Of all the elements in the periodic table, not a single one is indestructible.

It is difficult to want to tell a grave that it is not immortal. It’s so obvious at that point.

Humans are in love with the idea of our persisting,’ he said. ‘We fetishize it, really. Our retirement funds, our genealogies. Our so-called ideas for the ages.

All men live enveloped in whale-lines. All are born with halters round their necks; but it is only when caught in the swift, sudden turn of death, that mortals realize the silent, subtle, ever-present perils...

“Holy shit, I’m going to die!” Sorry, I just turned thirty yesterday, so my mortality is on my mind.

As we live our precarious lives on the brink of the void, constantly coming closer to a state of nonbeing, we are all too often aware of our fragitlity.

If we all knew each morning that there was going to be another morning, and on and on and on, we’s tend not to notice the sunrise, or hear the birds, or the waves rolling...

In my mind, I gave the woman gifts. I gave her a candle stub. I gave her a box of wooden kitchen matches. I gave her a cake of Lifebuoy soap. I gave her a...

The hospital room was as cold as dead skin, the hallway crowded with lost souls and reeking of illness.

And perhaps the greatest blessing was that we never knew how short the time was.

Accepting death doesn’t mean you won’t be devastated when someone you love dies. It means you will be able to focus on your grief, unburdened by bigger existential questions like, “Why do people die?” and...

One day, while life is being incredible and interesting, I’m going to die.

Pride and power fall when the person falls, but discoveries of truth form legacies that can be built upon for generations.

We never actively remember death,’ Odenigbo said. The reason we live as we do is because we do not remember that we will die. We will all die.

Think not, O Mortal, vainly gay.That Thou from Human Woes is free,The bitter cup I drink today,Tomorrow may be drunk by thee.

And if I were to open you up – would you see anything less remarkable? Less intricately dazzling, in its squelching, spongy way? Lungs and heart and spleen, and all the rest – ticking away,...

The song is an unvarnished love shout, an implorement tinged with…anger? Something like anger, but the anger of a philosoher, the anger of a pot. An anger directed at the transience of the world, at...

Weight him, weight, weight him with the sleepiness of themoon.It was only a glass because he looked in it. It was nothing hecould be told.It was a language he spoke, because he must, yet did...

The end is never worth the beginning.

You will not be here–I shall not be here–much longer.”Let us not think of time.”We have reached Faust’s non-plus. We say to every moment “Verweile doch, du bist so sch&oumln,” and if we are not...

Many writers, especially male ones, have told us that it is the decease of the father which opens the prospect of one’s own end, and affords an unobstructed view of the undug but awaiting grave...

I must indeed abide the Doom of Men whether I will or nill: the loss and the silence. But I say to you, King of the Numenoreans, not till now have I understood the tale...

They have studies that have shown where as few as one pellet resulted in about 50 percent mortality after 21 days. They forced feed doves in pens.

Resignation is what kills people. Once they’ve rejected resignation, humans gain the privilege of making humanity their footpath.

Let not the rash marble riskgarrulous breaches of oblivion’s omnipotence,in many words recallingname, renown, events, birthplace.All those glass jewels are best left in the dark.Let not the marble say what men do not.The essentials of...

Morbidity and Mortality RoundsForgive me, body before me, for this.Forgive me for my bumbling hands, unschooledin how to touch: I meant to understandwhat fever was, not love. Forgive me formy stare, but when I look...

None of us are getting out of here alive”.

The smoke detectors began to ring; for they were battery-powered and thus still functioned, just as a record can still be played after the death of every member of the orchestra.

Idag samlar vi skor och bilar, igår flintyxor. Utan tvivel har arkeologer funnit betydligt fler flintyxor än vad människan rimligtvis behövde. Jag tror att flintyxorna handlar om en längtan, kanske en rädsla. Om jag bara...

Your life is a sum of counted breaths.With each breath that passesa part of life is lost. That which gives life brings death every moment nearer,and your caravan is led by onewho will not jest...

Krishna was once asked what was the most miraculous thing in all creation, and he replied, “That a man should wake each morning and believe deep in his heart that he will live forever, even...

The girl I used to love is no longer a girl, and this saddens me more than our separation. It puts my own mortality vividly on display, in contrast to my eternally youthful memories.

We do not start as dust. We do not end as dust. We make more than dust.That’s all we ask of you. Make more than dust.

Each of us is merely a small instrument; all of us, after accomplishing our mission, will disappear.

In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.

Aging is a mortal term that my immortal spirit doesn’t quite grasp.

What is life without death, Beneficent? You of all people can answer that question. A never-ending orgy of emptiness that you stuff with meaningless activity. Everything is disposable, including your relationships–especially your your relationships.

I know what’s wrong with me – I could never stand still for death! Which you’ve got to do by a certain age, or be ridiculous – you’ve got to stand there nobly and serene,...

I love you.”People have concerns besides simply prolonging their lives. Surveys of patients with terminal illness find that their top priorities include, in addition to avoiding suffering, being with family, having the touch of others,...

Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its students.”[Letter, November 1856]

We are temporarily immortal, until we have fulfilled God’s plans for our lives…then we become temporarily mortal, waiting to become permanently immortal at last

Whenever you see flies or insects in a still life—a wilted petal, a black spot on the apple—the painter is giving you a secret message. He’s telling you that living things don’t last—it’s all temporary....

…A mirror can trick you day by day into thinking you remain looking and existing in one way forever. But a photograph presents you with the truth: it freezes you eternally, existing as a reminder...

This love of theirs, with its reassuring domesticity and its easy silences, its permanence, has yoked Sally directly to the machinery of mortality itself. Now there is a loss beyond imagining.

I write this in the moonlight, straining my ears to hear beyond the cold mechanical clock to the warm biological noises of the night, but my being is attuned only to one thing, the relentless...

Every subject’s duty is the King’s; but every subject’s soul is his own. Therefore, should every soldier in the wars do as every sick man in his bed, wash every mote out of his conscience;...

Humans were so stupid. They had something so precious, and they barely safeguarded it at all. They threw away their lives for money, for packets of powder, for a stranger’s charming smile.

It’s probably a merciful thing that pain is impossible to describe from memory

Yet at the last Beren was slain by the Wolf that came from the gates of Angband, and he died in the arms of Tinúviel. But she chose mortality, and to die from the world,...

If one wishes to be instructed–not that anyone does–concerning the treacherous role that memory plays in a human life, consider how relentlessly the water of memory refuses to break, how it impedes that journey into...