς κύκλους τάραττε), a reference to the circles in the mathematical drawing that he was supposedly studying when disturbed by the Roman soldier.

[kevinthediltz]

"my service to satan on earth is done, now i shall forever serve him in hell"
Jon Nödtveidt (the lead singer of the black metal band Dissection) rumored to be his last words before commiting suicide. He was a devout satanist.

[dafydd manton]

I think my last words would be "There you are, I TOLD you I was unwell!!"

[jon1jt]

"Thomas Jefferson still lives!"

last said words of John Adams

Fact is Jefferson died hours earlier, but they died the same day, July 4, 1826. Creepy, huh?

[miyako73]

mine:

quite... is neither a verb nor an adjective.

[Pryderi Agni]

"No man is happy until he is dead" - Aesychlus. Reckon he was on to something^_^.

[King Mob]

It´s not really a death bed exclamation, but Hunter S Thompson´s suicide note is quite shocking:

"No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always *****y. No Fun — for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax — This won't hurt."

spine chilling, uh?

Oh, and i remembered another one. This being a death bed one.

Andrei Tarkovsky´s: "It is time for a new direction."

(sorry about the two posts. won´t happen again.)

[Helga]

"No man is happy until he is dead" - Aesychlus. Reckon he was on to something^_^.

I like that one...

[Janine]

"Thomas Jefferson still lives!"

last said words of John Adams

Fact is Jefferson died hours earlier, but they died the same day, July 4, 1826. Creepy, huh?

Actually, I researched that earlier after seeing the John Adams miniseries and I could have swore the article said that Jefferson died later than Adams. I will check on that to be sure. It is quite uncanny, considering they had renewed their friendship in later years (earlier they had a falling out) and they wrote often to each other and became very close again.

[Mathor]

I just know on Hitchcock's tombstone it reads: "I'm in on a plot."

I think that is hilarious.

[Jazz_]

Leo Tolstoy- He had stormed off his estate after an arguement with his wife over giving away money to he poor. At 80 some odd years he was not up for the physical conditions and contracted pnuemonia and died at a stationmaster's house. According to that man his last words were.

"But the peasant...how do the peasants die?"


That's strange - I thought Leo Tolstoy's last words were:
"Even in the valley of the shadow of death, two and two do not make six" (refusing to return to the Orthodox Church which had once excommunicated him)

A few I like:

Francois Rabelais - "I am going to seek the Great Perhaps"
Alexandre Dumas (pere) - "I shall never know how it all comes out now"
George Bernard Shaw - "Sister, you are trying to keep me alive as an old curiosity, but I'm done, I'm finished"

Mine might be; "But I haven't had time to think of something memorable to say..."

[sadparadise]

Last words of Emily Dickinson " The fog is rising " .
My last words would have to be " My compliments to the chef ". On a serious note, my last words will be " I will miss you " !

[djplaster]

"Go away! Last words are for fools who haven't said enough..."

- Karl Marx

that is awesome!!! thanks!

[Dinkleberry2010]

These aren't W.C. Field's last words but supposedly they are on his tombstone: "All things considered I'd rather be in Philadelphia"

[MANICHAEAN]

I'm quite prepared to meet my Maker.
Whether my Maker is prepared to meet me is another question.

"God will pardon me, it is His trade" Heinrich Heine.

"On the contrary" Henrik Ibsen, after the nurse said he seemed a little better.

"If this is dying, then I don't think much of it" Lytton Strachey.

[IceM]

My deathbed quote.

What are you waiting for, a quote?

[Lumiere]

I wasn't aware that my grandfather was a Campbell's soup fanatic ;), but apparently his last words were:

"Mmmm Mmmm good," after his wife kissed him.

If I have the time and presence of mind to say something, I might say:

"What was all the fuss?"

[MarkC]

Hi,


Those were the last words of Charlotte Bronte.

Oh, I am not going to die, am I? He will not separate us, we have been so happy.
Spoken to her husband of 9 months, Rev. Arthur Nicholls.
~~ Charlotte Bronte, writer, d. March 31, 1855


MarkC

[Dr Jekyll]

These are the last words of one of my favourite poets:
"Thank God, it has come!" - John Keats

[JuniperWoolf]

Marie Antoinette's were to say sorry to her executioner after she stepped on his foot.

"I am about to -- or I am going to -- die: either expression is correct."
-Dominique Bouhours, French grammarian (this one is my favorite)

"I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have."
-Leonardo da Vinci

"How were the receipts today at Madison Square Garden?"
-P. T. Barnum

"I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room, and God damn it, died in a hotel room."
-Eugene O'Neill

"And now, in keeping with Channel 40's policy of always bringing you the latest in blood and guts, in living color, you're about to see another first--an attempted suicide."
- Christine Chubbock (an anchorwoman), and then she shot herself on live tv (gruesome, eh?)

"Cool it, brothers..."
-Malcolm X, to the guys that shot him.

For mine, I don't know. I guess I'd probably want to screw with people. I'll say something like "You guys! You guys! I see the light! Oh no... who would've thought that mormonism was the way to go?"

That, or it'll be something like "hey, you guys want to play lawn darts?" or "who wants to bet that I can get it up to 160 km/h?"

[MarkC]

We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies it is the first law of nature-
Voltaire

[DharmaBum77]

"I kist thee ere I kill'd thee: no way but this, Killing myself, to die upon a kiss"-Othello

[hellsapoppin]

''I'd rather be in Philadelphia''

~~~ WC Fields.

Also used on his tombstone.

[quasimodo1]

There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.

[MANICHAEAN]

My grandfather when dying was asked "Are you comfortable?", replied "I make a living!"

[Boo Radley]

The infamous bushranger Ned Kelly at his trial when hearing the death sentence from Redmond Barry the judge. "I will see you there when I go."
Kelly's final words on the scaffold: "Such is life."
Redmond Barry died twelve days later.

[VanWeyden]

My grandfather's last words were, "Don't worry Armie (my grandmother), I'll be here in the morning."

Werner von Braun's last words were the Lord's Prayer. According to the story when he said, "Amen", he breathed his last.

[keilj]

I'd say something along the lines of "Rosebud", if only to confound my descendants.
Yes, I am that way.

ha ha - Basco


(if you're a Sienfeld fan)

Comic Book Guy on the Simpsons had a funny one - he wasn't on his deathbed, but he was having a heart attack:

"Stabbing pain in my chest. Arm going numb. Can't go on.. describing symptoms.. much longer"

There was a great one from a Garth Ennis comic book. But it requires tons of set-up, and you might have had to read the whole series to truly get it.

In one of the earlier mini-series, Kev and some of his other military buddies are sent to get this sick, super-powered old guy from a basement. When they arrive Kev finds the old guy standing around naked, with an orange up his ***. As they arrest him, the orange comes out and is on the floor. Then Kev's army buddy walks in and starts eating the orange before Kev can say anything.

In a later installment of the mini-series, years later Kev is at his buddy's cabin. His buddy has long since retired - but they get in a tight spot, and his buddy ends up getting fatally shot. As he lays in Kev's arms, dying, his last words are "The orange was up the bloke's *** wasn't it?"

[_JadeRain_]

"If this is dying, I don't think much of it."
Lytton Strachey (1880-1932), British writer

[quasimodo1]

"The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time."

[tnycatgirl]

humm... I was just wondering around and saw the Wilde's death bed quote "the wallpaper..." and I know the Nelson one "Kissmet Horatio" and all that and then there is Keats cant think of it but its quoted in the Fall of Hyperion ( the novel not the poem) so I was wondering f anyone new any other ones.

One that comes to mine is Christina Rossetti, from the poem, Remember.

It may not be Keats, or Wilde..but here goes..

Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you planned:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

[hazelk]

To her elder sister.

"Take courage Charlotte, take courage!"

[Leland Gaunt]

Not sure if this one has been posted yet.
"I know you've come to kill me. Shoot, coward! You are only going to kill a man"
Che Guevara
The exact wording isn't really known (it was most likely said in Spanish) but the gist of it is agreed upon.
In my mind this puts Che as a real life action hero.

[miyako73]

Oscar wilde:

"It's the wallpaper or me, one of us has to go."


I liked the quote so much that I incorporated it in the novel I've been writing.

"He put it succinctly when he said, “Petty minds ruin geniuses.” He was not talking about himself, of course. He meant Oscar Wilde, the subject of his first short experimental film, “Death in a Wallpapered Room,” where an exotic brown Wilde pulled the wallpapers in his retro hotel suite piece by piece and ate them every day until he died from syphilis, diarrhea, morphine, and asbestos poisoning. “All wallpapers are gone. I’m ready to go.” was the film’s ending. I wondered if it was autobiographical. Sir Prot’s fixation on death and dying, besides feces, vomit, and urine and certainly, sex and nudity, read almost an obsession in all his writings."

[hazelk]

This I found in a wonderful book of famous quotes.

"It would really be more than the English could stand if another century began and I were still alive. I am dying as I have lived...beyond my means".

[RobinoftheMoor]

Most of life is too complex to sum up in last words. However, I know what I DON'T want: To say something that isn't really me--a funny bon mot to be passed down generation to generation, like: "Get off the oxygen hose." or "Here's the remote! I was laying on it all this time!"

[hazelk]

D. H.Lawrence.

I think it's time for morphine.

[Gribble]

"To the well organized mind, death is but the next great adventure"

[Mallorie]

I died briefly while being prepped for surgery, let me tell you all, if death is coming as a shock to you, there is no room or time to think of clever things, or at least my little mind could not.

had I stayed dead my last words would have been "Please cover up my tits" (i had been stripped down for surgery)

needless to say I am quite glad not to have died.

[L.M. The Third]

I wonder if anyone has ever mentioned Lytton Strachey (critic and biographer).

"If this is dying, then I don't think much of it."

[hack]

My maternal grandmother's last words were,
"Get these damned teeth out of my mouth, they're killing me."

[Lord Macbeth]

"Some are born posthumously"

-Friedrich Nietzsche (and never was a quote so appropriate for the person who said it...)

[davidboom]

Someone to be honest:
“What is uttered from the heart alone, Will win the hearts of others to your own.”

Delaware Prefab Homes (http://www.modularhomes.org/Delaware/)

[The Ol' Man]

I died briefly while being prepped for surgery, let me tell you all, if death is coming as a shock to you, there is no room or time to think of clever things, or at least my little mind could not.

had I stayed dead my last words would have been "Please cover up my tits" (i had been stripped down for surgery)

needless to say I am quite glad not to have died.


You've conferred me a very pleasing thought, thanks. :yesnod:



"I am perplexed." - Aleister Crowley

[hack]

I have always hoped for my own to be "Yeah, so what?"

[Delta40]

"Strike, man, strike!" Sir Walter Raleigh

[loki456]

my great granddad said to me - was not his last words, but were his last few days....

'wisdom is of no consequence unless it is imparted'

he followed that up with....

'the prostate is the ball and chain around a man's nuts, live long enough and it will F&*( you up'...

[ashtray]

What would you guys say if you were on your death bed?

"Get the HELL out of my room!!!"

[robertenem]

My personal favorite:

William Burrough's last words, scrawled in a journal shortly before his death in 1997: “Love? What is it? Most natural painkiller what there is.”

What my last words will be:

"I don't want you all to get upset and worried every time I take a nap. You'll know when you smell ****."

EDIT: Hope you guys don't mind, but I compiled some of these quotes and reposted them on my blog in hopes that some of my readers would contribute, as well, and they've posted some amusing ones of their own. If you're interested, check it out: http://robertenem.wordpress.com/2010/12/28/deathbed-quotes/#comments

[MystyrMystyry]

Considering that my first language isn't language at all, a snippet from English history that always amuses me was Charles I's beheading, where it was suggested to him that after the chopper holds up his severed scone and looks him in the eye, he should wink at him.

Charles' head did so...

Imagine the presence of mind to sustain something like that!

[AlfredtheGreat]

My deathbed quote would be, "I think my liver is diseased."

[aboad]

Someone already mentioned Goethe's here, but the fact that his "Mehr Licht!" (More Light!) refered to the curtains letting light in rather than to some metaphysical-religious perception has always sort of annoyed me.

[arrytus]

Someone already mentioned Goethe's here, but the fact that his "Mehr Licht!" (More Light!) refered to the curtains letting light in rather than to some metaphysical-religious perception has always sort of annoyed me.

But how do you know... Perhaps the clues lie in his treatise on color.

I've always fancied my last words would be Mehr Leer,but once more, how could I possibly know...

[Ecurb]

I heard this one yesterday, watching the Bob Hope Desert Pro/Am Golf tournament. As Hope, age 100, lay dying someone asked him, "Where would you like to be buried?"

"Surprise me," said Hope.

[Orestes]

My death bed quote would be:

''God, forgive me..''

[SparkRevolt]

Chill out! I got this...

[CunningOldFury]

I should like to say:
'Ninth ring please, this heat is killing me.'
or
'I'm tired of dreaming, time to sleep'

But I'm sure I'll think of something else, and fail to say it anyway.

and to quote...

Niccolo Machiavelli said:

"I desire to go to Hell and not to Heaven. In the former I shall enjoy the company of popes, kings and princes, while in the latter are only beggars, monks and apostles"

Isaac Newton said:

"I don't know what I may seem to the world. But as to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than the ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."

And James Thurber said:

"God bless... God damn."

[Theunderground]

'Ben,i'll always be with you'.

[monkeyboy7]

My favourite last words were by French dramatist Alfred Jarry: "Bring me a toothpick." He was an absurdist writer who definitely lived his life as his art. Fascinating.

[cafolini]

Posthumously, my epitaph will read: C A Cafolini does not longer live here. Care to join?

[cafolini]

A priest suggested to Voltaire that he reject the devil before death. He was in his deathbed: "My man, this is not a time to make enemies."

[Prairie]

I enjoy the laughter here. It is really comforting to think that sometimes the person in the deathbed can summon up a sense of humor.

[nerriesantra]

“I’ll just leaving my temporary home to be on the place where I truly belong”

To ease the pain a little bit to the people you’re going to left. [chuckle]:ihih:

[cafolini]

I am here to pass away. If anyone wants to keep me company raise your hand.

[amanda62]

The horror! The horror!!
-Kurtz
"Heart of Darkness" by Joesph Conrad
:)

[Tor-Hershman]

Well, it's not quite a deathbed quote, however the doctors had given me less than a 50/50 chance of surviving my quintuple heart-bypass operation (It became three operations in a day).
As I was taken from IC to the OR there were a few, holdin' back tears, folk on hand.
I tried my best to think of something to say before going through the IC's doors.
The best I could do was a great, big, ole
"WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE !"
I REALLY meant it, too, and wanted that to be the last words, under the urgency of being wheeled away, moi uttered.
That was 4½ years ago.

One person told me "I wanted to LOL when you said "Wheee" but some would not have appreciated it," though I would've.

Oh yeah, on the way down the hall a nurse came up and asked, with great puzzlement in her voice, "Did he say WHEEEEE?!?!"

Stay on groovin' safari,
Tor

http://www.amiright.com/photoshops/images/album_1190547015.png

[Phocion]

Considering that my first language isn't language at all, a snippet from English history that always amuses me was Charles I's beheading, where it was suggested to him that after the chopper holds up his severed scone and looks him in the eye, he should wink at him.

Charles' head did so...

Imagine the presence of mind to sustain something like that!

Is this actually true? I'd never heard of it before.

[TheSilverLining]

I've always found this one morbidly amusing....
"They couldn't hit an elephant at this distan...." (spoken by a Civil War general, who was then shot)

[VERONIQUE]

merh licht, more light" GOETHE

[VERONIQUE]

dying is incredibly boring ;I would hate to have to die twice! Richard feymann

[VERONIQUE]

I told you Iwas sick! Spike milligan

[cafolini]

My deathbed quote would be my epitaph engraved in the tombstone or the ash container. Your Choice.
"Cafolini doesn't live here anylonger. Care to join?"

[SkyCetacean]

One I particularly like it this one,
"You who are deep in the ages, now, deep in the ages, you whom the world could not break or the years tame."
-Sara Teadeale

[xtianfriborg13]

When asked if ever she wants something, Jane Austen said, "Nothing, but death."

[Emil Miller]

When asked if he might consider a trip, that might improve his health, to the seaside resort of Bognor, King George V replied: "Bugger Bognor."

[BobbyHurDur]

"Ow... ****!"
- Roald Dahl.

[Hawg Horse]

"I'll be back. Like Lord Jesus ... and The Terminator."

[cafolini]

Me too, me too. I want to go with grandpa. ~ C A Cafolini, six years old when grandpa was hit by a train. I climbed into the coffin embracing the old man and felt at home. Later, when I became a Buddha, I would remember often that episode in the death bed.

[Shaman_Raman]

"You become what you always were, just a really Big Fish."
"That, is the story of my life."

Big Fish

[Primavera888]

nice!

[Nick Capozzoli]

merh licht, more light" GOETHE

There is some dispute about what Goethe was actually saying on his deathbed. "More light" certainly sounds like a very "philosophical" request from the dying philosopher. But it's also possible, and this requires a good knowledge of the German language and specifically of Goethe's dialect, that the old guy may have been complaining not about the lack of illumination so much as the uncomfortable way that his pillow was supporting his head...i.e. that he was not asking for "more light" but rather that he was complaining about how uncomfortably his head was lying on his deathbed pillow.

[readspider]

Dylan Thomas's poem seems appropriate "Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Do not go gentle in to that good night".

[Iphigenia]

There is some dispute about what Goethe was actually saying on his deathbed. "More light" certainly sounds like a very "philosophical" request from the dying philosopher. But it's also possible, and this requires a good knowledge of the German language and specifically of Goethe's dialect, that the old guy may have been complaining not about the lack of illumination so much as the uncomfortable way that his pillow was supporting his head...i.e. that he was not asking for "more light" but rather that he was complaining about how uncomfortably his head was lying on his deathbed pillow.
True. It certainly is unlikely it had much to do with light in any metaphorical sense. As Thomas Mann put it: "It is said that his last word before he closed his eyes in final slumber was: 'Let more light in!' It is not quite certain. But what he really said, his actual last word, a word against death and for life, is this:


The only thing that counts in the end is progress!"

Hazlitt's final words (corroborated by multiple sources, incidentally) are as fitting as they can be: "Well.. I've had a happy life!" I hope I can utter those words in my final breaths too!

[stacy55]

How about this "My time is over"..

[svejorange]

That’s exactly what I think!