Famous last words

For sarcastic or humourous phrases characterised as "famous last words," not actual dying quotes, see the article Famous last words (sarcasm).

This article is a list of famous last words, actual phrases attributed to persons near death, sage enough, inspirational or in some way memorable in history. For many so-called "last words" other versions exist, though only the better-phrased have become "canonical".

Contents

1 List of famous last words 1.1 A – M 1.2 N – Z 2 Notes

List of famous last words

A – M

• John Adams, US president:

"Thomas Jefferson still survives." (Jefferson had actually died earlier that day).

• John Quincy Adams, US president:

"This is the last of earth! I am content."

• Joseph Addison, writer:

"See in what peace a Christian can die."

• Louisa Alcott, author:

"Is it not meningitis?"

• Ethan Allen, American revolutionary general, upon being told "the angels are waiting for you":

"Waiting are they? Waiting are they? Well - let 'em wait."

• Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, as she stepped on the toe of her executioner:

"Pardonez-moi, monsieur."

• J. M. Barrie, writer:

"I can't sleep."

• John Barrymore, actor:

"Die? I should say not, dear fellow. No Barrymore would allow such a conventional thing to happen to him." or "You heard me, Mike."

• Henry Ward Beecher, evangelist:

"Now comes the mystery."

• Ludwig van Beethoven, 18th century German composer:

"I shall hear in heaven."

• Dominique Bouhours , French grammarian:

"I am about to -- or I am going to -- die: either expression is correct."

• Lenny Bruce, stand-up comic and satirist:

"Does anybody know where I can get some shit?"

• Julius Caesar, Roman dictator:

"You too, Brutus?" (disputed)

• Gaius Caligula, Roman Emperor, stabbed to death by his own guards (as reported by Tacitus):

"I am still alive!"

• Charlie Chaplin, actor, after a priest said "May the Lord have mercy on your soul":

"Why not? After all, it belongs to him."

• Auguste Comte, philosopher:

"What an irreparable loss!"

• Leonardo da Vinci, artist, inventor:

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

• Emily Dickinson, 19th century poet:

"I must go in, the fog is rising."

• Thomas Edison, inventor:

"It's very beautiful over there."

• Elizabeth I, Queen of England:

"All my possessions for a moment of time."

• Leonhard Euler, mathematician:

"I die."

• Richard Feynman, Physicist:

"I'd hate to die twice. It's so boring."

• Millard Fillmore, thirteenth U.S. president, upon being fed some soup on his deathbed:

"The nourishment is palatable."

• James Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy during World War II (quoted from Ajax by Sophocles, found in Forrestal's suicide note):

"Frenzy hath seized thy dearest son,

Who from thy shores in glory came

The first in valor and in fame;

Thy deeds that he hath done

Seem hostile all to hostile eyes. . . .

Better to die, and sleep

The never waking sleep, than linger on,

And dare to live, when the soul's life is gone."

• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 19th century poet, novelist, playwright, scientist and thinker:

"Light! More light!"

• Joseph Henry Green , British surgeon, after checking his own pulse:

"Stopped."

• Che Guevara, Marxist revolutionary and Cuban guerrilla leader:

"Don't Shoot! I'm Che! I'm worth more to you alive than dead!" or "Just shoot, you coward. You are only killing a man!"

• Nathan Hale, before being executed:

"I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."¹

• George Harrison:

A quote from Paramahansa Yogananda :"Everything can wait, but the search for God cannot wait." He then added, "and love one another."

• Thomas Hobbes:

"I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap in the dark."

• Victor Hugo, French writer:

"I see a black light."

• Henrik Ibsen, after his housekeeper told a guest he was feeling better:

"On the contrary!"

• Thomas Jefferson, US president:

"Is it the Fourth?"

• James Lawrence,

"Tell the men to fire faster and not to give up the ship; fight her till she sinks." His last words are often simply shortened to "Don't give up the ship."

• Robert E. Lee,

"Strike the tent." (disputed)

• Karl Marx, on his deathbed, to his housekeeper who had just asked if he had any last words:

"Go on, get out! Last words are for fools who haven't said enough!"

• Louis B. Mayer, film producer:

"Nothing matters. Nothing matters."

• Breaker Morant, on facing a firing squad:

"Shoot straight, you bastards! Don't make a mess of it!"

• Benito Mussolini, before execution by Italian partisans:

"Shoot me in the chest!"

N – Z

• Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson

"Kiss me, Hardy."²

• Pablo Picasso:

"Drink to me!"

• Madame Roland:

"Oh Liberty! Liberty! What crimes are committed in your name!"

• Babe Ruth, baseball player:

"I'm going over the valley."

• Arthur Flegenheimer ("Dutch Schultz"):

"A boy has never wept nor dashed a thousand kim... French Canadian bean soup... The bears are in trouble and the sidewalks are in trouble..."

• John Sedgwick, Union General shortly before being shot by a sharpshooter:

"They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist—"

• Tom Simpson, British cyclist, died during the Tour de France on the Mont Ventoux:

"Put me back on the bloody bike"!

• Socrates:

"Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepius; will you remember to pay the debt?"

• Arthur Thistlewood, before his execution:

"I shall soon know the grand secret."

• Vincent Van Gogh,

"La tristesse durera toujours." (Trans: "The Sadness Continues Forever")

• Vespasian,

"Woe is me, I think I am becoming a god."

• Pancho Villa,

"Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something."

• George Washington,

"I am just going. Have me decently buried, and do not let my body be put into the vault in less than three days after I am dead. Do you understand? ...'Tis well."

• Oscar Wilde,

"My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or other of us has got to go"

• Yi Sun-sin, Korean Admiral during the Joseon Dynasty, after being shot during battle:

"Keep the drums beating... do not let anybody know I've died."

• Louis XIV, King of France:

"Why do you weep? Did you think I was immortal?"

• Mishima Yukio, Japanese novelist and playwright:

"Human life is limited; but I would like to live forever."

Notes

¹These words are actually from Joseph Addison's Cato. While it is possible Hale decided to "go out" with a literary quotation, it is more probable that his actual last words were "It is the duty of every good officer to obey any orders given him by his commander-in-chief."
²These are the last words traditionally attributed to Nelson (or in an alternative version "Kismet, Hardy"). Historians now believe that his last words were "Now I am satisfied. Thank God I have done my duty. Drink, drink. Fan, fan. Rub, rub." See Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson#Last words.