Philosophy Now Forum

Author Herman Melville died saying, “God bless Captain Vere!” referencing his then-unpublished novel Billy Budd, found on his desk after he died.

Marie Antoinette stepped on her executioner’s foot on her way to the guillotine. Her last words: “Pardonnez-moi, monsieur.”

When Harriet Tubman was dying in 1913, she gathered her family around and they sang together. Her last words were, “Swing low, sweet chariot.”

When Sir Isaac Newton died, he was humble. He said, “I don’t know what I may seem to the world. But as to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore and diverting myself now and then in finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than the ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”


What would your last words be, assuming you're not intubated? And if you are, what would you like to read in your obituary?

It's not quite what you're after, but I like Spike Milligan's epitaph: I told you I was ill. Mine will probably be: Could have done better.

uwot wrote:Could have done better.

Reminds me of my high school report cards. The last words I like best were uttered by a unionist officer in the American civil war. His troops had concealed themselves from the enemy and in an effort to urge them on to attack the Confederate front lines he stood up, waved his sword in the air and said something like "come on, lads they don't know we're here and they can't possibly hit us from way back there anyway", just before he dropped dead with a Minie ball through his forehead.

Skip wrote:what would you like to read in your obituary?

Mostly harmless.

obviously: "I think not" - Rene Descartes

-Imp

And I was impressed by the last words of Richard Feynman "Dying is boring." But in common, most of great people was talking to their wifes and husbands saying how they loves them.

That's what their biographers want you think. What most of them actually said was some variation on the theme of "aaarrrggghh".

Mine's likely to be "Hang on a minute. It's nearly fi----"

I'd like to give a big, defiant "fuck you, suckers!" to the world, but I'll probably end up making gutteral sounds while choking on my own spit and bursting the blood vessels in my eyes... Happy trails!

I would like my last words to be: "Thank you"

For fun... some engraving ideas for gravestones:

"Dance here!"

or

"Now things get really interesting."

or

"See you soon!"

(Entertaining thread, Skip.)

The good new is, they do have ballroom dancing competitions in Heaven.
The even better news is: you and I are entered for the Samba next Thursday.

Skip wrote:Mine's likely to be "Hang on a minute. It's nearly fi----"

That inspires me to suggest something like this on a gravestone:

"Wait, I'm not..."

Makes people guess. "I'm not..." what?

Done? Dead? Who you think I am?

One which is often misquoted.

"The report of my death is an exaggeration".....Mark Twain

*Cough cough!* I think I'm ready to give up cigarettes now, nurse....

Dalek Prime wrote:*Cough cough!* I think I'm ready to give up cigarettes now, nurse....

My uncle said something similar to the paramedics as they were carrying him out of his house on a stretcher after suffering a massive heart attack. They asked him if he was a smoker and he said "Not any more, I just gave up this morning". That was about thirty years ago and he's still kicking along in his nineties.