WIST Quotations https://wist.info Wish I'd Said That! Wed, 28 Oct 2026 20:09:09 +0000 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.4 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.4 https://wist.info/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/little-w-little-box-60x60.jpg dying well – WIST Quotations https://wist.info 32 32 43606282 Hus, Jan -- Letter to Christian of Prachaticz (>1413-04) [tr. Schaff (1915)] https://wist.info/hus-jan/68743/ https://wist.info/hus-jan/68743/#respond Mon, 22 Apr 2024 16:34:36 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=68743 It is better to die well than to live ill. […] He who fears death loses the joy of life. Above all else truth triumphs. He conquers who dies because no adversity can hurt the one over whom iniquity holds not sway.

[Melius est bene mori, quam male vivere […] Qui mortem metuit, amittit gaudia vitae; super omnia vincit veritas, vincit, qui occiditur, quia nulla ei nocet adversitas, si nulla ei dominatur iniquitas.]


Jan Hus (c. 1370–1415) Czech priest, theologian, philosopher, Church reformer [John Huss, etc.]
Letter to Christian of Prachaticz (>1413-04) [tr. Schaff (1915)]

Written while in exile from Prague. "Truth triumphs" was adopted as a motto by Hussite fighters, and is inscribed (in Czech, "Pravda vítězí") the banner of the President of the Czechia.

(Source (Latin)). Another translation:

It is better to die well than to live badly. [...] He that fears death, loses the joys of life. Above all else, truth is conqueror. He conquers, who is slain: for no adversity hurts him if no iniquity hath dominion over him.
[tr. Pope (1904)]

The following translation is often mis-cited to Schaff; an examination of Schaff's book shows the above translation instead. I cannot find an original for this translation.

It is better to die well, than to live wrongly [...] Who is afraid of death loses the joy of life; truth prevails all, prevails who is killed, because no adversity can harm him, who is not dominated by injustice.

 ]]> https://wist.info/hus-jan/68743/feed/ 0 68743 Shakespeare, William -- Macbeth, Act 1, sc. 4, l. 8ff (1.4.8-12) (1606) https://wist.info/shakespeare-william/57018/ https://wist.info/shakespeare-william/57018/#respond Mon, 07 Nov 2022 18:16:58 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=57018 MALCOLM: Nothing in his life
Became him like the leaving it. He died
As one that had been studied in his death
To throw away the dearest thing he owed
As ’twere a careless trifle.


William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English dramatist and poet
Macbeth, Act 1, sc. 4, l. 8ff (1.4.8-12) (1606) ]]> https://wist.info/shakespeare-william/57018/feed/ 0 57018