60 Life and Death Quotes to Change the Way You Think

This list of life and death quotes will inspire you to examine your own beliefs about mortality and your existence in this world!

Have you ever thought of what might happen to you after you die? We all know that one day, we’ll leave this world. But, we still wonder where we will go when our time is up.

The truth is that we do not know what will happen when we die. Only one thing is for sure: the world will continue spinning without us.

Life and death are unpredictable and inescapable. You can’t control how long you will live or when you will die. That’s why we should cherish every second of our life and live it to the fullest.

However, some of us do not know how to start living a meaningful life, which causes us to fear death. So, check out this collection to help you begin living in the moment and stop wasting time worrying about things you can’t control.

This list of quotes will help you not to be afraid of life and death and will make you face reality!

Start here.

And make sure to read these success and failure quotes and quotes to live by.

Best Life and Death Quotes

1. “For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.” – Kahlil Gibran

2. “Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides.” – Lao Tzu

3. “Life and death are illusions. We are in a constant state of transformation.” – Alejandro González Iñárritu

4. “Do not seek death. But do not fear it either. There cannot be life without death; it is inescapable.” – Keisei Tagami

5. “Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through and pour a torrent of light into our dark world.” – Mary Shelley

6. “Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome.” – Isaac Asimov

7. “When life and death itself are unexpected, what more can you expect from it?” – Anonymous

8. “If a man can bridge the gap between life and death, if he can live on after he’s dead, then maybe he was a great man.” – James Dean

9. “You do not understand even life. How can you understand death?” – Confucius

10. “Life and death matter, yes. And the question of how to behave in this world, how to go in the face of everything. Time is short, and the water is rising.” – Raymond Carver

Wise Quotes About Life and Death

11. “Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it.” – Haruki Murakami

12. “Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.” – Norman Cousins

13. “If life must not be taken too seriously, then so neither must death.” – Samuel Butler

14. “I would rather die a meaningful death than live a meaningless life.” – Corazon Aquino

15. “You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.” – C.S. Lewis

16. “‘Why do people love me but hate you?’ Because you are a beautiful life and I’m a painful truth.” – Anonymous

17. “Life is too short when you think of the length of death.” – Sean Mangan

18. “The tragedy of life is not death but what we let die inside of us while we live.” – Anonymous

Life and Death Quotes That’ll Make You Enjoy Every Moment

19. “I’m the one that’s got to die when it’s time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to.” – Jimi Hendrix

20. “You needn’t die happy when your time comes, but you must die satisfied, for you have lived your life from the beginning to the end.” – Stephen King

21. “Because life is fragile and death inevitable, we must make the most of each day.” – Thomas S. Monson

Short Life and Death Quotes That Zoom in on Human Existence

22. “The goal of all life is death.” – Sigmund Freud

23. “Nothing in life is promised except death.” – Kanye West

24. “Death must exist for life to have meaning.” – Neal Shusterman

25. “Until death, it is all life.” – Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

26. “The only certainty life contains is death.” – Patricia Briggs

27. “Our life is made by the death of others.” – Leonardo da Vinci

28. “In the midst of life, we are in death.” – Agatha Christie

29. “Nothing is a matter of life and death except life and death.” – Angela Carter

30. “Life and death are important. Don’t suffer them in vain.” – Bodhidharma

31. “If you have fun, fine. It’s not all life and death.” – Bill Parcells

32. “I believe in the freedom of choice in both life and death.” – Dasha Zhukova

Deep Life and Death Quotes to Change Your Worldview

33. “Life and death. They are somehow sweetly and beautifully mixed, but I don’t know how.” – Gloria Swanson

34. “The boundaries which divide life from death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?” – Edgar Allan Poe

35. “Life is for the living. Death is for the dead. Let life be like music. And death a note unsaid.” – Langston Hughes

36. “Loss and possession, death and life are one. There falls no shadow where there shines no sun.” – Hilaire Belloc

37. “Let life be beautiful like summer flowers and death like autumn leaves.” – Rabindranath Tagore

38. “Death is like a mirror in which the true meaning of life is reflected.” – Sogyal Rinpoche

39. “Death, so-called, is a thing which makes men weep, and yet a third of life is passed in sleep.” – Lord Byron

40. “There is one who remembers the way to your door: the life you may evade, but the death you shall not.” – T.S. Eliot

41. “Every man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.” – Ernest Hemingway

Life and Death Quotes to Help You Face Reality

42. “Life is short; death is forever.” – Marsha Qualey

43. “I discovered to my joy that it is life, not death, that has no limits.” – Gabriel García Márquez

44. “Death is unstoppable. One must face it as a fact of life.” – D. Aswini

45. “Death is more universal than life; everyone dies, but not everyone lives.” – Andrew Sachs

46. “Death is not the end of life; it is the beginning of an eternal journey.” – Debasish Mridha

47. “Life will undertake to separate us, and we must each set off in search of our own path, our own destiny or our own way of facing death.” – Paulo Coelho

Life and Death Quotes to Remember When Things Get Hard

48. “Even death, faced with the option of death or life, she would choose life.” – José Saramago

49. “When confronted with two alternatives, life and death, one is to choose death without hesitation.” – Yamamoto Tsunetomo

50. “Life after death is the elephant in the living room, the one that we are not supposed to notice. Our culture, which prides itself on its open-mindedness and candor, shows an intense antipathy to facing the greatest of all human questions.” – Dinesh D’Souza

Life and Death Quotes for Those Who Are Afraid to Die

51. “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” – Mark Twain

52. “Less base the fear of death than fear of life.” – Edward Young

53. “Live your life so that the fear of death can never enter your heart.” – Tecumseh

54. “I believe that fear of life brings a greater fear of death.” – David Blaine

55. “Do not fear death so much but rather the inadequate life.” – Bertolt Brecht

56. “The more you transform your life from the material to the spiritual domain, the less you become afraid of death. A person who lives a truly spiritual life has no fear of death.” – Leo Tolstoy

More Life and Death Quotes From the Bible

57. “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” – Proverbs 18:21

58. “To the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?” – 2 Corinthians 2:16

59. “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity.” – Deuteronomy 30:15

60. “You shall also say to this people, ‘Thus,’ says the Lord, ‘Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.’” – Jeremiah 21:8

What Do You Think of the Relationship Between Life and Death?

Some people are afraid to live, and others are scared to die. These two fears are the biggest obstacles in people’s lives. If the person has no courage to face the realities of their life, these fears will be like invisible chains around them, holding them back from being happy.

As we move forward, we must understand that life and death are part of human existence; we must accept that every person is placed on earth for a short time. Even though our lives are short, this doesn’t mean we should spend all our time dwelling on the fact that we will die. Instead, we should appreciate the present moment and strive to live meaningful lives.

God gave us a chance to experience the beauty of our existence. So, try to do things you have never done before and experience everything in your life. Life is too short, and death is inevitable; once your life is gone, you’ll never have a chance to experience it again.

With that, we hope this list of quotes was able to give you a better understanding of life and death. Remember not to fear death. Instead, live each day as if it were your last so that when your time comes, you will be ready to meet it wholeheartedly!

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Karen Danao

Hi, I’m Karen, a content curator and writer for Quote Ambition; I’m also a marketing and advertising professional. Beyond the keyboard and the screen, I’m someone who’s out to enjoy every bit that life has to offer!

Poetry, philosophy, history, and movies are all topics I love writing about! However, my true passion is in traveling, photography, and finding common ground to which everyone from different cultures can relate.

With the many places I’ve been to, I found that love, inspiration, and happiness are some things that bring people together. No matter how different we are on the outside, I’m a true believer that our emotions don’t lie; if you dig deep into our psyche, we’re all the same inside.

This belief was further amplified when I joined Quote Ambition. Through the quotes I’ve read, collected, organized, and written about, I found that humans are resilient, creative, and compassionate.

We take from each others’ hearts and courage, and it’s through our individual experiences that we learn how to rise above our challenges and pain. In so many ways, Quote Ambition is a platform that allows people from all over the world to gain the inspiration they need anytime, anywhere!

You can find me on MuckRack and LinkedIn.