# Quotes about immortality

- Quotes: 67
- Authors: 42
- Broader topic: [Quotes about life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life.md)
- Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality
- JSON version (same data): https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.json

## Quotes

> I don't think he needs to be immortal. I think all he needs to do is to write the right story. Because some stories do live forever.

[Stephen King](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king.md) · [Song of Susannah](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/song-of-susannah.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/song-of-susannah/i-dont-think.md)

Topics: [stories](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stories.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> He'd looked death in the face many times, or more precisely Death had looked him in the back of his rapidly retreating head many times, and suddenly the prospect of living forever didn't appeal. (p. 149)

[Terry Pratchett](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett.md) · [Eric](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/eric.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/eric/hed-looked-death.md)

Topics: [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> And now I think about it, I never really wanted to live forever. I just want to live well.

[Charles Sheffield](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield.md) · [Between the Strokes of Night](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/between-the-strokes-of-night.md) · p. 342 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/between-the-strokes-of-night/and-now-i-think.md)

Topics: [life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> “Here I thought they were invincible.”
>
> “They’re immortal. It’s not the same thing.”

[Brent Weeks](https://www.leafyquotes.com/brent-weeks.md) · [The Way Of Shadows](https://www.leafyquotes.com/brent-weeks/the-way-of-shadows.md) · p. 451 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/brent-weeks/the-way-of-shadows/here-i-thought.md)

Topics: [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> I wish that I could believe not in mortality but in reincarnation or individual immortality; I wish that I could be living again in another body or, God help me, even watching from the edge of a fleecy cloud in Heaven or out through the dirty windowpane of a haunted house or through the dull eyes of a dung beetle or on any terms. On any terms I want to be watching, I want to be there, I want to be around, when we reach the stars, when we take over the universe and the universes, when we become the God in whom I do not believe as yet because I do not believe he exists as yet nor will exist until we become Him.

[Fredric Brown](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fredric-brown.md) · [The Lights in the Sky are Stars](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fredric-brown/the-lights-in-the-sky-are-stars.md) · p. 242 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fredric-brown/the-lights-in-the-sky-are-stars/i-wish-that.md)

Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> Amnesia was the price of immortality.

[Algis Budrys](https://www.leafyquotes.com/algis-budrys.md) · [The Unexpected Dimension](https://www.leafyquotes.com/algis-budrys/the-unexpected-dimension.md) · p. 27 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/algis-budrys/the-unexpected-dimension/amnesia-was-the.md)

Topics: [memory](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> Anything that lives forever gets bored.

[Tina Connolly](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tina-connolly.md) · [Ironskin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tina-connolly/ironskin.md) · p. 81 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tina-connolly/ironskin/anything-that-lives.md)

Topics: [boredom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/boredom.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> The Seventh Men were completely without interest in the universal and the unseen. The beauty which they sought to create was ephemeral and very largely sensuous. And they were well content that it should be so. Personal immortality, said a dying sage, would be as tedious as an endless song.

[Olaf Stapledon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon.md) · [Last And First Men](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/last-and-first-men.md) · p. 199 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/last-and-first-men/the-seventh-men.md)

Topics: [beauty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/beauty.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> The Beater has still been young enough to feel immortal, at least on his better days. It was all, Wow, if we don’t slow down, we’re gonna die before we get old, except somehow it hadn’t happened that way. So they’d all assumed it never would, not dying, not getting old—hell, not even growing up.

[Pat Cadigan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pat-cadigan.md) · [Synners](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pat-cadigan/synners.md) · p. 109 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pat-cadigan/synners/the-beater-has.md)

Topics: [youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> We depend on the guarantee in our children's faces that we will not die. Children whose defining quality annihilates that fantasy of immortality are a particular insult; we must love them for themselves, and not for the best of ourselves in them, and that is a great deal harder to do. Loving our own children is an exercise for the imagination.

[Andrew Solomon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/andrew-solomon.md) · [Far From The Tree](https://www.leafyquotes.com/andrew-solomon/far-from-the-tree.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/andrew-solomon/far-from-the-tree/we-depend-on-the.md)

Topics: [love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love.md), [parents](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/parents.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> I can’t live forever. Each time something like this affair lands in my lap, I suddenly recall that I don’t want to live forever.

[Scott Lynch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/scott-lynch.md) · [The Lies of Locke Lamora](https://www.leafyquotes.com/scott-lynch/the-lies-of-locke-lamora.md) · p. 716 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/scott-lynch/the-lies-of-locke-lamora/i-cant-live.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> I believe our only hope of immortality lies in our actions, in what we do to and for others, and in our children.

[Edmund Cooper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-cooper.md) · [The Tenth Planet](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-cooper/the-tenth-planet.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-cooper/the-tenth-planet/i-believe-our.md)

Topics: [children](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/children.md), [taking action](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/taking-action.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> It is a massive palace, each spire of which could house a village; its chambers contain dozens of entertainments. All of these become tedious to the point of torment after two thousand years. Hells, after twenty.

[N. K. Jemisin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/n-k-jemisin.md) · [The Kingdom Of Gods](https://www.leafyquotes.com/n-k-jemisin/the-kingdom-of-gods.md) · p. 139 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/n-k-jemisin/the-kingdom-of-gods/it-is-a-massive.md)

Topics: [boredom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/boredom.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> They live forever, but many of them are even more lonely and miserable than we are. Why do you think they bother with us? We teach them life’s value.

[N. K. Jemisin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/n-k-jemisin.md) · [The Broken Kingdoms](https://www.leafyquotes.com/n-k-jemisin/the-broken-kingdoms.md) · p. 309 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/n-k-jemisin/the-broken-kingdoms/they-live-forever.md)

Topics: [loneliness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> Immortality gets very, very boring. You'd be surprised at how interesting the small mundanities of life can seem after a few millennia.

[N. K. Jemisin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/n-k-jemisin.md) · [The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms](https://www.leafyquotes.com/n-k-jemisin/the-hundred-thousand-kingdoms.md) · p. 103 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/n-k-jemisin/the-hundred-thousand-kingdoms/immortality-gets-very.md)

Topics: [boredom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/boredom.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
>
> So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

[William Shakespeare](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-shakespeare.md) · [Sonnets](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-shakespeare/sonnets.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-shakespeare/sonnets/so-long-as-men.md)

Topics: [poetry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poetry.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> Hard to say whether personal immortality would be a good thing or not. Not for the masses, surely! Too many of them as it was. But a select few, like Terangi Maclaren—or was it worth the trouble? Even given boats, chess, music, the No Drama, beautiful women and beautiful spectroscopes, life could get heavy.

[Poul Anderson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson.md) · [The Enemy Stars](https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/the-enemy-stars.md) · p. 36 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/the-enemy-stars/hard-to-say.md)

Topics: [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> Better a life like a falling star, bright across the dark, than a deathlessness which can see naught above or beyond itself.

[Poul Anderson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson.md) · [The Broken Sword](https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/the-broken-sword.md) · p. 206 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/the-broken-sword/better-a-life.md)

Topics: [life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> Forget it, Jonathan, and go back to sleep. And before you go to sleep, pray that no well-meaning god ever makes you immortal.

[Peter S. Beagle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-s-beagle.md) · [A Fine and Private Place](https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-s-beagle/a-fine-and-private-place.md) · p. 138 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/peter-s-beagle/a-fine-and-private-place/forget-it-jonathan.md)

Topics: [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> “Growing old is natural,” growls the old woman. “When you’ve lived long enough for all your ambitions to be in ruins, friendships broken, lovers forgotten or divorced acrimoniously, what’s left to go on for? If you feel tired and old in spirit, you might as well be tired and old in body. Anyway, wanting to live forever is immoral. Think of all the resources you’re taking up that younger people need! Even uploads face a finite data storage limit after a time. It’s a monstrously egotistical statement, to say you intend to live forever.”

[Charles Stross](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-stross.md) · [Accelerando](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-stross/accelerando.md) · p. 279 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-stross/accelerando/growing-old-is-natural.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> If you live very long time or are immortal, perhaps you learn everything about everything in order to pass the time.

[Philip José Farmer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-jose-farmer.md) · [The Magic Labyrinth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-jose-farmer/the-magic-labyrinth.md) · p. 102 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-jose-farmer/the-magic-labyrinth/if-you-live.md)

Topics: [knowledge](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> I have lived ten thousand years; I am used to it. Lovers dying, civilisations dying…one develops a certain god-like indifference to it all, intellectually.

[Iain M. Banks](https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks.md) · [The Hydrogen Sonata](https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/the-hydrogen-sonata.md) · p. 317 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/the-hydrogen-sonata/i-have-lived.md)

Topics: [indifference](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/indifference.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> Death, he remembered somebody saying once, was a kind of victory. To have lived a long good life, a life of prodigious pleasure and minimal misery, and then to die; that was to have won. To attempt to hang on forever risked ending up in some as-yet-unglimpsed horror future. What if you lived forever and all that had gone before, however terrible things had sometimes appeared to be in the past, however badly people had behaved to each other throughout history, was nothing compared to what was yet to come? Suppose in the great book of days that told the story of everything, all the gone, done past was merely a bright, happy introduction compared to the main body of the work, an unending tale of unbearable pain scraped in blood on a parchment of living skin?
>
> Better to die than risk that.
>
> Live well and then die, so that the you that is you now can never be again, and only tricks can re-create something that might think it is you, but is not.

[Iain M. Banks](https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks.md) · [Excession](https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/excession.md) · p. 259 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/excession/death-he-remembered.md)

Topics: [death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> One day I'll be old, dead, forgotten. And at this very moment, while I'm sitting here thinking these things, a man in a dingy hotel room is thinking, "I will always be here."

[Simone de Beauvoir](https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-de-beauvoir.md) · [All Men Are Mortal](https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-de-beauvoir/all-men-are-mortal.md) · p. 28 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-de-beauvoir/all-men-are-mortal/one-day-ill.md)

Topics: [death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> He walks in the street, a picture of modesty in his felt hat and his gabardine suit, and all the while he's thinking, "I'm immortal." The world is his, time is his, and I'm nothing but an insect.

[Simone de Beauvoir](https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-de-beauvoir.md) · [All Men Are Mortal](https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-de-beauvoir/all-men-are-mortal.md) · p. 28 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-de-beauvoir/all-men-are-mortal/he-walks-in-the.md)

Topics: [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> He had not applauded, he had remained seated, but he had looked at her steadily. From the depths of eternity he had looked at her and Rosalind became immortal. If I could believe him, she thought, if only I could believe him!

[Simone de Beauvoir](https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-de-beauvoir.md) · [All Men Are Mortal](https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-de-beauvoir/all-men-are-mortal.md) · p. 30 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-de-beauvoir/all-men-are-mortal/he-had-not.md)

Topics: [love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> Do not believe that others will die, not you.... I have wrestled with Thanatos knee to knee and I know how death is vanquished. Man's immortality is not to live forever; for that wish is born of fear. Each moment free from fear makes a man immortal.

[Mary Renault](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-renault.md) · [Fire from Heaven](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-renault/fire-from-heaven.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-renault/fire-from-heaven/do-not-believe.md)

Topics: [death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death.md), [fear](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> The great secret which life has kept from us is that once born, life is immortal. Once launched, it cannot be eradicated.

[Kevin Kelly](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kevin-kelly.md) · [Out Of Control](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kevin-kelly/out-of-control.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kevin-kelly/out-of-control/the-great-secret.md)

Topics: [life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> “Are you so ashamed of what you were?”
>
> Bannon cocked a white eyebrow at the question, as if it came close to the truth. “I am not shamed,” he said distinctly. “But I am saddened that so many centuries were required to teach us the limits of our worth. We went too far, in pride and folly. Mortal men should not give up wives and sleep and death for any service—less the face of failure become too abhorrent to be endured.”

[Stephen Donaldson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-donaldson.md) · [The Power That Preserves](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-donaldson/the-power-that-preserves.md) · p. 387 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-donaldson/the-power-that-preserves/are-you-so-ashamed.md)

Topics: [pride](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pride.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> Being an immortal doesn’t matter to me. If one looks out into the universe and perceives what true immortality would mean in terms of time and space, it takes monstrous hubris to even conceive of personal immortality, much less desire it.

[Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [The Visitor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-visitor.md) · p. 51 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-visitor/being-an-immortal.md)

Topics: [pride](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pride.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> You felt something huge and marvelous of which you are part, and in the moments you described, you forgot yourself for you were one with your world and with the sky above it, and even the stars looking down. There is nothing larger or more wonderful than that. Still, there are those who would prefer self. They will accept any belief, no matter how foolish, if it guarantees them personal immortality. I know people like that. But there are others who know themselves well enough to realize how limiting that is.

[Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [Singer From The Sea](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/singer-from-the-sea.md) · p. 382 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/singer-from-the-sea/you-felt-something.md)

Topics: [selfishness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/selfishness.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> Do not wish to live forever. Do not believe that every man-shaped thing is holier than something else. Do not look into the mirror to see the face of God.

[Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [Shadow’s End](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/shadows-end.md) · p. 453 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/shadows-end/do-not-wish.md)

Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md), [pride](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pride.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> Short-lived people, people who could die, did not know what enemies loneliness and boredom could be.

[Octavia E. Butler](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler.md) · [Wild Seed](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/wild-seed.md) · p. 100 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/wild-seed/short-lived-people-people.md)

Topics: [loneliness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness.md), [boredom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/boredom.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> Glenn used to say the reason you can’t really imagine yourself being dead was that as soon as you say, “I’ll be dead,” you’ve said the word I, and so you’re still alive inside the sentence. And that’s how people got the idea of the immortality of the soul — it was a consequence of grammar.

[Margaret Atwood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-atwood.md) · [The Year of the Flood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-atwood/the-year-of-the-flood.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-atwood/the-year-of-the-flood/glenn-used-to-say.md)

Topics: [death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death.md), [language](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/language.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> "I often think that he's the only one of us who's achieved immortality. I don't mean in the sense of fame and I don't mean that he won't die some day. But he's living it. I think he is what the conception really means. You know how people long to be eternal. But they die with every day that passes. When you meet them, they're not what you met last. In any given hour, they kill some part of themselves. They change, they deny, they contradict—and they call it growth. At the end there's nothing left, nothing unreversed or unbetrayed; as if there had never been an entity, only a succession of adjectives fading in and out on an unformed mass. How do they expect a permanence which they have never held for a single moment? But Howard—one can imagine him lasting forever."

[Ayn Rand](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand.md) · [The Fountainhead](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead.md) · p. 485 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead/i-often-think.md)

Topics: [character](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/character.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> I know what they think they seek. But I know it to be a lie. Listen to me, Arren. You will die. You will not live forever. Nor will any man nor any thing. Nothing is immortal. But only to us is it given to know that we must die. And that is a great gift: the gift of selfhood. For we have only what we know we must lose, what we are willing to lose....That selfhood which is our torment, and our treasure, and our humanity, does not endure. It changes; it is gone, a wave on the sea. Would you have the sea grow still and the tides cease, to save one wave, to save yourself? Would you give up the craft of your hands, and the passion of your heart, and the light of sunrise and sunset, to buy safety for yourself—safety forever? That is what they seek to do on Wathort and Lorbanery and elsewhere. That is the message that those who know how to hear have heard: By denying life you may deny death and live forever!—And this message I do not hear, Arren, for I will not hear it. I will not take the counsel of despair.

[Ursula K. Le Guin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin.md) · [The Farthest Shore](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/the-farthest-shore.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/the-farthest-shore/i-know-what.md)

Topics: [death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> “We may suffer for it when the balance of things rights itself, but we do not lose hope and forego art and forget the words of the Making. Nature is not unnatural. This is not a righting of the balance, but an upsetting of it. There is only one creature who can do that.”
>
> “A man?” Arren said, tentative.
>
> “We men.”
>
> “How?”
>
> “By an unmeasured desire for life.”
>
> “For life? But it isn’t wrong to want to live?”
>
> “No. But when we crave power over life—endless wealth, unassailable safety, immortality—then desire becomes greed. And if knowledge allies itself to that greed, then comes evil. Then the balance of the world is swayed, and ruin weighs heavy in the scale.”

[Ursula K. Le Guin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin.md) · [The Farthest Shore](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/the-farthest-shore.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/the-farthest-shore/we-may-suffer.md)

Topics: [greed](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/greed.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> Play on, mortal. Every god falls at a mortal’s hands. Such is the only end to immortality.

[Steven Erikson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson.md) · [Gardens Of The Moon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson/gardens-of-the-moon.md) · p. 208 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson/gardens-of-the-moon/play-on-mortal.md)

Topics: [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> Another glorious Sierra day in which one seems to be dissolved and absorbed and sent pulsing onward we know not where. Life seems neither long nor short, and we take no more heed to save time or make haste than do the trees and stars. This is true freedom, a good practical sort of immortality.

[John Muir](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-muir.md) · [My First Summer in the Sierra](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-muir/my-first-summer-in-the-sierra.md) · p. 204 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-muir/my-first-summer-in-the-sierra/another-glorious-sierra.md)

Topics: [freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> We can experience nothing but the present moment, live in no other second of time, and to understand this is as close as we can get to eternal life.

[P.D. James](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pd-james.md) · [The Children of Men](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pd-james/the-children-of-men.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/pd-james/the-children-of-men/we-can-experience.md)

Topics: [time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> The essential self is innocent, and when it tastes its own innocence knows that it lives for ever.

[John Hoyer Updike](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike.md) · [Self-Consciousness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/self-consciousness.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/self-consciousness/the-essential-self.md)

Topics: [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md), [innocence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/innocence.md)

> The yearning for an afterlife is the opposite of selfish: it is love and praise for the world that we are privileged, in this complex interval of light, to witness and experience.

[John Hoyer Updike](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike.md) · [Self-Consciousness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/self-consciousness.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/self-consciousness/the-yearning-for.md)

Topics: [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> It is one of the touching aspects of our work here in the College [of Arms] that so many of you New World people, up to the eyebrows in all the delights of republicanism, hanker after a link with what is ancient and rubbed by time to a fine sheen. It's more than snobbery; more than romanticism; it's a desire for an ancestry that somehow postulates a posterity and for an existence in the past that is a covert guarantee of immortality in the future.

[Robertson Davies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies.md) · [The Deptford Trilogy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-deptford-trilogy.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-deptford-trilogy/it-is-one.md)

Topics: [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md), [tradition](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition.md)

> Imagine immortality, where even a marriage of fifty years would feel like a one-night stand. Imagine seeing trends and fashions blur past you. Imagine the world more crowded and desperate every century. Imagine changing religions, homes, diets, careers, until none of them have any real value.Imagine traveling the world until you're bored with every square inch. Imagine your emotions, your loves and hates and rivalries and victories, played out again and again until life is nothing more than a melo-dramatic soap opera. Until you regard the birth and death of other people with no more emotion than the wilted cut flowers you throw away.

[Chuck Palahniuk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk.md) · [Lullaby](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby/imagine-immortality-where.md)

Topics: [boredom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/boredom.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> “God,” Eldritch said, “promises eternal life. I can do better; I can deliver it.”

[Philip K. Dick](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick.md) · [The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/the-three-stigmata-of-palmer-eldritch.md) · p. 86 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/the-three-stigmata-of-palmer-eldritch/god-eldritch-said.md)

Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> Those who used the Nine Rings became mighty in their day, kings, sorcerers, and warriors of old. They obtained glory and great wealth, yet it turned to their undoing. They had, as it seemed, unending life, yet life became unendurable to them. They could walk, if they would, unseen by all eyes in this world beneath the sun, and they could see things in worlds invisible to mortal men; but too often they beheld only the phantoms and delusions of Sauron. And one by one, sooner or later, according to their native strength and to the good or evil of their wills in the beginning, they fell under the thraldom of the ring that they bore and under the domination of the One, which was Sauron's.

[J. R. R. Tolkien](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-r-r-tolkien.md) · [The Silmarillion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-r-r-tolkien/the-silmarillion.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-r-r-tolkien/the-silmarillion/those-who-used.md)

Topics: [power](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> In many myths, the one possibility the gods are most anxious about is that humans will discover some secret of immortality or even... attempt to stride the high heavens. ...It's a little bit like the rich imposing poverty on the poor and then asking to be loved because of it.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [The Varieties of Scientific Experience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/the-varieties-of-scientific-experience.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/the-varieties-of-scientific-experience/in-many-myths.md)

Topics: [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md), [mythology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mythology.md)

> If you were to destroy in mankind the belief in immortality, not only love but every living force maintaining the life of the world would at once be dried up. Moreover, nothing then would be immoral, everything would be lawful, even cannibalism.

[Fyodor Dostoyevsky](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fyodor-dostoyevsky.md) · [The Brothers Karamazov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fyodor-dostoyevsky/the-brothers-karamazov.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fyodor-dostoyevsky/the-brothers-karamazov/if-you-were.md)

Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> But what is that life? Is the soul of man in its nature immortal? I know not. My finite understanding cannot hold the infinite; what is called eternity eludes my grasp. What can I assert or deny, how can I reason with regard to what I cannot conceive? I believe that the soul survives the body for the maintenance of order; who knows if this is enough to make it eternal? However, I know that the body is worn out and destroyed by the division of its parts, but I cannot conceive a similar destruction of the conscious nature, and as I cannot imagine how it can die, I presume that it does not die. As this assumption is consoling and in itself not unreasonable, why should I fear to accept it?

[Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/but-what-is-that.md)

Topics: [soul](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/soul.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> And what is its moral proof? We may formulate it thus: Act so that in your own judgment and in the judgment of others you may merit eternity, act so that you may become irreplaceable, act so that you may not merit death. Or perhaps thus: Act as if you were to die tomorrow, but to die in order to survive and be eternalized. The end of morality is to give personal, human finality to the Universe; to discover the finality that belongs to it — if indeed it has any finality — and to discover it by acting.

[Miguel de Unamuno](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno.md) · [Tragic Sense of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/and-what-is-its.md)

Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> What we really long for after death is to go on living this life, this same mortal life, but without its ills without its tedium, and without death. Seneca, the Spaniard, gave expression to this in his Consolatio ad Marciam... And what but that is the meaning of that comic conception of the eternal recurrence which issued from the tragic soul of poor Nietzsche, hungering for concrete and temporal immortality?

[Miguel de Unamuno](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno.md) · [Tragic Sense of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/what-we-really.md)

Topics: [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md), [life after death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life-after-death.md)

> And the conversion of the other Don Quixote — he who was converted only to die — was possible because he was mad, and it was his madness, and not his death or his conversion that immortalized him, earning him forgiveness for this crime of having been born. Felix culpa! And neither was his madness cured, but only transformed. His death was his last knightly adventure; in dying he stormed heaven, which suffereth violence.

[Miguel de Unamuno](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno.md) · [Tragic Sense of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/and-the-conversion.md)

Topics: [madness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/madness.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> I will not say that the more or less poetical and unphilosophical doctrines that I am about to set forth are those which make me live; but I will venture to say that it is my longing to live and to live for ever that inspires these doctrines within me. And if by means of them I succeed in strengthening and sustaining this same longing in another, perhaps when it is all but dead, then I shall have performed a man's work, and above all, I shall have lived. In a word, be it with reason or without reason or against reason, I am resolved not to die. And if, when at last I die out, I die altogether, then I shall not have died out of myself — that is, I shall not have yielded myself to death, but my human destiny shall have killed me. Unless I come to lose my head, or rather my heart, I will not abdicate from life — life will be wrested from me.

[Miguel de Unamuno](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno.md) · [Tragic Sense of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/i-will-not.md)

Topics: [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> And if the immortality of the soul had been unable to find vindication in rational empiricism, neither is it satisfied with pantheism. To say that everything is God, and that when we die, we return to God, or more accurately, continue in Him, avails our longing nothing; for if this indeed be so, then we were in God before we were born, and if we die we return to where we were before being born, then the human soul, the individual consciousness, is perishable. And since we know very well that God, the personal and conscious God of Christian monotheism, is simply the provider, and above all the guarantor, of our immortality, pantheism is said, and rightly said to be merely atheism disguised; and in my opinion, undisguised.

[Miguel de Unamuno](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno.md) · [Tragic Sense of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/and-if-the.md)

Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md), [atheism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/atheism.md)

> I am dreaming ...? Let me dream, if this dream is my life. Do not awaken me from it. I believe in the immortal origin of this yearning for immortality, which is the very substance of my soul. But do I really believe in it ...? And wherefore do you want to be immortal? you ask me, wherefore? Frankly, I do not understand the question, for it is to ask the reason of the reason, the end of the end, the principle of the principle.

[Miguel de Unamuno](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno.md) · [Tragic Sense of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/i-am-dreaming.md)

Topics: [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md), [dreams](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dreams.md)

> The wretched consciousness shrinks from it own annihilation, and just as an animal spirit newly severed from the womb of the world, finds itself confronted with the world and knows itself distinct from it, so consciousness must needs desire to possess another life than that of the world itself.

[Miguel de Unamuno](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno.md) · [Tragic Sense of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/the-wretched-consciousness.md)

Topics: [consciousness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/consciousness.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> Glorious is the risk! — καλος γαρ ο κινδυνος, glorious is the risk that we are able to run of our souls never dying … Faced with this risk, I am presented with arguments designed to eliminate it, arguments demonstrating the absurdity of the belief in the immortality of the soul; but these arguments fail to make any impression on me, for they are reasons and nothing more than reasons, and it is not with reasons that the heart is appeased. I do not want to die — no; I neither want to die nor do I want to want to die; I want to live for ever and ever and ever. I want this "I" to live — this poor "I" that I am and that I feel myself to be here and now, and therefore the problem of the duration of my soul, of my own soul, tortures me.

[Miguel de Unamuno](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno.md) · [Tragic Sense of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/glorious-is-the.md)

Topics: [soul](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/soul.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md), [fear of death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear-of-death.md)

> There may be a rationalist who has never wavered in his conviction of the mortality of the soul, and there may be a vitalist who has never wavered in his faith in immortality; but at the most this would prove that just as there are natural monstrosities, so there are those who are stupid as regards heart and feeling, however great their intelligence, and those who are stupid intellectually, however great their virtue. But, in normal cases, I cannot believe those who assure me that never, not in a fleeting moment, not in the hours of direst loneliness and grief, has this murmur of uncertainty breathed upon their consciousness.

[Miguel de Unamuno](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno.md) · [Tragic Sense of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/there-may-be-a-rationalist.md)

Topics: [doubt](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/doubt.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> From whatever side the matter is regarded, it is always found that reason confronts our longing for personal immortality and contradicts it. And the truth is, in all strictness, that reason is the enemy of life.

[Miguel de Unamuno](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno.md) · [Tragic Sense of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/from-whatever-side.md)

Topics: [reason](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reason.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> To say that everything is idea or that everything is spirit, is the same as saying that everything is matter or that everything is energy, for if everything is idea or spirit, just as my consciousness is, it is not plain why the diamond should not endure for ever, if my consciousness, because it is idea or spirit, endures forever.

[Miguel de Unamuno](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno.md) · [Tragic Sense of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/to-say-that.md)

Topics: [philosophy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/philosophy.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> Neither is the longing for immortality saved, but rather dissolved and submerged, by agnosticism, or the doctrine of the unknowable. ...The unknowable, if it is something more than the merely hitherto unknown, is but a purely negative concept, a concept of limitation. And upon this foundation no human feeling can be built up.

[Miguel de Unamuno](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno.md) · [Tragic Sense of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/neither-is-the.md)

Topics: [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> The truth is that we live out our lives putting off all that can be put off; perhaps we all know deep down that we are immortal and that, sooner or later, all men will do and know all things.

[Jorge Luis Borges](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jorge-luis-borges.md) · [Ficciones](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jorge-luis-borges/ficciones.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jorge-luis-borges/ficciones/the-truth-is-that.md)

Topics: [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> What the sorrowful Jew of Amsterdam called the essence of a thing, the effort that it makes to persist indefinitely in its own being, self-love, the longing for immortality, is it not perhaps the primal and fundamental condition of all reflective or human knowledge? And is it not therefore the true base, the real starting-point, of all philosophy, although the philosophers, perverted by intellectualism, do not recognize it?

[Miguel de Unamuno](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno.md) · [Tragic Sense of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/what-the-sorrowful.md)

Topics: [philosophy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/philosophy.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> Only the feeble resign themselves to final death and substitute some other desire for the longing for personal immortality. In the strong the zeal for perpetuity overrides the doubt of realizing it, and their superabundance of life overflows upon the other side of death.

[Miguel de Unamuno](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno.md) · [Tragic Sense of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/only-the-feeble.md)

Topics: [death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md), [strength](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/strength.md)

> Yes perhaps, as the Sage says, "nothing worthy of proving can be proven, nor yet disproven"; but can we restrain that instinct which urges man to wish to know, and above all to wish to know the things which conduce to life, to eternal life? Eternal life, not eternal knowledge as the Alexandrian gnostic said. For living is one thing and knowing is another; and... perhaps there is an opposition between the two that we may say that everything vital is anti-rational, not merely irrational, and that everything rational is anti-vital. And this is the basis of the tragic sense of life.

[Miguel de Unamuno](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno.md) · [Tragic Sense of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/yes-perhaps-as-the.md)

Topics: [life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life.md), [reason](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reason.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> My undertaking is not difficult, essentially... I should only have to be immortal to carry it out.

[Jorge Luis Borges](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jorge-luis-borges.md) · [The Garden of Forking Paths](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jorge-luis-borges/the-garden-of-forking-paths.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jorge-luis-borges/the-garden-of-forking-paths/my-undertaking-is-not.md)

Topics: [irony](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> Modern man may assert that he can dispense with them, and he may bolster his opinion by insisting that there is no scientific evidence of their truth. But since we are dealing with invisible and unknowable things (for God is beyond human understanding, and there is no mean of proving immortality), why should we bother with evidence?

[Carl Jung](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-jung.md) · [Man and His Symbols](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-jung/man-and-his-symbols.md) · p. 75 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-jung/man-and-his-symbols/modern-man-may.md)

Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md), [evidence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evidence.md)