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.
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.
