I have noticed that I ponder, or should I say obsess, on death far too often. I find myself thinking about how and when I will fall into the Abyss. There are even nights were I am suddenly awoken by the loud crack that is my ego breaking when I realize that I too will die.
The willingness to die which many have is something I do not understand, nor care to. Simply put, no matter how depressed I become, I would rather live it out than fade away. Still, the thought of my demise refuses to leave my mind. I sit and ponder again, but I know I am not alone. It makes me feel just a bit better knowing I am in good company, for every great philosopher pondered on death and dying... all of them dead, of course.

"I do not believe that any man fears to be dead, but only the stoke of death."
- Sir Francis Bacon 1561 - 1626

"It is better to be a fool than to be dead."
- Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 - 1894

"Death is the privilege of human nature. And life without it were not worth our taking."
- Nicholas Rowe 1674 - 1718

"We all labor against our own cure, for death is the cure of all diseases."
- Sir Thomas Browne 1605 - 1682

"Death kicks his way equally into the cottage of the poor and the castles of kings."
- Horace 65 - 8 B.C.

"Death is the end of all woes: die soon."
- Edmund Spenser 1552 - 1599

"Anyone can stop a man's life, but no one his death."
- Seneca 1 B.C. - 65 A.D.

"Death, a thousand doors to let out life: I shall find one."
- Ludwig van Beethoven 1770 - 1827

"But in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."
- Benjamin Franklin 1706 - 1790

"I know not what course others take; but as for me give me liberty or give me death."
- Patrick Henry 1736 - 1799

"I have often thought upon death, and I find it the least of all evils."
- Sir Francis Bacon 1561 - 1626

Now, all this talk about death was well and good, but they said it all while still alive. I would prefer to know what they felt about death just before it's sweet stroke. Some left us with great one-liners filled with wit and wisdom, proving that they were philosophers indeed. Others left enigmas, wrapped in riddles, entangled within mysteries... or they just could have been delirious. I don't know I wasn't there.

"Oh, God here I go."
- Karl Ernst Baer 1792 - 1876

(when asked on his death bed if he could raise his arm)
"Just high enough to hit you, Doctor."
- Henry Ward Beecher 1813 - 1887

"Applaud, friends, the comedy is finished."
- Ludwig van Beethoven 1770 - 1827

"Please close the window."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749 - 1832

"Only one man understood me... and he didn't understand."
- Georg Wilhelm Hegel 1770 - 1831

"I am about to die."
- Samuel Johnson 1709 - 1784

"I feel the flowers growing over me."
- John Keats 1795 - 1821

"A great artist dies in me."
- Emperor Nero 37 - 68 A.D.

"Lord have mercy on my poor soul."
- Edgar Allan Poe 1809 - 1849

"I am going to the great perhaps."
- Francois Rabelais 1494 - 1553

"Moose… Indian…"
- Henry David Thoreau 1817 - 1862

"I am dying as I have lived... beyond my means."
- Oscar Wilde 1859 - 1900

From Issue 7.