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An Epitaph (from Greek ἐπιτάφιος epitaphios "a funeral oration" from ἐπί epi "at, over" and τάφος taphos "tomb") is a short text honoring a deceased person. Strictly speaking, it refers to text that is inscribed on a tombstone or plaque, but it may also be used in a figurative sense.

Quotations

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Sorted alphabetically by last name.


A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Fiction Unknown Unknown soldiers Epitaphs in fiction Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations See also External Links

A

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  • Ayrton Senna (Extracted from the Holy Bible)
    • "Nada pode me separar do amor de Deus"
      • Translation: "Nothing can separate me from the love of God".

B

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Grave of Robert Baden-Powell
  • Robert Baden-Powell (by himself) 1857 - 1941
    • "Chief Scout of the World"
      • This is followed by the trail sign for "gone home" (a circle with a dot in the middle).
  • Clyde Barrow (unknown) - 1909 - 1934
    • "Gone but not forgotten."
      • Buried beside, and sharing a tombstone with, his brother Marvin (aka "Buck").
      • Outlaw, bank robber and partner of Bonnie Parker
  • Hilaire Belloc (unknown) - 1870 - 1953
    • "When I am dead, I hope it may be said: His sins were scarlet, but his books were read."
      • From Sonnets and Verse 'On His Books'
  • Jakob Bernoulli (by himself) - 1654-1705
    • "Eadem mutata resurgo"
      • Translation: "Though changed I shall arise the same"
      • Referring to the accompanying inscription of a logarithmic spiral, which remains the same after mathematical transformations. He considered it a symbol of resurrection. CLARIFICATION: Bernoulli called the logarithmic spiral Spira mirabilis, "the marvelous spiral", and wanted one engraved on his headstone. Unfortunately, an Archimedean spiral was placed there instead (picture).
  • EPITAPH, n. An inscription on a tomb, showing that virtues acquired by death have a retroactive effect.
    • Ambrose Bierce, The Cynic's Dictionary (1906); republished as The Devil's Dictionary (1911).
  • Mel Blanc (by himself) - 1908 - 1989
    • "That's all, folks!"
      • Trademark line of cartoon character Porky Pig, whose voice was provided by Blanc for many years.
  • William Bligh (unknown) - 1754 - 1817
    • "Sacred
      To The Memory Of
      William Bligh, Esquire F.R.S.
      Vice Admiral Of The Blue,
      The Celebrated Navigator
      Who First Transplanted The Breadfruit Tree
      From Otahette To The West Indies,
      Bravely fought The Battles Of His Country
      And Died Beloved, Respected, And Lamented
      On The 7th Day Of December, 1817
      Aged 64"
  • Ludwig Boltzmann (by himself) - 1844-1906
    • "S = k log W"
      • The formula for entropy of a system. Boltzmann committed suicide after failing to convince contemporary scientists of the validity of the formula. Grave in the Zentralfriedhof, Vienna.
  • John Brown (unknown)
    • "Stranger! Approach this spot with gravity!
      John Brown is filling his last cavity."
      • Referencing his occupation in life as a dentist: [1]
  • Samuel Butler (by Samuel Wesley) - 1612-1680
    • "While Butler, needy wretch, was yet alive,
      No generous patron would a dinner give;
      See him, when starv'd to death, and turn'd to dust,
      Presented with a monumental bust.
      The poet's fate is here in emblem shown,
      He ask'd for bread, and he received a stone."

C

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  • George Carlin (suggested by himself)
    • "Jeez, he was just here a minute ago."
      • This was his suggestion for an epitaph. In reality he was cremated and his ashes scattered.
  • Andrew Carnegie (unknown)
    • "Here lies a man who knew how to enlist the service of better men than himself."
  • George Washington Carver (unknown)
    • "He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world."
  • Walter Chiari (by himself)
    • "O friends, don't cry - it's just unused sleep."
  • Agatha Christie (from Edmund Spenser's "The Faerie Queene")
    • "Sleepe after toyle, port after stormie seas, ease after war, death after life doth greatly please."
 
Grave of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge (by himself)
    • "Stop, Christian Passer-by! - Stop, child of God,
      And read with gentle breast. Beneath this sod
      A poet lies, or that which once seem'd he.
      O, lift one thought in prayer for S.T.C.;
      That he who many a year with toil of breath
      Found death in life, may here find life in death!
      Mercy for praise - to be forgiven for fame
      He ask'd, and hoped, through Christ. Do thou the same!"
  • Ian Curtis (Himself)
    • "Love Will Tear Us Apart"
      • Singer/Songwriter of the band Joy Division
      • Chosen for his headstone by his wife Deborah Curtis.

D

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Grave of Cecil Day-Lewis
  • Somebody's Darling (William Rigney)
    • "Somebody's Darling Lies Buried Here"
      • In February 1865 a body was found at Horseshoe Bend in the Clutha River (in the South Island of New Zealand).
  • Jefferson Davis (unknown)
    • "At Rest
      An American Soldier
      And Defender of the Constitution"
  • Sammy Davis Jr. (by Altovise Davis and his children)
    • "The Entertainer. He Did it All."
      • In addition to Altovise Davis, his children-Tracey, Mark, Jeff and Manny--are also mentioned in his grave.
  • Cecil Day-Lewis (himself)
    • "Shall I be gone long?
      For ever and a day.
      To whom there belong?
      Ask the stone to say.
      Ask my song."
  • John Donne (Himself)
    • "He lies here in the dust but beholds Him
      whose name is Rising."
  • Claude Duval (unknown)
    • "Here lies Duvall; Reader, if male thou art,
      Look to thy purse; if female, to thy heart."
  • Diophantus of Alexandria (Metrodous, 4th century CE)
    • "This tomb holds Diophantus. Ah, what a marvel! And the tomb tells scientifically the measure of his life. God vouchsafed that he should be a boy for the sixth part of his life; when a twelfth was added, his cheeks acquired a beard; He kindled for him the light of marriage after a seventh, and in the fifth year after his marriage He granted him a son. Alas! late-begotten and miserable child, when he had reached the measure of half his father's life, the chill grave took him. After consoling his grief by this science of numbers for four years, he reached the end of his life." (Greek Anthology, 14.126)

E

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  • Wyatt Earp (unknown)
    • Nothing's So Sacred As Honor
      And
      Nothing's So Loyal As Love.
  • Eazy-E (Eric Wright)
    • We loved him a lot. But God loved him more.
  • Edward I of England (unknown)
    • "Hic est Edwardvs Primus Scottorum Malleus"
      • Translation: "Here is Edward I, Hammer of the Scots"

F

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  • William Faulkner (unknown)- 1897-1962
    • "William Cuthburt Faulkner
      Born Sept. 25 1897
      Died July 6, 1962"
    • Belove'd Go With God.
  • W.C. Fields (unknown)- 1880-1946
    • "W. C. Fields 1880 - 1946"
      • In a 1925 article in Vanity Fair Fields had proposed the epitaph "Here lies W.C. Fields. I would rather be living in Philadelphia." because of his long-standing jokes about Philadelphia (he was actually born there), and the grave being one place he might actually not prefer to be. This is often repeated as "On the whole, I'd rather be in Philadelphia." which he might have stated at other times, and sometimes is distorted into a last dig at Philadelphia: "Better here than in Philadelphia." His actual tomb at Forest Lawn in Glendale, California simply reads as above.
  • Benjamin Franklin (himself)
    • "The Body of B. Franklin, printer
      Like the Cover of an old Book
      Its Contents torn out
      And stripped of its Lettering & guilding
      Lies here food for worms
      For, it will as he believed appear once more
      In a new and more elegant edition
      Corrected and improved by the Author."
  • Robert Frost (himself)
    • "I had a lover's quarrel with the world"
  • R. Buckminster Fuller (himself)
    • "Call Me Trimtab"
      • A trim tab is a small surface connected to a control surface on an aircraft or boat. It stabilizes the orientation of the craft, reducing the need for operator input, by influencing the position of the larger control surface. Fuller described a ship’s trim tab as “a miniature rudder” and said “the little individual can be a trim tab,” influencing the direction of society by “doing dynamic things mentally.” (Playboy, February 1972)

G

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  • Rene Gagnon (unknown) 1925 - 1979
    • "For God And His Country
      He Raised Our Flag In Battle
      And Showed A Measure Of His
      Pride At A Place Called "Iwo Jima"
      Where Courage Never Died"
  • John Gay (himself) 1635 - 1732
    • "Life's a jest, and all things show it;
      I thought so once, and now I know it."
  • Mahatma Gandhi 1869 - 1948
    • "Hey Ram"
      • Translated "O, lord!", supposed last words after being shot. As he was cremated, the epitaph appears on his samadhi, a black marble platform that marks the site of his cremation.
  • Betty Grable (Victoria James, her daughter) 1916 - 1973
    • "Betty Grable James, 1916-1973"
      • Betty Grable was married to bandleader Harry James from 1943 until 1965. She is buried at Inglewood (California) Park Cemetery, between her parents. Her father, Conn Grable, is buried below her, while her mother is buried above her crypt.
  • Kenneth Grahame (Anthony Hope, his cousin) 1859 - 1932
    • "To the beautiful memory of Kenneth Grahame, husband of Elspeth and father of Alastair, who passed the River on the 6 July 1932, leaving childhood and literature through him the more blest for all time".
  • Merv Griffin (by himself)
    • "I will not be right back after this message"
      • He ended the final episode of his talk show, which ended in 1986, with these words.

H

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  • Alexander Hamilton - 1757 - 1804
    • TO THE MEMORY OF
      Alexander Hamilton,
      The CORPORATION OF TRINITY CHURCH Has erected this
      MONUMENT
      in Testimony of their Respect
      For
      The PATRIOT of incorruptable INTEGRITY.
      The SOLDIER of approved VALOUR.
      The STATESMAN of consummate WISDOM.
      Whose TALENTS and VIRTUES will be admired
      BY
      Grateful Posterity
      Long after this MARBLE shall be mouldered into DUST
      He died July 12th 1804. Aged 47.
      • Alex rests at the far south side facing Wall Street, his wife Elizabeth is next to him, his son Philip is nearby in an unmarked grave.

[2]

  • some sources also put Alexander's birth year as 1755 which puts him at age 49
  • Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton - 1757 - 1854

ELIZA
Daughter of PHILIP SCHUYLER
widow of ALEXANDER HAMILTON
Born in Albany
August 9th 1757
Died at Washington
November 9th 1854
Interred HERE

  • Her husband Alexander is next to her and her son Philip is nearby in an unmarked grave.

[3]

  • Rita Hayworth (Rebecca Welles)
    • "Beloved mother
      To yesterday's companionship and tomorrow's reunion"
      • Rita is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. Rebecca Welles is the daughter of Hayworth from her marriage to Orson Welles.
  • Henry II (by Ralph of Diceto)
    • "I was Henry the King
To me Diverse realms were subject, I was duke and count of many provinces.
Eight feet of ground is now enough for me, whom many kingdoms failed to satisfy.
Who reads these lines, let him reflect, upon the narrowness of death.
And in my case behold, the image of our mortal lot.
This scanty tomb doth now suffice,
For whom the Earth was not enough."
  • Werner Heisenberg (unknown)
    • "He lies here, somewhere."
      • This is a joke about the famous Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, which implies that one may not know the position and momentum of a particle simultaneously.
  • George Hill
    • "Against his will,
      Here lies George Hill,
      Who from a cliff
      Fell down quite stiff.
      When it happen'd is not known,
      Therefore not mentioned on this stone."
  • Richard Hind
    • "Here lies the body of Richard Hind,
      Who was neither ingenious, sober, nor kind."
  • Robin Hood (mythological; sometimes identified with Robert of Huntingdon)
    • Inscription on a grave in Kirklees Priory, attributed to Robin Hood:
      "Hear underneath dis laitl stean
      Laz robert earl of Huntingtun
      Ne’er arcir ver as hie sa geud
      An pipl kauld im robin heud
      Sick utlawz as he an iz men
      Vil england nivr si agen."
      • Modern English equivalent:
        "Here underneath this little stone
        Lies Robert, Earl of Huntingdon.
        No archer were as he so good
        And people called him Robin Hood.
        Such outlaws as he and his men
        Will England never see again."
  • Jack Horkheimer, presenter of the popular astrononomy programme Star Gazer
    • "Keep Looking Up was my life's admonition. I can do little else in my present position." [4]
  • C. Wayne Hussey AKA Margaret I Empress of Alaska AKA Large Marge (unknown) 1937 - 1983
    • "Reach out and touch." [5]

I

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  • Vladislav Illich-Svitych - 1934 - 1966
    • "K̥elHä wet̥ei ʕaK̥un kähla
      k̥aλai palhʌ-k̥ʌ na wetä
      śa da ʔa-k̥ʌ ʔeja ʔälä
      ja-k̥o pele t̥uba wete"
      • A poem in the hypothetical Proto-Nostratic language, a version of which was reconstructed by Illich-Svitych.
        English translation:
        "Language is a ford through the river of time,
        It leads us to the dwelling of those gone before;
        But he cannot arrive there,
        Who fears deep water".

J

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  • Jesse James (by his mother) 1847 - 1882
    • " Murdered by a traitor and a coward whose name is not worthy to appear here"
  • Jimi Jamison (by himself) 1951 - 2014
    • " In us we all have the power
      Sometimes it is so hard to see
      That instinct is stronger
      than reason
      It's just human nature to me
      I'll be ready
      Don't you fear
      Forever and Always,
      I'm always here"
  • Thomas Jefferson (by himself) 1743 - 1826
    • " Author of the Declaration of American independence
      of the statute of Virginia for religious freedom
      and father of the University of Virginia"
      • Despite his being the 2nd Vice-President and 3rd President of the US, these are not mentioned. He had said that he wanted to be remembered for what he gave to the US, and not what the US had given to him.
  • George Johnson (unknown)
    • " Here lies George Johnson
      Hanged by mistake, 1882
      He was right
      We was wrong
      But we strung him up
      And now he's gone"
      • Found on Boot Hill, Tombstone, AZ
  • Jeremiah Johnson (unknown)
    • " I told you I was sick."
  • John Jones (by Himself)
    • " Hold my drink, you're gonna' love this."
  • Carl Jung (unknown) 1875 - 1961
    • "Vocatus atque non vocatus
      Deus aderit"
      • Translation: "Invoked or not invoked, God will be present."

K

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  • Nikos Kazantzakis (by himself)
    • "Then elpizo tipota. The fovamai tipota. Eimai eleftheros." ("Δεν ελπίζω τίποτα. Δε φοβάμαι τίποτα. Είμαι ελεύθερος")
      • Translation: "I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free."
  • John Keats (by himself and his friends) - 1795-1821
    • "This Grave contains all that was mortal, of a Young English Poet, who on his Death Bed, in the Bitterness of his heart, at the Malicious Power of his enemies, desired these words to be Engraven on his Tomb Stone: Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water."
      • Keats desired only the phrase "Here lies one whose name was writ in water" to be on his tombstone. However his friends, Joseph Severn and Charles Brown, added the rest.
    • "K-eats! if thy cherished name be "writ in water"
      E-ach drop has fallen from some mourner's cheek;
      A-sacred tribute; such as heroes seek,
      T-hough oft in vain - for dazzling deeds of slaughter
      S-leep on! Not honoured less for Epitaph so meek!"
      • Written on a small plaque, on the cemetery wall nearby.
  • Martin Luther King, Jr.
    • "Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty I'm Free At Last."
      • Lyrics of an old African American Spiritual he frequently quoted.
  • Ernie Kovacs (by Edie Adams) 1919-|1962
    • "Nothing in Moderation. We all loved him."
      • Kovacs, Adams and their daughter, Mia Susan, are interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles. Their epitaphs are variations of the second sentence as above; Mia Susan's epitaph reads, "Daddy's girl. We all loved her too."

L

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  • Brandon Lee (by Paul Bowles) 1965 - 1993
    • "Because we do not know when we will
      die, we get to think of life as an
      inexhaustible well. And yet everything
      happens only a certain number of times,
      and a very small number really.
      How many more times will you
      remember a certain afternoon of your
      childhood, an afternoon that is so
      deeply a part of your being that you
      cannot conceive of your life
      without it? Perhaps four, or five times
      more. Perhaps not even that. How
      many more times will you watch the
      full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And
      yet it all seems limitless.
For Brandon and Eliza
Ever Joined in True Love's Beauty."
  • Jack Lemmon (by himself)
    • "In"
      • 30's- 60's Hollywood Comedian
  • John Locke (unknown)
    • "WESTMINSTER SCHOLAR
      CENSOR OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY
      I know there is truth opposite to
      falsehood that it may be
      found if people will
      & is worth the
      seeking
      • Nearby the following appears: "Stop Traveller! Near this place lieth John Locke. If you ask what kind of a man he was, he answers that he lived content with his own small fortune. Bred a scholar, he made his learning subservient only to the cause of truth. This thou will learn from his writings, which will show thee everything else concerning him, with greater truth, than the suspect praises of an epitaph. His virtues, indeed, if he had any, were too little for him to propose as matter of praise to himself, or as an example to thee. Let his vices be buried together. As to an example of manners, if you seek that, you have it in the Gospels; of vices, to wish you have one nowhere; if mortality, certainly, (and may it profit thee), thou hast one here and everywhere." (translated from the original Latin).
  • Jack London (Psalm 118:22)
    • "The Stone the Builders Rejected"

M

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  • Rob Roy MacGregor (unknown)
    • "Despite them"
      • At the time of Rob Roy's fame, the MacGregor name became banned and was never allowed to be heard or seen by law. The epitaph phrase in full, "Rob Roy MacGregor, despite them" is a last standing testament to defy that law.
  • Jayne Mansfield (either her fans or family) 1933 - 1967
    • "We live to love you more each day"
      • Appears at her headstone at the Pen Argyl (Pennsylvania) Cemetery and at her cenotaph at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles.
  • Dean Martin (by himself) 1917 - 1995
    • "Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime"
      • Title of one of his songs.
  • Groucho Marx (by himself)
    • "Groucho Marx - 1890 - 1977
      • In an interview, he jokingly suggested his epitaph read "Excuse me, I can't stand up.", but his mausoleum marker bears only his stage name and years of birth and death.
  • Karl Marx (by himself) - 1818 - 1883
    • "Workers of all lands unite. The philosophers have only
      interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it."
  • Leonard Matlovich (by himself) - 1943 - 1988
    • "When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one."
  • John Laird McCaffery ("your friends") - 1940 - 1995
    • "John
      Free your body and soul
      Unfold your powerful wings
      Climb up the highest mountains
      Kick your feet up in the air
      You may now live forever
      Or return to this earth
      Unless you feel good where you are!
      —Missed by your friends"
      • Mr. McCaffery is buried in Montreal. The epitaph is an acrostic poem, in that the first letters of each line spell out, "F-U-C-K Y-O-U" The motive of his "'friends'" is unknown. However, the Montreal Mirror quoted the gravestone's engraver as saying that the stone was ordered by McCaffery's "ex-wife and mistress... They said the message represented him. It was a thing between the three of them."[6]
  • H. L. Mencken (by himself) - 1880 - 1956
    • "If after I depart this vale you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner, and wink your eye at some homely girl"
  • Russ Meyer
    • "King of the Nudies
      I Was Glad to Do It
      FILM PRODUCER AND DIRECTOR"
  • Spike Milligan (by himself) - 1918 - 2002
    • Dúirt mé leat go raibh mé breoite.
      • Translation from Irish: "I told you I was ill."
  • Lester Moore (unknown)
    • "Here lies
      Lester Moore
      four slugs
      from a 44
      no Les
      no more"
      • On Grave stone in Idaho State Penitentiary, Lester Moore died while attempting escape. Lester Moore is the only Inmate buried on the grounds of the Idaho State Pen.
  • Jim Morrison (unknown) - 1943 - 1971
    • "ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΝ ΔΑΙΜΟΝΑ ΕΑΥΤΟΥ"
      • Translation from Greek: "Truth to your own spirit" His body is buried in Paris's famous Père LaChaise cemetery in the company of many other celebrities. Next to him in the "Poet's Corner" are buried many celebrated writers, including Balzac, Molière, Oscar Wilde and Frédéric Chopin.
  • Matthew Mudd (unknown) from Massachusetts:
    • "Here lies Matthew Mudd,
      Death did him no hurt;
      When alive he was only Mudd,
      But now he's only dirt."

N

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  • Isaac Newton (Alexander Pope)
    • On his tombstone, "Hic depositum est, quod mortale fuit Isaaci Newtoni," which is translatable as "here is deposited what was mortal of Isaac Newton"
    • On the adjacent monument "Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night:
      God said, 'Let Newton be!' and all was light."

O

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  • Osho
    • "Never Born // Never Died // Only Visited this Planet Earth between // Dec 11 1931 – Jan 19 1990".
      • As quoted in Laughing Gods, Weeping Virgins : Laughter in the History of Religion (1997) by Ingvild Sælid Gilhus, p. 143.
  • Peter O'Toole (himself)
    • "It distresses us to return work which is not perfect."
      • Written when O'Toole was still alive, possibly a planned epitaph.
        • O'Toole's wife sent an old and much stained leather jacket to the cleaners and they returned it, having done their best, with a note pinned to the lapel which read, "It distresses us to ect..." This amused O'Toole so much he declared it would be on his "tomb stone".

P

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Grave of Bonnie Parker
  • Bonnie Parker (Unknown) 1910 - 1934
    • "As the flowers are all made sweeter by
      the sunshine and the dew, so this old
      world is made brighter by the lives
      of folks like you."
      • Outlaw, bank robber and partner of Clyde Barrow
        • Reportedly taken from one of Bonnie's poems.
  • Dorothy Parker - 1893 - 1967
    • "Here lie the ashes of Dorothy Parker (1893 - 1967) Humorist, Writer, Critic, Defender of human and civil rights. For her epitaph, she suggested "Excuse My Dust". This memorial garden is dedicated to her noble spirit which celebrated the oneness of humankind and to the bonds of everlasting friendship between Black and Jewish people. Dedicated by The National Association of the Advancement of Colored People, October 20, 1988." (On a memorial plaque).
  • Rosa Parks (by herself)
    • "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement"
      • Parks is remembered for her involvement in the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott, which began the Civil Rights movement. In her last decades she lived in Detroit, Michigan; she is buried as Oakwood Cemetery in that city.
  • Penn and Teller (by themselves)
    • "Is this your card?" and a graphic of a card of the 3 of clubs.
      • From the Book "Penn and Teller's How to play in traffic" ISBN 1572972939 - Penn and Teller bought a cenotaph (an epitaph without a grave beneath it) and placed it in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood. They invite people touring there to use it to surprise their friends as a punchline for a card trick.
  • Fernando Pessoa (himself)
    • "Fui o que não sou"
      • Translation: "I was what I am not."
  • James Louis Petigru (unknown) - 1789-1863
    • "In the admiration of his Peers;
      In the respect of his People,
      In the affection of his Family,
      His was the highest place."
  • Sylvia Plath (Ted Hughes) 1932 - 1963
    • "Even amidst fierce flames the golden lotus can be planted."
      • Variously attributed to Journey to the West and the Bhagavad Gita
  • Edgar Allan Poe (himself) 1809 - 1849
    • "Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore.'"
      • From his poem "The Raven". This inscription appears on his original grave marker. The current marker, in the same cemetery, bears just his name.
  • Fritiof Nilsson Piraten (by himself) - 1895-1972
    • "Här under är askan av en man som hade vanan att skjuta allt till morgondagen. Dock bättrades han på sitt yttersta och dog verkligen den 31 januari 1972."
      • Roughly translated: "Here lie the ashes of a man who had the habit of postponing everything until tomorrow. However, at the end of his life he improved, and actually died on the 31st of January 1972."
  • Ernie Pyle
    • "At this spot the 77th Infantry Division lost a buddy, Ernie Pyle, 18 April 1945.

Q

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  • Quick Draw McGraw
  • He had the 2nd fastest draw. Only bettered by Slow Draw Shaw.

R

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Spanish: "Gracias por tu magia, que me hizo tanto reír con tu sencillez, con tu gorrito desteñido, tu bondad, tu valor, por ser el papi más padre, por enseñarnos, por tus berrinches, por tu talento. No habrás pagado la renta en dinero pero la pagaste con el mejor tesoro del mundo, la risa. Un ángel en el cielo.
Al gran Don Ramón
Aguante Monchito"
English translation; "Thank you for your magic, which made me laugh so much with your simplicity, with your faded hat, your kindness, your courage, for being the most awesome daddy, for teaching us, for your tantrums, for your talent. You will not had paid the rent in money but you paid it with the best treasure in the world, laughter. An angel in the sky.
To the great Don Ramón
Endurance Monchito."
  • Johnny Ramone (aka John Cummings)
    • "If a man can tell he's been successful in his life by having great friends, then I have been very successful."
  • Will Rogers (himself)
    • "If you live life right
      death is a joke
      as far as fear is concerned"
  • William P. Rothwell (unknown) from Rhode Island:
    • (carved into a boulder) "This is on me."
  • Babe Ruth (Cardinal Spellman)
    • "May
      That Divine Spirit
      That Animated
      BABE RUTH
      to Win the Crucial
      Game of Life
      Inspire the Youth
      of America"

S

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Grave of Selena
  • Selena - (Isaiah/Isaías 25:8) - 1971-1995
    • English; "He will actually swallow up death forever, and the sovereign lord Jehovah will certainly wipe the tears from all faces"
    • Spanish: "El realmente se tragará a la muerte para siempre, y el señor soberano Jehová ciertamente limpiara las lagrimas de todo rostro.
  • Seikilos, between 200 BC and 100 AD
    • "Ὅσον ζῇς φαίνου
      μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ λυποῦ
      πρὸς ὀλίγον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν
      τὸ τέλος ὁ xρόνος ἀπαιτεῖ.
      • "While you live, shine
        Don't suffer anything at all;
        Life exists only a short while
        And time demands its toll."
      • Parallel with the text, the stone also contains the oldest surviving complete notated musical composition
  • William Shakespeare - baptized April 26, 1564 - April 23, 1616
    • "Good frend, for Iesvs sake forbeare
      To digg the dvst encloasèd heare.
      Bleste be ye man yt spares thes stones,
      And cvrst be he yt moves my bones."
      • Modern English equivalent:
        "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."
  • Sam Suryawanshi AKA Vazir (by himself) - 1985-2011
    • "It ain't Sam unless its me"
      • S: Stand A: Against M: Me
  • Harry Edsel Smith (unknown) - 1903-1942
    • "Looked up the elevator shaft
      To see
      If the car was on the way down.
      It was."
  • The 300 Spartans (Simonides) - 480 BC
    • "Ω ΞΕΙΝ ΑΓΓΕΛΛΕΙΝ ΛΑΚΕΔΑΙΜΟΝΙΟΙΣ ΟΤΙ ΤΗΔΕ ΚΕΙΜΕΘΑ ΤΟΙΣ ΚΕΙΝΩΝ ΡΗΜΑΣΙ ΠΕΙΘΟΜΕΝΟΙ"
      • Translation: "Go Tell the Spartans, Stranger passing by, that here, obedient to their laws, we lie."
  • Robert Louis Stevenson (by himself) - 1850-1894
    • "Under the wide and starry sky
      Dig the grave and let me lie,
      Glad did I live and gladly die
      And I laid me down with a will.
      This be the verse you grave for me:
      Here he lies where he longed to be.
      Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
      And the hunter home from the hill."
      • This epitaph also prefaces the Robert Heinlein story "Requiem" and serves as the protagonist's epitaph; use for Stevenson reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 235.
  • Harold J. Story (1919 - 1993)
    • "Before you jump in here with me,
      make sure you bring good memories.
      For here they're all we have to trade,
      and where you are is where they're made."
  • Arthur Sullivan 1842-1900 (by W. S. Gilbert)
    • "Is life a boon?
      If so, it must befall
      That Death, whene'er he call
      Must call too soon."
      • This epitaph, from lyrics to Gilbert & Sullivan's "Yeomen of the Guard", is on the monument to Sullivan in Victoria Embankment Gardens, not on his grave in St Paul's Cathedral.
  • Jonathan Swift (unknown) 1667 - 1745
    • "Here lies the body of Jonathan Swift,
      Professor of Holy Theology, for thirty
      years Dean of this cathedral church,
      where savage indignation can tear his
      heart no more. Go, traveller, and if you
      can imitate one who with his utmost
      strength protected liberty. He died in the year 1745, on the 19th of October,
      aged seventy-eight"
  • Lucius Cornelius Sulla (by himself) - died 78 BC
    • "No friend ever served me, and no enemy ever wronged me, whom I have not repaid in full."

T

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And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;
For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar."
  • This poem ("Crossing the Bar") is included at the end of every collection of his works.
  • Studs Terkel (Suggested by himself)
    • "Curiosity did not kill this cat."
 
Thomas Thetcher's gravestone
In Memory of Thomas Thetcher
a Grenadier in the North Reg.
of Hants Militia, who died of a
violent Fever contracted by drinking
Small Beer when hot the 12th of May
1764. Aged 26 Years.
In grateful remembrance of whose universal
good will towards his Comrades, this Stone
is placed here at their expence, as a small
testimony of their regard and concern.
Here sleeps in peace a Hampshire Grenadier,
Who caught his death by drinking cold small Beer,
Soldiers be wise from his untimely fall
And when ye're hot drink Strong or none at all.
This memorial being decay'd was restord
by the Officers of the Garrison A.D. 1781.
An Honest Soldier never is forgot
whether he die by Musket or by Pot.
The Stone was replaced by the North Hants
Militia when disembodied at Winchester,
on 26th April 1802, in consequence of
the original Stone being destroyed.
And again replaced by
The Royal Hampshire Regiment 1966.
 
J.R.R.Tolkien and his wife's tomb.
  • J. R. R. Tolkien:
    • "Beren"
      • Beren was a famous human hero during the First Age of Tolkien's fictional world Middle-earth. Beren's love was the immortal Elven maid Lúthien who chose the fate of mortality to be able to follow Beren after he died. The name "Lúthien" is inscribed underneath the name Edith Tolkien on the pair's headstone.

Unknown- As you are now, I once was As I am now, you will be

V

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  • Verginius Rufus
    • Hic situs est Rufus, pulso qui Vindice quondam imperium asseruit non sibi sed patriae.
      • "Here lies Rufus, who after defeating Vindex, did not take power, but gave it to the fatherland"
      • From: Plinius Secundus Minor, Epistulae, liber VI, 10.

W

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  • John Wayne (himself) 1907 - 1979
    • "Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday."
  • Hank Williams (his wife)
    • "Thank you for the love you gave me
      There could be nobody stronger
      Thank you for many beautiful songs
      They will live long, and longer"
  • Christopher Wren (by his son)
    • "Lector, si monumentum requiris circumspice."
      • Translation: "Reader, if you seek his monument, look around."
      • Wren is buried in St Paul's Cathedral, London, which he designed.
  • Virginia Woolf (by herself)
    • "Against you I will fling myself
      unvanquished and unyielding, O Death!"

X

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Y

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Grave of W. B. Yeats
  • William Butler Yeats (by himself)
    • "Cast a cold eye
      On life, on death.
      Horseman, pass by!"
      • This epitaph is from Under Ben Bulben, one of Yeats' last poems. The last section of Under Ben Bulben describes Yeats' resting-place-to-be. See W.B. Yeats at Wikisource and Wikipedia

Z

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Epitaphs in fiction

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  • Jean Valjean, Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
    • "Il dort. Quoique le sort fût pour lui bien étrange,; Il vivait. Il mourut quand il n’eut plus son ange,; La chose simplement d’elle-même arriva,; Comme la nuit se fait lorsque le jour s’en va."
    • He sleeps. Although his fate was very strange, he lived. He died when he had no longer his angel. The thing came to pass simply, of itself, as the night comes when day is gone.
  • King Menethil II
    • Here lies King Terenas Menethil II -- Last True King of Lordaeron.
      Great were his deeds -- long was his reign -- unthinkable was his death.
      "May the Father lie blameless for the deeds of the son.
      May the bloodied crown stay lost and forgotten."
      • Source: WarCraft
      • Note: He was murdered by his son, and the kingdom of Lordaeron fell.
  • Edmund Blackadder (by himself)
    • "Here lies Edmund Blackadder, and he's bloody annoyed."
  • "A Jacobite's Epitaph" (Thomas Babington Macaulay)
    • To my true king I offer'd free from stain
      Courage and faith; vain faith, and courage vain.
      For him I threw lands, honours, wealth, away,
      And one dear hope, that was more prized than they.
      For him I languish'd in a foreign clime,
      Gray-hair'd with sorrow in my manhood's prime;
      Heard on Lavernia Scargill's whispering trees,
      And pined by Arno for my lovelier Tees;
      Beheld each night my home in fever'd sleep,
      Each morning started from the dream to weep;
      Till God, who saw me tried too sorely, gave
      The resting-place I ask'd, an early grave.
      O thou, whom chance leads to this nameless stone,
      From that proud country which was once mine own,
      By those white cliffs I never more must see,
      By that dear language which I spake like thee,
      Forget all feuds, and shed one English tear
      O'er English dust. A broken heart lies here."
  • Baldur's Gate
    • "Stranger, Tread this ground with gravity
      Dentist Mark B is filling his last cavity."
  • Bonduca.
    • Lie lightly on my ashes, gentle earthe.
      • John Fletcher, Bonduca (1611–14; published 1647), Act IV, scene 3. ("Sit tibi terra levis," familiar inscription).
  • Scrooge McDuck (Keno Don Rosa)
    • "Fortuna favet fortibus"
      • Translation: "Fortune favours the brave"
      • Appears on an (unpublished) drawing by author Keno Don Rosa
  • Jenny Sparks (unknown)
    • "Bugger this. I want a better world."
  • David St. Hubbins (himself)
    • "Here lies David St. Hubbins...and why not?"
      • From "This is Spinal Tap". Suggested when asked what he'd want as his epitaph.
  • From Fable (game)
    • "Blimey it's darker than I thought in here."
    • "No man can hold his breath for ten minutes."
    • "What you lookin' at?"
    • "You're standing on my head."
    • "Rover was a true friend and pet, but ran in thunderstorms when wet."
    • "Not dead only sleeping, buried me anyway. Unlucky."
    • "I finished before you in the human race."
    • "Anyone want to swap places?"
    • "Thank you for reading this grave now bugger off!"
    • "Let me out!"
  • Senator Vrooman (Ambrose Bierce)
    • "Here lies the bones of Senator Vrooman
      Whose head was as hard as the heart of a woman
      Whose heart was as soft as the head of a hammer
      Dame Fortune inspired him to eminence, damn her!
      • Fictional future senator used as one of five examples under "Epitaph", from The Devil's Dictionary.
  • Van Ruijven
    • "He Painted Me."
      • In reference to painter Jan Vermeer; from the film Girl with a Pearl Earring.
  • Royal Tenenbaum (At his suggestion)
    • Royal O'Reilly Tenenbaum (1932–2001) Died Tragically Rescuing His Family From The Wreckage Of A Destroyed Sinking Battleship
  • Arcanum
    • "He had six bullets but he needed seven."
  • Charles Xavier (Age of Apocalypse version)
    • "Any dream worth having is a dream worth fighting for."
  •              Balin
              Fundinul
    Uzbad Khazad-dumu
    Balin son of Fundin Lord of Moria

Unknown

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  • From a Canadian WWI Memorial (Rudyard Kipling)
    • "From little towns in a far land we came
      To save our honour and a world aflame.
      By little towns in a far land we sleep
      And trust the world we won for you to keep."
  • From Ireland
    • "Tears cannot
      Restore her:
      Therefore I weep."
  • From a grave in Muçum, Brazil
    • Do escuro vieram, nas trevas viveram e para o além se foram.
      • Translation: From the dark they've come, among obscurity they've lived and to the hereafter they've gone.
  • Adult's grave in Rome, Italy
    • "Quello che siete fummo, quello che siamo sarete"
      • Translation: "What you are we were and what we are you will become"
  • Child's grave in Miami, FL (by Edmund Waller)
    • "What small amount of time they share
      Who are so wondrous sweet and fair"
      • From Waller's poem "Go, Lovely Rose"
  • Infant
    • "Since I am so quickly done for
      I wonder what I was begun for?"
  • Infant in Vermont
    • "Here lies our darling baby boy
      He never cries or hollers
      He lived for one and twenty days
      And cost us forty dollars."
  • From Tasmania, Australia
    • "Stop ye travellers as you pass by
      As you are now, so once was I
      As I am now, soon you shall be -
      Prepare yourself to follow me."
      • Graffiti response:
        "To follow you
        I am not content --
        How do I know
        which way you went?"
  • From Perth, Scotland
    • "Reader one moment stop and think,
      That I am in eternity and you are on the brink."
  • From Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia
    • "Death is a debt to Nature due
      Which we have paid and so must you."
  • From Nanuet, New York
    • "Remember man as you walk by,
      As you are now so once was I,
      As I am now, so to you shall be,
      Bow your head and pray for me."
  • From Évora, Portugal, in the Chapel of Bones
    • "Nós ossos que aqui estamos pelos vossos esperamos" - "We, bones that here lie, for yours we wait"
  • On a grave in a Kent cemetery
    • "Grim death took me without any warning
      I was well at night and dead at nine in the morning"
  • On a grave in New York
    • "je ne me souviens pas - or, here lies one whose name was writ in air"

Unknown Soldiers

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  • "Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God."
    • Tomb of the Unknowns, Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia; also used in other American War cemeteries, such as the ones in Normandy.
  • British Soldier, in Westminster Abbey
    • Beneath this stone lies the body
      of a British warrior
      Unknown by name or rank
      brought from France to lie among
      the most illustrious of the land
      and buried here on Armistice Day
      11 Nov: 1920, in the presence of
      His Majesty King George V
      His Ministers of State
      the Chiefs of his Forces
      and a vast concourse of the nation.

      Thus are commemorated the many
      multitudes who during the Great
      War of 1914-1918 gave the most that
      Man can give Life itself
      for God
      for King and country
      for loved ones, home and empire
      for the sacred cause of Justice and
      the Freedom of the world.

      They buried him among the kings because he
      had done good toward God and toward
      his house.
  • British Soldier, Tobruk Commonwealth Cemetery, Libya
    • At the going down of the sun
      And in the morning
      We will remember them
  • Australian soldier whose body is held in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Australia. By former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating
    • We do not know this Australian's name and we never will. We do not know his rank or battalion. We do not know where he was born, nor precisely how he died … We will never know who this Australian was … he was one of the 45,000 Australians who died on the Western Front … one of the 60,000 Australians who died on foreign soil. One of the 100,000 Australians who died in wars this century. He is all of them. And he is one of us.
  • To save your world you asked this man to die;
    Would this man, could he see you now, ask why?
    • W. H. Auden, "Epitaph for the Unknown Soldier" (October 1953)

Quotes about epitaphs

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  • Shrine of the mighty! can it be,
    That this is all remains of thee?
  • After your death you were better have a bad epitaph than their ill report while you live.
  • Either our history shall with full mouth
    Speak freely of our acts, or else our grave,
    Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth,
    Not worshipp'd with a waxen epitaph.
  • And if your love
    Can labour aught in sad invention,
    Hang her an epitaph upon her tomb
    And sing it to her bones, sing it to-night.

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

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Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 229-35.
  • Here lies the remains of James Pady, Brickmaker, in hope that his clay will be remoulded in a workmanlike manner, far superior to his former perishable materials.
    • Epitaph from Addiscombe Church-yard, Devonshire; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 229.
  • Stavo bene; per star meglio, sto qui.
    • I was well, I would be better; I am here.
    • Addison's translation of the epitaph on the monument of an Italian Valetudinarian. Spectator. No. 25. Boswell's Life of Johnson (April 7, 1775); reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 229.
  • Sufficit huic tumulus, cui non suffecerit orbis.
    • A tomb now suffices him for whom the whole world was not sufficient.
    • Epitaph on Alexander the Great; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 229.
  • If Paris that brief flight allow,
    My humble tomb explore!
    It bears: "Eternity, be thou
    My refuge!" and no more.
    • Matthew Arnold, Epitaph; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 229.
  • Here lies who, born a man, a grocer died.
    • Translation of a French epitaph: Né homme—mort épicier. Alfred Austin, Golden Age; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 229.
  • Here lies Anne Mann; she lived an
    Old maid and died an old Mann.
    • Bath Abbey; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 229.
  • And the voice of men shall call,
    "He is fallen like us all,
    Though the weapon of the Lord was in his hand:"
    And thine epitaph shall be—
    "He was wretched ev'n as we;"
    And thy tomb may be unhonoured in the land.
    • Robert Buchanan, The Modern Warrior, Stanza 7; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 229.
  • Kind reader! take your choice to cry or laugh;
    Here HAROLD lies—but where's his Epitaph?
    If such you seek, try Westminster, and view
    Ten thousand, just as fit for him as you.
    • Lord Byron, Substitute for an Epitaph; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 229.
  • Yet at the resurrection we shall see
    A fair edition, and of matchless worth,
    Free from erratas, new in heaven set forth.
    • Joseph Capen, lines upon Mr. John Foster. Borrowed from Rev. B. Woodbridge; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 229.
  • Loe here the precious dust is layd;
    Whose purely-temper'd clay was made
    So fine that it the guest betray'd.
    Else the soule grew so fast within,
    It broke the outward shell of sinne
    And so was hatch'd a cherubin.
    • Thomas Carew, inscription on tomb of Lady Maria Wentworth. In Toddington Church, Bedfordshire, England; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 229.
  • This Mirabeau's work, then, is done. He sleeps with the primeval giants. He has gone over to the majority: "Abiit ad plures."
    • Thomas Carlyle, Essay on Mirabeau, Close; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 229.
  • It is so soon that I am done for,
    I wonder what I was begun for!
    • Epitaph in Cheltenham Church-yard; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 229.
  • Ere sin could blight or sorrow fade,
    Death came with friendly care;
    The opening bud to Heaven conveyed,
    And bade it blossom there.
    • Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Epitaph on an Infant; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 229.
  • Peas to his Hashes.
    • Epitaph on a Cook (London); reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 229.
  • Underneath this crust
    Lies the mouldering dust
    Of Eleanor Batchelor Shoven,
    Well versed in the arts
    Of pies, custards and tarts,
    And the lucrative trade of the oven.
    When she lived long enough,
    She made her last puff,
    A puff by her husband much praised,
    And now she doth lie
    And make a dirt pie,
    In hopes that her crust may be raised.
    • Epitaph on a Cook (Yorkshire); reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 229.
  • What wee gave, wee have;
    What wee spent, wee had;
    What wee left, wee lost.
    • Epitaph on Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devon. (1419). In Cleveland's Geneal. Hist. of the Family of Courtenay, p. 142. Said to be on a tomb in Padua. Attributed to Carlyle; not found. Like inscriptions are found on many old tombstones. The oldest is probably the one in the choir of St. Peter's Church at St. Albans; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 229-230.
  • Praised, wept,
    And honoured, by the muse he loved.
    • Lines from the epitaph of James Craggs in Westminster Abbey; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 230.
  • And when I lie in the green kirkyard,
    With the mould upon my breast,
    Say not that she did well—or ill,
    "Only, She did her best."
    • Dinah Craik (Miss Mulock). Given in her obituary notice in the Athenæum (Oct. 22, 1887); reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 230.
  • O man! whosoever thou art, and whensoever thou comest, for come I know thou wilt, I am Cyrus, founder of the Persian empire. Envy me not the little earth that covers my body.
    • Plutarch, Life of Alexander, Epitaph of Cyrus; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 230.
  • Full many a life he saved
    With his undaunted crew;
    He put his trust in Providence,
    And Cared Not How It Blew.
    • Epitaph in Deal Churchyard; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 230.
  • His form was of the manliest beauty,
    His heart was kind and soft,
    Faithful, below, he did his duty;
    But now he's gone aloft.
    • Charles Dibdin, Tom Bowling. Written on the death of his brother. Inscribed on Charles Dibdin's gravestone, in the cemetery of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, Camden Town; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 230.
  • For though his body's under hatches,
    His soul has gone aloft.
    • Charles Dibdin, Tom Bowling. Written on the death of his brother; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 230.
  • This comes of altering fundamental laws and overpersuading by his landlord to take physic (of which he died) for the benefit of the doctor—Stavo bene (was written on his monument) ma per star meglio, sto qui.
    • John Dryden, Dedication of the Æneid (29-19 BC), XIV. 149; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 230.
  • Here lies Du Vall; reader, if male thou art,
    Look to thy purse; if female, to thy heart.
    • Claude Du Vall's Epitaph in Covent Garden Church. Found in Francis Watt's Law's Slumber Room. 2nd Series; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 230.
  • If e'er she knew an evil thought
    She spoke no evil word:
    Peace to the gentle! She hath sought
    The bosom of her Lord.
    • Ebenezer Elliot, Hannah Ratcliff; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 230.
  • "Let there be no inscription upon my tomb. Let no man write my epitaph. No man can write my epitaph. I am here ready to die. I am not allowed to vindicate my character; and when I am prevented from vindicating myself, let no man dare calumniate me. Let my character and motives repose in obscurity and peace, till other times and other men can do them justice."
    • Robert Emmet, speech on his trial and conviction for high treason (September, 1803); reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 230.
  • Nemo me lacrumis decoret neque funera fletu faxit.
    • Let no one pay me honor with tears, nor make for me a weeping funeral.
    • From Ennius' self-writ epitaph.
  • Under this stone, reader, survey
    Dead Sir John Vanbrugh's house of clay:
    Lie heavy on him, earth! for he
    Laid many heavy loads on thee.
    • Dr. Abel Evans, epitaph on the architect of Blenheim Palace. (Vanbrugh is buried in St. Stephen's Church, Walbrook, England); reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 230.
  • Lie light upon him, earth! tho' he
    Laid many a heavy load on thee.
    • As quoted by Snuffling—Epitaphia; Architects. Box, Elegies and Epitaphs. Voltaire, Letters (1733), p. 187; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 230.
  • The body of Benjamin Franklin, Printer, (Like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out and stript of its lettering and gilding), Lies here, food for worms; But the work shall not be lost, for it will (as he believed) appear once more in a new and more elegant edition, revised and corrected by the author.
    • Benjamin Franklin, Epitaph on Himself. Written in 1728. Revised by himself from an earlier one.
    • John Davis, in Travels of Four Years and a Half in the United States of America, gives similar epitaph in Latin, said to have been written by "An Eton scholar"; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 230.
  • Quand je serai la, je serai sans souci.
    • When I shall be there, I shall be without care.
    • Frederick the Great. His inscription written at the foot of the statue of Flora at Sans Souci, where he wished to be buried. His body lies in the church at Potsdam; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 230.
  • Here lies Fred,
    Who was alive and is dead.
    Had it been his father,
    I had much rather.
    Had it been his brother,
    Still better than another.
    Had it been his sister,
    No one would have missed her.
    Had it been the whole generation,
    Still better for the nation.
    But since 'tis only Fred,
    Who was alive, and is dead,
    There's no more to be said.
    • Epitaph to Frederick, Prince of Wales (Father of George III), as given by Thackeray—Four Georges. Probably version of a French epigram "Colas est morte de maladie," found in Les Epigrammes de Jean Ogier Gombauld. (1658). Several early versions of same. See Notes and Queries. May 3, 1902, p. 345; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 230.
  • "Fuller's earth."
    • Thomas Fuller, Epitaph written by Himself; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 230.
  • Here lies Nolly Goldsmith, for shortness called Noll,
    Who wrote like an angel, and talked like poor Poll.
    • David Garrick; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 231.
  • Here lie together, waiting the Messiah
    The little David and the great Goliath.
    • Note in Thespian Dictionary appended to account of Garrick, whose remains lie close to those of Johnson, in Westminster Abbey; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 231.
  • Life is a jest, and all things show it,
    I thought so once, but now I know it.
    • John Gay, My Own Epitaph; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 231.
  • Like a worn out type, he is returned to the Founder in the hope of being recast in a better and more perfect mould.
    • Epitaph on Peter Gedge; Parish church, St. Mary, Bury St. Edmund's; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 231.
  • I have expended; I have given; I have kept;
    I have possessed; I do possess; I have lost;
    I am punished. What I formerly expended, I have; what I gave away, I have.
    • Gesta Romanorum, Tale XVI; Found on the golden sarcophagus of a Roman Emperor; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 231.
  • What we say of a thing that has just come in fashion
    And that which we do with the dead,
    Is the name of the honestest man in the nation:
    What more of a man can be said?
    • Oliver Goldsmith, Punning epitaph on John Newbery, the publisher; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 231.
  • Qui nullum fere scribendi genus non tetigit; nullum quod tetigit non ornavit.
    • Who left nothing of authorship untouched, and touched nothing which he did not adorn.
    • Goldsmith's Epitaph in Westminster Abbey; Written by Samuel Johnson; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 231.
  • And many a holy text around she strews
    That teach the rustic moralist to die.
    • Thomas Gray, Elegy in a Country Churchyard, Stanza 21; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 231.
  • Balnea, vina, Venus corrumpunt corpora nostra;
    Sed vitam faciunt baldea, vina, Venus.
    • Baths, wine and Venus bring decay to our bodies; but baths, wine and Venus make up life.
    • Epitaph in Gruter's Monumenta; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 231.
  • Beneath these green trees rising to the skies,
    The planter of them, Isaac Greentree, lies;
    The time shall come when these green trees shall fall,
    And Isaac Greentree rise above them all.
    • Epitaph at Harrow; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 231.
  • His foe was folly and his weapon wit.
    • Anthony Hope Hawkins, Inscribed on the bronze tablet placed in memory of Sir William Gilbert on the Victoria Embankment (Aug. 31, 1915); reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 231. Bronze is by Sir George Frampton.
  • Farewell, vain world, I've had enough of thee,
    And Valies't not what thou Can'st say of me;
    Thy Smiles I count not, nor thy frowns I fear,
    My days are past, my head lies quiet here.
    What faults you saw in me take Care to shun,
    Look but at home, enough is to be done.
    • Epitaph over William Harvey in Greasley Churchyard, England (1756); reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 231. A travesty of the same is over the tomb of Phillis Robinson, in that churchyard (1866). See Alfred Stapleton, The Churchyard Scribe, p. 95.
  • Man's life is like unto a winter's day,
    Some break their fast and so depart away,
    Others stay dinner then depart full fed;
    The longest age but sups and goes to bed.
    Oh, reader, then behold and see,
    As we are now so must you be.
    • Joseph Henshaw, Horæ Succisivæ; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 231.
  • But here's the sunset of a tedious day.
    These two asleep are; I'll but be undrest,
    And so to bed. Pray wish us all good rest.
    • Robert Herrick, Epitaph on Sir Edward Giles; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 231.
  • Here she lies a pretty bud,
    Lately made of flesh and blood;
    Who, as soone fell fast asleep,
    As her little eyes did peep.
    Give her strewings, but not stir
    The earth that lightly covers her.
    • Robert Herrick, Upon a Child that Dyed; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 231.
  • Under the shadow of a leafy bough
    That leaned toward a singing rivulet,
    One pure white stone, whereon, like crown on brow,
    The image of the vanished star was set;
    And this was graven on the pure white stone
    In golden letters—"WHILE SHE LIVED SHE SHONE."
    • Jean Ingelow, Star's Monument, Stanza 47; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 231.
  • The hand of him here torpid lies,
    That drew th' essential form of grace,
    Here closed in death th' attentive eyes
    That saw the manners in the face.
    • Samuel Johnson, Epitaph for Hogarth; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 231.
  • Sleep undisturbed within this peaceful shrine,
    Till angels wake thee with a note like thine.
    • Samuel Johnson, Epitaph on Claude Phillips; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 231.
  • Underneath this stone doth lie
    As much beauty as could die;
    Which in life did harbor give
    To more virtue than doth live.
    If at all she had a fault,
    Leave it buried in this vault.
    • Ben Jonson, Epigram CXXIV, To Lady Elizabeth L. H.; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 231.
  • Underneath this sable herse
    Lies the subject of all verse,—
    Sydneye's sister, Pembroke's mother.
    Death, ere thou hast slaine another,
    Faire and learn'd and good as she,
    Tyme shall throw a dart at thee.
    • Attributed to Ben Jonson, Epitaph on the Countess of Pembroke; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 231-232. Claimed for Sir Thomas Browne by Sir Egerton Brydges. It is in Lansdowne Manuscript No. 777, in British Museum. Poems by Browne, Volume II, p. 342. Ed. by W. C. Hazlitt for the Roxburghe Library.
  • Here lies one whose name was writ in water.
    • Engraved on Keats' tombstone at his own desire; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 232. Phrase "writ in water" in Hakewell's Apologie (1635), p. 127. William Shakespeare, King Henry VIII, Act IV, scene II.
  • I conceive disgust at these impertinent and misbecoming familiarities inscribed upon your ordinary tombstone.
    • Charles Lamb; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 232.
  • Satire does not look pretty upon a tombstone; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 232.
    • Charles Lamb; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 232.
  • I strove with none, for none was worth my strife;
    Nature I loved, and after Nature, Art;
    I warmed both hands before the fire of life;
    It sinks, and I am ready to depart.
    • Walter Savage Landor, Epitaph on Himself; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 232.
  • Emigravit, is the inscription on the tombstone where he lies;
    Dead he is not, but departed,—for the artist never dies.
  • Here lie I, Martin Elginbrodde:
    Have mercy o' my soul, Lord God;
    As I wad do, were I Lord God,
    And ye were Martin Elginbrodde.
    • George McDonald, David Elginbrod, Chapter XIII; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 232.
  • The shameless Chloe placed on the tombs of her seven husbands the inscription, "The work of Chloe." How could she have expressed herself more plainly?
    • Martial, Epigrams (c. 80-104 AD), Book IX, Epigram 15; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 232.
  • This work, newly revised and improved by its great Author, will reappear in a splendid day.
    • Epitaph on Oscar Meader in a church in Berlin.
  • Ci gît l'enfant gâté du monde qu'il gâta.
    • Here lies the child spoiled by the world which he spoiled.
    • Baronne de Montolieu, Epitaph on Voltaire; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 232.
  • Requiescat in pace.
    • May he rest in peace.
    • Order of the Mass; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 232.
  • Beneath this stone old Abraham lies;
    Nobody laughs and nobody cries.
    Where he is gone, and how he fares,
    Nobody knows and nobody cares.
    • On the monument of Abraham Newland, principal cashier of the Bank of England (Died, 1807; his own lines); reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 232.
  • Jacet ecce Tibullus;
    Vix manet e toto parva quod urna capit.
    • Here lies Tibullus; of all that he was there scarcely remains enough to fill a small urn.
    • Ovid, Amorum (16 BC), Book III, 9, 39; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 232.
  • Molliter ossa cubent.
    • May his bones rest gently.
    • Ovid, Heroides, VII, 162; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 232.
  • "In his last binn Sir Peter lies."
    * * * *
    He kept at true humour's mark
    The social flow of pleasure's tide:
    He never made a brow look dark,
    Nor caused a tear, but when he died.
    • Thomas Love Peacock, To Sir Peter; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 232.
  • Postquam est mortem aptus Plautus: comœdia luget
    Scena deserta, dein risus ludus jocusque
    Et numeri innumeri simul omnes collacrumarunt.
    • Plautus has prepared himself for a life beyond the grave; the comic stage deserted weeps; laughter also and jest and joke; and poetic and prosaic will bewail his loss together.
    • Epitaph of Plautus, by himself; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 232.
  • Under this marble, or under this sill,
    Or under this turf, or e'en what they will,
    Whatever an heir, or a friend in his stead,
    Or any good creature shall lay o'er my head,
    Lies one who ne'er car'd, and still cares not a pin
    What they said or may say of the mortal within;
    But who, living and dying, serene, still and free,
    Trusts in God that as well as he was he shall be.
    • Alexander Pope, Epitaph; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 232.
  • Kneller, by Heaven and not a master taught
    Whose art was nature, and whose pictures thought,
    * * * * * *
    Living great Nature fear'd he might outvie
    Her works; and dying, fears herself may die.
    • Alexander Pope, Inscription on the monument of Sir Geofrey Kneller in Westminster Abbey; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 232. Imitated from the epitaph on Raphael, in the Pantheon at Rome.
  • To this sad shrine, whoe'er thou art! draw near!
    Here lies the friend most lov'd, the son most dear;
    Who ne'er knew joy but friendship might divide,
    Or gave his father grief but when he died.
    • Alexander Pope, Epitaph on Harcourt; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 232.
  • Nihil unquam peccavit, nisi quod mortua est.
    • She never did wrong in any way, unless in the fact that she died.
    • On a wife's tomb at Rome; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 232.
  • Calmly he looked on either Life, and here
    Saw nothing to regret, or there to fear:
    From Nature's temp'rate feast rose satisfy'd,
    Thank'd Heaven that he had lived, and that he died.
    • Alexander Pope, Epitaph X; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 232.
  • Statesman, yet friend to truth! of soul sincere,
    In action faithful, and in honour clear;
    Who broke no promise, served no private end,
    Who gained no title, and who lost no friend,
    Ennobled by himself, by all approved,
    And praised, unenvied, by the muse he loved.
    • Alexander Pope, Moral Essays, Epistle V, line 67 (to Addison); reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 233.
  • Heralds and statesmen, by your leave,
    Here lies what once was Matthew Prior;
    The son of Adam and of Eve;
    Can Bourbon or Nassau go higher?
    • Matthew Prior, Epitaph, Extempore (as given in original edition); reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 233.
  • Johnny Carnegie lais heer
    Descendit of Adam and Eve,
    Gif ony cou gang hieher,
    I'se willing give him leve.
    • Epitaph in an old Scottish Churchyard; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 233.
  • In Fortunam
    Inveni portum spes et fortuna valete
    Nil mini vobiscum ludite nunc alios.
    • Mine haven's found; Fortune and Hope, adieu.
      Mock others now, for I have done with you.
    • Inscription on the tomb of Francesco Pucci in the church of St. Onuphrius, (St. Onofrio), Rome; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 233. Translation by Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, Part II, Section III. Memb. 6. Quoted by him as a saying of Prudentius. Attributed to Janus Pannonius. See Jani Panuonii, Onofrio, Part II. Folio 70. Found in Laurentius Schradern's Monumenta Italiæ, Folio Helmæstadii, p. 164. Attributed to Cardinal, La Marck in foot-note to Le Sage's Gil Blas.
  • Jam portum inveni, Spes et Fortuna valete.
    Nil mihi vobiscum est, ludite nunc alios.
    • Fortune and Hope farewell! I've found the port;
      You've done with me: go now, with others sport.
    • Version of the Greek epigram in the Anthologia; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 233. Translation by Merivale. Latin by Thomas More, in the Progymnasmata prefixed to first ed. of More's Epigrams. (1520).
  • Avete multum, Spesque, Forsque; sum in vado.
    Qui pone sint illudite; haud mea interest.
    • Version of the Greek epigram in Dr. Wellesley's Anthologia Polyglotta, p. 464. Ed. 1849; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 233.
  • Speme e Fortuna, addio; che' in porto entrai.
    Schernite gli altri; ch'io vi spregio omai.
    • Version of the Greek epigram by Luigi Alamanni; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 233.
  • I came at morn—'twas spring, I smiled,
    The fields with green were clad;
    I walked abroad at noon,—and lo!
    'Twas summer,—I was glad;
    I sate me down; 'twas autumn eve,
    And I with sadness wept;
    I laid me down at night, and then
    'Twas winter,—and I slept.
    • Mary Pyper, Epitaph, A Life. Same on a tombstone in Massachusetts. See Newhaven Magazine (Dec., 1863); reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 233.
  • The world's a book, writ by th' eternal Art
    Of the great Maker; printed in man's heart;
    'Tis falsely printed though divinely penn'd,
    And all the Errata will appear at th' end.
    • Francis Quarles, Divine Fancies; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 233.
  • The World's a Printing-House, our words, our thoughts,
    Our deeds, are characters of several sizes.
    Each Soul is a Compos'tor, of whose faults
    The Levites are Correctors; Heaven Revises.
    Death is the common Press, from whence being driven,
    We're gather'd, Sheet by Sheet, and bound for Heaven.
  • She was—but room forbids to tell thee what—
    Sum all perfection up, and she was—that.
    • Francis Quarles, Epitaph on Lady Luchyn; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 233.
  • Warm summer sun, shine friendly here;
    Warm western wind, blow kindly here;
    Green sod above, rest light, rest light—
    Good-night, Annette!
    Sweetheart, good-night.
    • Robert Richardson, in his collection, Willow and Wattle, p. 35; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 233.
  • Warm summer sun shine kindly here;
    Warm southern wind blow softly here;
    Green sod above lie light, lie light—
    Good night, dear heart, good night, good night.
    • Richardson's lines on the tombstone of Susie Clemens as altered by Mark Twain; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 233.
  • Quod expendi habui
    Quod donavi habeo
    Quod servavi perdidi.
    • That I spent that I had
      That I gave that I have
      That I left that I lost.
    • Epitaph under an effigy of a priest. T. F. Ravenshaw's Antiente Epitaphes, p. 5. Weever's Funeral Monuments. Ed. 1631, p. 581. Pettigrew's Chronicles of the Tombs; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 233.
  • Ecce quod expendi habui, quod donavi habeo,
    quod negavi punior, quod servavi perdidi.
    • On Tomb of John Killungworth (1412), in Pitson Church, Bucks, England; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 233.
  • Lo, all that ever I spent, that sometime had I;
    All that I gave in good intent, that now have I;
    That I never gave, nor lent, that now aby I;
    That I kept till I went, that lost I.
    • Translation of the Latin on the brasses of a priest at St. Albans, and on a brass as late as 1584 at St. Olave's, Hart Street, London; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 233.
  • It that I gife, I haif,
    It that I len, I craif,
    It that I spend, is myue,
    It that I leif, I tyne.
    • On very old stone in Scotland. Hackett's Epitaphs, Volume I, p. 32 (Ed. 1737); reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 233.
  • Howe: Howe: who is heare:
    I, Robin of Doncaster, and Margaret my feare.
    That I spent, that I had;
    That I gave, that I have;
    That I left, that I lost.
    • Epitaph of Robert Byrkes, in Doncaster Church. Richard Gough, Sepulchral Monuments of Great Britain; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 234.
  • The earthe goeth on the earthe
    Glisteringe like gold;
    The earthe goeth to the earthe
    Sooner than it wold;
    The earthe builds on the earthe
    Castles and Towers;
    The earthe says to the earthe
    All shall be ours.
    • Epitaph in T. F. Ravenshaw's Antiente Epitaphes (1878), p. 158. Also in The Scotch Haggis. Edinburgh, 1822. For variation of same see Montgomery, Christian Poets, p. 58. 3rd ed. Note states it is by William Billyng, Five Wounds of Christ. From an old Manuscript in the possession of William Bateman, of Manchester. The epitaph to Archbishop of Canterbury, time of Edward III, is the same. See Weaver's Funeral Monuments (1631). Facsimile discovered in the chapel of the Guild of the Holy Cross, at Stratford. See Fisher's Illustrations of the Paintings, etc. (1802). Ed. by J. G. Nichols. Epitaph and citations reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 234.
  • Earth walks on Earth,
    Glittering in gold;
    Earth goes to Earth,
    Sooner than it wold;
    Earth builds on Earth,
    Palaces and towers;
    Earth says to Earth,
    Soon, all shall be ours.
    • Walter Scott, Unpublished Epigram, in Notes and Queries (May 21, 1853), p. 498; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 234.
  • Traveller, let your step be light,
    So that sleep these eyes may close,
    For poor Scarron, till to-night,
    Ne'er was able e'en to doze.
    • Scarron, epitaph written by himself; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 234.
  • Sit tua terra levis.
    • May the earth rest lightly on thee.
    • Seneca, Epigram II. Ad Corsican. Martial—Epigram V. 35; IX. 30. 11.
  • Good Frend for Jesvs Sake Forbeare,
    To Digg the Dvst Encloased Heare.
    Blese be ye Man yt Spares Thes Stones.
    And Cvrst be he yt Moves my Bones.
    • Epitaph on Shakespeare's Tombstone at Stratford-on-Avon (said to be chosen by him, but not original); reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 234.
  • These are two friends whose lives were undivided:
    So let their memory be, now they have glided
    Under the grave; let not their bones be parted,
    For their two hearts in life were single-hearted.
    • Percy Bysshe Shelley, Epitaph; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 234.
  • He will be weighed again
    At the Great Day,
    His rigging refitted,
    And his timbers repaired,
    And with one broadside
    Make his adversary
    Strike in his turn.
    • Tobias Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, Volume III, Chapter VII. Epitaph on Commodore Trunnion; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 234.
  • Let no man write my epitaph; let my grave
    Be uninscribed, and let my memory rest
    Till other times are come, and other men,
    Who then may do me justice.
    • Southey. Written after Reading the Speech of Robert Emmet; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 234.
  • The turf has drank a
    Widow's tear;
    Three of her husbands
    Slumber here.
    • Epitaph at Staffordshire; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 234.
  • Here lies one who meant well, tried a little, failed much.
    • Robert Louis Stevenson, Christmas Sermon; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 234.
  • I, whom Apollo sometime visited,
    Or feigned to visit, now, my day being done,
    Do slumber wholly, nor shall know at all
    The weariness of changes; nor perceive
    Immeasurable sands of centuries
    Drink up the blanching ink, or the loud sound
    Of generations beat the music down.
    • Robert Louis Stevenson, Epitaph for himself; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 234.
  • Now when the number of my years
    Is all fulfilled and I
    From sedentary life
    Shall rouse me up to die,
    Bury me low and let me lie
    Under the wide and starry sky.
    Joying to live, I joyed to die,
    Bury me low and let me lie.
    • Robert Louis Stevenson, poem written in 1879; probably original of his Requiem; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 235.
  • To the down Bow of Death
    His Forte gave way,
    All the Graces in sorrow were drown'd;
    Hallelujah Cresendo
    Shall be his glad lay
    When Da'Capo the Trumpet shall sound.
    • Epitaph to Samuel Taylor, in Youlgreaves Churchyard, Derbyshire, England; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 235.
  • Thou third great Canning, stand among our best
    And noblest, now thy long day's work hath ceased,
    Here silent in our minster of the West
    Who wert the voice of England in the East.
    • Alfred Tennyson, Epitaph on Lord Stratford De Redcliffe; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 235.
  • Ne'er to these chambers where the mighty rest,
    Since their foundation came a nobler guest;
    Nor e'er was to the bowers of bliss conveyed
    A fairer spirit or more welcome shade.
    • Thomas Tickell, Ode on the Death of Addison. Later placed on Addison's tomb in Henry the VII Chapel, Westminster; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 235.
  • Then haste, kind Death, in pity to my age,
    And clap the Finis to my life's last page.
    May Heaven's great Author my foul proof revise,
    Cancel the page in which my error lies,
    And raise my form above the etherial skies.
    * * * * * * * *
    The stubborn pressman's form I now may scoff;
    Revised, corrected, finally worked off!
    • C. H. Timberley, ed. Songs of the Press (1845); reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 235.
  • Mantua me genuit; Calabri rapuere; tenet nunc
    Parthenope. Cecini pascua, rura, duces.
    • Mantua bore me; the people of Calabria carried me off; Parthenope (Naples) holds me now. I have sung of pastures, of fields, of chieftains.
    • Virgil's Epitaph; said to be by himself; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 235.
  • Here in this place sleeps one whom love
    Caused, through great cruelty to fall.
    A little scholar, poor enough,
    Whom François Villon men did call.
    No scrap of land or garden small
    He owned. He gave his goods away,
    Table and trestles, baskets—all;
    For God's sake say for him this Lay.
    • François Villon, His own Epitaph; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 235.
  • He directed the stone over his grave to be thus inscribed:
    Hie jacet hujus Sententiæ primus Author:
    Disputandi pruritus ecclesiarum scabies.
    Nomen alias quære.
    Here lies the first author of this sentence; "The itch of disputation will prove the scab of the Church." Inquire his name elsewhere.
    • Isaak Walton, Life of Wotton; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 235.
  • The poet's fate is here in emblem shown,
    He asked for bread, and he received a stone.
    • Samuel Wesley, Epigrams. On Butler's Monument in Westminster Abbey; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 235.
  • Here lies, in a "horizontal" position
    The "outside" case of
    Peter Pendulum, watch-maker.
    He departed this life "wound up"
    In hopes of being "taken in hand" by his Maker,
    And of being thoroughly "cleaned, repaired" and "set a-going"
    In the world to come.
    • C. H. Wilson, Polyanthea. Epitaph on a Watch-maker. Transcribed from Aberconway Churchyard; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 235.
  • O what a monument of glorious worth,
    When in a new edition he comes forth,
    Without erratas, may we think he'll be
    In leaves and covers of eternity!
    • Benjamin Woodbridge, Lines on John Cotton (1652); reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 235.
  • He first deceas'd; she for a little tri'd
    To live without him, lik'd it not, and died.
    • Sir Henry Wotton, Upon the Death of Sir Albertus Morton's Wife; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 235.
  • Si monumentum requiris circumspice.
    • If you would see his monument look around.
    • Inscription on the tomb of Sir Christopher Wren in St. Paul's, London. Written by his son. Translation by Rogers, Italy, Florence; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 235.

See also

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