“I know from something beyond and out of myself that we are now but dying to live, and that there is no death.”

Death as a child's dream in a weary night · Letter after Rossetti's death

• Death
• Immortality
• Life

“If in a future state there shall be vacations in which we may have liberty to revisit our old home, I think one of the first places I should go to would be that mighty, awe-inspiring river, the Nile.”

Combining longing for travel with a touching vision of memory continuing beyond death · Remark concerning the Nile

• Immortality
• Memory
• Travel

“A good life aims at another mark; for such men as endeavour to live well, live with an expectation of death, and they when they die, die to live, and live for ever.”

Setting a virtuous life against the fear of dying · Essay, A Line of Life, 1620

• Death
• Immortality
• Virtue

“I cannot think of immortality without thinking also of love, for love is the one thing which seems to survive us.”

Associating enduring love with the human longing for immortality. · Journal

• Hope
• Immortality
• Love

“A writer often does not begin to live till he has been dead for some time.”

Reflecting on the strange afterlife of literary reputation. · Speech, The Handicaps of Letters, 1908

• Fame
• Immortality
• Writers

“Poetry thus makes immortal all that is best and most beautiful in the world.”

Presenting poetry as a means of preserving beauty against disappearance and time. · Essay, A Defence of Poetry

• Beauty
• Immortality
• Poetry

“We hope that some will so survive.”

A simple expression of the writer's hope for literary survival. · Speech, The Handicaps of Letters, 1908

• Hope
• Immortality
• Writing

“Does poetry pay? Aye, poetry pays as nothing on this earth ever paid.”

Measures payment in endurance of a people, not in cash · Notes from The Hights

• Immortality
• Poetry
• Value

“Everything on earth can be done, provided that we always keep before our eyes the straight path, one star, God, and seek through the spirit's deeds the body's achievement of the spirit's immortality.”

Original: Wszystko na ziemi robić można, byle zawsze przed oczyma mieć drogę prostą, jedną gwiazdę – Boga – zdobycie przez ducha swego czynami ciała nieśmiertelności ducha. — He connects purposeful action with spiritual aspiration and immortality. · Letter to his mother, 28 November 1843 (Polish)

• Action
• Faith
• Immortality

“In certain notorious cases the longer he has been dead the more alive he is, and the more acute is his competition against the living.”

A witty observation about the enduring power of canonical writers. · Speech, The Handicaps of Letters, 1908

• Fame
• Immortality
• Literature

“I should prefer to say that I trust there will be a righting of this world’s evils for each and all of us in a future state, than say that I share the unquestioning certainty of many of those about me.”

Expressing hope for immortality while resisting claims of certainty · Letter to John Lindley, December 28, 1867

• Faith
• Immortality
• Scepticism

“If I gave it all up immediately, I'd lose my immortality.”

Joyce jokingly presents literary persistence as a route to immortality. · Conversation about Ulysses, as reported by Richard Ellmann

• Fame
• Immortality
• Writing

“He desires to grasp and to enjoy immortality while yet mortal.”

On the impatience of writers who want fame in advance of the work · Book, Some Contemporary Poets, 1920

• Ambition
• Fame
• Immortality