When Life is woe,
And Hope is dumb,
The World says, “Go!”
The Grave says, “Come!”
Quotations about:
rest in peace
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
Life’s race well run,
Life’s work well done,
Life’s crown well won,
Now comes rest.Edward H. Parker (1823-1896) American physician, poet
Epitaph of President James Garfield (1881)
(Source)
The phrase was engraved on a tablet placed at the head of his coffin while he lay in state at Cleveland's Memorial Park.
The passage was selected by a committee without a clear source of the material, but it appears to be a loose transcription of the first stanza of a poem Parker wrote for his mother-in-law's funeral:
Life's race well run,
Life's work all done,
Life's victory won,
Now cometh rest.
The differences may be because the Garfield epitaph was back-translated from a Latin translation of Parker's original.
Much more discussion here.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow.John Donne (1572-1631) English poet
Holy Sonnets, No. 10, “Death Be Not Proud,” ll. 5-6 (1609)
(Source)
But what is all this fear of and opposition to Oblivion? What is the matter with the soft Darkness, the Dreamless Sleep?
James Thurber (1894-1961) American cartoonist and writer
In Clifton Fadiman, I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Twenty-Three Eminent Men and Women of Our Time (1940)
(Source)
Also published in Forum and Century (Jun 1939). Words spoken by Sylvester Blougram, the title character from Robert Browning's "Bishop Blougram's Apology" (1855).
GUIDERIUS: Fear no more the heat o’ the sun,
Nor the furious winter’s rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages:
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Cymbeline, Act 3, sc. 2, l. 331ff (3.2.331-336) (1611)
(Source)
Death, the only immortal who treats us all alike, whose pity and whose peace and whose refuge are for all — the soiled and the pure, the rich and the poor, the loved and the unloved.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Last written note
(Source)
Recorded by A. Paine (his literary executor), Mark Twain: A Biography, Vol III, Part 2, ch. 293 (1912).
