143 Last Words That’ll Make You Think (Love, Suicide, Sad)


Sometimes it is in the closing moments of this life that we find the most clarity and say the things that we most want to say.

Below are a collection of famous people, and some infamous, who were quoted late in their lives or on their death bed (and sometimes both).

I’ve put the quotes into categories of the mood they bring when you read them and the situation they were said in from facing death bravely to an odd or funny remark before passing on.

If you would like to get a copy of hundreds of short quotes included in this article and more, then feel free to download a free PDF printable file here.

For a full list of verses from the Book Of Psalms, you can find my selection as well as another free PDF with over 500 Bible verses here.

Famous last words said before an accident

Some of the most chilling last words recorded are those from people just about to die in an accident. From Eric Garner who died after a botched arrest to David A. Johnston killed in an eruption, these words make you think.

1

Hallo, the bow is up… I’m going… I’m on my back… I’ve gone. Oh.

Donald Campbell
British – adventurer
1921–1967

2

I can’t breathe

Eric Garner
American – civilian
1970-2014

3

My God. What’s happened?

Diana, Princess of Wales
British – Monarch
1961-1997

4

Vancouver, Vancouver, this is it. This is-

David A. Johnston
American – volcanologist
1949-1980

Famous last words said by brave people

When you hear the final words of people facing death, often due to circumstances outside their control, it is inspiring. These brave words come from Titanic victims and those who died during 9/11.

5

I am just going outside

Lawrence Oates
British – adventurer
1880-1912

6

The ladies have to go first. Get in the lifeboat to please me. Goodbye dearie. I’ll see you later

John Jacob Astor IV
American – Businessman
1864-1912

7

We’re overlooking the financial center. Two broken windows. Oh God. Oh-

Kevin Cosgrove
American – Businessman
1955-2001

8

Are you guys ready? Let’s roll.

Todd Beamer
American – Hero
1968- 2001

9

Well boys, do your best for the women and children, and look out for yourself

Captain Edward Smith
British – Naval officer
1850-1912

10

Do you hear the rain?

Jessica Dubroff
American – Pilot
1988-1996

11

Take a step forward, lads. It will be easier that way.

Erskine Childers
Irish – Writer
1870–1922

Famous Last Words From Drug Overdoses

When young stars die due to the misuse of drugs, it is terrible. When you hear the sentiment of their final words it really touches your heart.

12

Just don’t leave me alone.

John Belushi
American – Actor
1949-1982

13

Please don’t leave me

Chris Farley
American – Actor
1964-1997

14

Mom, I’m dying

Brittany Murphy
American – Actor
1977-2009

15

If you don’t like it , you can f**k off

Keith Moon
British – Musician
1946-1978

Famous Quotes From People Who Were Executed

Some people are executed for crimes they committed, like John Wayne Gacy and others were killed over politics. Final words from those who know their time is up is incredibly chilling.

16

Kiss my a$$. You’ll never find the rest.

John Wayne Gacy
American – Criminal
1942-1994

17

I see that you have made three spelling mistakes

Thomas de Mahay


Funny Last Words From Funny People

Even at the end, people who lived with laughter in their hearts can still leave us with a funny way to remember them. Sometimes these final utterances are just funny because of the context. Here are some famous final words from the best comedians and wits who have passed.

18

Die? I should say not, dear fellow. No Barrymore would allow such a conventional thing to happen to him

John Barrymore
American – Actor
1882-1942

19

Why not? After all, it belongs to Him

Charlie Chaplin
British – Actor
1889-1977

20

I’d rather be skiing.

Stan Laurel
British – Actor
1890-1965

21

Die my dear? Why that’s the last thing I’ll do

Groucho Marx
American – Actor
1890-1977

22

Dammit

Joan Crawford
American – Actor
1904-1977

23

I told you I was ill.

Spike Milligan
Irish – actor
1918-2005

24

I’m tired of being the funniest person in the room

Del Close
American – Actor
1934-1999

25

one last drink, please

Jack Daniel
American – Businessman
1849-1911

26

How’s this for your headline? ‘French Fries!

James Donald French
American – Criminal
1936-1966

27

Oh, you young people act like old men. You have no fun

Josephine Baker
American – entertainer
1906-1975

28

Bugger Bognor!

King George V
British – Monarch
1865–1936

29

I’m going to the bathroom to read

Elvis Presley
American – Musician
1935 – 1977

30

Ok, I won’t

Elvis Presley
American – Musician
1935 – 1977

31

“Go on, get out! Last words are for fools who haven’t said enough!

Karl Marx
German – philosopher
1818-1883

32

Tell them I’ve had a wonderful life.

Ludwig Wittgenstein
Austrian-British – philosopher
1889–1951

33

On the contrary.

Henrik Ibsen
Norwegian – playwright
1828–1906

34

Dying is easy, comedy is hard

George Bernard Shaw
Irish – playwright
1856-1950

35

It’s a long time since I drank champagne

Anton Chekhov
Russian – playwright
1860 – 1904

36

Give me coffee! I’m going to write!

Olavo Bilac
Brazilian – poet
1865-1918

37

It is not my design to drink or sleep. My design is to make what haste I can to be gone.

Oliver Cromwell
British – Politician
1599–1658

38

I’m bored with it all.

Sir Winston Churchill
British – Politician
1874–1965

39

I’m a f**king doctor

R. D. Laing
British – Psychiatrist
1927-1989

40

That was a great game of gold, fellas

Bing Crosby
American – singer
1903-1977

41

They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.

General John Sedgwick
American – soldier
1813-1864

42

I am about to – or I am going to – die: either expression is correct.

Dominique Bouhours
French – Writer
1628-1702

43

Now, now, my good man, this is no time for making enemies.

Voltaire
French – Writer
1694-1778

44

Mehr Licht! (More light!)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
German – Writer
1749–1832

45

Don’t ask me how I am

Hans Christian Andersen
Danish – Writer
1805-1875

46

No comment

Edward Abbey
American – Writer
1927-1989

47

This wallpaper is dreadful, one of us will have to go

Oscar Wilde


Last Words From People Who Died Happy

When all is said and done, we all want to leave this world happy with the part we played in it. Reading the final words of these famous people certainly gives you the impression that they did just that.

48

Milan: What a beautiful place to die

John Carradine
American – Actor
1906-1988

49

I’ve had a hell of a lot of fun, and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.

Errol Flynn
Australian – Actor
1909-1959

50

My Florida water.

Lucille Ball
American – Actor
1911–1985

51

Adieu, mes amis. Je vais à la gloire. (Farewell, my friends. I go to glory.)

Isadora Duncan
American – Dancer
1878–1927

52

This is the last of earth. I am content

John Quincy Adams
American – Politician
1767–1848

53

Nancy, I want you to know my last thoughts are of you.

P. T. Barnum
American – Politician
1810–1891

54

I want nothing but death.

Jane Austen
British – Writer
1561–1626

Ironic Last Words

Perhaps the best final words are those which have a hint of irony to them. All too often the person who said them didn’t live to see just how ironic their final utterances were.

Titan Caskets

55

I think I’m going to make it.

Richard A. Loeb
American – Criminal
1904 -1971

56

I told u I was hardcore […] u are so f**king stupid

Brandon Vedas
American – Internet user
1981 -2003

57

I’ll show you that it won’t shoot.

Johnny Ace
American – Musician
1929-1954

58

What do you think I’m gonna do? Blow my brains out?

Terry Kath
American – Musician
1946 -1978

59

Let all brave Prussians follow me!

Field Marshal Kurt Christoph Graf von Schwerin
German – Soldier
1684-1757

60

Sergeant, the Spanish bullet isn’t made that will kill me.

Captain Buckey O’Neill,
American – Soldier
1860-1898

61

Useless, useless

John Wilkes Booth
American – Killer
1938-1965

Last Words Said In Love

Perhaps the best way to go is surrounded by those you loved and telling each other one last time just how you feel. These famous people managed to slip their mortal coil just after expressing the love in their hearts.

62

Goodbye Kid. Hurry back.

Humphrey Bogart
American – Actor
1899-1957

63

I should have never switched from Scotch to martinis.

Humphrey Bogart
American – Actor
1899-1957

64

Of course I know who you are. You’re my girl. I love you

John Wayne
American – actor
1907-1979

65

I love you and my head hurts

Gary Coleman
American – Actor
1968-2010

66

Oh wow.

Steve Jobs
– Businessman
1955–2011

67

Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy…how can I ever forget them

Charles Schulz.
American – cartoonist
1922-2000

68

Nothing soothes pain like human touch

Bobby Fischer
American – chess grandmaster
1943-2008

69

Happy Anniversary. I Love You

Vince Lombardi
American – football coach
1913-1970

70

Let not poor Nelly starve.

King Charles II
British – Monarch
1630–1685

71

Strike here! Level your rage against the womb which gave birth to such a monster.

Agrippina the Younger mother of Nero
Roman – Mother
59 CE

72

love one another

George Harrison
British – Musician
1943-2001

73

I love you more.

Michael Jackson
American – Musician
1958–2009

74

I’ll finally get to see Marilyn

Joe Dimaggio
American – Sportsman
1914-1999

75

It is not painful, Pætus.

Arria, Roman woman
Roman – Wife
42 CE

76

You Are Wonderful

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
British – Writer
1859-1930

77

Valerie

T.S. Eliot
American – Writer
1888-1965

Last Words From Those Killed Or Murdered

When the worst happens and someone is killed, their final words can often be a reaction to what is happening to them. Famous people are no different, and these are the last recorded words of some of the most notorious victims.

78

You got me

John Dillinger
American – Bank robber
1903-1934

79

I’m the problem

David Burke
American – hijacker
1952-1987

80

Lady, you shot me

Sam Cooke
American – Musician
1931-1964

81

Van Halen

Dimebag Darrell
American – Musician
1966-2004

82

I have been murdered; no remedy can prevent my speedy death.

Pope Leo X
– Pope
1521

83

Mother, I’m going to get my things and get out of this house. Father hates me and I’m never coming back

Marvin Gaye
American – singer
1939-1984

84

F**k you

Tupac
American – singer
1971-1996

Last Words With Poignant Meaning

Some people leave this world with a final message which can really help those left behind understand more about the world. Sometimes these aren’t said on the death bed, but they are a final account of what the person thought about life.

85

That guy’s got to stop

James Dean
American – Actor
1931-1955

86

A life is like a garden, perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory

Leonard Nimoy
American – Actor
1931-2015

87

You’re Right. It’s Time. I Love You All

Michael Landon
American – Actor
1936-1991

88

Make the world better

Lucy Stone
American – Advocate
1818-1893

89

I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have

leonardo da vinc
Italian – artist
1452-1519

90

Drink to me, drink to my health, you know I can’t drink any more

Pablo Picasso
Spanish – artist
1881-1973

91

I do not believe in my death.

Salvador Dali
Spanish – artist
1904-1989

92

Where is my clock?

Salvador Dali
Spanish – artist
1904-1989

93

I hope exit is joyful and I hope never to come back

Frida Kahlo
Mexican – artist
1907-1954

94

I’ve said all that I had to say

Bill Hicks
American – comedian
1961-1994

95

The taste of death is upon my lips… I feel something, that is not of this earth

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Austrian – composer
1756-1791

96

Stay with me to-night; you must see me die. I have long had the taste of death on my tongue, I smell death, and who will stand by my Constanze, if you do not stay?

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Austrian – composer
1756-1791

97

As death, when we come to consider it closely, is the true goal of our existence, I have formed during the last few years such close relationships with this best and truest friend of mankind that death’s image is not only no longer terrifying to me, but is indeed very soothing and consoling.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Austrian – composer
1756-1792

98

One never knows the ending. One has to die to know exactly what happens after death, although Catholics have their hopes.

Alfred Hitchcock
British – Director
1899-1980

99

the spirit of the Ultimate Warrior will run forever

Ultimate Warrior
American – entertainer
1959-2014

100

I’ll see you at the movies

Roger Ebert
American – film critic
1942-2013

101

Now comes the mystery

Henry Ward Beecher
American – minister
1813-1887

102

The story of life is quicker than the blink of an eye. The story of love is hello and goodbye Until we meet again

Jimi Hendrix
American – Musician
1942-1970

103

Money can’t buy life.

Bob Marley
Jamaican – Musician
1945-1981

104

Music has been my doorway of perception and the house that I live in.

David Bowie
British – Musician
1947-2016

105

New York, New York. Big city of dreams, but everything in New York ain’t always what it seems

Adam Goldstein
American – Musician
1973-2009

106

I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap in the dark

Thomas Hobbes
British – philosopher
1588-1679

107

For my name and memory, I leave it to men’s charitable speeches, and to foreign nations, and the next ages.

Sir Francis Bacon
British – Politician
1561–1626

108

A dying man can do nothing easily

Benjamin Franklin
American – Politician
1706-1790

109

On that subject I am coy

Aaron Burr
American – politician
1756-1836

110

These are my last words, and I am certain that my sacrifice will not be in vain. I am certain that, at the very least, it will be a moral lesson that will punish felony, cowardice and treason.

Salvador Allende
Chilean – Politician
1908-1973

111

Maybe I’m dying

Jim Henson
American – puppeteer
1936-1990

112

I believe that a life lived for music is an existence spent wonderfully, and this is what I have dedicated my life to.

Luciano Pavarotti
Italian – singer
1935-2007)

113

Be inspired

Heavy D
Jamaican-American – singer
1967-2011

114

I’m going over the valley

Babe Ruth
American – Sportsman
1895-1948

115

Don’t die like I did.

George Best
British – Sportsman
1946-2005

116

Tomorrow at sunrise I shall no longer be here

Nostradamus
French – Writer
1503-1566

117

Lord, help my poor soul

Edgar Allan Poe
American – Writer
1809-1849

118

It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.

Charles Dickens
British – Writer
1812-1870

119

Be natural my children. For the writer that is natural has fulfilled all the rules of art.

Charles Dickens
British – Writer
1812-1870

120

Take away those pillows, I shall need them no more

Lewis Carroll
British – Writer
1832-1898

121

I am dying

Alfred Jarry
French – Writer
1873-1907

122

Capitalism. Downfall

Christopher Hitchens
English-American – Writer
1949-2011

123

That’s why I’m going. So I don’t have to wait until I die to start seeking a Great Perhaps.

Francois Rabelais


124

I exhort you: All compounded things are subject to vanish. Strive with earnestness.

Buddha – Siddhattha Gautama
Indian – Diety
563 BC – 483 BC

Last Words That Are Just Sad

When you know the background story, some final words are just saddening to hear and will make you feel strong emotions for the person who said them.

125

I’m shot.

John Lennon
British – actor
1940-1980

126

Hello

Graham Chapman
British – Actor
1941-1989

127

Why now? I don’t want to die. Why?

Sam Kinison
American – comedian
1953-1992

128

“Pardon me sir. I meant not to do it.”

Marie Antoinette
French – Monarch
1755-1793

129

I’m losing it.

Frank Sinatra
American – singer
1915-1998

130

My heart is crying, crying

Jackie Wilson
American – singer
1934-1984

131

On the ground

Charles Dickens
British – Writer
1812-1870

132

I can’t sleep

J.M. Barrie
british – Writer
1860-1937

133

It’s me, buddy, I’m cold

Truman Capote
American – Writer
1924-1984

134

AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER. (a last tweet) Terry took Death’s arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night.

Terry Pratchett
British – Writer
1948-2015

135

I’m burning up. I’m burning

James Brown
American – Musician
1933-2006

Last Words From People Who later Committed Suicide

Most people who are at death’s door know that they are dying and their last words are often not of their choosing. When someone decides to end their life, they put a lot of thought into the words they leave us with, which can be incredibly haunting.

136

May an avenger arise from my bones.

Filippo Strozzi the Younger
Italian – Banker
1538

137

Here thou art, then!

Cleopatra, pharaoh of Egypt
Egyptian – Monarch
30 BCE

138

It’s better to burn out than to fade away.

Kurt Cobain
American – Musician
1967-1994

139

Extremely well, and as became the descendant of so many kings.

Charmion, servant to Cleopatra
Egyptian – Servant
30 BCE

140

You must not pity me in this last turn of fate. You should rather be happy in the remembrance of our love, and in the recollection that of all men I was once the most famous and the most powerful, and now, at the end, have falled not dishonorably, a Roman by a Roman vanquished.

Mark Antony
Roman – statesman
30 BCE

141

. I don’t think two people could have been happier than we have been

Virginia Woolf
British – Writer
1882-1941

142

Goodnight, my kitten

Ernest Hemingway
American – Writer
1899-1961

143

Relax – This won’t hurt.

Hunter S. Thompson
American – Writer
1937-2005

For more quotes about life, death and love, feel free to see this post here and also free to download a free PDF printable file here with hundreds of extra quotes for you to enjoy.

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