James Shirley Quotes

Mortality defines the human condition.

Out of the people that ever were, almost all of them are dead. There are way more dead people, and you're all gonna die and then you're gonna be dead for way longer than you're alive. Like that's mostly what you're ever gonna be. You're just dead people that didn't die yet.

No one loses any other life than the one he now lives, nor does one live any other life than that which he will lose.

It's a stark thought that when we die most of us will leave behind uneaten biscuits, unused coffee, half toilet rolls, half cartons of milk in the fridge to go sour; that everyday functional things will outlive us and prove that we weren't ready to go; that we weren't smart or knowing or heroic; that we were just animals whose animal bodies stopped working without any sort of schedule or any consent from us.

To himself everyone is immortal; he may know that he is going to die, but he can never know that he is dead.

Believe me, if a man doesn't know death, he doesn't know life.

I used to believe I was going to live forever. And then you suddenly become aware that you're not.

You realize mortality is everywhere.

For me, the first fact of human existence is the human body. But if you embrace the reality of the human body, you embrace mortality, and that is a very difficult thing for anything to do because the self-conscious mind cannot imagine non-existence. It's impossible to do.

I believe we all must face the fact of death. It is both gift and curse.

Even at our birth, death does but stand aside a little. And every day he looks towards us and muses somewhat to himself whether that day or the next he will draw nigh.

Death's an old joke, but each individual encounters it anew.

We are comfortable with the fact that we cannot know personally what happened in the world before we were born, yet we are uncomfortable with the notion that we will stop engaging with time at some point in the future.

It was despairing to find out that I am mortal.

Oh my God, if I know anything, I know I'm gonna die! I never forget that. I know I'll be forgotten in a minute, and that's just fine with me.

The only thing that is real is the being in you that is going to die.

Most people are dead. Did you know that? It's true, out of all the people that ever were, almost all of them are dead.

We are all in a race for dear life: that is to say, we are fugitives from death.

If you haven't understood that if you are born you die, you scarcely deserve to be able to be alive.

One hundred and ten years from now no one who is here now will be alive.

Dogs are a really amazing eye opener for us humans because their lives are compressed into such a short period, so we can see them go from puppyhood to adolescence to strong adulthood and then into their sunset years in 10 to 12 years. It really drives home the point of how finite all our lives are.

Do you remember when you found out you wouldn't live forever? People don't talk about this, but everybody had to go through it because you're not born with that knowledge.

I'm not going to be here forever. I don't plan on going anywhere, but I don't know anybody for whom death is an exception.

When we look on the roses and gaiety of youth, the mournful idea of mortality is altogether alien to our thoughts. We have heard of it as a speculation and a tale, but nothing but experience can bring it home to us.

We all have to die some day. Not very many immortals have shown up in this world.