Epitaph - Notable Epitaphs

Notable Epitaphs

Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by
 that here, obedient to their law, we lie.

— Simonides's epigram at Thermopylae

I am ready to meet my Maker.
 Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.

— Winston Churchill

To save your world you asked this man to die:
 Would this man, could he see you now, ask why?

— Epitaph for the Unknown Soldier, written by W. H. Auden

Against you I will fling myself, unvanquished and unyielding, O Death!

— Virginia Woolf

Good frend for Jesus sake forebeare,
To digg þe dust encloased heare.
Blese be þe man þat spares þes stones,
And curst be he þat moves my bones.

In modern English:
Good friend for Jesus sake forbear,
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blessed be the man that spares these stones,
And cursed be he that moves my bones.

— William Shakespeare

I told you I was ill.

— Spike Milligan

I've finally stopped getting dumber.

— Paul Erdős

Wir müssen wissen. Wir werden wissen.
In English: We must know. We will know.

— David Hilbert

That's all folks.

— Mel Blanc

If anyone at my funeral has a long face, I'll never speak to him again.

— Stan Laurel

Consider, friend, as you pass by: As you are now, so once was I. As I am now, you too shall be. Prepare, therefore, to follow me.

— Scottish tombstone epitaph

Sleep after toyle, port after stormie seas,
Ease after warre, death after life, does greatly please.

— Joseph Conrad tombstone epitaph. (epigraph taken from Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene

  • Epitaph for heart of Frédéric Chopin

  • Grave of W. B. Yeats; Drumecliff, Co. Sligo

  • Lengthy epitaph for Johann Wauer a (German pastor), died 1728, concluding with a short Biblical quotation

  • The epitaph on voice actor Mel Blanc's tombstone

  • Plaque marking Heather O'Rourke's interment

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Famous quotes containing the words notable and/or epitaphs:

    “In one notable instance, where the United States Army and a hundred years of persuasion failed, a highway has succeeded. The Seminole Indians surrendered to the Tamiami Trail. From the Everglades the remnants of this race emerged, soon after the trail was built, to set up their palm-thatched villages along the road and to hoist tribal flags as a lure to passing motorists.”
    —For the State of Florida, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)

    “In ancient times—’twas no great loss—
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    —Anonymous. “On a Nomination to the Legion of Honour,” from Aubrey Stewart’s English Epigrams and Epitaphs (1897)