Death is life’s one certainty…

• Death was far more certain than God. Graham Greene
• Life is uncertain; death is certain. Gautama Buddha
• Here is a small fact. You are going to die. Markus Zusak
• The only certainty life contains is death. Patricia Briggs
• Nothing in the world is as certain as death. Jean Froissart
• We are all part of the ultimate statistic – ten out of ten die.
• Death is the last fact of which we can be certain. Geraldine Jewsbury
• Nothing in life is sure, my son. Except the promise of death. David Gemmell
• When death is so certain, it is better to die for a good cause. Swami Vivekananda
• Death, as the Psalmist saith, is certain to all, all shall die. William Shakespeare
• The one certain thing was that death never came at an expected moment. George Orwell
• The main facts in human life are five: birth, food, sleep, love and death. M. Forster
• There is nothing certain in a man’s life but that he must lose it. Robert Bulwer-Lytton
• We all face death in the end. But on the way, be careful never to hurt a human heart! Rumi
• True courage, in the face of almost certain death, is the rarest quality on earth. Christopher Pike
• To that which is born, death is certain; to that which is dead, birth is certain. E. Modesitt Jr.
• Of this I am certain, that no one has ever died who was not destined to die some time. Saint Augustine
• The unavoidable kiss, where the minty fresh death breath is sure to outlast his catastrophe. Jason Mraz
• Since death is certain and the time of death is uncertain, what is the most important thing? Pema Chodron
• Death, after all, is the common expectation from birth. Neither heroes nor cowards can escape it. Edith Pargeter
• Death … was the only kept promise out of all life’s false starts and switchbacks, all there was at the end of the dusty road. William Gay
• Death remains about the one certain fact in the lives of each one of us, and there will be suffering, sorrow, and sadness next week as there was last week. Basil Hume
• Certain, when I was born, so long ago, Death drew the tap of life and let it flow; And ever since the tap has done its task, And now there’s little but an empty cask. Geoffrey Chaucer
• Although the constant shadow of certain death looms over everyday, the pleasures and joys of life can be so fine and affecting that the heart is nearly stilled in astonishment. Dean Koontz
• Life flows on over death as water closes over a stone dropped into a pool. … Fate is certain; death is certain; but the courage and nobility of men and women matter more than these. Winifred Holtby
• Whatever is certain in death is slightly alleviated by what is not so infallible; the time when it shall happen is undefined, but it is more or less connected with the infinite, and what we call eternity. Jean de la Bruyere
• We begin to die from the moment we are born, for birth is the cause of death. The nature of decay is inherent in youth, the nature of sickness is inherent in health, in the midst of life we are verily in death. Gautama Buddha
• The certain prospect of death could sweeten every life with a precious and fragrant drop of levity- and now you strange apothecary souls have turned it into an ill-tasting drop of poison that makes the whole of life repulsive. Friedrich Nietzsche
• Life is short, and therefore, one thing being certain, death, let us take up a great ideal, and give up the whole life to it. For what is the value of life, this vegetating little low life of man? Subordinating it to one high ideal is the only value that life has. Swami Vivekananda
• Thus all things are subject to death, sorrow and suffering. I became aware that I too was of the same nature, the nature of beginning and end. What if I searched for that which underlies all creation, that which is nirvana, the perfect freedom from unconditioned existence? Gautama Buddha
• Death is more certain than the morrow, than night following day, than winter following summer. Why is it then that we prepare for the night and for the winter time, but do not prepare for death. We must prepare for death. But there is only one way to prepare for death – and that is to live well. Leo Tolstoy
• Death is a vast mystery, but there are two things we can say about it: It is absolutely certain that we will die, and it is uncertain when or how we will die. The only surety we have, then, is this uncertainty about the hour of our death, which we seize on as the excuse to postpone facing death directly. We are like children who cover their eyes in a game of hide and seek and think that no one can see them. Sogyal Rinpoche

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…more certain even than taxes…

• The only thing certain in life is death and taxes. Ben Franklin
• In this world, nothing is certain but death and taxes. Benjamin Franklin
• Few things in life are certain except death and being taxed. Felix Dennis
• Nothing in the world is certain except for death and taxes. Benjamin Franklin
• Things as certain as death and taxes, can be more firmly believed. Daniel Defoe
• In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. Benjamin Franklin
• Three things are certain: Death, taxes, and lost data. Guess which has occurred. David Dixon
• Nothing in life is certain except death, taxes and the second law of thermodynamics. All three are processes in which useful or accessible forms of some quantity, such as energy or money, are transformed into useless, inaccessible forms of the same quantity. That is not to say that these three processes don’t have fringe benefits: taxes pay for roads and schools; the second law of thermodynamics drives cars, computers and metabolism; and death, at the very least, opens up tenured faculty positions. Seth Lloyd

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…the one thing that is inescapable

• Nothing, they say is more certain than death, and nothing more uncertain than the time of dying. Thomas Paine
• Death is the only inescapable, unavoidable, sure thing. We are sentenced to die the day we’re born. Gary Gilmore
• We read poetry because the poets, like ourselves, have been haunted by the inescapable tyranny of time and death.. Elizabeth Drew
• Life is full of toil, sacrifice, and pain, and from the time we stop growing, we know that we’ve begun dying. We watch helplessly as year by year, our bodies age and fail, while our survival instincts compel us to keep on going-which means living with the terrifying knowledge that ultimately death is inescapable. Jim Butcher

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All lives end sooner or later

• All good things pass away. Philip Pullman
• All that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity. William Shakespeare, Hamlet
• On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero. Chuck Palahniuk
• Everybody is going to be dead one day, just give them time. Neil Gaiman
• And last of all comes death. Anareon
• I dream of the face of Death. It’s an ever-changing face, worn by many at the wrong time, worn by all eventually. Cody Mcfadyen
• Cause I swear that I’m dying, slowly but its happening. Conor Oberst

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To be human is to be mortal …

• A man does not die of love or his liver or even of old age; he dies of being a man. Miguel de Unamuno
• Death lies dormant in each of us and will bloom in time. Dean Koontz
• Golden lads and girls all must / As chimney-sweepers come to dust. William Shakespeare
• The harsh truth is that the cause of death is birth. David Hockney
• I’ve got death inside me. It’s just a question of whether or not I can outlive it. Don DeLillo
• Death is part of who we are. It guides us. It shapes us. It drives us to madness. Can you still be human if you have no mortal end. Christopher Paolini
• Dying men think of funny things–and that’s what we all are here, aren’t we? Dying men? Tad Williams
• Life: A continuous series of disasters which result in one’s death. Mamie Van Doren
• Death is caused by swallowing small amounts of saliva over a long period of time. George Carlin

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… and no one ever escapes from life alive

• No one escapes from life alive. Michael Crichton
• Death is like an arrow that is already in flight, and your life lasts only until it reaches you. Georg Hermes
• Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent. D. Laing
• No one here gets out alive. Jim Morrison
• After all, what’s a life, anyway? We’re born, we live a little while, we die. B. White
• In life, more than in anything else, it isn’t easy to end up alive. Roman Payne
• Life is like stepping onto a boat that is about to sail out to sea and sink. Shunryu Suzuki

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We start dying at the moment we are born

• Birth is the beginning of death. Thomas Fuller
• As soon as one is born, one starts dying. Luigi Pirandello
• The end is in the beginning and yet you go on. Samuel Beckett
• Death borders upon our birth, and our cradle stands in the grave. Joseph Hall
• A man begins dying at the moment of his birth. Most people live in denial of Death’s patient courtship until, late in life and deep in sickness, they become aware of him sitting bedside. Dean Koonz
• Death is contagious; it is contracted the moment we are conceived. Madeleine L’Engle
• Death is the only inescapable, unavoidable, sure thing. We are sentenced to die the day we’re born. Gary Mark Gilmore
• He that begins to live, begins to die. Francis Quarles
• In every cradle decked with rosy wreath Lurk germs of death. Victor Hugo
• The seeds of Death are sown in us when we begin to live, and grow up till, like rampant weeds, they choke the tender flower of life. Samuel Richardson
• The harsh truth is that the cause of death is birth. David Hockney
• The day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying. Jean Cocteau
• The cure for death is not being born. J. Parker
• Nothing is born which Death makes not subject of his state. Bhartrhari
• The day of your birth leads you to death as well as to life. Michel de Montaigne

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Some argue not even death is certain

• Nothing is certain, ma petite, not even death. Laurell K. Hamilton
• People tend to think that death is absolute, the one thing we can all be certain about, but that’s not the case. Death is complex. It’s powerful and timeless. The truth is, when it comes to death, nothing is impossible. Jacqueline E. Smith