Last word said on friends

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• The last word on friendship — Guardian

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The last word on friendship	Решающее слово в дружбе
In a world full of enmity it is always interesting to contemplate the nature of friendship. Received wisdom has it that a friend is a person who gives without being asked; who understands, or tries to; who rejoices at good fortune and supports through bad; who tells unpleasant truths and pleasant untruths when either is necessary; whose affection is freely given, and who makes the innocent and proper assumption that all the claims, expectations, rights and duties of this vital and valuable human bond are reciprocal. Who could disagree? Perhaps the most important human relationship is the parenting, and especially mothering, of small children. But even the latter has friendship as part of its goal, if successful. Because friends are independent partners in their relationship, achieving friendship with one’s offspring means that the project of helping them grow into freedom has worked.	В мире, полном вражды, всегда интересно созерцать природу дружбы. Мудрость гласит, что друг — это человек, который отдает, не ожидая просьбы; кто понимает или пытается понять; кто радуется удаче и поддерживает в плохое время; кто говорит неприятную истину и приятную неправду, когда это необходимо; чья любовь легко отдается, и кто делает невинное и правильное предположение, что все претензии, ожидания, права и обязанности этой жизненно важной и ценной человеческой связи взаимны. Кто может не согласиться? Пожалуй, самые важные человеческие отношения — это воспитание родителями и особенно воспитание матерью маленьких детей. Но даже у последних существует дружба как часть своей цели, если она успешна. Поскольку друзья являются независимыми партнерами в своих отношениях, построение дружеских отношений со своим ребенком означает, что проект по оказанию им помощи в развитии свободы сработал.
The great philosopher of friendship is Aristotle. He distinguishes genuine friendship from two simulacra, one in which the basis of the relationship is pleasure, the other in which it is mutual usefulness. These shallow forms of friendship last only as long as the pleasure or utility they afford, says Aristotle, whereas true friendship lasts because it is “grounded in good,” in the sense that one wishes for one’s friend what is best for him. Aristotle calls this friendship “perfected” or “completed” because its goal lies wholly within the relationship itself, and does not treat it as merely instrumental for some other or further end.	Аристотель — великий философ дружбы. Он отличает подлинную дружбу от двух симулякр, в одной из которых основой отношений является удовольствие, в другой — взаимная полезность. Эти неглубокие формы дружбы длятся только до тех пор, пока она доставляет удовольствие или оказывает пользу, говорит Аристотель, тогда как настоящая дружба длится потому, что она «основана на добре», в том смысле, что человек желает для своего друга того, что лучше для него. Аристотель называет эту дружбу «совершенной» или «завершенной», так как ее цель полностью лежит в самих отношениях, а не рассматривается как инструмент для чего-то другого или как завершение в будущем.

In a world full of enmity it is always interesting to contemplate the nature of friendship. Received wisdom has it that a friend is a person who gives without being asked; who understands, or tries to; who rejoices at good fortune and supports through bad; who tells unpleasant truths and pleasant untruths when either is necessary; whose affection is freely given, and who makes the innocent and proper assumption that all the claims, expectations, rights and duties of this vital and valuable human bond are reciprocal. Who could disagree? Perhaps the most important human relationship is the parenting, and especially mothering, of small children. But even the latter has friendship as part of its goal, if successful. Because friends are independent partners in their relationship, achieving friendship with one’s offspring means that the project of helping them grow into freedom has worked.

The great philosopher of friendship is Aristotle. In two striking chapters of his Nichomachean Ethics he distinguishes genuine friendship from two simulacra, one in which the basis of the relationship is pleasure, the other in which it is mutual usefulness. These shallow forms of friendship last only as long as the pleasure or utility they afford, says Aristotle, whereas true friendship lasts because it is «grounded in good,» in the sense that one wishes for one’s friend what is best for him. Aristotle calls this friendship «perfected» or «completed» because its goal lies wholly within the relationship itself, and does not treat it as merely instrumental for some other or further end.

Aristotle says that a friend is «another self», meaning that the kind of concern one properly has for one’s own good is extended to one’s friend too. Proper self-concern is appropriate for an ethical individual, who will be motivated thereby to act nobly, and to make intelligent decisions about how to choose and act — and who will therefore always see that, as a social being, what is best for himself is at one with what is best for his friends and (ultimately) community. To treat a friend as another self, therefore, is always to will the best for him for his own sake.

The Aristotelian ideal of friendship is personal and mutual, and the very highest friendships are exclusive. Other philosophers took a different view. Immanuel Kant held that the truly virtuous individual will offer friendship to all other people equally, and that it is legitimate for people to expect a reciprocity of pleasure and utility. Soren Kierkegaard rejected Aristotle’s view on the Christian ground that since one is to love all one’s neighbours, there is no room for friendships that exclude any of them or discriminate among them.

These opinions are not, as it happens, inconsistent with Aristotle’s view. One can nourish benevolent feelings towards the rest of humanity in general, and work for its good — and can appropriately expect from most of one’s acquaintanceships a mutuality of pleasure and usefulness — while at the same time enjoying true friendship, in Aristotle’s sense, with just one or some others. The key is that the overriding point of the relationship is the relationship itself. How indeed could one be a genuinely good friend to one’s lover, one’s family, one’s chosen comrades, without offering them more of oneself than to strangers, however much one’s concern is to be a responsible part of the comity of man? For friendship is by its nature particular, with its focus in individual things, in confidences and the security provided by mutual understanding. Multiplying such relationships too far makes each one less.

«The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,» said Polonius, «grapple to thy soul with hoops of steel; but do not dull thy palm with entertainment of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade.» This advice seems to render the making of new friends impossible, and therefore needs qualification; but it suggests an allied truth, which is that friendships once made need tending; and nothing substitutes for time together, in circumstances where other pressures are lifted so that the gates of communication can spring open, allowing free trade to pass between.

The grisly thought about a deathbed might be quite unnerving for anyone, but not for these famous people. Knowing the last words that someone spoke can sometimes throw light on their character or on the circumstances in which they died. You can’t help but feel that some of the last quotes by famous people on this list encapsulate their personas. From the ever level-headed Winston Churchill, who declared in his final moments that he’s ‘so bored with it all’ to the last wish from John Belushi to not be left alone. These famous last words can sometimes be ironically funny, and other times — eloquent and truly deep.

This list was compiled by Imgur user howsthepeeping. Do you know of any last words and inspirational quotes that belong on this list? We’d love to have them in this list, though we ask our readers to please keep both their comments and their submissions respectful of these people’s memories.

(h/t: imgur)

Last words or final words are a person’s final articulated words, stated prior to death or as death approaches. Often they are recorded because of the decedent’s fame, but sometimes because of interest in the statement itself.

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Sorted alphabetically by last name (with some monarchs and leaders sorted by their first names, e.g. William the Silent). This article refers only to last words of persons who actually lived or are believed to have actually lived. Last words of fictional characters can be found in Fictional last words.

A

• No comment.
• I did what I could.
  • Who: Edward Abbey, an American author and essayist.
    • Note: The first quote was a response as to whether he had any last words. (The epitaph on his memorial stone was «No Comment».) The second is an alternative as noted in the reference work Last Words of Notable People citing Epitaph for a Desert Anarchist: The Life and Legacy of Edward Abbey by James Bishop. Brahms, William B. (2010). Last Words of Notable People: Final Words of More than 3500 Noteworthy People Throughout History. Haddonfield, NJ: Reference Desk Press, Inc. p. 1. ISBN 978-09765325-2-1.; Bishop, James. (2010). Epitaph for a Desert Anarchist: The Life and Legacy of Edward Abbey. New York: Atheneuem. ISBN 978-06891219-5-1..

• Van Halen!
  • Who: Darrell Abbott A.K.A Dimebag Darrel, former guitarist of Pantera and Damageplan.
    • Note: Said while playing with Damageplan at a club minutes before he was shot and killed onstage.

• Come Lord Jesus, come quickly, finish in me the work that Thou hast begun; into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit, for Thou hast redeemed me. O God of truth, save me Thy servant, who hopes and confides in Thee alone; let Thy mercy, O Lord, be shewn unto me; in Thee have I trusted, O Lord, let me not be confounded for ever.
  • Who: Robert Abbot, English prelate.
    • Note: Last Words of Notable People citing The life of Dr. George Abbot, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury by Arthur Onslow (Guildford, England, 1777). Brahms, William B. (2010). Last Words of Notable People: Final Words of More than 3500 Noteworthy People Throughout History. Haddonfield, NJ: Reference Desk Press, Inc. p. 1. ISBN 978-09765325-2-1..

• يام السرور التي صفت لي دون تكدير في مدة سلطاني، يوم كذا من شهر كذا من سنة كذا فعدت تلك الأيام فوجدت أربعة عشر يومًا (Yam al-surur alati sifat li dun takdir fi mudat sultani, yawm kadha min shahr kadha min sunat kadha fa’idat tilk al-ayām fawajadat ‘arba’at ‘ashar yawman.)
  • Translation: In this situation, I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to my lot… they amount to fourteen!
  • Who: Abd al-Rahman III, founder of the Caliphate of Córdoba.

• من در حال رفتن هستم و شما مي خواهيد غذا بخورم؟ (Man dar hâl raftan hastam, va shomâ mey khâhid ghazâ békhoram?)
  • Translation: You wish Me to take some food, and I am going?
  • Who: `Abdu’l-Bahá, son of Bahá’u’lláh and one of three central figures of the Bahá’i Faith.
    • Note: Spoken when food was offered to him on his deathbed.

• I don’t know. [Attributed]
  • Who: Peter Abelard, a medieval French scholastic philosopher, theologian and preeminent logician.

• שלף חרבך ומותתני פן-יאמרו לי, אשה הרגתהו (Shelof charbecha umoteteni pen-yomeru li, ishah haragatehu)
  • Translation: Draw thy sword, and kill me, that men say not of me: ‘A woman slew him.’
  • Who: Abimelech
    • Note: Abimelech was besieging the town of Thebaz when a woman threw a millstone from a fortified tower and struck him in the head. Realizing the wound was mortal, he quickly told his armor-bearer to kill him so that his death would not be at the hands of a woman.

• May the Most High God preserve thee from destruction, and from all the paths of error may He deliver thee.
  • Who: Abraham, first of the three patriarchs of Judaism, according to the pseudepigraphic Book of Jubilees.
    • See also: Abraham

• It’s okay! Gun’s not loaded… see?
  • Who: Johnny Ace, 1950s rhythm and blues singer.
    • Note: Ace was playing Russian roulette (or something similar; exact accounts vary) with his revolver on Christmas Day 1954, during a backstage break in his concert that day. Someone told him «Be careful with that thing…» and he replied «It’s okay! Gun’s not loaded… see?» Contrary to Ace’s assertion, there was a bullet in the chamber, which, when he pulled the trigger with the barrel of the gun to his face, killed him instantly.

• Ja, maar niet te veel.
  • Translation: Yes, but not too many.
  • Who: Gerrit Achterberg, Dutch poet.
    • Note: Achterberg had just parked his car, when his wife asked: «Zal ik wat aardappelen bakken?» («Shall I bake some fried potatoes?») After answering the question he suffered a fatal heart attack.
      • Note: Last Words of Notable People citing Het refrein is hein: Leven en sterven in een verpleeghuis by B. Keizer Brahms, William B. (2010). Last Words of Notable People: Final Words of More than 3500 Noteworthy People Throughout History. Haddonfield, NJ: Reference Desk Press, Inc. p. 3. ISBN 978-09765325-2-1.; Keizer, Bert (1997). Het refrein is hein: Leven en sterven in een verpleeghuis. Amsterdam: Nijmegen. ISBN 978-90616862-1-7..

• Oh, yes; it is the glorious Fourth of July. It is a great day. It is a good day. God bless it. God bless you all. [He then lapsed into unconsciousness; he awakened later, and mumbled,] Thomas Jefferson…
  • Who: John Adams, 2nd President of the United States.
  • Note: John Adams died on July 4, 1826, exactly fifty years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. He is often quoted as having said «Thomas Jefferson survives» or «Thomas Jefferson still survives» with some depictions indicating he might have not expressed the entire statement before dying, i.e.: «Thomas Jefferson… still survi—», but some research indicates that only the words «Thomas Jefferson» were clearly intelligible among his last. Adams was unaware that Jefferson, his great political rival—and later friend and correspondent—had died a few hours earlier that same day.

• This is the last of Earth. I am content.
  • Who: John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States.
    • Note: John Quincy Adams suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on the floor of the U.S Capitol Building, as he had become a U.S. Representative from the 11th District of Massachusetts after his presidency. He died two days later.
  • As quoted in The Truly Great: A Discourse Appropriate to the Life and Character of John Quincy Adams (1848) by Edwin Hubbell Chapin and «Illness and Death of John Quincy Adams» (Little’s Living Age, No. 201, March 18, 1848), citing an account published in The New York Courier and Enquirer, February 25, 1848 and other sources. Brahms, William B. (2010). Last Words of Notable People: Final Words of More than 3500 Noteworthy People Throughout History. Haddonfield, NJ: Reference Desk Press, Inc. p. 6. ISBN 978-09765325-2-1..

• Principally, and first of all, I recommend my soul to the Almighty Being who gave it, and my body I commit to the dust, relying on the merits of Jesus Christ for the pardon of my sins.
  • Who: Samuel Adams, politician and Founding Father of the United States, in his last will.
• See in what peace a Christian can die.
  • Who: Joseph Addison, writer, d. June 17, 1719.
    • Note: Spoken to his stepson, the Earl of Warwick.
  • As quoted in Conjectures on Original Composition: In a Letter to the Author of Sir Charles Grandison (1759) by Edward Young and Samuel Richardson.
  • Variation: I have sent for you to see how a Christian can die.
  • As quoted in A New Biographical Dictionary: Containing a Brief Account of the Lives and Writings of the Most Eminent Persons and Remarkable Characters in Every Age and Nation (1805) by Stephen Jones.
  • Variations of Addison’s last words compared and discussed. Brahms, William B. (2010). Last Words of Notable People: Final Words of More than 3500 Noteworthy People Throughout History. Haddonfield, NJ: Reference Desk Press, Inc. p. 7. ISBN 978-09765325-2-1..

• הפך ידך והוציאני מן-המחנה—כי החלית (Hafoch yadecha vehotzi’eni min-hammachaneh—ki hocholeiti)
  • Translation: Turn your hand, and carry me out of the battle — I am wounded
  • Who: Ahab, seventh king of Israel

• The bastards tried to come over me last night. I guess they didn’t know I was a Marine.
  • Who: Private First Class Edward H. Ahrens
    • Note: During the Battle of Tulagi, Private Ahrens was mortally wounded while single-handedly fighting back a group of Japanese soldiers attempting to infiltrate Allied lines. After his superior officer discovered Ahrens the next morning surrounded by dead Japanese troops, he whispered these words and died.

• שמע ישראל אדני אלהינו אדני אחד (Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad)
  • Translation: Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God! The Lord is One!
  • Who: Rabbi Akiba ben Joseph (Akiva)
    • Note: These words (the Shema, from Deuteronomy 6:4) were stated as R. Akiva was being flayed by a Roman executioner for his continuing to teach the Torah, despite the Roman prohibition on doing so (Talmud Berachot 61b). It is said that Akiva lengthened his saying of the word «אחד» (echad, «one») until he expired. Because of R. Akiva, it is customary for Jews to recite the Shema as their last words.

• Is it not meningitis?
  • Who: Louisa May Alcott, an American novelist and poet best known as the author of the novel Little Women.
    • Note: Alcott had been in ill health for many years and took a turn for the worse after she visited her father. She did not have meningitis. She may have died of mercury poisoning, the after-effect of an earlier treatment for typhoid fever. Brahms, William B. (2010). Last Words of Notable People: Final Words of More than 3500 Noteworthy People Throughout History. Haddonfield, NJ: Reference Desk Press, Inc. p. 12. ISBN 978-09765325-2-1..
  • As quoted in Louisa May Alcott: Her Life, Letters and Journals (1805) by Ednah D. Cheney.

• You be good. See you tomorrow. I love you.
  • Who: Alex, African Grey Parrot used in comparative psychology research at Brandeis University.
    • Note: Spoken to his handler, Dr. Irene Pepperberg, when she put him in his cage for the night; he was found dead the next morning. This wasn’t said due to Alex’s knowledge of his impending death, but simply because that was what Alex said to Pepperberg every night before being locked in his cage.
  • «Milestones». Time: p. 24. 24 September 2007. Retrieved on 2007-09-22.

• τῷ κρατίστῳ (tô kratístō) [Attributed]
  • Translation: To the strongest!
  • Who: Alexander the Great, King of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon and a member of the Argead dynasty.
    • Note: In response to his generals asking the heirless Alexander which one of them would get control of the empire. When asked on his deathbed who was to succeed him, his voice may have been indistinct. Alexander may have said «Krateros» (the name of one of his generals), but he was not around, and the others may have chosen to hear «Kratistos— the strongest».

• Несите меня во дворец… там… умереть… (Nesite menya vo dvorets… tam… umeret…)
  • Translation: Take me to the palace… there… to die…
  • Who: Alexander II of Russia
    • Note: His guards heard him utter this phrase when they found his maimed body under a seat from his carriage after he was attacked with bombs by anarchists in an assassination attempt. He lost his left leg and was taken home where he died hours after his wound.

• Aspetta un minuto…
  • Translation: Wait a minute…
  • Who: Pope Alexander VI
    • Note: His last words have also reported to have been: Va bene, va bene, arrivo. Aspettate un momento. (Okay, okay, I’ll come. Just give it a moment.)

• Chiudi la mia mano, cara amica, sto morendo.
  • Translation: Clasp my hand, dear friend, I am dying.
  • Who: Vittorio Alfieri, was an Italian dramatist and poet, considered the «founder of Italian tragedy.»

• I’m in no pain. No pain. Don’t cry for me, Rahaman. I’m going to be with Allah. I made peace with God, I’m okay… Rahaman, how do I look?
  • Who: Muhammad Ali
    • Note: Rahaman Ali, a former heavyweight boxer, was Muhammad Ali’s younger brother.
  • As quoted in «Muhammad Ali told family he was ‘in no pain and going to Allah'» by Nick Allen, The Telegraph (4 June 2016)

• I’m sorry, boys. I’m all wet.
  • Who: Gracie Allen, wife and comedy partner of George Burns.

• Más pronto que tarde, las grandes avenidas se abrirán de nuevo y los hombres libres caminarán a través de ellas para construir una sociedad mejor. ¡Larga vida a Chile! Larga vida a la gente! ¡Larga vida a los trabajadores! Estas son mis últimas palabras, y estoy seguro de que mi sacrificio no será en vano, estoy seguro de que, al menos, será una lección moral que castigará la felonía, la cobardía y la traición.
  • Translation: Sooner rather than later, the great avenues will open again and free men will walk through them to construct a better society. Long live Chile! Long live the people! Long live the workers! 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.
  • Who: Salvador Allende, was a Chilean physician and politician. d. September 11, 1973.
    • Note: Last speech given before he committed suicide before the military forces entered the La Moneda palace when the 1973 coup d’etat took place.

• Fuck y’all.
  • Who: August Ames, Canadian pornographic actress. d. December 5, 2017.
    • Note: This was Ames’ final tweet before she committed suicide the following day. Over the past few days Ames had been subject to intense cyberbullying after another Twitter post where she stated her reluctance to work with a male co-worker who’d done gay porn due to risk of HIV or AIDS. Her comments were perceived as homophobia (despite the fact that Ames herself was bisexual), but in reality she was just taking a health precaution.

• Thank you all for helping to making my life the incredible tale it was. I’m sorry it had to end on such a heartbreaking note. Though I know for SURE hella people are gonna prolly laugh at it LOL I just hope there’s at least some fresh me-me’s that come of it. I’m dying as a guy hated by a lot of people, so I know you all won’t let me down haha. Well, that’s my cue. Time for me to go. I mean this with every bit of my heart… Take care of yourselves, and of course, as usual, please have yourself a damn good one.
• Um, Poki, sorry for scaring you so much. I really am sorry for that, I apologize. I was being stupid. Christine, sorry for being so hard-headed, and all the other horrible things I did. I mean, hey, two…two wrongs don’t make a right, but I mean, y’know. Hmm.
  • Who: Desmond Daniel Amofah, aka Etika
    • Note: The first quote comes from the end of the description of his pre-recorded suicide note, titled «I’m sorry». The second quote is the final words spoken by Amofah in the video. Amofah disappeared later that night, leaving his belongings at the Manhattan Bridge, and was found dead from drowning five days later.

• Spørg mig ikke, hvordan jeg er! Jeg forstår intet mere.
  • Translation: Don’t ask me how I am! I understand nothing more.
  • Who: Hans Christian Andersen, Danish author of The Ugly Duckling, The Little Mermaid, The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Snow Queen, and The Princess and the Pea.

• I pray you to bear me witness that I meet my fate like a brave man.
  • Who: Major John André, a British Army officer.
    • Note: According to James Thatcher’s book The American Revolution, André raised the handkerchief from his eyes and said these words when given an opportunity to speak, moments before he was hanged as a British spy.

• Pardonnez-moi, monsieur. Je ne l’ai pas fait exprès.
  • Translation: Pardon me, sir. I did not do it on purpose.
  • Who: Marie Antoinette, Queen of France and Archduchess of Austria.
    • Note: As she approached the guillotine, convicted of treason and about to be beheaded, she accidentally stepped on the foot of her executioner.

• Aequanimitas.
  • Translation: Equanimity.
  • Who: Emperor Antoninus Pius
    • Note: When tribune of the night watch came to ask for the password.

• Well, gentlemen, you are about to see a baked Appel.
  • Who: George Appel, executed by electric chair in 1928.

• Mennyi az idő? Különben mindegy…
  • Translation: What is the time? Never mind, it’s not important…
  • Who: János Arany, Hungarian poet.

• Μη μου τους κύκλους τάραττε (Mè mou tous kuklous taratte)
  • Translation: Don’t disturb my circles!
  • Alternate: Don’t disturb my equation.
  • Who: Archimedes, an Ancient Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer.
    • Note: In response to a Roman soldier who was forcing him to report to the Roman general after the capture of Syracuse, while he was busy sitting on the ground proving geometry theorems. The soldier killed him, despite specific instructions not to, resulting in his execution.

• Zeg de mensen dat homoseksuelen niet per definitie zwakkelingen zijn.
  • Translation: Let it be known that homosexuals are not necessarily cowards.
  • Who: Willem Arondeus, Dutch artist and writer, member of the Anti-Nazi resistance.
    • Note: He led a group in bombing the Amsterdam Public Records Office, destroying thousands of files to prevent the Nazis from identifying Jews. Within a week, Arondeus and the other members of the group were arrested. Twelve, including Arondeus, were executed by firing squad.

• Tali segreti sono stati rivelati a me che tutto quello che ho scritto ora appare come tanta paglia.
  • Translation: Such secrets have been revealed to me that all I have written now appears as so much straw.
  • Who: Thomas Aquinas, philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism.

• Let me die in the old uniform in which I fought my battles for freedom, May God forgive me for putting on another.
  • Who: Benedict Arnold, general during the American Revolutionary War who defected from the Continental Army to the British.
    • Note: He wanted to wear his old Continental Army uniform.

• I love you too, honey. Good luck with your show.
  • Who: Desi Arnaz, an American musician, actor, television producer, writer and director.
    • Note: He was speaking on the telephone to his former wife Lucille Ball, regarding her TV series, Life with Lucy. Neither Arnaz nor Ball had yet been informed that Life with Lucy had already been canceled.

• Life is not worth living.
  • Who: Chester A. Arthur, 21st president of the United States.

• I didn’t want to leave this world without knowing who my descendant was; thank you, Michael.
  • Who: Fred Astaire, American entertainer best known for his dancing skills.
    • The «Michael» is Michael Jackson.

• The ladies have to go first. Goodbye, dearie. I’ll see you later.
  • Who: John Jacob Astor IV, an American businessman, real estate builder, investor, inventor, writer, lieutenant colonel in the Spanish–American War, and a prominent member of the Astor family.
    • Note: The accuracy of this report is disputed. Astor and his wife were traveling on the Titanic when it struck an iceberg and began to sink. As Astor prepared to enter a lifeboat with his wife, a group of female passengers appeared on deck. He gave up his seat and spoke his final words to his wife; he was later found floating in the ocean, dead.

• Am I dying, or is this my birthday?
  • Who: Lady Nancy Astor, an American-born English socialite.
    • Note: In her final illness, she awoke on her deathbed to see her family at her bedside.

• Nobody move please, we are going back to the airport, don’t try to make any stupid moves.
  • Who: Mohamed Atta, American Airlines Flight 11 hijacker-pilot.
    • Note: This was the second transmission Atta intended to say to the passengers that he transmitted to air traffic control after he pressed the wrong button several minutes earlier.

• Acta est fabula, plaudite.
  • Translation: Have I played the part well? Then applaud as I exit.
  • Who: Augustus, the first emperor of the Roman empire
    • Note: His last words are also reported to be: Marmoream se relinquere, quam latericiam accepisset – «I found Rome a city of clay, but left it a city of marble».

• I want nothing but death.
  • Who: Jane Austen, an English novelist known principally for her five major novels which interpret, critique and comment upon the life of the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century.
    • Note: In response to her sister Cassandra who had asked her if she wanted something.
  • As quoted in Last Words of Notable People: Final Words of More than 3500 Noteworthy People Throughout History (2010) by William B. Brahms which discusses a letter from Cassandra to her niece Fannie Knight after the death of Jane Austen on July 18, 1817. Brahms notes the letter is reprinted in Letters of Jane Austen (1884) by Jane Austen.

• I ask you all to forgive me. I ask the people of Samford to forgive me. I ask my mother to forgive me. May you all live long and die happy. God save the King! God save the King! God be with you all! Send a wire to my mother and tell her I died happy, won’t you. Yes tell her I died happy with no fear. Goodbye all! Goodbye all!
  • Who: Ernest Austin
    • Note: Austin made this statement before being hanged for rape and murder, the last two as he fell through the trap door. He was the last person in Queensland to be hanged.

• I love you.
  • Who: Avicii, Swedish DJ and musician.
    • Note: Spoken to his girlfriend, Tereza Kacerova, the day that he committed suicide.

B

• مودند اى مردم اگر مرا ميشناختيد مثل اين جوان که ّ اجل از شماست در اين سبيل قربان ميشديد من آن ظهور موعودى هستم که آسمان کمتر مثل او را ديده سيصد و سيزده تن از نقباء خود را فداى من کردند اين (Ay mardom, agar marâ mí-shenâkhtid mesl in javân keh ajal az shomâst dar in sabil ghorbāne mí-shodid man ân zohur maw’ūd hastam ke âsmân kamtar mesl u râ dide estad va sizah tan az nuqaba’ khod râ fidā’iyy man kárdand in.)
  • Translation: Had you believed in Me, O wayward generation, every one of you would have followed the example of this youth, who stood in rank above most of you, and willingly would have sacrificed himself in My path. The day will come when you will have recognised Me; that day I shall have ceased to be with you.
  • Who: The Báb, founder of Bábism, and one of three central figures of the Bahá’í Faith.
    • Note: His final words were shouted at the spectating crowd during His execution by a firing squad. The words «this youth» refer to the young Mirza Muhammad-‘Ali, who was being executed along with him.

• Weine nicht für mich, denn ich gehe dahin, wo Musik geboren wird.
  • Translation: Don’t cry for me, for I go where music is born.
  • Who: Johann Sebastian Bach, German Baroque composer.
    • Note: Said to his wife on his deathbed.

• My name and memory I leave to man’s charitable speeches, to foreign nations, and to the next age.
  • Who: Francis Bacon, Renaissance scientist.

• Oh God, here I go!
  • Who: Max Baer, American boxer.
    • Note: Spoken after a fatal heart attack.

• My Florida water.
  • Who: Lucille Ball, an American actress, comedian, model, film studio executive and producer.
    • Note: Her response when asked if she wanted anything. Ball’s last written words, to Carol Burnett along with her annual birthday gift to her, were, «Happy birthday, kid. Love, Lucy.» Burnett received the message and gift the day after Ball had died.

• Oh, you young people act like old men. You have no fun.
  • Who: Josephine Baker, an American-born French dancer, jazz and pop music singer, and actress.
    • Note: The famed starlet was reportedly attempting to seduce a man several decades younger than she was. She died of a stroke later that night.

• I’m in the hands of Jesus…
  • Who: Tammy Faye Messner, an American Christian singer, evangelist, entrepreneur, author, talk show host, and television personality.
    • Note: As told by her husband Roe Messner on CNN’s Larry King Live. Roe was with Tammy Faye at the moment of her death.

• Codeine…bourbon…
  • Who: Tallulah Bankhead, an American actress of the stage and screen, and a reputed libertine.
    • Note: Her response when asked if she wanted anything.

• You know. Bill and I have working on Hanna-Barbera studios since many years ago. We’ve did cartoons such as Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, the Flintstones and more. That was very perfect at all.
  • Who: Joseph Barbera, American animator, director, producer, storyboard artist, and cartoon artist

• Stay loyal, remain free, and always value honor.
  • Who: Sonny Barger, founder of the Oakland Hells Angels motorcycle club, as part of a note he wrote to be released upon his death.

• I would rather be a servant in the House of the Lord than to sit in the seats of the mighty.
  • Who: Alben W. Barkley, former Vice President of the United States.
    • Note: He suffered a fatal heart attack in the middle of a speech. His last words were caught on tape.

• How were the receipts today at Madison Square Garden?
  • Who: P. T. Barnum, circus entrepreneur.

• I can’t sleep.
  • Who: J.M. Barrie, author of works including Peter Pan.

• .توكلت على الله. توكلت على الله. توكلت على الله. توكلت على الله. توكلت على الله. توكلت على الله. توكلت على الله. توكلت على الله. توكلت على الله. توكلت على الله توكلت على الله. (Tawakalt ala Allah. Tawakalt ala Allah. Tawakalt ala Allah. Tawakalt ala Allah. Tawakalt ala Allah. Tawakalt ala Allah. Tawakalt ala Allah. Tawakalt ala Allah. Tawakalt ala Allah. Tawakalt ala Allah. Tawakalt ala Allah.)
  • Translation: I rely on God. I rely on God. I rely on God. I rely on God. I rely on God. I rely on God. I rely on God. I rely on God. I rely on God. I rely on God. I rely on God.
  • Who: Gameel Al-Batouti, EgyptAir pilot
    • Note: Batouti continually repeated these words while at the controls of EgyptAir Flight 990 moments before the plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after leaving New York City for Cairo. The NTSB said that Batouti deliberately crashed the plane while Egyptian investigators said that mechanical failure caused the crash.

• Is everybody happy? I want everybody to be happy. I know I’m happy.
  • Who: Ethel Barrymore, an American actress regarded as the «First Lady of the American Theater.»
    • Note: Spoken to her housekeeper before her passing.

• Die, I should say not, dear fellow. No Barrymore would allow such a conventional thing to happen to him.
  • Who: John Barrymore, an American actor on stage, screen and radio.

• Now we can cross the Shifting Sands.
  • Who: L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
    • Note: Baum was referring to the Shifting Sands, the impassable desert surrounding the Land of Oz.

• Are you guys ready? Let’s roll.
  • Who: Todd Beamer, passenger on United Flight 93, September 11, 2001.
    • Note: These are his last recorded words, coming at the end of a cell phone call before Beamer and others attempted to storm the airliner’s cockpit to retake it from hijackers who were part of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The plane crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

• Rain had always been a harbinger of tragedy for me.
  • Who: George Beard, an American neurologist who popularized the term neurasthenia.
    • Note: His death occurred during a rainstorm.

• Bonaparte…l’île d’Elbe…le roi de Rome.
  • Translation: Bonaparte… the island of Elba… the King of Rome.
  • Who: Joséphine de Beauharnais, first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte.

• Ich denke an frühere Zeiten.
  • Translation: I am thinking of earlier times.
  • Who: Ludwig Beck, German general, committing suicide after the failed attempt to kill Hitler, 20 July 1944.

• [To his murderers] If all the swords in England were pointed against my head, your threats would not move me.
• I am ready to die for my Lord, that in my blood the Church may obtain liberty and peace.
  • Who: Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, d. 1170.

• Now comes the mystery.
  • Who: Henry Ward Beecher, evangelist, d. March 8, 1887.

• Plaudite, amici, comedia finita est.
  • Translation: Applaud, my friends, the comedy is finished. (The formula traditionally used to end a performance of commedia dell’arte.)
  • Who: Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer.
    • Note: His final words are subject to historical debate, and vary with many biographies. Among those that have been reported to be his last words are:
    • [Upon the arrival from his publisher of 12 bottles of wine] Pity, pity, too late!
    • I shall hear in Heaven.
    • [To his friend, composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel, who was at his bedside] Is it not true, Hummel, that I have some talent after all?
    • I feel as if up to now I had written no more than a few notes.
    • There, do you hear the bell? Don’t you hear it ringing? The curtain must drop. Yes! My curtain is falling.
    • [To a priest, after he received his last rites] I thank you, Reverend Sir. You have brought me comfort.
    • Another biographer states him saying nothing; simply shaking his fists defiantly at the heavens as a thunderstorm raged outside his window. This is taken from the report of composer Anselm Hüttenbrenner, a close friend of Beethoven who was present at his death.

• Todo mortal…
  • Translation: All mortal…
  • Who: Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, a Spanish post-romanticist poet and writer, also a playwright, literary columnist, and talented in drawing.
    • Note: He was delirious because of high fever and illness.

• No.
  • Who: Alexander Graham Bell, a Scottish-born scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone.
    • Note: While Alexander Graham Bell was dying, his deaf wife whispered to him, «Don’t leave me.» Bell responded by signing the word, «No.»

• I’d rather die watching football than in my bed with my boots off.
  • Who: Bert Bell, founding owner of the Philadelphia Eagles football team and commissioner of the National Football League. Bell indeed died of a heart attack watching an Eagles game that day.

• Just don’t leave me alone.
  • Who: John Belushi, an American comedian, actor, and musician.

• Signore, ti amo.
  • Translation: Lord, I love you.
  • Who: Pope Benedict XVI, as confirmed by Archbishop Georg Gänswein.

• The dogs are in the enclosed pool area. Garage side door is open.
  • Who: Chris Benoit, a professional wrestler who worked for WWE.
    • Note: This was a text sent to fellow wrestler and longtime friend Chavo Guerrero after Benoit had murdered his wife and children and shortly before he hung himself.

• How did the Mets do today?
  • Who: Moe Berg, an American baseball catcher and World War II spy.
    • Note: The Mets won that day.

• My name is Nick Berg, my father’s name is Michael, my mother’s name is Suzanne. I have a brother and sister, David and Sarah. I live in West Chester, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia.
  • Who: Nick Berg, American contractor
    • Note: Berg identifies himself at the beginning of a video posted on an Islamic website that ends with Berg being beheaded by terrorists in Iraq.

• And where do you come from?
  • Who: Isaiah Berlin, a Latvian-British social and political theorist, philosopher and historian of ideas.
    • Note: To the nurse caring for him. Hardy, Henry (2001). «Review of The Legacy of Isaiah Berlin«. The Isaiah Berlin Virtual Library.

• Enfin, on va jouer ma musique.
  • Translation: At last, they are going to play my music.
  • Who: Hector Berlioz, French composer
    • Note: These words were reputedly his last, but other reports include him saying:
    • [Bidding farewell to composer Mily Balakirev] One thousand greetings to Balakirev.
    • [Speaking to his dead wife] Oh, Mère Recio, it is finished.
    • [Quoting from Macbeth’s final soliloquy in Shakespeare’s play of the same name]: «Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.» That is my signal.

• Jag behöver den.
  • Translation: I’ll need it.
  • Who: Count Folke Bernadotte of Wisborg, Swedish diplomat and nobleman.
    • Note: In response as he drove away after he inspected a bullet in his vehicle’s wheel and a newspaper man shouted «Good luck!»

• Cette fois il me servira pour le voyage d’où il n’y a pas de retour, le voyage de l’éternité.
  • Translation: This time it will serve me for the voyage from which there is no return, the voyage of eternity.
  • Who: Claude Bernard, a French physiologist.
    • Note: Spoken when he began to feel cold and a cover was placed on his feet.

• Never fear; if you will but have patience I don’t doubt we shall get through; but take care how you ever get in such a scrape again.
  • Who: Sir Francis Bernard, 1st Baronet, a British colonial administrator who served as governor of the provinces of New Jersey and Massachusetts Bay.

• Don’t die like I did.
• Bestie, you’ve got to help me. They’re having a fucking party in here. I heard them last night, Bestie. They were having drinks and there were girls.
  • Who: George Best, a Northern Irish professional footballer who played as a winger for Manchester United and the Northern Ireland national team.
    • Note: Best died as a result of a lung infection and multiple organ failure caused by years of alcoholism. The first line was published in News of the World with a picture of Best lying in his hospital bed, five days before his death. The second line, heard by his son Calum, came during after the beeping machines in his ward sent him hallucinating that he was at a club.

• Dear God. Dear God. Why is this happening? I just want to go home.
  • Who: Cassie Bernall, victim of the Columbine High School massacre.
    • Note: According to Emily Wyant, a close friend of Cassie’s, she was heard praying in these last words before Eric Harris yelled «Peek-a-boo!» and fatally shot her in the face. This account disproves the myth that Bernall said «yes» to Dylan Klebold before he shot her dead (it was actually Valeen Schnurr who got terribly shot before being asked by Klebold if she believed in God and surviving the whole ordeal). [1]

• Combien lent est mon agonie.
  • Translation: How slow my death agony is.
  • Who: Sarah Bernhardt, a French stage and early film actress.

• اے رب، میری مدد کریں … کیونکہ میں معصوم ہوں. (Ae rab, meri madad karen…kyunkay mein masoom hon.)
  • Translation: O Lord, help me… for I am innocent.
  • Who: Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan.
    • Note: Said shortly before his hanging.

• Dêem-me café, vou escrever!
  • Translation: Give me coffee, I’m going to write.
  • Who: Olavo Bilac, Brazilian poet.

• I will love you forever.
  • Who: Bushwick Bill, American rapper
    • Note: Spoken to his son on his deathbed.

• ¿Quién es? ¿Quién es?
  • Translation: Who is it? Who is it?
  • Who: Billy the Kid, an American Old West gunfighter who participated in New Mexico’s Lincoln County War.
    • Note: When Billy saw sheriff Pat Garrett, he failed to recognize him due to the poor lighting. Garrett then shot him to death.

• لا تضيء الضوء! (la tudi’ alduwa!)
  • Translation: Don’t turn on the light.
  • Who: Osama bin Laden, founder of Al-Qaeda.

• I’m sorry from the bottom of my heart. I want to thank all of my family and friends for my prayers and who supported and believed in me. My Father, I’m being paroled to heaven. I will now spend all my holidays with my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Peace be with you all. Amen.
  • Who: Kenneth Biros, first person executed by a one-drug lethal injection in Ohio on December 8, 2009.

• Haus.
  • Translation: Home.; Literally: House.
  • Who: Otto von Bismarck, German statesman and Chancellor of Germany.
    • Note: Scrawled on a piece of paper; there is debate as to whether Bismarck meant to convey that he was returning to the afterlife or was simply delirious or intoxicated.

• À moi!
  • Translation: Help!; Literally: To me!
  • Who: Sophie Blanchard, a French aeronaut and the wife of ballooning pioneer Jean-Pierre Blanchard.
    • Note: Blanchard, a balloonist, said these words when her balloon crashed, killing her.

• I die in the faith of my people. May the German people be aware of its enemies!^[1]
  • Who: Paul Blobel, a German SS officer
    • Note: Blobel said these words before his execution.

• Goodbye, kid. Hurry back.
  • Who: Humphrey Bogart, an American screen actor who performed in iconic 1940s films noir such as The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, and The Big Sleep.
    • Note: The line was spoken to his wife, Lauren Bacall, as she left his bedside to pick up her children. She returned to find Bogart in a coma, from which he never regained consciousness.

• À Jésus-Christ je recommande mon âme! Jésus recevez mon âme! Jésus recevez mon âme! Jésus recevez–
  • Translation: To Jesus Christ I commend my soul. Jesus have pity on me. Jesus have pity on me. Jesus have pity–
  • Who: Anne Boleyn

• Damn it! How will I ever get out of this labyrinth?
  • Who: Simon Bolivar, a Venezuelan military and political leader.
    • Note: His last words are also recorded as «Fetch The Luggage, They do not want us here»

• France, armée, tête d’armée, Joséphine.
  • Translation: France, Army, Head of the Army, Joséphine.
  • Who: Napoleon Bonaparte, French military leader and emperor who conquered much of Europe in the early 19th century. He died in exile in Saint Helena on 5 May 1821.

• و مع الإسلام… (Wa mael’iislam…)
  • Translation: And of Islam…
  • Who: Mohamed Boudiaf, President of Algeria.
    • Note: In 1992, he was conducting a televised speech in Arabic to an audience at a newly-opened cultural centre in Annaba, when his assassin struck. [2]

• Ah, das schmeckt gut. Vielen Dank.
  • Translation: Ah, that tastes nice. Thank you.
  • Who: Johannes Brahms, a German composer and pianist.
    • Note: Spoken after he had a small glass of wine.

• Surgite!
  • Translation: Push on!
  • Who: General Sir Isaac Brock, British Army officer and administrator.
    • Note: Said after being shot by American sharpshooters during the Battle Of Queenston Heights.

• Tell my mother I died for my country…Useless… useless…
  • Who: John Wilkes Booth, American stage actor and assassin of President Abraham Lincoln.
    • Note: He said these words as he laid mortally wounded after being shot during a manhunt three hours earlier.

• كيف تتوقع مني أن أعيش؟ (Kayf tatawaqae miniy ‘an ‘aeish?)
  • Translation: How do you expect me to make a living?
  • Who: Mohamed Bouazizi, Tunisian street vendor.
    • Note: Bouazizi set himself on fire on 17 December 2010, in response to the confiscation of his wares and the harassment and humiliation that he said was inflicted on him by a municipal official and her aides. At 11:30 AM local time, he shouted these words while standing in the middle of traffic, then doused himself with gasoline and set himself alight with a match. He later died at the Ben Arous Burn and Trauma Centre on 4 January 2011. This act of self-immolation became a catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution, and eventually the wider Arab Spring.

• Je vais ou je vas mourir, l’un et l’autre se dit ou se disent.
  • Translation : I am about to – or I am going to – die: either expression is correct.
  • Who: Dominique Bouhours, French grammarian.

• He’s got several units of Phoenix police on his tail right here and, uh, Jim, stay with him, looks like he’s gonna try and take another vehicle here. We’ll see if they block him in there. Looks like they’ve got him blocked in there, but he did get h-
  • Who: Scott Bowerbank, pilot for KTVK’s Newschopper3 involved in the Phoenix mid-air collision
  • Note: While covering a police chase, Bowerbank’s chopper was struck by KNXV-TV’s Chopper15. Both choppers crashed to the ground, killing all four occupants on both aircraft.

• Music has been my doorway of perception and the house that I live in.
  • Who: David Bowie, English rock musician.

• I don’t feel well. I don’t think we should go on.
  • Who: Stephen Boyd, actor
    • Note: Boyd was playing golf with his wife when he suffered a massive heart attack that took his life.

• I didn’t murder the Hodges family. I’ve never murdered anybody. I’m going to my death with a clear conscience. I am going to my death having had a great life because of my two great sons, Mike and Doug.
  • Who: Earl Bramblett
    • Note: Spoken prior to his death in the state of Virginia’s electric chair. Contrary to his claim, overwhelming evidence proved that he did indeed kill William Hodges, his wife Teresa and their two children Winter and Anah, ages 11 and 4.

• But all the same, long live France!
  • Who: Robert Brasillach, author

• No. I have no final statement.
  • Who: Lawrence Russell Brewer
    • Note: Executed for the murder of James Byrd, Jr.

• Sarah I miss and need you.
  • Who: Bobbi Kristina Brown, an American reality television and media personality, singer, and actress.
    • Note: Last known tweet to her friend Bess Beckmann before she went into a coma and died months later.

• C’mon, let’s get this day over and done with.
  • Who: Peter Brock, Australian motor racing driver.
    • Note: Said to a track marshal before being killed instantly when he crashed into a tree at the Targa West rally. Brock’s ex-wife believes that this comment showed that he should not have been racing.

• I’m going away tonight.
  • Who: James Brown, American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist.
  • Source: Charles Bobbit, Brown’s longtime personal manager and friend.
    • Note: James Brown uttered his last words minutes before his death, and then he took three, long quiet breaths and closed his eyes.
  • His very last words were: «I want you to look after my wife… and little man. I’m on fire. I’m burning up. Burning up.», as quoted in Icon: James Brown, GQ Magazine, 3 January 2013.

• I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think vainly, flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done.
  • Who: John Brown, an American abolitionist.
    • Note: These words were not spoken, but written on a note and handed to a guard right before his execution.
  • His spoken last words are usually considered to be: This is a beautiful country.

• Continuing to move the game forward @KingJames. Much respect my brother 💪🏾 #33644
  • Who: Kobe Bryant, American basketball player
    • Note: Those were Bryant’s final public words, sent as a Tweet congratulating LeBron James for surpassing him for third place among the National Basketball Association’s all-time leading scorers on January 25, 2020. The following day, Bryant and four other people were killed in a helicopter crash near Los Angeles.

• Oh, Lord, God Almighty, as thou wilt!
  • Who: James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States.

• I’d like you to give my love to my family and friends.
  • Who: Ted Bundy, an American serial killer, kidnapper, rapist, and necrophile who assaulted and murdered numerous young women and girls.
    • Note: Those were Bundy’s last words before being executed in the electric chair.

• I’m the problem.
  • Who: David A. Burke
    • Note: Burke replied to the captain of Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771, who inquired what «the problem» was after Burke fired a gun in the cabin of the plane. Burke shot the pilots and himself, deliberately crashing the flight.

• On that subject I am coy.
  • Who: Aaron Burr, 3rd Vice President of the United States.
    • His last words were a response to the efforts of his friend, Reverend P.J. Van Pelt, to get Burr to state that there was a God. Reported in Holmes Moss Alexander, Aaron Burr: The Proud Pretender‎ (1937), p. 356.

• Back in no time.
  • Who: William S. Burroughs, American novelist, short story writer, essayist, painter, and spoken word performer.
    • Note: Spoken to a friend as he was being loaded into an ambulance after suffering a heart attack; he was comatose upon arrival at the hospital and never regained consciousness. Reported in Barry Miles, Call Me Burroughs: A Life (2014).

• I love you, too.
  • Who: George H. W. Bush, American politician, 41st president of the United States
    • Note: Spoken to his eldest son, George W. Bush, via speakerphone, before his death.

• The corruption of the state shall fall. Governor Taft, you will not be re-elected. The rest of you, you know where you can go.
  • Who: John William Byrd, Jr.
    • Note: Byrd told his family he loved them and that they should keep fighting the death penalty. [3]

• Now I shall go to sleep. Goodnight.
  • Who: Lord Byron, British poet.

• I went the distance.
  • Who: Steve Byrnes, an American television announcer and producer.
    • Note: Final words sent from a tweet.

• من قبل رب الكعبة، لقد كنت ناجحة. (Min qibal rabi alkaebati, laqad kunt najihatan.)
  • Translation: By the Lord of the Ka’bah, I have been successful.
  • Who: Ali ibn Abi Talib, cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, ruling over the Islamic caliphate from 656 to 661.
    • Note: This was spoken after being hit on the head with a poisoned sword, while leading the Morning Prayer, by Ibn Maljam, a fundamentalist.

C

• Damn, hang on Ronnie!
  • Who: James Caddell
    • Note: Referring to passenger Ronald Wilmond, after his Cessna L-19 stalled and plummeted into a forest near Tabernash, Colorado, in 1984. The crash site remained undiscovered until 1987, when it was found by backpackers. Footage of the crash had been captured on the Cessna’s mounted VHS camcorder, the tape of which was recovered and repaired by a sheriff. The footage, secured by the FAA, was kept from the public at the Caddell family’s request and was shown only to flight instructors. After the expiry of the moratorium, the footage became public and was later uploaded to YouTube.

• Nostri coniugii memor vive, ac vale.
  • Translation: Live mindful of our marriage, and farewell.
  • Who: Emperor Augustus Caesar, founder of the Roman Empire and its first Emperor.
    • Note: His last words in public as reported by Suetonius were the more famous «Behold, I found Rome of clay, and leave her to you of marble.» Some sources claim that his last words were, «Acta est fabula, plaudite!» (The play is over, applaud!), which were said at the end of Roman plays.

• Καὶ σύ, τέκνον; (Kaì sú, téknon?)
  • Translation: You too, my child?
  • Who: Julius Caesar
    • Note: Et tu, Brute? (often translated as «and you, Brutus?») is attributed to him by Shakespeare’s famous play; his last words according to claims reported by Suetonius, were καὶ σύ, τέκνον; (pronounced «Kaì sú, téknon?») which means «You too, my child?» in Greek, though his native tongue was Latin [De Vita Caesarum Liber I Divus Iulius, LXXXII]). Suetonius himself, however, actually discounts these claims, and asserts that Caesar said nothing as he died, apart from a groan. His definite last words according to Suetonius were instead, «Ista, quidem vis est!» (Why, this is violence!).

• Vivo!
  • Translation: I live!
  • Who: Caligula (Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus), Roman Emperor, as he was being assassinated by his own soldiers (as reported by Roman historian Tacitus).

• I can’t see anything. I’ve got the bows up… I’m going! Uh–
  • Who: Donald Campbell, British speed record breaker who broke eight absolute world speed records.
  • Context: Final radio transmission from Bluebird K7 as she lifted from the surface of Conniston Water, flipped bow over stern and smashed to pieces on the lake surface in January 1967. Campbell was attempting to set a new world water speed record exceeding 300mph. His first run was 297mph. The crash occurred on the return run. Had he completed it, it would have been fast enough to set a record exceeding 300mph.

• This is not the end of me.
  • Who: Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

• Bei letzter Vernehmung Nase gebrochen. Meine Zeit ist um. War kein Landesverräter. Habe als Deutscher meine Pflicht getan. Sollten Sie weiterleben, grüßen Sie meine Frau.
  • Translation: Badly mishandled. Nose broken at last interrogation. My time is up. Was not a traitor. Did my duty as a German. If you survive, please give my regards to my wife.
  • Who: Wilhelm Canaris, member of the July 20 plot, his last note before execution to the man in the cell next to him.
    • Last words also reported as «Ich sterbe für mein Vaterland, ich habe ein reines Gewissen.» – «I am dying for my Fatherland. I have a clear conscience.»

• It’s me, it’s Buddy… I’m cold.
  • Who: Truman Capote, writer.
    • Note: ‘Buddy’ was Capote’s aunt’s nickname for him.

• 26th October last year, not 10 meters from where these men are now entombed, you had a 400-tonne rock fall. Why is it, is it the strength of the seam, or the wealth of the seam, that you continue to send men into work in such a dangerous environment?
  • Who: Richard Carleton, reporter for National Nine News.
    • Note: During a media conference that was held at Beaconsfield, Tasmania on 7 May 2006, Richard Carleton asked this question to Matthew Gill (mine manager of the Beaconsfield mine), in light of the Beaconsfield mine collapse. When Gill declined to answer the question, Carleton walked away and suffered a heart attack; he was pronounced dead on the way to the hospital.

• So, this is death. Well!
  • Who: Thomas Carlyle, Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher.

• I hope so.
  • Who: Andrew Carnegie, steel magnate and philanthropist.
    • Note: Spoken to his wife whom had bid him goodnight.

• Milan: What a beautiful place to die.
  • Who: John Carradine, an American actor, best known for his roles in horror films, Westerns and Shakespearean theatre.
    • Note: He died from multiple organ failure at Fatebenefratelli Hospital in Milan, Italy at age 82. Hours before he was stricken, he had climbed the 328 steep steps of Milan’s Gothic cathedral, the Duomo.

• ¡No abandonéis a mis indios!
  • Translation: Don’t abandon my Indians!
  • Who: Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Mexican revolutionary, governor of Yucatán (executed)

• Take away these pillows, I won’t need them any longer.
  • Who: Lewis Carroll, English author and poet best known as the author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
  • Quoted in Stuart Dodgson Collingwood, The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll (1898), pp.347-8

• I just wish I had time for one more bowl of chili.
  • Who: Kit Carson, American frontiersman.
    • Note: His final words have also been reported as «Adios, compadres.»

• I think I’ll sleep now.
  • Who: George Washington Carver, an American botanist and inventor.

• Ho vissuto come filosofo, e morto come cristiano.
  • Translation: I have lived as a philosopher, and die as a Christian.
  • Who: Giacomo Casanova, an Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice.

• I hear the train a-comin.
  • Who: Johnny Cash, American country music singer.

• So much wasted time.
  • Who: David Cassidy, an American actor and singer known for The Partridge Family.

• We got a bad fire! Let’s get out — we’re burning up…
  • Who: An Apollo 1 astronaut, probably Roger Chaffee. All three crew members perished in a launchpad fire, 1967.

• Vous voyez, c’est comme ça que vous mourez.
  • Translation: You see, this is how you die.
  • Who: Coco Chanel, French fashion designer of women’s clothes and founder of the Chanel brand.

• Approaching dissolution brings relief.
  • Who: Neville Chamberlain, British prime minister.

• Hello.
  • Who: Graham Chapman, comedian of Monty Python fame.
    • Note: Spoken to his adopted son who had just arrived at the hospital.

• Tell [Carl] Mays I’m okay.
  • Who: Cleveland Indians’ baseball player Ray Chapman.
    • Note: Chapman had been accidentally hit in the head by a pitch from Carl Mays, and died from complications of a skull fracture (1920). This was thirty-two years before batting helmets were first worn (Pittsburgh Pirates, 1952), and fifty years before Major League Baseball had made them mandatory (1970). To this day, Chapman is the only Major League Baseball player ever to die as a direct result of injuries sustained during a game.

• In thine hendi, bevelhi ik minin geist.
  • Translation: Into Thy hands, I commend my spirit.
  • Who: Charlemagne

• I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown, where no disturbance can be, no disturbance in the world. Remember!
  • Who: Charles I, King of England, on the executioner’s block, 30 January 1649.

• You must pardon me, gentlemen, for being a most unconscionable time a-dying.
  • Who: Charles II, son of the above, 1685.

• Quel meurtre! Quel sang! J’ai mal agi… Dieu, pardonne-moi!
  • Translation: What murder! What bloodshed! I have done wrong… Oh God, forgive me.
  • Who: Charles IX of France
    • Note: Referring to his massively violent suppression of the Huguenot Protestants during his reign.

• Var inte rädd!
  • Translation: Do not be afraid!
  • Who: Charles XII of Sweden.

• Ay Jesus.
  • Who: Charles V, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and King of Spain , d. 1558.

• Why not? After all, it belongs to him.
  • Who: Comedian Charlie Chaplin, d. 1977, said this after a priest was reading him his last rites and said «May the lord have mercy on your soul».

• Yo no quiero morir, por favor no me dejen morir.
  • Translation: I don’t want to die. Please don’t let me die.
  • Who: Hugo Chávez, President of Venezuela.
    • Note: Due to a severe respiratory infection, he was unable to speak for several days before his death. According to Venezuelan general Jose Ornella, he mouthed these words before suffering a massive heart attack and dying.

• У меня не было шампанского в течение долгого времени. (U menya ne bylo shampanskogo v techeniye dolgogo vremeni.)
  • Translation: I haven’t had champagne for a long time.
  • Who: Anton Chekhov, playwright, 1904.
    • Note: His doctor had given him champagne after all other attempts to ease the symptoms of death from tuberculosis failed.

• Take a step forward lads — it’ll be easier that way.
  • Who: Robert Erskine Childers, last words, to his firing squad, Irish Civil War, 1922.

• Gdy ta ziemia mnie udusi, błagam cię, abyś otworzył moje ciało, abym nie został pogrzebany żywcem.
  • Translation: As this earth will suffocate me, I implore you to have my body opened so that I will not be buried alive.
• Nigdy więcej.
  • Translation: Not any more.
• Zagraj w Mozarta na moją pamiątkę, a ja cię usłyszę.
  • Translation: Play Mozart in memory of me—and I will hear you.
  • Who: Frederic Chopin, Polish composer and pianist.
    • Note: He had a neurotic fear of being buried alive.
  • The first quote was written on a note some hours before his death.
  • The second quote was spoken to his physician when asked if he was suffering greatly; he died about two hours later.
  • The third quote is what Chopin reportedly murmured on his death-bed (The opera reader, Biancolli, 1953, p. 271).

• In keeping with the WXLT practice of presenting the most immediate and complete reports of local blood and guts news, TV-40 presents what is believed to be a television first: in living color, exclusive coverage of an attempted suicide.
  • Who: Christine Chubbuck, 30-year-old anchorwoman who, on July 15, 1974, during technical difficulties during a broadcast on WXLT-TV in Sarasota, Florida, said these words on-air before producing a revolver and shooting herself in the head (While she drew the gun on camera, the technicians quickly cut the video feed, but the gunshot could be clearly heard). She was pronounced dead in hospital fourteen hours later. Reported in Kristine Bertini, Understanding and Preventing Suicide: The Development of of Self-Destructive Patterns and Ways to Alter Them (2009), p. 134 (under the mistaken surname, Hubbock).
    • Note: This quote is taken from the transcript of the tape obtained by the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Department. Though its legitimacy is unconfirmed, audio featuring an uncanny resemblance of Chubbuck’s voice reading the transcript was leaked online in April of 2021.

• I’m so bored with it all.
  • Who: Winston Churchill, a British statesman who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
    • Note: This was spoken before slipping into a coma and dying nine days later.

• Nihil propriis quid facis, latro, autem non tentant recte ut interficias me.
  • Translation: There is nothing proper about what you are doing, you thug, but do try to kill me properly.
  • Who: Cicero, Roman statesman and orator.
    • Note: These words are directed at Herennius, his assassin by order of Marc Antony, triumvir and co-ruler of Rome. Herennius was a centurion.

• So remember, just when you think all the sounds of dogs barking, people mowing their lawns and children screaming are driving you mad, they may just be keeping you sane!
  • Who: Dick Clark, American radio and television personality.
    • Note: From a blog post nine days before his death. While not his last spoken words (Clark had difficulty speaking due to a stroke he experienced seven years prior), they were the last words he made to the public.[4]

• Thomas, I am dying. Telegraph Mr. Harrison.
  • Who: Henry Clay, an American lawyer and planter, politician, and skilled orator.
    • Note: Spoken to his son. Mr. Harrison appears to be J.O. Harrison, Clay’s executor. (Source: «The Century Magazine», vol. 33).

• Τόσο εδώ! (Tóso edó!)
  • Translation: So here it is!
  • Who: Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last active pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt.
    • Note: «It» was the small asp which she allowed to bite her.
  • Historians dispute the cause of her death. Many believe it was not an asp that she used to commit suicide, but rather some makeshift poison. (Source: Stacy Schiff’s Cleopatra: A Life)

• I have tried so hard to do right.
  • Who: Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President of the United States.

• Absolutely not!
  • Who: Montgomery Clift, actor.
    • Note: His private nurse, Lorenzo James, asked him if he wanted to watch the movie The Misfits (in which he appeared) on TV.

• Thank God. I’m tired of being the funniest person in the room.
  • Who: Del Close, improviser, teacher and comedian, d. 1999.

• …it’s better to burn out than to fade away.
  • Who: Kurt Cobain, an American musician who was best known as the lead singer, guitarist, and primary songwriter for Nirvana
    • Note: Cobain was quoting Neil Young lyrics when he wrote this line in his suicide note.  The full context of the note is available online.

• Depuis le jour de ma naissance, ma mort a commencé sa marche. Il marche vers moi, sans se presser.
  • Translation: Since the day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking towards me, without hurrying.
  • Who: Jean Cocteau, French writer, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker.

• I love you all.
  • Who: Natalie Cole, an American singer-songwriter, and actress.
    • Note: Spoken to her younger twin sisters.

• I love you and my head hurts.
  • Who: Gary Coleman, an American actor, voice artist, and comedian.

• Five Zulu Alpha just had a midair. Both planes are going down in the, ah, one mile to the, ah, two miles to the west of the power plant
  • Who: Bob Collins, Chicago Morning DJ.
    • Note: On 8 February 2000, Collins was piloting a light aircraft into Waukegan, Illinois when his aircraft suffered a mid-air collision with another aircraft due to pilot error by Collins. Collins reported the mid-air collision before the aircraft crashed, killing both him and his passenger. The other aircraft also crashed, killing the pilot aboard.

• Can you get a shot of this gun?
  • Who: Harry Collinson, Chief Planning Officer for Derwentside District Council.
    • Note: On 20 June 1991, Collinson was supervising the demolition of a bungalow that had been built by Albert Dryden without planning permission. After a BBC camera crew arrived, Dryden produced an unlicensed pistol, and Collinson invited the crew to focus on it. Several seconds later, Dryden opened fire, killing Collinson and injuring BBC reporter Tony Belmont and PC Stephen Campbell; the Council’s solicitor, Mike Newell, was shot at four times but not injured. Dryden was subsequently arrested after a stand-off and was found guilty by a jury of murder and three counts of attempted murder, being sentenced to life imprisonment with a tariff of 13 years.

• Heaven has turned against me. No wise ruler arises, and no one in the Empire wishes to make me his teacher. The hour of my death has come.
  • Who: Confucius, Chinese philosopher and politician

• More weight.
• I curse you Corwin and all of Salem!
  • Who: Giles Corey, while being crushed during the Salem witch trials because he would not answer the court.
    • Note: The first line was said while being crushed during the Salem Witch Trials for refusing to answer the court. After long hours of pain, Corey then uttered the second quote and died.

• Lady, you shot me!
  • Who: Sam Cooke, lethally wounded after being shot at the Hacienda Motel (now the Star motel).

• Good morning, Robert.
  • Who: Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States, to a carpenter working on his home.
  • Coolidge is also said to have been quoted near his death: «I feel I no longer fit in with these times.» Coolidge, a staunch fiscal conservative and small-government federalist, was at odds with incoming President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose New Deal marked a major expansion of the federal budget.

• I am guilty. My sentence is just: I deserve my fate. And may God have mercy on my soul.
  • Who: William Corder, moments before he was hanged on August 11, 1828, for the murder of Maria Marten at the Red Barn.

• I love you.
• I’m just tired.
  • Who: Chris Cornell, an American musician and lead singer of Soundgarden and Audioslave.
    • Note: The first line was the last thing Cornell said to his fans after performing his last song with Soundgarden at a concert. Within 60 minutes later, he was on the phone with his wife, slurring his words and repeatedly saying the second line before hanging up. He committed suicide by hanging shortly after.

• Hello. We’re looking in… we’re overlooking the Financial Center. Three of us. Two broken windows. OH, GOD! OH-
  • Who: Kevin Cosgrove, a victim of the September 11 attacks. He was connected to a 9-1-1 dispatcher, and he said the above phrase when the South Tower collapsed after it had been hit by one of the airplanes used in the attacks.

• That was the best ice-cream soda I ever tasted.
• I think I’ll be more comfortable.
  • Who: Lou Costello, American actor and comedian.
    • Note: Reports vary as to whether his last words were the former to visitors upon finishing an ice-cream soda, or the latter to his nurse after asking to be moved onto his side.

• Goodnight, my darlings, I’ll see you tomorrow.
  • Who: Noel Coward, playwright. Died of natural causes.

• No, my pain is too much, Fazila.
• I can’t make it, I’m in too much pain.
  • Who: Jo Cox, British Labour Party politician
    • Note: Either one was spoken to her assistant, Fazila Aswat, after she tried to encourage Cox to stand after an attack. She later died of her injuries.

• It don’t matter; I figure I licked the Rock anyway.
  • Who: Bernard Coy, convicted criminal, shot while trying to escape Alcatraz prison (known as «The Rock»)

• Goodbye, everybody.
  • Hart Crane, spoken as he committed suicide by jumping from a cruise ship. Reported in Kristine Bertini, Understanding and Preventing Suicide: The Development of of Self-Destructive Patterns and Ways to Alter Them (2009), p. 134.

• Dammit, don’t you dare ask God to help me!
  • Who: Joan Crawford.
    • Note: This comment was directed towards her housekeeper who began to pray aloud.

• That was a great game of golf, fellas. Let’s get a Coke.
  • Who: Bing Crosby, American singer and actor.
    • Note: He was playing the whole 18 holes of golf, even when his doctor said to only do nine. 20 minutes after the game, he suffered a fatal heart attack when heading back to the clubhouse.

• What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.
  • Who: Crowfoot, chief of the Siksika First Nation.

• I am confound.
• (also quoted as I am perplexed.)
  • Who: Aleister Crowley. British occultist, mystic, poet, mountain climber.
  • This is open to debate, because some sources report Crowley dying alone, and others claim that he said Sometimes I hate myself. [5] [6]

• You sons of bitches, give my love to Mother!
  • Who: Francis «Two Gun» Crowley, an American murderer and career criminal.

• It’s not real.
  • Who: John Crawford III
  • Note: Spoken regarding a toy gun he was holding, in the toy section of a Wal-Mart in Beavercreek, Ohio.

• Je ne le veux pas.
  • Translation: I don’t want it.
  • Who: Marie Curie, Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist.
    • Note: She had been offered an injection to ease her pain.

• Hurrah Boys! Let’s get these last few reds then head on back to camp. Hurrah! [Attributed]
• We’ve caught them napping! [Attributed]
  • Who: George Armstrong Custer, a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War.

• I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people, the good working people. I am not sorry for my crime. [Through clenched teeth]: I am sorry I could not see my father.
  • Who: Leon Czolgosz, American anarchist and assassin of President William McKinley.
    • Note: He said the second line as he was being strapped on the electric chair.

D

• Remember, my brain goes to Boston. Straight to Boston.
  • Who: Daffney, professional wrestler and actress.
    • Note: Said in a live video on Instagram, reading a suicide note while holding what appeared to be a pistol, referring to the chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) testing center on the campus of Boston University. The following day, Daffney’s death was announced; an investigation determined she had shot herself in the chest.

• You know, I’m not frightened. It’s just that I’ll miss you all so much… Ow, fuck!
  • Who: Roald Dahl, Welsh novelist, short story writer, poet, screenwriter, and fighter pilot.
    • Note: First line said to his family. He then appeared to have lost consciousness, and the nurse decided to inject him with a lethal dose of morphine to ease his passing. After she did, Dahl said the second line right before dying.

• I don’t care if I live or die. Go ahead and kill me.
  • Who: Jeffrey Dahmer, serial killer.
    • Note: According to fellow prisoner Christopher Scarver, who admitted to beating Dahmer to death with a «preacher bar» (part of a weight machine), these were his last words.

• On és el meu rellotge?
  • Translation: Where is my clock?
  • Who: Salvador Dalí, a prominent Spanish surrealist painter

• If all goes well, about a week. If not, about an hour and a half.
  • Who: Rodney Dangerfield, American comedian.
    • In response to how long he would be hospitalized.

• One last drink, please.
  • Who: Jack Daniel, an American distiller and businessman, the founder of the Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey distillery.

• Mon seul regret est que je parte devant ce rat, Robespierre! N’oublie pas de montrer ma tête aux gens; ça vaut le coup d’être vu.
  • Translation: My only regret is that I’m going before that rat, Robespierre! [to his executioner] Don’t forget to show my head to the people; it’s well worth seeing.
  • Who: Georges Danton, a leading figure in the early stages of the French Revolution and the first President of the Committee of Public Safety. The last line is a humorous comment on his famous ugliness.

• I am not the least afraid to die.
  • Who: Charles Darwin, an English naturalist and geologist, best known for his contributions to evolutionary theory.

• ואיש יגע בהם ימלא ברזל ועץ חנית ובאש שרוף ישרפו בשבת (Ve’ish yigga bahem, yimmalei varzel ve’etz chanit; uva’esh sarof yissarefu bashavet)
  • Translation: But the man who touches them (the worthless) must be armed with iron, and the shaft of a spear, and with fire they shall be utterly burned in their place!
  • Who: David, third king of the United Monarchy of Israel

• Well, first of all I’d like to address the MacPhail family. I’d like to let you all know, despite the situation — I know all of you are still convinced that I’m the person that killed your father, your son and your brother, but I am innocent. The incident that happened that night was not my fault. I did not have a gun that night. I did not shoot your family member. But I am so sorry for your loss. I really am — sincerely. All I can ask is that each of you look deeper into this case, so that you really will finally see the truth. I ask my family and friends that you all continue to pray, that you all continue to forgive. Continue to fight this fight. For those about to take my life, may God have mercy on all of your souls. God bless you all.
  • Who: Troy Anthony Davis, high-profile death row inmate.
    • Notes: Davis was executed by lethal injection in Georgia on September 21, 2011 for the murder of Officer Mark Allen MacPhail, despite serious doubts about his guilt that lingered on prior to his death.[7]

• It’s good to be king. Wait, maybe. I think maybe I’m just like a little bizarre little person who walks back and forth. Whatever, you know.
  • Who: Terry A. Davis, programmer, creator of TempleOS.
    • Note: Words were spoken on his last video before being struck and killed by a Union Pacific train.

• That guy’s got to stop… He’ll see us.
  • Who: James Dean, American actor.
    • Note: Words said before dying in a car accident.

• Miss, I got what I really went for.
  • Who: Jeremy Wade Delle
    • Note: After this troubled teenager left his Texas classroom under the pretenses of obtaining a late pass, he returned with a gun, uttered these words, and committed suicide in front of his classmates. The incident was later immortalized in the Pearl Jam song «Jeremy.»

• Hıristofyaaas!!! Burası bağımsız bir cumhuriyettir!!!
  • Translation: Christofiaaass!! Here is an independent republic!!!
    • Who: Rauf Denktaş, founder of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus

• Do you have it now?
  • Who: John Denver
    • Note: Spoken via cockpit radio after transmitting a four digit code. On October 12, 1997, Denver was killed when his Experimental Rutan Long-EZ plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean near Pacific Grove, California.

• On the ground!
  • Who: Charles Dickens
    • Note: He suffered a stroke on a walk near his home, and asked to be laid down on the ground.

• Mais comment le diable pensez-vous que cela pourrait me faire du mal?
  • Translation: But how the devil do you think this could harm me?
  • Who: Denis Diderot, French encyclopedist, upon being warned by his wife not to eat too much.

• Little Cousins, Called back.
  • Who: Emily Dickinson. Letter to Louise and Frances Norcross, May 1886.
  • Source: Johnson, Thomas H., ed. Emily Dickinson Selected Letters. Cambridge: Belknap, 1971.

• I’m going to heaven.
  • Who: Bo Diddley as he lay dying on his deathbed with his family surrounding him.

• Damn!
  • Who: First Officer James Dillard
    • Note: During take-off of American Airlines Flight 191, the engine separated. Prior to the black box failing, Dillard was heard saying these words. Shortly afterward, the plane crashed into the ground, killing all onboard including Dillard.

• You got me.
  • Who: John Dillinger, infamous American bank robber.
  • This may be an apocryphal quote. Dillinger died when a bullet passed through his brain, leaving him little opportunity for final speeches.

• I’ll finally get to see Marilyn.
  • Who: Joe DiMaggio, talking about his former wife, Marilyn Monroe.

• ישוע אתדכריני מריא מא דאתא אנת במלכותכן (Yeshu eitdakrain marya ma dathei ant b’malkutach)
• Translation: Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom
  • Who: Saint Dimas, a.k.a. the pentient thief

• Shit! Shit! Stop! No!
  • Who: Kyle Dinkheller, deputy of the Laurens County Sheriff’s Office, Georgia
    • Note: Said while being shot by Andrew Howard Brannan, whom he had pulled over for speeding. The enraged Brannan argued with Dinkheller and then began shooting him with an Iver Johnson M1 Carbine. Brannan fatally shot Dinkheller in the eye shortly after. The incident was caught on Dinkheller’s dashcam and continues to be used to train law enforcement officers when confrontations become dangerous.

• Go, go. I’ll be fine.
  • Who: Ronnie James Dio, heavy metal singer.
    • Note: Spoken to his wife while he was in the hospital with stomach cancer, but she stayed with him. A few days later he went into a coma and he was dead by the end of the week.

• Kurt Russell.
  • Who: Walt Disney
    • Note: Scrawled on a piece of paper. To this day, nobody knows what he meant by it, not even Kurt Russell, who was 15 at the time.

• Иоанн же удерживал Его и говорил: мне надобно креститься pour Тебя, и Ты ли приходишь ко мне? Но Иисус сказал ему в ответ: оставь теперь, ибо так надлежит нам исполнить всякую правду. Услышьте это сейчас, позвольте! Не сдерживай меня! (Ioann zhe uderzhival Yego i govoril: mne nadobno krestit’sya pour Tebya, i Ty li prikhodish’ ko mne? No Iisus skazal yemu v otvet: ostav’ teper’, ibo tak nadlezhit nam ispolnit’ vsyakuyu pravdu. Uslysh’te eto seychas, pozvol’te! Ne sderzhivay menya!)
  • Translation: But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptised of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Hear now—permit it. Do not restrain me!
  • Who: Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The majority of the quote is the verses Matthew 3:14-15.

• Mike Bloomberg can get it done.
  • Who: Kirk Douglas.

• Don’t let them put me in one of those bags, I might suffocate.
  • Who: Darragh Doyle spoken before dropping a live grenade at Omaha Beach.

• Hit the water, hit the water, hit the water!
  • Who: Jane Dornacker as she was giving a traffic report for radio station WNBC via helicopter. The helicopter stalled and plummeted into the Hudson River while Jane was still on the air, unintentionally broadcasting her final moments all across the metropolitan New York City area. The helicopter’s other occupant was seriously injured, but survived.

• Shakespeare, I come!
  • Who: Theodore Dreiser.

• I don’t know why Marta Glass wasn’t allowed in here. I love you all. Keep the faith. Remember the death penalty is murder. They are taking the life of an innocent man. My attorney, Ron Kuley, will read my letter at a press conference after this is over. That is all I have to say. I love you all.
  • Who: Robert Drew, d. August 2, 1994.
    • Note: Executed by injection, Texas.

• Tu vas me faire mal, s’il te plaît, ne me fais pas de mal, juste une minute de plus, je t’en supplie!
  • Translation: You are going to hurt me, please don’t hurt me, just one more moment, I beg you!
  • Who: Madame du Barry

• Do you hear the rain? Do you hear the rain?
  • Who: Jessica Dubroff, seven-year-old pilot speaking to her mother by telephone as the engines revved for takeoff, she (and her flight instructor) crashed minutes later in rough weather, April 11, 1996.

• Adieu, mes amis, Je vais à la gloire!
  • Translation: Farewell my friends, I go to glory!
  • Who: Isadora Duncan
    • Note: Said before she got in her car to go home. Her scarf got caught around the wheel and strangled her instantly as the driver took off.

• Stopping for a beer, be there when I can.
  • Who: Ryan Dunn
    • Note: Final text sent to Jackass co-worker Bam Margera, before getting involved in a car crash that would claim his life.

• Don’t, don’t, don’t! This… this will hurt someone! Do not…
  • Who: R. Budd Dwyer, Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, before he placed the barrel of a .357 Magnum revolver into his mouth and pulled the trigger in front of TV news cameras that were videotaping what was originally presumed to be a press conference (Dwyer had been found guilty of accepting bribes, and professed his innocence to the literal last moments of his life. The press conference was held on what was to be the day before his sentencing). William Smith (the witness whose testimony was critical to Dwyer’s conviction) said he lied under oath to get a lighter sentence.

E

• We are running on line north and south.
  • Who: Amelia Earhart
    • Note: Earhart famously disappeared on a flight over the Pacific. The above is the last confirmed radio transmission to her headquarters before vanishing.

• Okay, just wondering.
  • Who: Dale Earnhardt, 7 time NASCAR Champion
    • Note: Radioed to Andy Pilgrim while driving caution laps with 21 laps to go in the Daytona 500, waiting for the last start in the race that took his life.
  • The rest of the conversation was as follows: Earnhardt- «So, you got any advice for me here coming up?»; Pilgrim- «No, man, I haven’t got any advice for you, just keep doing what you’re doing.»; Earnhardt-«Okay, just wondering»; Pilgrim- «Cheers, talk to you later.» http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/10/ten-years-after-sharing-final-moments-and-a-drivers-seat-with/.

• [to his wife] Suppose, suppose.
  • Who: Wyatt Earp, American Old West gambler, a deputy sheriff in Pima County, and deputy town marshal in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, who took part in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

• My work is done. Why wait?
  • Who: George Eastman
    • Note: Written in his suicide letter.

• So on this day of reflection I say again, thank you for going on this journey with me. I’ll see you at the movies.
  • Who: Roger Ebert
    • Note: Final paragraph of his last public blog post, written two days before his passing.

• It’s very beautiful over there.
  • Who: Thomas Edison
    • Note: Spoken to his wife as he lapsed in and out of consciousness. There is debate over if he meant the afterlife, or the view from his window.

• In einem kurzen Weilchen, meine Herren, sehen wir uns ohnehin alle wieder. Das ist das Los aller Menschen. Es lebe Deutschland. Es lebe Argentinien. Es lebe Österreich. […] Ich werde sie nicht vergessen.
  • Translation: In a short while, gentlemen, we’ll meet each other, anyway. That’s every human’s fortune. Long live Germany! Long live Argentina! Long live Austria! […] I won’t forget them.
  • Who: Adolf Eichmann
    • Note: Before his execution on June 1, 1962 in Jerusalem.

• Citater fra…
  • Who: Albert Einstein
    • Note: When Einstein died on April 18, 1955 he left a piece of writing ending in an unfinished sentence.

• Yeah, how come?
  • Who: Harry «Parkyakarkus» Einstein, dialect comic and character actor
  • In response to a quip, made by Milton Berle during a Friars Club roast,asking why he did not have a regular television gig at the time. Einstein slumped over into his chair and died immediately after his response.^[2]

• I’ve always loved my wife, my children, and my grandchildren, and I’ve always loved my country. I want to go. God, take me.
  • Who: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States.

• Valerie.
  • Who: T. S. Eliot
    • Note: Valerie was the name of his wife at the time of his death.

• ?מה־היה הדבר בני (Meh-hayah haddavar beni?)
  • Translation: What happened there, my son?
  • Who: Eli
    • Note: A soldier fleeing from a battle found his way to Eli, who then asked what had happened. When the soldier told Eli the Ark of the Covenant had been captured by the Philistines, Eli fell backwards out of his chair and broke his neck.

• Was ist mit mir geschehen?
  • Translation: What has happened to me?
  • Who: Elisabeth, Empress of Austria, stabbed to death on September 10, 1898.

• All my possessions for a moment of time.
  • Who: Elizabeth I, Queen of England, d. 1603.

• Are you all right?
  • Who: Belinda Emmett, Australian actress.
    • Note: Spoken to her sister, Lesley Arthur.

• Hurrah for anarchy! This is the happiest moment of my life.
  • Who: George Engel, anarchist, union activist
    • Note: Shouted before his execution at the gallows.

• Now why did I do that?
  • Who: General William Erskine
    • Note: Said after he jumped from a window in Lisbon, Portugal in 1813.

• Ich sterbe.
  • Translation: I die.
  • Who: Leonhard Euler, Swiss mathematician and physicist.

• Fuck off.
  • Who: Tony «Spaghetti» Eustace, Australian mobster.
    • Eustace was found by two schoolchildren who were returning home from sports training on 23 April 1985. He had been shot six times in the back outside the Airport Hilton in North Arncliffe and was lying beside his gold Mercedes, bleeding profusely. He was rushed to hospital. Police attempted to speak to him, but Eustace only said those words, and died a short time later.

F

• I’ve never felt better.
  • Who: Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., actor, d. December 12, 1939

• We’ve reached one of our phase lines after the fire fight and it smells bad – meaning it’s a little bit suspicious…Could be an amb–
  • Who: Bernard B. Fall, prominent war correspondent, historian, political scientist, and expert on Indochina during the 1950s and 1960s.
    • Notes: Dictated into his tape recorder before stepping on a landmine in Vietnam

• [Being asked: «Have you ever pondered by yourself what will be your occupation in the next world?».]
  I shall be with Christ, and that is enough.
  • Who: Michael Faraday, English chemist and physicist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry.

• [Death is like] going somewhere I’ve never been before, like Finland or Estonia.
  • Who: Barry Farber, radio host and language enthusiast.[8]

• Please don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me.
  • Who: Chris Farley, American actor and comedian.
  • Said to a prostitute as she left his hotel room following a weekend-long drug and sex binge. When she turned around, Chris Farley had collapsed.

• Why aren’t you filming this? This is what cancer is.
  • Who: Farrah Fawcett, American actress, model, and artist.
  • Note: Spoken to her friend Alana Stewart, who was filming a documentary about her struggles with cancer.

• Remember me as a revolutionary communist.
  • Who: Leslie Feinberg, American, butch lesbian and transgender activist, communist, and author.

• Fräls mig!
  • Translation: Save me! or rather, Give me salvation!
  • Who: Count Axel von Fersen.
    • Note: Fersen, who was Swedish marshal of the realm, was attacked in a mob riot during the burial procession of the crown prince, whose death wrongly was blamed on Fersen. The Count called for help from the Guard, but was killed before they could do anything.

• I’d hate to die twice. It’s so boring.
  • Who: Richard Feynman, American physicist.

• Goddamn the whole fucking world and everyone in it except you, Carlotta.
  • Who: W.C. Fields, American Actor and Comedian.
    • Note: «Carlotta» was Carlotta Monti, actress and Fields’ mistress.

• Smrt fašizmu, sloboda narodu! (Serbo-Croatian)
  • Translation: Death to fascism, freedom to the people!
  • Who: Stjepan Filipović, Croatian communist who led *Kolubara Company of the Valjevo Partisan Detachment* during the 1941 Partisan uprising.

• The nourishment is palatable.
  • Who: Millard Fillmore, 13th President of the United States.
    • Note: This was his response when his physician inquired about his food.

• Nothing soothes pain like human touch.
  • Who: Chess Grandmaster Bobby Fischer
    • Note: Said while dying of kidney failure.

• I don’t even know why I’m here.
  • Who: Albert Fish
    • Note: Said before execution [9]

• If any of you have a message for the Devil, give it to me, for I am about to meet him!
  • Who: Lavinia Fisher, hanged for murder on February 18, 1820, while wearing her white wedding dress gown.[10]

• Good enough. They’ll be fine.
  • Who: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Irish-American novelist and short story writer.
    • Note: His response when asked if he wanted anything besides Hershey bars.

• Hey, Jimmie! The Chimney Sweeps. Talk to the Sword. Shut up, you got a big mouth! Please come help me up, Henny. Max come over here… French Canadian bean soup… I want to pay, let them leave me alone…
  • Who: Arthur Flegenheimer, mobster, also known as Dutch Schultz.
    • Note: Flegenheimer had been fatally shot by another mobster and taken to the hospital. As police officers interrogated him on his deathbed, he gave them long and frequently incoherent answers, perhaps the most known of which is «A boy has never wept…nor dashed a thousand kin» before finally dying.

• I am sorry to trouble you chaps. I don’t know how you get along so fast with the traffic on the roads these days.
  • Who: Ian Fleming, British author and journalist.
    • Note: Spoken to the ambulance drivers.

• I can’t breathe.
  • Who: George Floyd
    • Note: Said while Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, pressed his knee to Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed face down in the street.

• I’ve had a hell of a lot of fun and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.
  • Who: Errol Flynn, Australian-born actor.

• Billy, I’ve never sung that song and feel the way I do tonight.
• I’m awful tired now, Hank. I’ve got to go to bed.
  • Who: Red Foley, American country singer
  • «Billy» was Billy Walker, who had led a prayer of repentance for Foley earlier that night. The song Foley had sung was the gospel number «Peace in the Valley.» «Hank» was Hank Williams, Jr.; the words to him were the last words attributed to Foley in Williams’s song «I Was with Red Foley (The Night He Passed Away),» and thus poetic license may have been taken.

• You can stop now; I’m already dead.
  • Who: Abigail Folger
    • Note: Folger said this to her attackers, members of the Manson Family, after being stabbed repeatedly in the home of her friend Sharon Tate. Folger had first been injured in the house before running to the front lawn and collapsing, where she said her last words and died while being continually stabbed.

• I’ll sleep well tonight.
  • Who: Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company.

• I don’t want to leave you guys.
  • Who: Rob Ford, Canadian politician and businessman, and the 64th Mayor of Toronto.

• It is better to die with honour than live without it. Echo November Alpha.»
  • Who: Colin Forman
    • Note: Forman, an immigrant from England, had been dismissed as a pilot from Connair after a previous conviction for ticket forgery was discovered. After being fired from another flight company in Wyndham, Forman vowed revenge on Connair’s boss, Roger Connellan, whom he believed told the company about his conviction. In January 1977, he stole a Beechcraft 58 Baron from Wyndham, flew to the Alice Springs airfield, and broadcast this final message to ATC before deliberately flying the plane into the Connair complex. Connellan and three other people in the building were killed.

• I’ve been very, very busy… being ill!
  • Who: Bruce Forsyth, British presenter, when asked of his whereabouts in the year leading up to his demise.

• Ich bin dankbar für die freundliche Behandlung während meiner Gefangenschaft und bitte Gott, mich gnädig aufzunehmen.
• Translation: I am thankful for the kind treatment during my captivity and I ask God to accept me with mercy.
  • Who: Hans Frank, German war criminal and lawyer who worked for the Nazi Party during the 1920s and 1930s, and later became Adolf Hitler’s personal lawyer.
    • Note: At the gallows, Frank, one of the only two war criminals to show true remorse for his crimes during the Nuremberg trials and sentencing, quietly answered to his name and calmly said these words before he was hanged.

• A dying man can do nothing easily.
  • Who: Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Also a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat.
    • Note: As he lay dying, his daughter suggested that if he lay on his side, he could breathe easier.

• Es ist gar nichts… es ist gar nichts…
  • Translation: It is nothing… it is nothing…
  • Who: Franz Ferdinand Archduke of Austria-Hungary
  • Whispered to Count Harrach as the Archduke fell unconscious after being shot; he died shortly without ever regaining consciousness. His assassination and subsequent death in Sarajevo in 1914 triggered the outbreak of World War I.

• Werfen Sie eine Decke über sie.
  • Translation: Throw a quilt over her.
  • Who: Frederick II of Prussia, who noticed his greyhound shivering and issued this order to his valet.

• Das ist nicht wahr! Ich werde in der Montur sterben?
  • Translation: That’s not true! I’m gonna die in this suit?
  • Alternatively: No, not quite naked. I shall have my uniform on.
  • Who: Frederick William I, King of Prussia from 1713 — 1740, d. 31 May, 1740

• Das gute Essen.
  • Translation: The good meal.
  • Who: Fredrik I of Sweden
    • Note: He probably meant the Holy Communion although one of the king’s favourite activities was to eat.

• Hey, fellas! How about this for a headline for tomorrow’s paper? ‘French Fries’!
  • Who: James French.
    • Note: French, a convicted murderer, was sentenced to the electric chair. He shouted these words to members of the press who were to witness his execution.

• Sag Anna von unserem Vortrag.
  • Translation: Tell Anna of our talk.
  • Who: Sigmund Freud
    • Note: Anna was Freud’s daughter. Freud had been in agony for some months due to oral cancer and had previously discussed with his physician that he wished to be euthanized rather than endure prolonged suffering.

• Bitte lass es.
  • Translation: Please leave it.
  • Who: Werner von Fritsch

• Why fear death? It’s life’s greatest adventure.
  • Who: Charles Frohman, As he stood on the deck of the sinking liner RMS Lusitania with French actress Rita Jolivet, he quoted this line from his friend, J.M. Barrie’s «Peter Pan» on the 7th May 1915 at 14:28pm.
    • Note: Charles Frohman was standing on deck when the torpedo struck the RMS Lusitania, and 18 minutes later, he was dragged under with the ship by the suction. During then, he saw Rita Jolivet on deck and asked her to hold on to the rail until they knew what to do. His friends escaped and so did Rita, but Charles was among the 1198 people who perished in the disaster.

• She is squeezing my hand!
  • Who: Buckminster Fuller
    • Note: In the period leading up to his death, his wife had been lying comatose in a Los Angeles hospital, dying of cancer. It was while visiting her there that he exclaimed, at a certain point: «She is squeezing my hand!» He then stood up, suffered a heart attack and died an hour later. His wife died 36 hours after he did.

G

• I love you.
  • Who: Zsa Zsa Gabor

• Kiss my ass! You’ll never find the rest!
  • Who: John Wayne Gacy
    • Note: Gacy’s last words before being executed by lethal injection. The «rest» refers to the bodies of his other victims, which indeed were all found.

• !لا تطلق النار لي! لا تطلق النار لي (la tutliq alnaar li! la tutliq alnaar li!)
• !لا تقتلني يا أبنائي (la taqtulani ya ‘abnayiy!)
• ماذا فعلت لك؟ هل تعرف الحق من الخطأ؟ (madha faealt lak? hal taerif alhaqa min alkhata?)
• !ماذا تفعل؟ حرام. لا يسمح به في الشريعة الإسلامية. حرام. ما تفعلونه ممنوع في الإسلام (madha tafealu? haram. la yasmah bih fi alshryet al’iislamiat. haram. ma tafealunah mamnue fi al’iislam!)
  • Translation:
• Don’t shoot me! Don’t shoot me!
• Don’t kill me, my sons!
• What did I do to you? Do you know right from wrong?
• What are you doing? It’s haraam [forbidden]. It’s not allowed in Islamic law. Haraam. What you are doing is forbidden in Islam!
  • Who: Muammar Gaddafi
    • Note: All of the above were allegedly heard as Gaddafi was dragged through the streets. As of the 23rd of October 2011, there is no officially accepted version of the death of Gaddafi.

• I’d like to thank my family for loving me and taking care of me. And the rest of the world can kiss my ass.
  • Who: Johnny Frank Garrett, Sr., d. February 11, 1992
    • Note: Executed by injection, Texas.

• Баатар! Жинхэнэ баатар! (Bataar! Jinkhene baatar!)
• Миний төгсгөлийг чамаас гуйхгүй, ямар ч шалтгаангүйгээр битгий уйлж, дуулгавартай байгаарай, дайсан минь миний үхлээс сэрэмжлүүлцгээе. (Minii tögsgöliig chamaas guikhgüi, yamar ch shaltgaangüigeer bitgii uilj, duulgavartai baigaarai, daisan mini minii ükhlees seremjlüültsgeeye.)
  • Translation:
• Hero! A real hero!
• Let not my end disarm you, and on no account weep or keen for me, lest the enemy be warned of my death.
  • Who: Genghis Khan
    • Note: The first set of words were presumably Genghis Khan’s last words according to legend, while the second set were supposed to have been spoken after he fell ill as his forces approached the Tangut capital of Ningxia.

• Ne pleure pas, Alfred ! J’ai besoin de tout mon courage pour mourir à vingt ans !
  • Translation: Don’t cry, Alfred! I need all my courage to die at twenty!
  • Who: Mathematician Evariste Galois
    • Note: Spoken to his brother Alfred after being fatally wounded in a duel.

• चिंता मत करो, आराम करो! (chinta mat karo, aaraam karo!)
  • Translation: Don’t worry, relax!
  • Who: Rajiv Gandhi, Indian Prime Minister.
    • Note: To his security staff, allowing the suicide bomber to go near him as if to give flowers.

• हे राम! (Hé Ram!)
  • Translation: O God!
  • Who: Mohandas Gandhi.
    • Note: These words were reportedly spoken after Gandhi had been shot. According to his assassin Godse, Gandhi «just made a ‘Uh …’ kind of sound and slid down». The above words were inserted by the Congress.

• [To his chief of staff, David G. Swaim] Oh Swaim, there is a pain here. Swaim, can’t you stop this? Oh, oh, Swaim!
  • Who: James A. Garfield, 20th President of the United States. As quoted in «The Last Hours», Life of President Garfield: The Complete Record of a Wonderful Career (1881), by William Ralston Balch, p. 573.

• I can’t breathe!
  • Who: Eric Garner
    • Note: Said while officer Daniel Pantaleo put him in a chokehold and slammed onto the ground. After a few seconds, Pantaleo uses his hands to push Garner’s head down on the sidewalk. As Pantaleo removed his arm from Garner’s neck, he said the above line eleven times before going unconscious.

• Save my son first!
  • Who: Shad Gaspard, professional wrestler and actor.
    • Note: Said to a lifeguard at Venice Beach, who tried to rescue Gaspard and his 10-year old son after a rip current had swept them both to sea, insisting that his son be rescued first. The lifeguard was able to rescue his son, but Gaspard was pushed back down under a wave shortly afterwards, disappearing until his body was found three days later washed up on the shore.

• I don’t want to lay down!
  • Who: Hank Gathers, college basketball player
    • Note: Gathers collapsed during a tournament game between the Loyola Marymount Lions and Portland Pilots and was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. His death was attributed to a heart condition.

• Ça fait mal là. / Ça fait mal ici.
  • Translation: I feel pain here.
  • Who: Charles de Gaulle, French leader.

• व्अय्अध्अम्म्आ स्अङख्आर्आ अप्प्अम्आद्एन्अ स्अम्प्आद्एथ्आ (vayadhammā saṅkhārā appamādena sampādethā)
  • Translation: All compounded things are subject to vanish. Strive with earnestness.
  • Who: Siddhārtha Gautama, a.k.a. the Buddha

• I got what I wanted… I couldn’t do it myself, so I had him do it… it’s good, I ran my race, there’s no more left in me.
  • Who: Marvin Gaye
    • Note: Moments earlier, Gaye was fatally shot by his father, Marvin Gay, Sr.

• Fifty-fifty.
  • Who: Lou Gehrig
    • Note: Mouthed these words to his wife Eleanor.

• Goddamn you!
  • Who: King George V of the United Kingdom
    • Note: Alleged last words, after his nurse administered a sedative. Lord Bertrand Dawson, the royal physician, had given a poor prognosis of the king’s worsening bronchitis, and decided to euthanize George V so that his death would reach the press in time for the morning news. George V himself adamantly protested, hence his fervent dying words. Neither Queen Mary or Edward VIII, George’s wife and son, were consulted.
• Oh, Jesus Christ! AAAAAAAHHHHH! AAAAAAAAAHHHHH! AAAAAAAAAHHHHH! [unintelligible]
  • Who: Charles Gilbert, captain of Western Airlines Flight 2605.
    • Note: Said after the flight landed on the incorrect runway and struck a maintenance vehicle, before banking right and flying towards an aircraft hangar. These were the last words captured on the flight’s CVR before impact. Gilbert’s exact last words are unclear, although it is possible that he may have yelled «Oh shit! Momma!»

• There’ll always be a Meersman.
  • Who: Gary Gilmore
  • Before his execution by firing squad in Utah on January 17, 1977. This was first execution in the United States after 10-years moratorium
  • After being asked for any last words, Gilmore simply replied, «Let’s do it.» The Rev. Thomas Meersman, the Roman Catholic prison chaplain, imparted Gilmore’s last rites. After the prison physician cloaked him in a black hood, Gilmore uttered his last words to the Father Meersman:
    Gary: Dominus vobiscum (Latin translation: «The Lord be with you.»)
    Meersman: Et cum spiritu tuo («And with your spirit»)
    Gary (grinning): There’ll always be a Meersman.
    TIME Magazine, ed. «After Gilmore, Who’s Next to Die», Time Magazine 31 Jan. 1977. Time.com. TIME Magazine Publisher: Time Inc. Web. 23 July 2009.

• Take her down!
  • Who: Howard W. Gilmore
    • Note: Gilmore was a submarine commander who chose to stay above water after his vessel inadvertently rammed a Japanese convoy ship and began to list. Grievously wounded, he commanded his crew to leave him behind and get below, and was assumedly swept out to sea as the submarine dove to take cover.

• My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.
  • Who: Ruth Bader Ginsburg
    • Note: Dictated to her granddaughter.^[3] Despite her wishes, her Supreme Court seat was reappointed under the incumbent president at the time of her death.

• I’d rather be fishing.
  • Who: Jimmy L. Glass
    • Note: Before his execution in Louisiana electric chair, 1987

• I always knew what I was doing.
  • Who: Jackie Gleason
    • Note: to Audrey Meadows, via telephone, according to Meadows’ book Love, Alice: My Life as a Honeymooner. Gleason died a week later on June 24, 1987.

• Well, I hope Percy ain’t going to forget to wet the sponge. Put me on the highway to Jackson and call my Irish buddies. Póg mo thóin, God bless.
  • Who: Robert Gleason
    • Note: Said before execution. «Póg mo thóin» is Irish for «Kiss my arse».

• Grazie, di tutto.
  • Translation: Thank you for everything.
  • Who: Blessed Father Carlo Gnocchi

• I-I don’t know- I don’t know nobody by that name!
  • Who: Robert Godwin Sr.
    • Note: Godwin Sr. had been randomly chosen by shooter Steve Stephens, who asked if Godwin Sr. could say «Joy Lane» (Stephens’ girlfriend’s name) and that she was the reason he was going to kill him. Perplexed, Godwin Sr. stated his last words immediately before being shot dead. Stephens filmed the entire incident and uploaded it to Facebook. He committed suicide by gunshot after being chased down by police two days later.

• Mehr Licht.
  • Translation: More light.
  • Who: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  • It is also reported that «Come my little one, and give me your hand.» were the last words he declared to his daughter-in-law Ottilie.
  • Another version reported is «Nichts mehr» (nothing more)

• No! I didn’t come here to make a speech. I came here to die.
  • Who: Crawford Goldsby, aka Cherokee Bill, when asked if he had anything to say before he was hanged.

• I don’t know.
  • Who: Jerry Goldsmith

• New york, new york. Big city of dreams, but everything in new york aint always what it seems. (sent via Twitter account on 25 August 2009)
  • Who: Adam Goldstein (aka «DJ AM»)
    • Note: He was found dead in his apartment three days later on 28 August 2009 after friends called police when they were unable to contact him for several days. While it is not known to be his last words, this was his last contact with friends and family.
    • These are lyrics from a song by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.

• This is taking a long time.
  • Who: David Goodall, Australian botanist, just after administering his own lethal injection as part of a physician assisted suicide at the age of 104.

• 馬鹿者！馬鹿者！ (Bakamono! Bakamono!!)
  • (also quoted as Bakayaro! Bakayaro!)
  • Translation: Idiots! Idiots!
  • Who: Admiral Aritomo Gotō’s last words to his staff, believing to have been hit by friendly fire, October 11, 1942

• I really need a therapist.
  • Who: Christopher Grace, an actor who killed himself during a matinee performance of Grease.

• Criei uma bandeira da dignidade do esporte. Eu supervisiono o nome da minha família com carinho, nervos e sangue constantes.
  • Translation: I created a flag from the sport’s dignity. I oversee the name of my family with affection, steady nerves and blood.
  • Who: Hélio Gracie, co-founder of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, or modern-day Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

• Water.
  • Who: Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President of the United States
    • Note: Suffering from throat cancer, Grant could not speak much, but shortly before his death he wrote what is also sometimes considered his last words: «There was never one more willing to go than I am.»

• Vel, hvis det må være slik.
  • Translation: Well, if it must be so.
  • Who: Edvard Grieg, a Norwegian composer and pianist.

• I did not get my Spaghetti-O’s, I got spaghetti. I want the press to know this.
  • Who: Thomas J. Grasso, d. March 20, 1995
    • Note: Executed by lethal injection, Oklahoma.

• It’s stopped.
  • Who: Joseph Henry Green
    • Note: Said upon checking his own pulse.

• Schnell.
  • Translation: Hurry.
  • Who: Irma Grese
    • Note: Spoken to her executioner, Albert Pierrepoint seconds before she was hanged.

• Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit!
  • Who: Lady Jane Grey

• The first one was easy!
  • Who: David Grundman
    • Note: Spoken to roommate James Suchochi after shooting down a small saguaro cactus in February, 1982, in the Arizonan desert. Grundman began shooting at a larger saguaro from close range immediately after. One arm of the cactus detached and pinned Grundman to the ground, and the rest of the cactus collapsed on him, killing him almost instantly.

• Sé que estas aquí para matarme. Dispara, cobarde, solo vas a matar a un hombre.
  • Translation: I know you are here to kill me. Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man.
  • Who: Che Guevara.

• Au moins, je meurs célèbre.
  • Translation: At least I die famous.
  • Who: Albert Guay
    • Note: Before being executed for bombing a passenger flight.

• Glory hallelujah! I am with the Lord, Glory, ready, go!
  • Who: Charles Guiteau, assassin of US President James A. Garfield, hanged in 1882

• Nobody shot me.
  • Who: Frank «Tight Lips» Gusenberg, American mobster murdered as part of the Saint Valentine’s Day massacre.
    • Note: In response to a police officer who asked «Who shot you?» Contrary to his statement, Gusenberg had been shot 14 times.

• And now for a final word from our sponsor…
  • Who: Charles Gussman, a television writer who wrote for the soap opera Days of Our Lives.

• What’s that?!
  • Who: Joakim Gustafsson, Scandinavian Airlines Flight 686 pilot
    • Note: Said when he saw a Cessna plane on the runway at Linate Airport in Milan, Italy just as about he was to take off. The plane collided with the Cessna and it then crashed into an airport hangar, killing all on board both planes plus 4 people inside the hangar.

• Ich bin der König von Schweden — gewesen.
  • Translation: I was the king of Sweden. [Note: The German perfect of «be,» «I have been,» is constructed with a finite form of «be» (here «bin») and its participle («gewesen»). Without «gewesen» at the end, one would translate «I am the king of Sweden.» Thus the weight of the sentence rests on an untranslatable bit of grammatical cleverness. Literally translated into English, the quote would be «I am the king of Sweden — was.» An equivalent English phrasing in meaning would be «I am the king of Sweden… no more».]
  • Who: Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden
    • Note: Said to an imperial soldier at the battle of Lützen.

• Jag känner mig sömnig, ett kort ögonblicks vila skulle göra mig gott.
  • Translation: I feel sleepy, a short time of rest would do me good.
  • Who: Gustavus III of Sweden. He had been shot at a masquerade ball two weeks earlier.

• You can get anything you want at Alice’s restaurant.
  • Who: Woody Guthrie
    • Note: This quote is a best guess. Woody’s son, Arlo, had delivered a demonstration copy of his song «Alice’s Restaurant Massacree» to his father on his deathbed. According to a Guthrie family «joke,» Guthrie was listening to the recording when he died.

• Yes, it’s tough, but not as tough as doing comedy.
  • Who: Edmund Gwenn, actor, d. September 6, 1959
    • Note: When asked if he thought dying was tough.

H

• Lat det være, Marie – jeg dør nu.
  • Translation: Leave it be, Marie – I’m dying now.
  • Who: Knut Hamsun
    • Note: To his wife, Marie, when she attempts to correct his pillow. Knut Hamsun slept the last two days of his life, with his wife by his side.

• I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.
  • Who: Nathan Hale, American spy, hanged in 1776, according to the account by William Hull based on reports by John Montresor. This has also been quoted as: I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country. Some speculation exists that he might have been repeating or paraphrasing lines from Joseph Addison’s play Cato: What pity is it that we can die but once to serve our country.

• Southerly gales, squalls, lee rail under water, wet bunks, hard tack, bully beef, wish you were here — instead of me!
  • Who: Richard Halliburton, last known communication from the Chinese junk Sea Dragon at sea, March 23 1939

• I’m gonna put you on fourteen-seven and that’ll give you-
• Oh shit!
  • Who: Frank Halpin, Captain of Flying Tiger Line Flight 66
    • Notes: Halpin was the Captain on Flying Tiger Line Flight 66 when it crashed into a hill on approach to Kuala Lumpur on February 19 1989 killing all four on board. The first line was regarding the settings for an Instrument landing system approach, which are his last confirmed words. In the final seconds of the flight, a voice declared the second line and it is unclear whether it was Halpin or the First Officer on realizing they were about to crash.

• This is a mortal wound, doctor. [to Dr. David Hosack] [And then, to his wife] Remember, my Eliza, you are a Christian.
• If they break this Union, they will break my heart.
  • Who: Alexander Hamilton
    • Notes: Spoken after being shot by Aaron Burr in a duel, The 3rd quote is his actual final words before passing away from his injuries according to Ron Chernow’s biography on Alexander Hamilton.

• Sleep well, my sweetheart. Please don’t worry too much.
  • Who: Rob Hall, lead guide of the disastrous 1996 Mount Everest expedition. Said to his wife via satellite phone as he lay dying from exposure.

• Liberemus diuturna cura populum Romanum, quando mortem senis exspectare longum censent.
  • Translation: Let us ease the Roman people of their continual care, who think it long to await the death of an old man.
  • Who: Hannibal

• That’s good. Go on, read some more.
  • Who: Warren G. Harding, 29th President of the United States, to his wife, who was reading him flattering newspaper accounts. He died of a heart attack moments later.

• I love you.
  • Who: Oliver Hardy
    • Note: Spoken to his wife.

• Tout est une illusion.
  • Translation: Everything is an illusion.
  • Who: Mata Hari
    • Note: Spoken to a visitor before she faced a firing squad. The words reflect the Eastern mysticism which had long fascinated her.

• Where is Aunt Jetty? Hope she didn’t run out on me…
  • Who: Jean Harlow, who died on June 6, 1937

• One! Two! Three!
  • Who: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre, just before committing suicide by gunshot

• It was the food! Don’t touch the food!
  • Who: Richard Harris, actor.
    • Note: Spoken to fellow hotel guests, as he was wheeled through the foyer by paramedics.

• You can be a king or a street sweeper, but everyone dances with the Grim Reaper.
  • Who: Robert Alton Harris, before his execution on April 21, 1992.
    • His last words are a misquote of a line in the 1991 film Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey: «You might be a king or a little street sweeper but sooner or later you dance with the reaper.»

• Are the doctors here? Doctor, my lungs…
  • Who: Benjamin Harrison, 23rd president of the United States. He died of pneumonia.

• Love one another.
• Do you want me to come with you?
  • Who: George Harrison, who died from cancer on November 29, 2001. The first set of words were the last he said to his wife and son, the second were the last he said to his Beatles band mate Ringo Starr, jokingly in response to Ringo stating he would go to visit his sick daughter.

• Sir, I wish you to understand the true principles of the government. I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more.
  • Who: William Henry Harrison, 9th President of the United States and the first to die in office.
    • Note: He spoke those words to his doctor, which were intended for Vice President John Tyler.

• Look out!
  • Who: Owen Hart, professional wrestler

• Gentlemen, I bid you farewell…
  • Who: Wallace Hartley, to his fellow band mates before the Titanic sank, April 15, 1912.
    • Note: One survivor who clambered aboard Collapsible A distinctly heard Hartley say these words before he and the band were swept off the deck by the sea.

• Be brave! Be determined! Overcome the odds! It can be done!
  • Who: Stephen Hawking

• Kinder werden getröstet, mir geht es gut.
  • Translation: Children be comforted, I am well.
  • Who: Joseph Haydn
    • Note: Haydn’s last words, as Napoleon’s troops lay siege upon Vienna.

• I know that I am going where Lucy is.
  • Who: Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th President of the United States, speaking of his late wife

• Critter five-ninety-two, we need the, uh, closest airport available.
  • Who: First Officer Richard Hazen, ValuJet 592, last recorded words before crashing into the Everglades due to in-flight fire on May 11, 1996.

• Well, I’ve had a happy life.
  • Who: William Hazlitt

• Noli timere
  • Translation: Do not be afraid
  • Who: Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and Nobel Laureate
    • Note: Texted to his wife, Marie, minutes before dying.

• Be inspired.
  • Who: Heavy D, American rapper.
    • Note: Final tweet sent before collapsing outside his Beverly Hills home in 2011. [11]

• Nur du hast mich jemals verstanden. …und du hast es falsch gemacht.
  • Translation: Only you have ever understood me. … And you got it wrong.
  • Who: Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel, to his favorite student.

• Dieu me pardonnera, c’est son métier.
  • Translation: God will forgive me. It is his profession.
  • Who: Heinrich Heine

• Goodnight, my kitten.
  • Who: Ernest Hemingway
    • Note: Spoken to his wife before committing suicide.

• The story of life is quicker than the blink of an eye, the story of love is hello and goodbye, until we meet again.
  • Who: Jimi Hendrix
    • Note: Said in a poem found next to him on his deathbed. The following was the final sentence in the poem.

• Je ne m’occupe plus de ça.
  • Translation: I care for nothing, anymore.
  • Who: Henry II, king of England
    • Note: Last words are also reported as Honte. Honte à un roi vaincu! («Shame, shame on a defeated king!»)

• Ich tōcnāwe ich dīeġe in þis caumbre, and departe þis līf for Jherusalem
  • Translation: I know I will die in this chamber, and depart this life for Jerusalem.
  • Who: Henry IV, king of England

• Turn up the lights— I don’t want to go home in the dark.
  • Who: O. Henry (William Sydney Porter), June 5, 1910

• Here is a book worth more than all the other books which were ever printed; yet it is my misfortune never to have, till lately, found the time to read it with proper attention and feeling.
  • Who: Patrick Henry, American attorney, orator and Founding Father.
    • Note: Shortly before he died in his home, a friend saw him reading the Bible, and he replied with these words.

• I trust in the merits of Christ. All is lost! Monks, Monks, Monks! So, now all is gone — Empire, Body, and Soul!
  • Who: Henry VIII, King of England
    • Note: Perhaps in reference to the monks he caused to be evicted during the dissolution of the monasteries.

• Maybe I’m dying.
  • Who: Jim Henson, American puppeteer and filmmaker, creator of The Muppets.

• Enough already.
  • Who: William Herrick, writer

• And now, I am officially dead.
  • Who: Abram S. Hewitt, American industrialist. He had just removed the oxygen tube from his mouth in the hospital.

• Can you believe this crap?
  • Who: John-Erik Hexum
    • Note: Hexum was napping on the set of Cover Up during a delay in the filming of an episode. When told that there was going to be more delays, he jokingly said the line above before shooting himself with a gun filled with blanks that was meant for a scene in the episode. The blast fractured his skull and caused a massive brain hemorrhage. He was declared brain dead six days later.

• If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.
  • Who: Heather Heyer
    • Note: On 12 August 2017, the 32 year old Charlottesville, Virginia paralegal was among the counter-protesters demonstrating at the 2017 Unite the Right rally which included members of white supremacist, white nationalist, alt-right, neo-Confederate, neo-Nazi, and militia movements protesting against the removal of Confederate monuments and memorials from public spaces. A car, driven by James Alex Fields, Jr., rammed a crowd of counter-protesters, killing Heyer and injuring 19 others. While her last spoken words are not known, the statement recognized as her last was her final posting on her Facebook account on the day of the demonstration.

• I’ve said all that I’ve had to say.
  • Who: Bill Hicks, American comedian
    • Note: Hicks did not die until 11 days later, but he quit speaking after saying this.

• Goodbye Bill. I die like a true blue rebel. Don’t waste any time in mourning. Organize.
  • Who: Joe Hill, in a letter to Bill Haywood, leader of the Industrial Workers of the World, before he was led to his execution by firing squad.
  • It should be noted, however, that after he heard the words of the executioner, «Ready… aim…» Hill shouted out his actual final word as a command: Fire! [12]

• Leave the shower curtain on the inside of the tub.
  • Who: Conrad Hilton when asked if he had any last words of wisdom.

• Ich bin Heinrich Himmler.
  • Translation: I am Heinrich Himmler.
  • Who: Heinrich Himmler, German Nazi politician, police administrator, and military commander

• One never knows the ending. One has to die to know exactly what happens after death, although Catholics have their hopes.
  • Who: Alfred Hitchcock, English film director and producer

• Capitalism. Downfall.
  • Who: Christopher Hitchens, English-American author.

• Ich selbst und meine Gattin wählen, um der Schande des Absetzens oder der Kapitulation zu entgehen, den Tod. Es ist unser Wille, sofort an der Stelle verbrannt zu werden, an der ich den größten Teil meiner täglichen Arbeit im Laufe eines zwölfjährigen Dienstes an meinem Volke geleistet habe.
• Vor allem verpflichte ich die Führung der Nation und die Gefolgschaft zur peinlichen Einhaltung der Rassegesetze und zum unbarmherzigen Widerstand gegen den Weltvergifter aller Völker, das internationale Judentum
  • Translation:
• I myself and my wife — in order to escape the disgrace of deposition or capitulation — choose death. It is our wish to be burnt immediately on the spot where I have carried out the greatest part of my daily work in the course of a twelve years’ service to my people.
• Above all, I charge the leadership of the nation and their followers with the strict observance of the racial laws and with merciless resistance against the universal poisoners of all peoples, international Jewry.
  • Who: Adolf Hitler, German Nazi dictator
    • Note: These are the last sentences in Adolf Hitler’s last will and political testament respectively. They were issued on 29 April 1945, 4:00 AM. Hitler committed suicide with his long-time girlfriend and recently married wife Eva Braun the next day. These texts serve as his last confirmed words and final statement.^[4] Guards stationed at the Führerbunker reported Hitler and Braun said farewells to the bunker’s occupants before resigning to their study, and subsequently only silence before the gunshot that took Hitler’s life was heard.

• I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap in the dark.
  • Who: Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher

• 7:30.
  • Who: Gil Hodges, answering to New York Mets coach Joe Pignatano about what time they were to meet for dinner at their hotel in West Palm Beach, Florida. Hodges then collapsed from a heart attack and died about half an hour later at a nearby hospital.

• You’ve got to stop this war in Afghanistan.
  • Who: Richard Holbrooke (d. 2010), American diplomat. Words to his Pakistani surgeon, as reported in The Washington Post (December 14, 2010).

• Don’t be in such a hurry.
  • Who: Billie Holiday

• This is funny.
  • Who: Doc Holliday
  • Note: Doc Holliday was a consumptive gunfighter. He always thought, and perhaps hoped, that he would die in a fight or «with his boots on». He died in a hotel bed from tuberculosis. These last words were uttered after seeing his feet with boots off.

• I know this beach like the back of my hand.
• Who: Harold Holt, 17th Prime Minister of Australia.
  • Note: Said moments before swimming at Cheviot Beach in rough conditions. Minutes later, Holt was swept out to sea, apparently caught in a rip tide. His body was never recovered.

• Levi Strauss was one of my best friends.
  • Who: Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the United States
    • Note: Accounts differ to whether Hoover’s last spoken words were documented or not. His last written words were a get-well message to former President Harry S. Truman, who hit his head on the bathtub after slipping in his bathroom: «Bathtubs are a menace to ex-presidents for as you may recall a bathtub rose up and fractured my vertebrae when I was in Venezuela on your world famine mission in 1946. My warmest sympathy and best wishes for your speedy recovery.»

• Surprise me.
  • Who: Bob Hope, American comedian
    • Note: Spoken to his wife when asked where he wanted to be buried.

• I’m tired of fighting! I guess this thing is going to get me.
  • Who: Harry Houdini, American magician
  • Houdini is often said to have died after being punched in the stomach before having a chance to tighten his abdominal muscles. This is a fabrication. Houdini was punched in the stomach, however doctors agree such a blow could not have caused his appendix to burst, which is what happened and is the cause of his death.

• Texas, Margaret! Texas!
  • Who: Sam Houston

• I’ve been really sick lately, so I’m sorry that I haven’t answered yours and Ernie’s letters, but I think about you daily.
  • Who: Moe Howard, American comedian, member of The Three Stooges
    • Note: Howard telephoned these words to one of his partners as he was dying of lung cancer.

• Haha!
  • Who: Shemp Howard, American comedian, member of The Three Stooges
    • Note: Howard was sitting in a taxicab next to his friend Al Winston and had just told a joke when he immediately slumped over on Winston’s lap and died of an apparent heart attack. Winston believed Howard was playing a joke because of the laughing, but he then realized he had actually died.

• No. I don’t believe so.
  • Who: Rock Hudson
    • Note: Spoken to Tom Clark, who asked if he wanted another cup of coffee.

• C’est ici le combat du jour et de la nuit. Je vois de la lumière noire.
  • Translation: This is the fight of day and night. I see black light.
  • Who: Victor Hugo

• Roger, uh, b-
  • Who: Colonel Rick Husband, commander of the doomed space shuttle mission STS-107.
    • Note: The transmission from the Columbia cut out mid-sentence shortly before the shuttle disintegrated during earth interface.

• وأشهد أن لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا ٱلله مُحَمَّد— (ašhadu ʾan lā ʾilāha ʾillā llāh muḥammadu-)
  • Translation: I swear that there is no God but God and Muhammad—, which is the Shahadah, the Muslim affirmation of faith.
  • Who: Saddam Hussein
  • Saddam’s last words at gallows when the trap door was released. He was hanged before he could finish the prayer. [13]
  • Apart from this prayer, his last words were Heya hay il marjala…? (Is this your manhood…?) responding to the shoutings of the hooded hangmen, «مقتدى مقتدى مقتدى» («Muqtada, Muqtada, Muqtada,») in reference to Muqtada al-Sadr, the powerful and radical Shi’ite cleric who is a major power behind Shi’ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki [14]
  • Others have accounted his last words were «إلى جهنم» — «Go to hell!» and «Palestine is Arab!»

• You shot me, you got me, I’m good.
  • Who: Nipsey Hussle, American rapper
    • Note: Hussle was murdered outside of his Marathon Clothing store in Los Angeles. Eyewitnesses report that after he was shot twice and fell, he raised his head from the ground where he lay and said those words to the assailant, who was walking away. The gunman then returned, firing additional shots at Hussle before kicking him in the head and fleeing the scene.[15][16] Nipsey Hussle’s final public words, sent as a Tweet, were «Having strong enemies is a blessing.» [17]

• LSD, 100 micrograms I.M.
  • Who: Aldous Huxley in a note to his wife. She obliged and he was injected twice before his death.

I

• Tvert imot!
  • Translation: On the contrary!
  • Who: Henrik Ibsen
  • Context: This was his response to a nurse who told a visitor he was a little better.

• I have no doubts.
  • Who: Gwen Ifill

• I am better now.
  • Who: Robert G. Ingersoll
  • Context: Ingersoll used these same words in his eulogy for his brother, Ebon, saying, «He who sleeps here, when dying, mistaking the approach of death for the return of health, whispered with his latest breath, ‍’‍I am better now.‍’‍ Let us believe, in spite of doubts and dogmas, of fears and tears, that these dear words are true of all the countless dead.»

• Aloha.
  • Who: Daniel Inouye

• I have to set my pillows one more night, when will this end already?
  • Who: Washington Irving — American author
  • Context: said to his niece as he readied himself for bed, whereupon he suffered a stroke and collapsed at the age of 70.

• Don’t worry, they usually don’t swim backwards.
• I’m dying.
  • Who: Steve Irwin A.K.A. The Crocodile Hunter
  • Context: Said when he was examining a stingray in the Great Barrier Reef. It did, however, swim backwards and the tail pierced his chest. He later died of blood loss.
  • During an interview on Australian TV show Studio 10, cameraman Justin Lyons said the second of these quotes were Irwin’s final words; while Lyons tried to reassure him, Irwin «sort of calmly looked up [at Lyons] and said, ‘I’m dying’. And that was the last thing he said».

• May a blessing rest upon you, my sons, and upon your seed this day, for ye have given me rest, and my heart is not pained concerning the birthright, lest thou shouldest work wickedness on account of it. May the Most High God bless the man that worketh righteousness, him and his seed for ever.
  • Who: Isaac

• 話せばわかる. (Hanaseba wakaru.)
  • Translation: Let’s talk it over, and we’ll understand each other.
  • Who: Inukai Tsuyoshi — Prime Minister of Japan
  • Context: Said just before he was assassinated by naval officers in a coup d’état May 15 Incident. Although he gently invited them to his parlor and tried to have a meaningful conversation, their response was «問答無用. (Mondou muyou.)» («No use arguing.»)

• You stay. I go.
  • Who: «Ishi» (c.1861-1916), last surviving member of the Yahi tribe.

J

• Oh, do not cry. Be good children, and we shall all meet in Heaven … I want to meet you all, white and black, in Heaven.
  • Who: Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the United States. Last recorded words, to his grand-children and his servants, as quoted in The National Preacher (1845) by Austin Dickinson, p. 192.

• Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees.
  • Who: General Thomas «Stonewall» Jackson
  • Note: Jackson was accidentally shot by his own men and later died from pneumonia.

• More milk.
  • Who: Michael Jackson
    • Note: Spoken to his doctor, Conrad Murray. The «milk» in question is the nickname he gave the drug propofol, which he was asking Murray for before he died from an overdose.

• אני נאסף אל־עמי קברו אתי אל־אבתי אל־המערה אשר בשדה עפרון החתי במערה אשר בשדה המכפלה אשר על־פני־ממרא בארץ כנען אשר קנה אברהם את־השדה מאת עפרן החתי לאחזת־קבר שמה קברו את־אברהם ואת שרה אשתו מה קברו את־יצחק ואת רבקה אשתו ושמה קברתי את־לאה מקנה השדה והמערה אשר־בו מאת בני־חת (Ani ne’esaf el ammi kivru oti el avotai el hamme’arah asher bisdeh efrovn bamme’arah asher bisdeh hammachpelah asher al penei mamre be’eretz kena’an asher kanah avraham et hassadeh me’et efron hachitti la’achuzzat kaver shammah kaveru et avraham ve’et sarah ishtov mah kaveru et yitzchak ve’et rivkah ishtov veshammah kavarti et le’ah mikneh hassadeh vehamme’arah asher bov me’et benei chet)
  • Translation: I am to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite as a possession for a burial place. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife, there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah. The field and the cave that is there were purchased from the sons of Heth.
  • Who: Jacob.

• That picture is awful dusty.
  • Who: Jesse James
  • While in his home, James climbed on a chair to dust a framed picture hanging on the wall. When he turned around, he was shot in the back of the head by Robert Ford, his former associate.

• אל תפחדי מפרושים, ולא ממי מאלה שאינם פרושים, אם לא צבועים כמו פרושים, שמעשיהם כמעשה זמרי ומבקשים שכר כפנחס (Al tifkhadi maPerushim, v’lo mimmi sh’einam Perushim, im lo tzu’im Perushim, shemma’aseihem k’ma’ase Zimri um’vaqqeshim sakar k’Finekhas)
  • Translation: Do not be afraid of the Pharisees, nor those who are not Pharisees, rather, the hypocrites who appear like Pharisees, as their actions are like the act of Zimri, and they request a reward like Phinehas.
  • Who: Alexander Jannaeus, second king of Hasmonean Judea

• I want the world to be filled with white fluffy duckies.
  • Who: Derek Jarman

• Allahu Akbar.
• Translation: Allah is the greatest.
  • Who: Ziad Jarrah, hijacker-pilot of United Airlines Flight 93.
    • Note: Jarrah repeatedly said these words as Flight 93 was falling towards the ground near Shanksville, Pennsylvania and kept saying them until the plane crashed.

• I am dying. Please … bring me a toothpick.
  • Who: Alfred Jarry, absurdist writer and playwright.
    • Note: These last words, for a time, were considered a final expression of his absurdist humor; a doctor asserted that they were perfectly understandable due to his dehydration.

• «Is it the Fourth?» [Doctor Robley Dunglison: «It soon will be.»] I resign my spirit to God, my daughter to my country. Lord, now lettest Thou, Thy servant depart in peace.
  • Who: Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States.
  • Jefferson died on July 4, 1826. This was the 50th Anniversary of the signing of the American Declaration of Independence, which was written mostly by Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson’s great political rival, John Adams — later a correspondent and friend — died the same day a few hours later. Among Adams’ last words were the utterance of Thomas Jefferson’s name.

• מרמה אחזיה (Mirmah Akhazya)
• Translation: This is treachery, Ahaziah!
  • Who: Joram of Israel

• Finally this evening, a brief note about change. Some of you have noticed in the last several days that I was not covering the Pope. While my colleagues at ABC did a superb job, I did think a few times I was missing out. However, as some of you now know, I have learned in the last couple of days that I have lung cancer. Yes, I was a smoker until about 20 years ago, and I was weak and I smoked over 9/11. But whatever the reason, the news does slow you down a bit. I have been reminding my colleagues today, who’ve all been incredibly supportive, that almost 10,000,000 Americans are already living with cancer, and I have a lot to learn from them. And «living» is the key word. The National Cancer Institute says that we are survivors from the moment of diagnosis. I will continue to do the broadcast, on good days; my voice will not always be like this! Certainly it’s been a long time, and I hope it goes without saying that a journalist who doesn’t value deeply the audience’s loyalty should be in another line of work. To be perfectly honest I’m a little surprised at the kindness today from so many people, that’s not intended as false modesty, but even I was taken aback by how far and how fast news travels. Finally, I wonder if other men and women ask their doctors right away, «Okay, Doc, when does the hair go?» At any rate, that’s it for now on World News Tonight. Have a good evening; I’m Peter Jennings. Thanks, and good night.
  • Who: Peter Jennings, Canadian-American journalist and news anchor; longtime host of ABC’s World News Tonight.
  • Note: Said this during his final broadcast four months before his death from lung cancer on August 7, 2005. Although these are not his actual last words, they are the last words heard by the public.

• אבי באידיך סאם אנא רוחי הדא (Abi b’idhaich sa’eim ana rukhi hadei)
• Translation: Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. (Luke 23:46, quoting Psalm 31:5)
• אלהי אלהי למה שבקתני (Elohi, Elohi, lama sabactani?)
• Translation: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Mark 15:34 and Matthew 27:46, quoting Psalm 22:1)
• הא משׁלם (Ha m’shalam)
• Translation: It is finished. (John 19:30; utterance mentioned, but not quoted, in Matthew 27:50 and Mark 15:37)
  • Who: Jesus, messianic central figure of the religion of Christianity
  • The exact sequence of events differs somewhat in details among the four canonical Gospels, making it unclear which was actually his last before his reported resurrection. Matthew, Mark and John all note an utterance that came after Jesus was offered vinegar to drink before his death; John reports it as meaning «it is finished,» while Matthew and Mark only note that it is loud and unintelligible. The often cited vocalization of «Elohi» as «Eloi» in Matthew and Mark comes from the original Greek translation, as ancient Greek lacked the [h] sound the Aramaic word uses. «Eloi» is also interchangeable with «Eli» (אלי), which is sometimes cited, and was noted to have caused a misunderstanding by bystanders who thought he was summoning the Old Testament prophet Elijah. The Matthew and Mark accounts come before the consumption of the vinegar and the loud utterance. Luke’s account is mostly irreconcilable with the other three.

• ?השלום, זמרי הרג אדניו (Hashalom Zimri hoger ‘adonav?)
• Translation: Peace, Zimri, murderer of your master?
  • Who: Jezebel
    • Note: These words were spoken to Jehu, the general of Israel’s army, who had killed the reigning kings of Israel and Judah, the former being Jezebel’s husband, after the prophet Elisha had secretly anointed him king. Zimri was the name of another great Israelite general, who around 40 years prior had also murdered the reigning king and took the throne, reigning for a week before committing suicide.

• 我死，现在知道我是谁. (Wǒ sǐ, xiànzài zhīdào wǒ shì shéi.)
  • Translation: I die knowing now who I am.
  • Who: Billy Ji, Chinese psychoanalyst.
    • Note: Died of liver cirrhosis.

• Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.
  • Who: Steve Jobs, Apple CEO.
    • Note: His last statement was recorded by his sister on his deathbed. NewYorkTimes.

• Ich grüße dich, mein ewiges Deutschland.
  • Translation: I greet you, my eternal Germany.
  • Sometimes reported as: My greetings to you, my Germany.
  • Who: Alfred Jodl, Nazi military officer
    • Note: Jodl made this statement before he was executed by hanging.

• I will see you tomorrow, if God wills it.
  • Who: Pope John Paul I, an hour before he died of a heart attack.

• Pozwólcie mi pójść do domu Ojca
• Amen.
  • Translation:
    • Let me go to the house of the Father
    • Amen
  • Who: Pope John Paul II, uttered in his papal apartments, six hours before he died, with the latter before the moment of death.

• Absit, ut rex Boemie fugeret, sed illuc me ducite, ubi maior strepitus certaminis vigeret, Dominus sit nobiscum, nil timeamus, tantum filium meum diligenter custodite.
  • Translation: Far from it that the King of Bohemia flee, but to get there lead me where there is greatest uproar of the fight in vigor; the Lord is with us, we must fear nothing, only keep my son diligently.
  • Who: John the Blind of Luxembourg at the Battle of Crécy
    • Note: Often paraphrased to Never by God will that be that a King of Bohemia flees from the battle., or some variant.

• My right side is paralyzed. I need no doctor. I can overcome my own troubles.
  • Who: Andrew Johnson, 17th President of the United States
    • Note: Spoken to his granddaughter, who was about to send for a doctor.

• P.S. I LOVE MY FRIENDS YOU ARE FAMILY ! GOD LOVES ALL PEOPLE NO MATTER WHAT !
  • Who: Dan Johnson, Republican member of the Kentucky House of Representatives
    • Note: Taken from a suicide note from Facebook. On December 13, 2017, Dan shot himself in the head following allegations in which he was accused of having molested a woman at his church.

• Send Mike immediately!
  • Who: Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th President of the United States
    • Note: Said to a Secret Service agent over an in-house telephone. He had suffered a heart attack, and called for Mike Howard, another Secret Service agent, before losing consciousness.

• God Bless you, my dear!
  • Who: Samuel Johnson

• Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it! This is —
  • Who: David A. Johnston, volcanologist with the United States Geological Survey. Last radio transmission before being killed in the May 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.

• Aludni akarok.
  • Translation: I want to sleep.
  • Who: Mór Jókai
  • As quoted in Dictionary of Last Words (1955) by Edward S. LeComte. LeComte cites Budapest Daily Szabad Ifjusag May 4, 1954, on authority of Mr. Istan Csicsery-Ronay. LeComte, Edward S. (1954). Dictionary of Last Words. New York, NY: Philosophical Library...

• This is it! I’m going. I’m going.
  • Who: Al Jolson

• HMO’s are in it for the money. Live free, love safe or die.
  • Who: Daniel V. Jones, on a banner he presented on a Los Angeles freeway shortly before shooting himself on live television in May 1998. Jones had previously expressed resentment at his HMO for their inadequate treatment of his cancer and HIV-infection.

• …take our life from us, we laid it down, we got tired. We didn’t commit suicide. We committed an act of revolutionary suicide protesting the conditions of an inhumane world.
  • Who: Reverend James Warren «Jim» Jones, founder and leader of the Peoples Temple.
    • Note: These words were part of a recording on an audiocassette found at the People’s Temple compound in Guyana after the mass suicide of 1978. While he may have shot himself after the tape ran out, these were his last recorded words. The Jonestown Death Tape (FBI No. Q 042) at the Internet Archive.

• 매우 고통스러운, 매우 고통스러운, 나는 액체가 뿌려졌다. (Maeu gotongseuleoun, maeu gotongseuleoun, naneun aegchega pulyeojyeosda.)
  • Translation: Very painful, very painful, I was sprayed with liquid.
  • Who: Kim Jong-nam, half-brother of Kim Jong-un.
    • Note: On February 13th, 2017, Jong-nam was attacked at Kuala Lumpur International Airport by two women with a VX nerve agent. He then staggered around 15m to a service counter for help and uttered these words before collapsing and being taken to a hospital, where he later died. [18]

• Does nobody understand?
  • Who: James Joyce

• In death as in life, I defy the Jews who caused this last war, and I defy the power of darkness which they represent. I warn the British people against the crushing imperialism of the Soviet Union. May Britain be great once again and the hour of the greatest danger in the West may the standard be raised from the dust, crowned with the words – you have conquered nevertheless. I am proud to die for my ideals and I am sorry for the sons of Britain who have died without knowing why.
  • Who: William Joyce, Irish-American fascist, Nazi collaborationist and propaganda broadcaster known as «Lord Haw-Haw»
    • Note: Joyce made this statement prior to his execution by hanging for treason.

• Jésus, Jésus, Jésus!
  • Translation: Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!
  • Who: Joan of Arc

• Ηρακλής! Πώς κρύο λουτρό σας! (Herakles! Pos krýo loutró sas!)
  • Translation: Hercules! How cold your bath is!
  • Who: Jugurtha, King of Numidia.
    • Note: He spoke this as he was thrown into a Roman dungeon to starve to death. There is a play on words, a «Bath of Hercules» being an ancient Greek expression for a hot spring.

• Vicisti, Galilæ or νενίκηκάς με, Γαλιλαῖε (neníkikás me, Galilaíe)
  • Translation: You have won, Galilean.
  • Who: Emperor Julian, having attempted to reverse the official endorsement of Christianity by the Roman Empire.

• [«Is the man in the bathroom wit u»] He’s a terror. Yes.
  • Who: Eddie Jamoldroy Justice, a victim of the Orlando nightclub shooting
    • Note: Justice send these as a text message to his mother before he was shot by the gunman. He died from his injuries.

K

• Espero que la salida sea alegre y espero no volver jamás.
  • Translation: I hope the exit is joyful and hope never to return.
  • Who: Frida Kahlo

• Aue, he kanaka au, eia i loko o ke kukonukonu o ka maʻi!
  • Translation: Alas, I am a man who is seriously ill!
  • Who: Kalākaua, last King and second-to-last monarch of Hawaii
    • Note: «Tell my people I tried,» which was more popularly mistaken as his last words, was actually a quote invented by Eugene Burns in his biography of Kalākaua, The Last King of Paradise, published in 1952.

• E ʻoni wale no ʻoukou i kuʻu pono ʻaʻole e pau.
  • Translation: Endless is the good that I have given you to enjoy.
  • Who: Kamehameha I, first King of Hawaii

• Nearly 100 frank opinions every day. I couldn’t deny that I was hurt. I’m dead. Thank you for giving me a mother. It was a life I wanted to be loved. Thank you to everyone who supported me. I love it. I’m weak, I’m sorry. I don’t want to be a human anymore. It was a life I wanted to be loved. Thank you, everyone. I love you. Bye.
  • Who: Hana Kimura, professional wrestler
  • Kimura’s suicide note.

• Es ist gut.
  • Translation: It is good.
  • Who: Immanuel Kant

• Don’t worry…it’s not loaded…
  • Who: Terry Kath, rock musician in the band Chicago
  • Context: As he put the gun he was cleaning to his head and pulled the trigger. Though the gun had no magazine in it, Kath was unaware that a bullet was already in the chamber; he was killed instantly.

• Ille facit.
  • Translation: He will do it.
  • Who: Karl IX of Sweden
    • Note: Said about his son, Gustavus Adolphus the Great, who made Sweden a great power.

• Herre Jesus, anamma min ande.
  • Translation: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
  • Who: Karl XI of Sweden

• Var intet rädd.
  • Translation: Don’t be afraid.
  • Who: Karl XII of Sweden
    • Note: Said to his officers when they expressed concern about him being in the trenches under the siege of Fredriksten. Minutes later he was killed.

• Oscar, Oscar, nous nous défendrons.
  • Translation: Oscar, Oscar, we shall defend ourselves.
  • Who: Karl XIV Johan of Sweden-Norway
    • Note: Said to his son, crown prince Oscar.

• Kommer jag att plågas mycket?
  • Translation: Will I be in much pain?
  • Who: Karl XV of Sweden-Norway

• Walter Pidgeon.
  • Who: English actor Boris Karloff
    • These were the final words he was heard to speak as he drifted in and out of sleep on his final day. It confused and distressed his wife Evie, since Karloff hadn’t mentioned Pidgeon in years.

• Ah, well, I suppose it has come to this… Such is life.
  • Who: Australian bush ranger Ned Kelly as he was hanged in the Melbourne Jail on November 11th 1880.

• I wish I could go with you.
  • Who: Walt Kelly, Cartoonist
    • Note: Spoken to his wife, Selby Kelly, as she visited him in the hospital. According to her, he was lapsing in and out of consciousness. She told him she was going for coffee, unaware if he could hear her, and he said those words. She stayed by his side until he died from diabetes complications.

• No, you certainly can’t.
  • Who: John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States.
    • Note: Said in response to Nellie Connally, who had commented «You certainly can’t say Dallas doesn’t love you, Mr. President.», in reference to Dallas’ heavy Republican presence.

• Don’t lift me.
  • Who: Robert F. Kennedy
    • Note: Spoken to medical attendants when lifted onto a stretcher and seconds before he fell into a coma. He died in the early morning hours of the next day.

• These last few days are among the happiest I’ve ever ignored.
  • Who: Douglas Kenney, founder of National Lampoon magazine
    • Note: Written on the back of a hotel receipt, with a bunch of random thoughts and the reasons he loved his girlfriend.

• Allein durch die Verdienste Jesu Christi, unseres Erlösers.
  • Translation: Solely by the merits of Jesus Christ, Our Saviour.
  • Who: Johannes Kepler

• Stella, I’m bleeding…Help me…Stella, I love you.
  • Who: Jack Kerouac
    • Note: These were his last known words to his wife Stella, shortly after starting to hemorrhage following decades of heavy drinking, and while on his way to St. Anthony’s Hospital, St. Petersburg, Florida, where he would die early the next morning, October 21, 1969

• I’ll be in Hell before you start breakfast! Let her rip!
  • Who: Tom «Black Jack» Ketchum, notorious train robber
    • Note: Said after springing up the gallow steps to his execution; the rope was too long, and he was decapitated. [19][20]

• Climb to one five thousand.
  • Who: Ralph G. Kevorkian, captain aboard TWA Flight 800.
    • Note: Routine acknowledgement of ATC instructions from Boston Center, ordering the flight to climb to 15000 feet. Forty-four seconds later, a short circuit ignited fuel vapors from the plane’s central fuel tank, blowing up the aircraft mid-flight.

• I should have drunk more Champagne.
  • Who: John-Maynard Keynes

• I’m suffocating…take this bag off my head! I’m claustrophobic!
  • Who: Jamal Khashoggi
    • Note: These were the words that Khashoggi allegedly said as he was being tortured by Saudi Arabian government agents inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Some accounts claim that his last words were simply «I cannot breathe.»

• Never regret that you lived in stormy times and worked with me in the Central Committee. We will yet be remembered!
  • Who: Nikita Khrushchev
    • Note: Spoken to his son-in-law and former aide Alexei Adzhubei mere days before he died in hospital of a heart attack.

• I love you. Take care of the boys.
  • Who: Larry King
    • Note: Spoken to his wife Shawn before his life was taken by sepsis.

• Be sure to play «Blessed Lord» tonight — play it real pretty.
  • Who: Martin Luther King Jr.

• I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.
• But why?
• Okay, Okay, Okay.
  • Who: Sam Kinison
    • Note: Words spoken by the comedian as he lay on the ground after a car wreck. Witnesses have reported that it was like he was having a conversation with someone he knew. Whatever voice was talking to him gave him the right answer and he just relaxed with it. He said it so sweet, like he was «talking to someone he loved.» Kinson then lost consciousness, and efforts to resuscitate him failed. He eventually died at the scene from internal injuries, at the age of just 38 years old.

• Minä elän.
  • Translation: I live.
  • Who: Aleksis Kivi

• じゃ、お先に。 (Ja, osakini.)
  • Translation: Now excuse me, I have to go.
  • Who: Satoshi Kon
    • Note: The last sentence written out in a long letter.^[5][6]

• Tape Seinfeld for me.
  • Who: Harvey Korman

• I leave this life with no regrets. It was a wonderful life—complete with the great loves and great endeavors that make it worth living. I am sad to leave, but I leave with the knowledge that I lived the life that I intended.
  • Who: Charles Krauthammer
  • From his farewell letter, two weeks before his death from abdominal cancer

• May this day bring you rest and peace.
  • Who: Cheslie Kryst, 2019 Miss USA
  • From her last Instagram post, the day she committed apparent suicide by jumping from a 29-story building.

• 私の心と魂は帝国の運命となるでしょう。 (Watashi no kokoro to tamashī wa teikoku no unmei to narudeshou.)
  • Translation: My heart and soul will be with the fate of the Imperial nation.
  • Who: Tadamichi Kuribayashi
  • context: Although nobody knows exactly how Kuribayashi died, these are the final lines of his last message to Imperial Headquarters.

• Sag mir, nachdem ich meinen Kopf abgehackt habe, werde ich wenigstens für einen Moment das Geräusch meines eigenen Blutes hören können, das aus meinem Halsstumpf sprudelt? Das wäre die Freude, alle Freuden zu beenden.
  • Translation: Tell me, after my head is chopped off, will I still be able to hear, at least for a moment, the sound of my own blood gushing from the stump of my neck? That would be the pleasure to end all pleasures.
  • Who: Peter Kürten

• Vurmayın öldüm!
  • Translation: Don’t hit me, I am dying!
    • Who: Ali İsmail Korkmaz, killed with lynch by government supporter civillians and police during the Gezi Park protests in Eskişehir, Turkey

L

• «Write about yourself—nothing else half so much interests your affectionate
  ⁠»L. E. Maclean.»
  • Who: Letitia Elizabeth Landon
    • Note: Close of a letter written shortly before her sudden death from a seizure.

• You’re right. It’s time. I love you all.
  • Who: Michael Landon
    • Note: In response to his son, who told him it was time to let go and move on.

• I must get to the station.
  • Who: Cosmo Lang

• I’m a fucking doctor.
  • Who: R. D. Laing
  • He suffered a fatal heart attack in public, and as people gathered round the spot someone said ‘Get a doctor.’

• I’ve had the very best life. I have tasted beauty.
  • Who: John Larkin, a.k.a. «Scatman John»

• I am going to the inevitable.
  • Who: Philip Larkin

• We’re approaching the intersection! We’re approaching the intersection! We’re approaching the intersection! Hold on. Pray. Oh shoot, there’s- oh! Oh! Oh! OH-
  • Who: Chris Lastrella
    • Note: Lastrella contacted 911 after the Lexus in which he, his sister Cleofe, and her husband and daughter were travelling in began to accelerate uncontrollably. The vehicle approached the end of the freeway at approximately 120mph, collided with a turning vehicle, and crashed into a dirt embankment. All four occupants were killed. Toyota later recalled 4.5 million vehicles owing to «sticky accelerators» on floor mats.

• I wish I was skiing. [Nurse: «Oh, Mr. Laurel, do you ski?»] No, but I’d rather be skiing than doing what I’m doing.
  • Who: Stan Laurel, before dying of a heart attack.

• Love y’all. Peace.
  • Who: Joanie «Chyna» Laurer
    • Note: The last known words that were spoken at the end of a video blog posted on her YouTube account.

• Tell the men to fire faster! Don’t give up the ship! Fight her till she sinks!
  • Who: James Lawrence, later used as naval ensign by his friend Commodore Perry. According to Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1989), the only documented source is the blue battle-flag inscribed with these words ordered and used by Oliver Hazard Perry as a signal during the battle of Lake Erie, September 10, 1813. Although popularly attributed to Captain James Lawrence as his dying words during a battle with a British frigate off the coast of Boston on June 1, 1813, there remains the possibility these words were not his, but those of someone reporting the battle. For other attributed sources and theories, see Burton Stevenson, ed., Macmillan Book of Proverbs, Maxims, and Famous Phrases (1965), p. 2091; Charles C. Bombaugh, Facts and Fancies for the Curious (1905), p. 388–89; William S. Walsh, Hand-Book of Literary Curiosities (1929), p. 1004–5; Dictionary of American History (1976), rev. ed., vol. 2, p. 364; and Motor Boating (October 1965), p. 72.

• My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.
  • Who: Hon. Jack Layton, last lines of his final letter to Canadians, written two days before he died and released upon his death

• Beautiful.
  • Who: Timothy Leary
    • Note: Leary had repeatedly said «Why not.» with various inflections prior to this, these are often reported as his final words.

• Katie, Katie, look… it’ll be fine, you know, I just need to get some sleep.
  • Who: Heath Ledger
    • Note: According to his father, Ledger’s sister was on the phone with the actor, telling him it’s a bad idea to mix sleeping pills with prescriptions. He died shortly after he did just that.

• Hello and greetings to you all, wherever you may be. And thank you, as always, for your appreciation and help during my life as an actor.
  • Who: Christopher Lee
    • Note: Spoken in a video released shortly before his death in June 2015.

• Tell Hill he must come up! Strike the tent.
  • Who: Robert E. Lee
    • Note: His last words are debated, as his stroke has resulted in aphasia, possibly rendering him unable to speak.

• God Bless. Take care my boy, Roy.
  • Who: Stan Lee

• Вот собака. (Vot sobaka.)
  • Translation: Good dog.
    • Who: Vladimir Lenin, Russian communist statesman and revolutionary.
    • Note: This was spoken to his dog, who brought him a dead bird.

• Yes, I am.
• I’m shot. I’m shot.
  • Who: John Lennon
    • Note: Whilst sitting in the back of a police car on the way to the hospital after the officers had asked him if he was John Lennon. While widely reported highly likely doubtful. «Yes, I am,» in response to, «Are you John Lennon?» is frequently cited as Lennon’s «Last Words.» The myth is based on the story that the police officer did not recognize someone as famous as John Lennon (and Yoko would have been present too). This is actually a restatement or twisting of the question the officer did likely ask: «Do you know who you are» which would have been an attempt to determine Lennon’s level of consciousness. Different versions have him answering or not in different manners, some state he said he was John Lennon. That is doubtful, Lennon’s mouth was bleeding profusely at this point. More likely, the alternative version is accurate, that Lennon slightly nodded (or appeared to nod) and could only manage a gurgling sound from his throat before he lost consciousness totally. This concurs with reports of levels of severity of his injuries. Lennon’s blood loss was so great, before the police arrived that the concierge at The Dakota realizing the severity of the injuries, simply covered Lennon with his uniform’s jacket and removed his blood covered glasses then summoned police. Also, Lennon’s last words of «I’m shot» were spoken seconds after he was shot as he staggered a number of steps toward the lobby of the Dakota. Sources for this include discussion in the Last Words reference book, Last Words of Notable People — Final Words of More than 3500 Noteworthy People Throughout History by William B. Brahms which also cites the Lennon biography, John Ono Lennon Volume 2, 1967-1980 by Ray Coleman ). Brahms, William B. (2010). Last Words of Notable People: Final Words of More than 3500 Noteworthy People Throughout History. Haddonfield, NJ: Reference Desk Press, Inc. p. 399. ISBN 978-09765325-2-1.; Coleman, Ray (1984). John Ono Lennon Volume 2, 1967-1980. London: Sidgwick & Jackson. ISBN 978-07088274-0-6..

• Ah, shit.
  • Who: Marc Lépine, perpetrator of the École Polytechnique massacre.
    • Note: Heard to have said these words shortly after stabbing his final victim, before committing suicide using his own rifle.

• Anna viiniä.
  • Translation: Give me wine.
  • Who: Pauli Matti Juhani «Juice» Leskinen, Finnish musician, songwriter and poet.
    • Note: According to his wife, Leskinen said these words to her before he was taken into an ambulance, where he lost consciousness and died later in a hospital.

• So hard to die.
  • Who: Meriwether Lewis

• It’s complete surrender.
  • Who: Eric Liddell

• Opfer müssen gebracht werden!
  • Translation: Sacrifices must be made!
  • Who: Otto Lilienthal pioneer of human aviation, after on 9 August 1896 a gust of wind fractured his wing and he fell from a height of 17 m (56 ft), breaking his spine. These were his last words to his brother before he succumbed to the injury.

• I love you, too. Big time.
  • Who: Rush Limbaugh, American radio host and political commentator.
  • To his brother David Limbaugh, shortly before losing consciousness for the final time.^[7]

• Dad, Dad, someone is shooting.
  • Who: Gunnar Linaker
    • Note: Linaker, 23, was calling his father from the Labor Youth Party camp in Norway on July 22, 2011 when he noticed a gunman shooting before he hung up. Linaker was among the 69 victims in the shooting.

• She won’t think anything about it.
  • Who: Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States, as quoted in Famous Last Words‎ (1961) by Barnaby Conrad
    • Note: Stated after Mary Lincoln had asked him what Clara Harris sitting next to them might think of them holding hands. A secondary account is offered by one of Lincoln’s confidants, the Reverend Noyes W. Miner, who officiated the president’s funeral, who claimed that Mary had told him Lincoln’s final words expressed a desire to visit the ‘Holy Land’: «How I should like to visit Jeru(salem).», with Lincoln being shot in the middle of the word «Jerusalem».

• Keep up the fire!
  • Who: U.S. Army Colonel Emerson H. Liscum, commander of the 9th Infantry Regiment, directing his troops after being fatally wounded during the Battle of Tientsin in China, 1900
    • Note: Liscum’s last words became the official motto of the 9th Infantry Regiment.

• The bastards got me, but they won’t get everybody.
  • Who: Alexander Litvinenko, whistleblowing former Russian spy, who was poisoned in a London sushi bar.
    • Note: Said in an interview on November 23, 2006, hours before his death. (The Times, November 24, 2006)

• I think I’m going to make it!
  • Who: Richard Loeb, half of the famous murderers Leopold and Loeb; said after being slashed ninety times with a razor by a fellow inmate.

• Hey — what’s happening here?
  • Who: Captain Robert Loft of Eastern Air Lines flight 401
    • Note: The December 29, 1972 crash of Eastern Air Lines flight 401 was a result of the flight crew’s failure to recognize a deactivation of the autopilot during their attempt to troubleshoot a malfunction of the landing gear position indicator system. As a result, the flight gradually lost altitude while the flight crew was preoccupied and eventually crashed. It was the first crash of a wide-body aircraft and, at the time, the deadliest in the United States.

• Muero con mi patria!
  • Translation: I die with my country!
  • Who: Francisco Solano Lopez
    • Note: Died during the Battle of Cerro Cora on March 1, 1870.

• This is for you!
  • Who: Ricardo López, the «Björk stalker»
    • Note: López, a crazed Björk fan disgruntled by her relationship with Goldie, recorded a video diary detailing his obsession and plans to kill Björk with a letter bomb. In the last videotape, López mailed the bomb and planned to kill himself to avoid arrest. Towards the end of the video, López played the song «I Remember You», uttered his last words at the end of the song, and shot himself in the mouth.

• Allah, save this country! Pakistan zindabad!
  • Translation: «Pakistan zindabad» means «Long live Pakistan.»
  • Who: Liaquat Ali Khan, first Prime Minister of Pakistan, spoke to the nation before being shot.

• Don’t let me die, I have got so much to do.
  • Who: Huey Long, «The Kingfish», American politician, Governor of and Senator from Louisiana

• Huz! Huz!!
  • Translation: Get out! Get out!
  • Who: Louis the Pious, second Carolingian emperor

• Je m’en vais, mais l’État demeurera toujours.
  • Translation: I am going, but the State shall always remain.
  • Who: Louis XIV of France
    • Note: Another biographer has him saying «Why do you weep? Did you think I was immortal?».

• I die innocent of all the crimes laid to my charge; I Pardon those who have occasioned my death; and I pray to God that the blood you are going to shed may never be visited on France.
  • Who: Louis XVI of France, d. January 21, 1793
    • Note: He was executed by guillotine.

• A King should die standing.
  • Who: Louis XVIII, King of France, d. 1824
    • Note: Louis XVIII suffered from a severe case of gout, which worsened over the years. At the end of his life, the King was wheelchair-bound most of the time.

• Sometimes the pain is unbearable.
  • Who: Howard Phillips Lovecraft, American author considered to be one of the most significant 20th-century authors in his genre.
    • Note: He spent the last few years of his life dying of malnourishment and cancer of the small intestine.

• Tell them, I died game.
  • Who: Fred Lowry, Australian bushranger d. 1863
    • Note: Lowry died from his wounds after shootout with Police near Crookwell, New South Wales.

• Never drive at night.
  • Who: Joseph Lucas, «The Prince of Darkness», Founder of Lucas Industries, manufacturer of automotive electrical components such as alternators, headlights, etc. which were notorious for unreliability in the early days of automotive engineering.

• Wir sind Bettler… hoc est verum.
  • Translation: We are beggars: this is true.
  • Who: Martin Luther
    • Note: The phrase «We are beggars» is in German, whereas «this is true» is in Latin.

• Life!
  • Who: Peg Lynch, actress and comedienne. [21]

M

• Boy, fetch my fiddle.
  • Who: Robert Roy MacGregor, Scottish folk hero and outlaw.

• [Niece: «What is the matter, Uncle James?»] Nothing more than a change of mind, my dear.
  • Who: James Madison, 4th President of the United States.
    • Note: Some accounts have his final words written as «I always talk better lying down.»

• Mozart! Mozart!
  • Who: Gustav Mahler, according to his wife, Alma.

• ¡Esto lo ha dispuesto así el Dios de Israel para verme cara a cara desde el cielo!
  • Translation: This is how the God of Israel has arranged to see me face to face from heaven!
  • Who: Francisco Maldonado, a Jewish surgeon and writer killed during the Peruvian Inquisition.
    • Note: On the day of his execution, a great storm devastated Lima.
    • The Jewish Encyclopedia gives his last words as, This is the will of the Lord. I shall see the God of Israel face to face.[22]

• Cheerio!
  • Who: Gangster Antonio Mancini when Albert Pierrepoint had put the noose on his neck.

• I’m okay!
  • Who: Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw, the first of only two Indian military officers to hold the highest rank of Field Marshal in the Indian Army.

• I’m the most famous human being not only that is alive but the most famous human being that has ever lived. And I’m not even dead yet. What do you think is gonna happen when I die?
  • Who: Charles Manson, American cult leader and musician

• Aidez-moi, ma chère amie!
  • Translation: Help me, my dear friend!
  • Who: Jean-Paul Marat, Jacobin publisher of L’Ami du Peuple (The People’s Friend), just after being stabbed by Charlotte Corday

• I feel great.
  • Who: Pete Maravich, American basketball player
    • Note: Said seconds before his death at a pickup basketball game.

• After opening the @FlamingoVegas 71 years ago this week, I always considered myself a Flamingo Girl, and worked there many times. I worked other casino showrooms, but only after I made sure it was okay with «the boys» at the Flamingo.
  • Who: Rose Marie, American entertainer; last tweet on her Twitter account before her death was reported via the same medium four hours later.

• Pardonnez-moi, monsieur. Je ne l’ai pas fait exprès.
  • Translation: Pardon me, sir. I did not do it on purpose.
  • Who: Marie Antoinette, Queen of France and Archduchess of Austria.
    • Note: As she approached the guillotine, convicted of treason and about to be beheaded, she accidentally stepped on the foot of her executioner.

• Money can’t buy life.
• On your way up, please take me up, on your way down, don’t let me down.
  • Who: Bob Marley, Jamaican musician. Spoken to his sons Stephen & Ziggy.

• Jesus Christ was put to death on the false testimony of those who received money in exchange for the lies they told. Just the same, the state of Ohio has succeeded in its quest for my life by way of perjured testimony and false witnesses who were paid to tell the lies they did. However, there has never been any hate nor desire of revenge in my heart for them, for I know God will repay those for each and every one of their sins that have gone forgotten.
  • Who: Ernest Martin, American murderer executed June 18, 2003 for the murder of Cleveland-area store owner Robert Robinson.
    • Note: In the death chamber, Martin spoke about three minutes in what prison officials said was the longest final statement by a condemned inmate since Ohio resumed executions in 1999. The statements were not recorded. Here are some excerpts as transcribed by prison officials: «I know that God is in control and those who are here are not responsible. Just as Jesus Christ was lied on and slandered, so I have been treated the same way. I have no hatred. I know God is in control and I pray that he will forgive us of our sins, forgive the media people watching of their sins and all that they have done. As the Bible says, let those without sin cast the first stone. God forgave us all. To my family, I love you all. I know I did not live a good life. Thank God for allowing my sister and nephew to be here and brother Morgan for his support. Hug Momma for me. Take care family. Take care media. God bless you all.»[23]

• Gentlemen, the uh, camper and the car sitting over to the south of me is covered. It’s gonna get me, too. I can’t get out of here…
  • Who: HAM radio operator Jerry Martin.
    • Note: The final transmission of Jerry Martin, reporting on the eruption of Mount St. Helens Andre Stepankowsky, Memories, lessons from mountain’s fury, The Daily News, 17 May 2005.

• Die, my dear? Why, that’s the last thing I’ll do!
  • Who: Groucho Marx, American comedian and actor.

• Продолжай, убирайся! Последние слова для дураков, которые не сказали достаточно! (Prodolzhay, ubiraysya! Posledniye slova dlya durakov, kotoryye ne skazali dostatochno!)
  • Translation: Go on, get out! Last words are for fools who haven’t said enough!
  • Who: Karl Marx, asked by his housekeeper what his last words were.

• When I am dead, you will find Philip and Calais engraved on my heart.
  • Who: Mary I of England, related to her husband and the loss of Calais to France

• In manus tuas domine confido spiritum meum.
  • Translation: Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit
  • Who: Mary I of Scotland
  • See also: Jesus

• All right.
  • Who: William Barclay «Bat» Masterson, former Wild West gunfighter; he was asked by a fellow reporter of the New York Morning Telegraph about his health after he had been ill with a cold.
    • Note: His last written words, on his note pad for the column he was writing, were, No wonder these birds are flying high when they get that kind of money for an hour’s work. Just think of an honest, hard-working farmer laboring from daylight to dark for forty years of his life, and lucky if he finishes with as much as one of these birds gets in an hour. Yet there are those who argue that everything breaks even in this old dump of a world of ours. I suppose these ginks who argue that way hold that because the rich man gets ice in the summer and the poor man gets it in the winter things are breaking even for both. Maybe so, but I’ll swear I can’t see it that way.

• Never again. Never again.
  • Who: Bill Masterton
    • Note: Said after he fell backwards and hit his head on the ice after being checked and lost consciousness, and died two days later. He wasn’t wearing a helmet at the time; it would be 11 years before the NHL made helmets mandatory. He is currently the only NHL player to die from injuries sustained on the ice.

• Perdono a todos y pido a todos que me perdonen y que mi sangre, que está a punto de ser vertida, se derrame para el bien de este país. Voy a morir por una causa justa, la de la independencia y libertad de México. ¡Que mi sangre selle las desgracias de mi nueva patria! ¡Viva México!
  • Translation: I forgive everyone, beg that everyone forgives me as well, and wish that my blood, that is going to be shed now, will benefit the country. Long live Mexico!
  • Who: Emperor Maximilian of Mexico (executed)

• It wasn’t worth it.
  • Who: Louis B. Mayer, film producer, d. October 29, 1957

• Goodbye to all my dear friends and family that I love. Today is the day I have chosen to pass away with dignity in the face of my terminal illness, this terrible brain cancer that has taken so much from me… but would have taken so much more. The world is a beautiful place, travel has been my greatest teacher, my close friends and folks are the greatest givers. I even have a ring of support around my bed as I type… Goodbye world. Spread good energy. Pay it forward!
  • Who: Brittany Maynard, American woman with terminal brain cancer who decided that she would end her own life «when the time seemed right.»
    • Note: Maynard, who advocated for the legalization of aid in dying, wrote this as her final post on Facebook before she took her own life.

• Do not despair of our present difficulties but believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here. Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history. Farewell, fellow Americans. God bless you, and God bless America.
  • Who: John S. McCain III, U.S. Navy Captain, POW, Senator from Arizona and 2008 Republican nominee for President.
    • From a statement prepared during the final days of life, near the end of a prolonged bout with glioblastoma, and released after his death.

• I have had a happy life and thank the Lord. Goodbye and may God bless all!
  • Who: Chris McCandless, American wanderer and subject of the book Into the Wild. He wrote a final note on a page from Louis L’Amour’s book, Education of a Wandering Man, before dying of starvation on August 18th, 1992.

• Daddy flight, save your auxiliary tanks.
  • Who: Thomas McGuire, fighter ace.
    • Note: He attempted to dogfight a Japanese Nakajima Ki-43 fighter aircraft on low altitude having failed to dump his aircraft’s auxiliary tanks, with disastrous results — his aircraft stalled and crashed due to extra weight of the tanks.

• Good-bye, good-bye all. It’s God’s way. His will, not ours, be done.
  • Who: William McKinley, 25th President of the United States, assassinated in 1901

• We are holding our own.
  • Who: Ernest M. McSorley, last captain of the ill-fated Laker-type freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald.
    • Note: McSorley was captain of the 729-foot Great Lakes freighter Edmund Fitzgerald, which was in a storm on Lake Superior. Soon after he said these words, the ship sank and all twenty-nine men aboard were killed.

• I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.
  • Who: Timothy McVeigh, perpetrator of the Oklahoma City bombing.
    • Note: McVeigh chose to quote the final stanza from the poem «Invictus» by William Ernest Henley as his final words before being executed by lethal injection on June 11, 2001.

• God bless Captain Vere!
  • Who: Herman Melville, author of Moby-Dick
    • Note: A reference from his then-unpublished novel Billy Budd, which was discovered on his desk after he died.

• Thank you.
  • Who: Freddie Mercury, lead singer of the British rock group Queen.^[8][9].^[10]

• «Where are my equipment cooling circuit breakers?»
  • Who: Hans-Jürgen Merten, captain of Helios Airways Flight 522
    • Note: Shortly after the flight took off, the cabin began to depressurize, as the pressurisation system had not been set to «auto» after a pressurization leak check before takeoff. The flight crew, unaware of the issue, began to suffer from hypoxia. It is believed that Merten’s last communication was made while suffering hypoxia’s initial symptoms.

• It’s all been rather lovely.
  • Who: John Le Mesurier, before slipping into a final coma.

• V-1.
  • Who: Klaas Meurs
    • Note: Klaas Meurs was the First Officer of KLM Flight 4805, which crashed on take-off on March 27th 1977, killing 583 people when it collided with a Pan Am Boeing 747, killing all 248 on Flight 4805 (including Meurs) and 335 on the Pan Am Aircraft. His last words of «V-1» where the Aviation terminology used when an Aircraft is going too fast to cancel the take-off and must take-off. Eight seconds later, both planes collided.

• Io do la mia anima a Dio, il mio corpo alla terra, e i miei beni terreni al mio parente più prossimo, caricandoli per ricordare le sofferenze di Gesù Cristo.
  • Translation: I give my soul to God, my body to the Earth, and my worldly possessions to my nearest of kin, charging them to remember the sufferings of Jesus Christ.
  • Who: Michelangelo, Italian sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer of the High Renaissance who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art.

• Fandemonium.
  • Who: Van Miller, American radio and television sports announcer.
    • Note: Miller had been rendered unable to speak due to a stroke a week prior to his death and had been suffering from declining function for several months. That single word, a signature call of his from the 1990s, was reportedly the only thing he said after the stroke and before his death, as reported by a former co-worker of Miller’s, WIVB-TV’s Jacquie Walker.

• Come on out.
  • Who: Spike Milligan, British comedian.

• Oh God, no! Help! Someone help!
  • Who: Sal Mineo, American actor.
    • Note: Stabbed to death.

• 動けない… (Ugokenai…)
  • Translation: Cannot move…
  • Who: Mitsuharu Misawa, Japanese professional wrestler
    • Note: Misawa had taken a belly-to-back suplex from Akitoshi Saito. When the referee asked whether or not he could move, Misawa replied with the above response. Afterwards, he lost consciousness and was later taken to the hospital, where he died. The official cause of death was listed as a cervical spinal cord injury.

• 彼らは私のことを聞いたとは思わない。 (Karera wa watashi no koto o kiita to wa omowanai.)
  • Translation: I don’t think they even heard me.
  • Who: Yukio Mishima (pseudonym of Kimitake Hiraoka), moments before committing ritual suicide (seppuku)
    • Note: He had addressed the garrison at the Ichigaya Camp, the Tokyo headquarters of the Eastern Command of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, while his followers, the Tatenokai or «Shield Society», held the Commander hostage. Mishima encouraged the soldiers to launch a military coup and restore the traditional powers of the Emperor. They responded with mocking jeers. Mishima shouted «Long Live the Emperor!» three times, went back inside, and spoke his last words under his breath before performing the ritual self-disembowelment. One of Mishima’s followers, a 25-year-old named Masakatsu Morita, tried three times to ritually behead Mishima but failed; his head was finally severed by Hiroyasu Koga.

• It tastes bad.
  • Margaret Mitchell, upon being given a drink of orange juice while convalescing in a hospital.

• Why should I talk to you? I’ve just been talking with your boss.
  • Wilson Mizner, after talking to a priest.

• What the hell are we into? We’re stuck in it!
  • Who: Sten Molin, first officer aboard American Airlines Flight 587
  • Note: Said as the flight spun out of control following the separation of the stabilizer from the airplane. The plane crashed nine seconds later, killing all 260 passengers and crew (plus five civilians on the ground).

• I regret that I should leave this world without again beholding him.
  • Who: James Monroe, 5th President of the United States.
    • Note: Spoken to a friend about James Madison.

• Say good-bye to Pat, say good-bye to Jack and say good-bye to yourself, because you’re a nice guy.
  • Who: Marilyn Monroe to actor Peter Lawford.

• It has all been very interesting.
  • Who: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, English aristocrat, letter writer and poet.
  • Source: Clifton Fadiman, Some Passing Remarks on Some Passing Remarks

• Well, now I must go to meet God and try to explain all those men I killed at Alamein.
  • Who: Bernard Montgomery, British military commander of World War II.

• If you don’t like it, you can fuck off!
  • Who: Keith Moon, drummer for the British rock group The Who. He asked his girlfriend to cook him breakfast, but she complained and that made him angry. He died approximately six hours later.

• I can hear the music all around me.
  • Who: Dudley Moore, British actor.

• Mama.
  • Who: Agnes Moorehead, American actress.

• I need Kleenex.
  • Who: Erin Moran, American actress.
  • Likely written or typed, as Moran, due to throat cancer, had lost the ability to speak two months prior. She lost consciousness and died before her husband could return with the tissues.

• I think we’re off here.
  • Who: Lewis Moran, Australian underworld figure.
  • Lewis Moran was drinking at a bar with his friend and associate Bert Wrout. He knew he was a potential target for assassination as his two sons, Jason and Mark, were killed years before. He spotted the gunmen entering the bar and calmly uttered those final words («off» being an underworld slang for «dead») before being shot in the head. Wrout was also shot, but survived.

• Shoot straight, you bastards! Don’t make a mess of it.
  • Who: Harry Morant
    • Note: Morant was court-martialed and executed by the British, charged with killing Boer prisoners. To the end he claimed to have been following orders.

• This hath not offended the king.
  • Who: Thomas More at the execution block, moving his beard out of the way.

• I’m glad that’s over.
  • Who: Eric Morecambe, after going off stage after a solo performance at Stan Stennett’s theatre, Tewkesbury, May 28, 1984.

• Señor, si he hecho bien, tú lo sabes, si mal, me acojo a tu misericordia.
  • Translation: Lord, if I have done well, You know it; if bad, I take refuge in Your infinite mercy.
  • Who: José María Morelos, Mexican independence fighter (executed)

• Dios no muere!
  • Translation: God does not die!
  • Who: Gabriel García Moreno, President of Ecuador
  • Context: He had been attacked by assassins and had spoken these words after his attack. He reportedly had a favorite saying: «I am only a man who can be killed and replaced, but God does not die.»

• Pam, are you still there?
  • Who: Jim Morrison, American poet and lead singer of the Doors
  • Spoken to his girlfriend Pamela Courson from the bathtub of his Paris apartment. He died there shortly thereafter.

• I should have asked for a stunt double!
  • Who: Vic Morrow, American actor
  • Morrow said this before filming a challenging scene for Twilight Zone: The Movie with two children and a helicopter. During filming, the helicopter lost control, and fell on the actors. He and one of the two children were decapitated while the other was crushed by the falling helicopter.

• אשריך ישראל מי כמוך עם נושע ביהוה מגן עזרך ואשר־חרב גאותך ויכחשו איביך לך ואתה על־במותימו תדרך (Cht’ashreicha yisra’el mi chamocha, am nosha ba-YHWH, magen ezrecha, va’asher-cherev ga’avatecha; veyikkachashu oyeveicha lach, ve’attah al-bamoteimo tidroch.)
  • Translation: Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by Yahweh? He is your shield and helper and your glorious sword. Your enemies will cower before you, and you will trample down their high places.
  • Who: Moses
    • See also: Moses

• You take me back to Eagle Bridge and you’ll get back your stethoscope.
  • Who: Grandma Moses, spoken to the physician whose stethoscope she took.

• Der Geschmack des Todes ist auf meinen Lippen… Ich fühle etwas, das nicht von dieser Erde ist.
  • Translation: The taste of death is upon my lips…I feel something, that is not of this earth.
  • Who: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

• .اللَّهُمَّ الرَّفِيقَ الأَعْلَى. اللَّهُمَّ الرَّفِيقَ الأَعْلَى. اللَّهُمَّ الرَّفِيقَ الأَعْلَى (allāhumma al-rafīq al-‘a’lā. allāhumma al-rafīq al-‘a’lā. allāhumma al-rafīq al-‘a’lā.)
  • Translation: O Allah, the highest companions. O Allah, the highest companions. O Allah, the highest companions.
  • Who: Muhammad, Prophet of God in Islam
  • See also: Muhammad

• Empiezo a creer que no pretendes contarme entre tus amigos.
  • Translation: I am starting to believe you are not intending to count me amongst your friends.
  • Who: Pedro Muñoz Seca – Spanish playwright
  • Context: Said when he was about to be executed by a squad during the Spanish Civil War.

• أنا سوف تغطى جلادي. (ana sawf tughtaa jaladi.)
  • Translation: I shall overlive my executioner.
  • Who: Omar Mukhtar (also Omar al-Mukhtar), Leader of the Libyan Resistance before being hanged by the Italian fascist Army in Libya, (16 September 1931).

• Soldati! Fai il tuo dovere! Dritto al cuore ma risparmia il viso. Fuoco!
  • Translation: Soldiers! Do your duty! Straight to the heart but spare the face. Fire!
  • Who: Joachim Murat, King of Naples sentenced to death for treason during the Napoleonic Wars.

• Mom, I’m dying.
  • Who: Brittany Murphy, American actress.

• أنا مجروح، أنا مجروح، معدتي (‘ana majruh, ‘ana majruh, mueadati)
  • Translation: I am wounded, I am wounded, my stomach.
  • Who: Yasser Murtaja, a journalist killed by Israeli forces during the 2018 Gaza border protests.

• Sparami nel petto!
  • Translation: Shoot me in the chest!
  • Who: Benito Mussolini, just as he was shot by a partisan leader.

• Well, this is certainly a pleasant surprise.
  • Who: Andrew Mutton. (A mobster whose car was riddled with starter motor problems, remarked to his associate when the car started successfully first go. Moments later a bomb rigged to the ignition exploded, killing Andrew and wounding his associate)

N

• Biraz dinleneyim!
  • Translation: Let me rest a bit!
  • Who: Namık Kemal, Turkish poet

• Hello, brother.
  • Who: Haji-Daoud Nabi
    • Note: Said to Christchurch mosque shooter Brenton Tarrant, just before he opened fire. Nabi was the first victim of the shootings.

• Demek ki böyle ölünürmüş.
  • Translation: So, this is how we die.
  • Who: Necip Fazıl Kısakürek, Turkish poet

• Некоторая бабочка уже на крыле. (Nekotoraya babochka uzhe na kryle)
  • Translation: A certain butterfly is already on the wing.
  • Who: Vladimir Nabokov, poet.

• Lenger og lenger mot nord…
  • Translation: Further and further to the north…
  • Who: Fridtjof Nansen, Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
    • Note: The first sentence is commonly acknowledged version. The second one is according to his daughter.

• N’est-il pas vrai que nous n’étions pas lâches à Sedan?
  • Translation: Isn’t it true that we weren’t cowards at Sedan?
  • Who: Napoleon III, Emperor and founder of the Second French Empire, and last Emperor and monarch of France.

• Thank God I have done my duty…Drink drink, fan fan, rub rub.
  • Who: British Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson; This is recorded definitively in an account by Nelson’s ship surgeon, Dr. William Beatty. That Nelson said «Kiss me, Hardy», often believed to be «Kismet, Hardy» in his last hours, after being mortally wounded is extensively documented in contemporary accounts, including that of people actually present. That they were not his actual last words is also extensively documented, though not as clearly in many popular accounts, and they have commonly been mistaken as being his last words. (for more on this see: Talk:Horatio Nelson) The latter clause mentions how hot and thirsty he was when dying.

• Hit me one more time and make it good.
  • Who: Dominick Napolitano, American mobster
    • Note: Napolitano was sentenced to death by the Mafia for having failed to prevent the infiltration of the Bonanno crime family by FBI informant Donnie Brasco. Napolitano knew he was going to be killed, and he was led into a house where he was shot with a revolver. When the first shot misfired, he uttered those words before being killed.

• I don’t know what I may seem to the world. But as to myself I seem to have been only a boy playing on the seashore and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
  • Who: Isaac Newton, British physicist, mathematician and astronomer.

• I am in the land of the dying, and I am soon going to the land of the living.
  • Who: John Newton, Anglican preacher, abolitionist, and writer of «Amazing Grace.»

• Nei myn Hear ta.
  • Translation: To my Lord.
  • Who: Pier Gerlofs Donia, legendary Frisian freedom fighter and giant folk hero
    • Note: After an old enemy of Pier Gerlofs asked him where he’d want to go in afterlife, he answered in Frisian that he wanted to go to his Lord in Heaven. After he’d said this, his condition got worse and he passed away.

• Sero. Haec est fides.
  • Translation: It is too late. This is fidelity.
  • Who: Nero, Roman emperor.
  • Some accounts also have his last words as being «What an artist that dies in me» («Qualis artifex pereo!»)
    • Note: This was said when after he committed suicide he saw a guard, who may have been part of the assassination, running toward him thinking he was coming to rescue him.

• Les soldats, quand je donne l’ordre de tirer, tirent directement sur mon cœur. Attendez la commande. Ce sera mon dernier pour toi. Je proteste contre ma condamnation. J’ai combattu cent batailles pour la France, et pas une contre elle … Soldats! Feu!
  • Translation: Soldiers, when I give the command to fire, fire straight at my heart. Wait for the order. It will be my last to you. I protest against my condemnation. I have fought a hundred battles for France, and not one against her… Soldiers! Fire!
  • Who: Michel Ney
    • Note: Said before being executed by firing squad following the defeat of his supreme leader, Napoleon Bonaparte. He had been offered a last request, and had asked for the right to give the firing squad the order to fire.

• Какие? Какие? (Kakiye? Kakiye?)
  • Translation: What?! What?!
  • Who: Nicholas II of Russia
    • Note: In the early morning of July 17, 1918, Tsar Nicholas II and his family were led by the Bolsheviks to the half-basement room at the back of the Ipatiev house in hopes that they would be safe from the anti-Bolsheviks’ attack on the house. When they were informed that they were condemned to death by the Ural Soviet of Workers’ Deputies, his stunning reaction was his final word before he turned to the family and got shot to death in the chest; the rest of the family soon followed him in death.

• No, not here!
  • Who: Anthony Nightingale, victim of the Port Arthur massacre
    • Note: Nightingale yelled these words as the gunman, Martin Bryant pointed his weapon at him. Bryant then killed Nightingale with a shot to the neck.

• I love you so much.
  • Who: Harry Nilsson
    • Note: Said to his wife before going to sleep and dying from heart failure.

• A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP
  • Who: Leonard Nimoy
    • Note: Final public words, sent in the form of a tweet. The abbreviation LLAP at the end of the quotation stands for «Live long and prosper», a phrase popularized by Nimoy’s character Spock on Star Trek.

• Help.
  • Who: Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States
    • Note: Said to a housekeeper as he had a stroke. Though he remained alert for a period of time after he was taken to the hospital, he was unable to speak.

• Demain, je ne serai plus là.
  • Translation: Tomorrow, I shall no longer be here.
  • Who: Nostradamus

O

• I am just going outside. I may be some time.
  • Who: Captain Lawrence Oates, on Robert Falcon Scott’s ill-fated Antarctic expedition, while suffering from frostbite and sheltering from a blizzard, Oates felt he was decreasing his companions’ chances of survival. Oates voluntarily left the tent; it was his 32nd birthday. He was never seen again.
  • Quoted in R. F. Scott’s diary, published as Scott’s Last Expedition, ch.20

• Más totopos.
  • Translation: More totopos.
  • Who: Álvaro Obregón, Mexican politician.
  • Obregón was sitting in a restaurant, and is said to have asked for more totopos (tortilla chips) a few seconds before being shot.

• What do I tell the pilot to do?
  • Who: Barbara Olson, American lawyer.
    • Note: A victim of the 9/11 attacks, Olson spoke her last words to her husband into her cell phone from inside a locked airplane lavatory.

• ¿Para qué? Estoy bien al nivel de los fusiles.
  • Translation: Why? I’m right at the height of the rifles.
  • Who: Melchor Ocampo, Mexican politician, known for his anticlerical ideas
    • Note: Ocampo was rounded up by conservative rebels and sentenced to death. He spoke these words after his executioner ordered him to kneel.

• I’d like to thank the Academy for my lifetime achievement award that I will eventually get.
  • Who: Donald O’Connor, American actor, dancer and singer

• Do dupy.
  • Translation: This sucks.
  • Who: Agnieszka Osiecka, Polish poet and writer.
  • To her children on her deathbed. http://www.niniwa2.cba.pl/warszawka-osieckaagnieszka.html.

• Going down, 1862, going down, going down, copied, going down?
  • Who: Arnon Ohad.
    • Note: Ohad was aboard El Al Flight 1862, which crashed into a Dutch apartment complex on October 4, 1992. Ohad spoke these words while communicating with air traffic control.

• This isn’t Hamlet, you know. It’s not meant to go into the bloody ear.
  • Who: Laurence Olivier
    • Note: Supposedly said this when a nurse, attempting to moisten his lips, mis-aimed. In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, the title character’s father is killed when poison is dripped into his ear while asleep.

• Yo, what the fuck is going on?
• Yo, what the fuck?
• Yo, what the fuck is happening?
  • Who: Jahseh Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy, aka XXXTentacion.
    • Note: Claimed last words according to somebody who witnessed Onfroy’s murder.^[11] Precisely which one of these statements the witness heard is unknown.

• Pray for us. Pray for us.
  • Who: Betty Ong, American Airlines flight attendant
    • Note: Ong was a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11 on September 11, 2001 who notified the American Airlines ground crew when the plane was hijacked and stayed on the telephone for the final 25 minutes of the flight until the plane crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

• I am in some pain… my hearing and speech are very poor.
  • Who: J. Robert Oppenheimer, American theoretical physicist.
    • Note: Written in a note a few days before he died.

• Fuck!
  • Who: Lee Harvey Oswald, American Marxist and assassin of President John F. Kennedy
    • Note: Oswald was being escorted for transport to a prison following his arrest for assassinating John F. Kennedy. A crowd had gathered around his envoy to photograph the president’s assassin, when Jack Ruby emerged and shot Oswald once in the chest. He later died in the hospital where Kennedy had been declared dead two days earlier.

• I knew it! I knew it! Born in a hotel room, and goddamn it, dying in a hotel room!
  • Who: Eugene O’Neill, American Nobel-prize winning playwright

• Send my love to Irene. Love that leather jacket. I’ll come into the studio if you need my time. Talk to you later, bye.
  • Who: Dolores O’Riordan, lead vocalist of The Cranberries.
    • Note: This was a voicemail to her manager, Dan Waite. She died merely hours later from accidental drowning in a bathtub due to sedation by alcohol intoxication.

• I love you.
  • Who: Poltergeist child actress Heather O’Rourke to her mother.

P

• Yes, no last words.
  • Who: Elijah Page
    • Note: Executed by injection in South Dakota.

• Iran is Iran.
• Its land, people, and history…Every Iranian has to love it.
• Iran is Iran.
  • Who: Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran
    • Note: In his hospital bed, the Shah was asked to describe his feelings for Iran and its people and to define the country. The Shah, a fervent nationalist, responded with the above statements. He continued on to repeat «Iran is Iran» over and over. Shortly after, he slipped into a coma and died.^[12]

• Let me have none of your popish stuff. Get away with you. Good morning.
  • Who: Thomas Paine, pamphleteer, revolutionary, radical and intellectual. Author of Common Sense, The Rights of Man and The American Crisis.
    • Note: Spoken to two clergymen who were trying to lead the famous Deist in a deathbed conversion.^{[citation needed]}
    • Also quoted as: I have no wish to believe on that subject.

• [before stepping on the gallows trap] Is it safe?
  • Who: William Palmer

• Hurry it up, you Hoosier bastard! I could kill a dozen men while you’re screwing around!
  • Who: Carl Panzram, serial killer, shortly before he was executed by hanging on September 5, 1930.

• And you all are trying to get more and more people and more business leaders involved in this, and talk about, uh, why it’s important to get these business leaders involved.
  • Who: Alison Parker
    • Note: Parker was conducting a live interview about upcoming events for the 50th anniversary of Smith Mountain Lake when she was shot several times a couple of seconds after she said the above line. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

• 난 괜찮아… (Nan gwaenchanha)
  • Translation: I’m fine…
  • Who: President Park Chung-Hee after being shot by Kim Jae-gyu.

• I wasn’t done.
• Who will take care of me now?
  • Who: Jack Parsons, rocket scientist and occultist.

• Que Dieu ne m’abandonne jamais.
  • Translation: May God never abandon me.
  • Who: Blaise Pascal

• Je ne peux pas.
  • Translation: I cannot.
  • Who: Louis Pasteur
    • Note: His response when he was offered a cup of milk.

• Napoleon was a great man and a great general. He conquered armies and he conquered nations. But he couldn’t jump the Genesee Falls. Wellington was a great man and a great soldier. He conquered armies and he conquered Napoleon, but he couldn’t jump the Genesee Falls. That was left for me to do, and I can do it and will!
  • Who: Sam Patch, American daredevil, prior to fatal leap from Genesee Falls

• This is a hell of a way to die.
  • Who: George S. Patton, after being admitted to the hospital after a car accident while out hunting.

• Bring me a tin of caviar.
  • Who: Jennifer Paterson, member of the Two Fat Ladies.
    • Paterson died before her co-star, Clarissa Dickson Wright, arrived with the caviar.

• מרן ישוע משׁיחא עם רוחכ טיבותא עמכ אמין (Maran Yeshu m’shikha am rukhakh taybuta amakh, amin)
  • Translation: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
  • Who: Paul the Apostle
  • Traditional closing of Paul’s epistles, originally composed in Koine Greek. 2 Timothy, traditionally the last of Paul’s epistles, closes with the variant The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Grace be with you. Amen.

• Penso che una vita vissuta per la musica sia un’esistenza spesa meravigliosamente, e questo è ciò a cui ho dedicato la mia vita.
  • Translation: I believe that a life lived for music is an existence spent wonderfully, and this is what I’ve dedicated my life to.
  • Who: Luciano Pavarotti

• Pak mijn zwanenkostuum klaar. Speel die laatste maat heel zachtjes.
  • Translation: Get my swan costume ready. Play that last measure very softly.
  • Who: Anna Pavlova

• I said, never mind.
  • Who: Bill Paxton

• Que Deus me conceda esses últimos desejos — paz e prosperidade para o Brasil.
  • Translation: May God grant me these last wishes—peace and prosperity for Brazil.
  • Who: Pedro II of Brazil, second and last Brazilian emperor

• I’ve got a hundred feet on the-
  • Who: Ronald Penton, Flight Engineer of Flying Tiger Line Flight 66
    • Penton was the Flight Engineer on Flying Tiger Line Flight 66 when it crashed into a Hill on approach to Kuala Lumpur on February 19 1989 killing all four on board. It seems that Penton was likely referring to the radio altimeter warning of their imminent impact with the hill.

• Οὐδεὶς γάρ… ἔφη, ‘δι᾽ ἐμὲ τῶν ὄντων Ἀθηναίων μέλαν ἱμάτιον περιεβάλετο. (Oudeìs gár… éphē, ‘di᾽ emè tôn óntōn Athēnaíōn mélan himátion periebáleto.)
  • Translation: For, no Athenian, through my means, ever wore mourning.
  • Who: Pericles, discussing with his friends what his greatest accomplishment had been

• Eva se va.
  • Translation: Eva is leaving.
  • Who: Eva Perón, Argentinian First Lady

• I know not what tomorrow will bring.
  • Who: Fernando Pessoa, Portuguese poet
    • Note: Fernando Pessoa, who was bilingual, wrote his words in English, after losing the ability to speak.

• Я верю, Господь, и признаться, помоги моему неверию. (Ya veryu, Gospod’, i priznat’sya, pomogi moyemu neveriyu.)
• Оставьте все… (Ostav’te vse…)
  • Translation:
• I believe, Lord, and confess, help my unbelief.
• Leave all to…
  • Who: Peter I of Russia
    • Note: According to legend, Peter was filled with remorse about his cruelty to his son during his final days, and said the first line as a prayer prior to his death. There is also another legend that he asked for a pen and paper and then wrote the second line before he asked for his daughter to be summoned and later died.

• Larry! We’re going down, Larry!
  • Who: First Officer Roger Pettit to Captain Larry Wheaton of Air Florida Flight 90, January 13, 1982.
    • Note: The plane lost altitude after a failed takeoff attempt and struck the 14th Street Bridge over the Potomac River in Washington D.C., killing all but four passengers and one flight attendant. A subsequent investigation determined that the pilots failed to switch on the engines’ internal ice protection systems, used reverse thrust in a snow storm prior to takeoff, and failed to abort the takeoff even after detecting a power problem while taxiing and visually identifying ice and snow buildup on the wings.

• Και θα κυβερνάτε καλύτερα? (Kai tha kyvernáte kalýtera?)
  • Translation: And will you rule better?
  • Who: Phocas, Byzantine Emperor, 602 — 610
  • Phocas was defeated by Heraclius in a civil war, and had been abandoned by his supporters as Heraclius and his army arrived at Constantinople. He was captured and brought before the new emperor, who asked him, «Is this how you have ruled, wretch?» When Phocas gave this reply, an enraged Heraclius beheaded him on the spot.

• No paparazzi, I want anonymity.
  • Who: River Phoenix

• Chaque foutue chose que vous faites dans cette vie que vous payez.
  • Translation: Every damn fool thing you do in this life you pay for.
  • Who: Edith Piaf
    • Note: Piaf spoke these words to her sister, standing at her deathbed.

• Buvez-moi, buvez à ma santé, vous savez que je ne peux plus boire.
  • Translation: Drink to me, drink to my health, you know I can’t drink any more.
  • Who: Pablo Picasso
    • Note: Paul McCartney paid homage to Picasso in the song «Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me)», which can be found on the Band on the Run album.

• Запрягайте сани, хочу ехать к сестре. (Zapryagayte sani, khochu ekhat k sestre.)
  • Translation: Get the sledge ready, I want to go to my sister.
  • Peter II, Russian emperor
    • Note: His sister, Natalia, had died 14 months before him.

• يا إلهي, أنا ضج. (Ya ‘ilhy, ‘ana daj)
  • Translation: God, I’m bored.
  • Harry St. John Philby, Arabist and writer, father of spy Kim Philby.

• CQD THIS IS TITANIC CQD THIS IS
  • Who: Jack Phillips, senior wireless officer of the Titanic.
  • Note: Last distress call sent out by Phillips to nearby ships at 2:17am ship’s time. During this transmission, the power went out and the ship began to split apart. Three minutes after the final transmission, the Titanic sank. Phillips’ body was never found. (CQD is the discontinued telegraph code for «General Call — Distress», now replaced with SOS.)

• I’m satisfied with my giving. I don’t want a bigger suite or a better parking spot. Or yet another honorary degree. I want championships across the board. I hope you understand why, and I hope we get them while I can still savor the victories.
  • Who: T. Boone Pickens, oil magnate
  • From his final letter to Oklahoma State University

• Lucy…
  • Who: Augusto Pinochet, dictator of Chile.
    • Note: He was referring to his wife, Lucia Hiriart.

• Oh, my country! How I leave my country!
  • Who: William Pitt the Younger.

• Instaurare omnia in Christo.
  • Translation: To restore all things in Christ.
  • Who: Pope St. Pius X

• Call Dr. Horder.
  • Who: Sylvia Plath, American poet, novelist, and short-story writer.

• I am making my last effort to return that which is divine in me to that which is divine in the Universe.
  • Who: Plotinus, Hellenistic philosopher

• Lord help my poor soul.
  • Who: Edgar Allan Poe

• I love you Sarah. For all eternity, I love you.
  • Who: James K. Polk, 11th President of the United States
    • Note: He was speaking to his wife on his deathbed.

• You want to go to this party? How about this?
  • Who: Jackson Pollock, Abstract painter
    • Note: Spoken to his two passengers moments before he was killed in a single-car accident.

• Non ho detto a metà di quello che ho visto.
  • Translation: I have not told half of what I saw.
  • Marco Polo, Venetian traveller and writer

• Attendez un moment.
  • Translation: Wait a second.
  • Who: Madame de Pompadour, chief mistress of Louis XV of France, applying rouge to her cheeks before her death

• Good-bye boys; I die a true American.
  • Who: William «Bill the Butcher» Poole
    • Note: Poole was a member of the New York City gang the Bowery Boys, a bare-knuckle boxer, and a leader of the Know Nothing political movement in the mid nineteenth century.

• I’ve got to stop, I don’t feel well.
  • Who: Tyrone Power, American actor
    • Note: Power was filming a dueling scene with actor George Sanders in Madrid, Spain for the upcoming film Solomon and Sheba when he was stricken with a heart attack and was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital a few minutes later.

• Suci, Slobodan Praljak nije ratni zločinac, s prijezirom odbacujem vašu presudu.
• To je otrov koji sam popio.
  • Translation:
• Judges, Slobodan Praljak is not a war criminal. With disdain, I reject your verdict!
• This is poison that I drank.
  • Who: Slobodan Praljak
    • Note: Praljak, who was found guilty of crimes during the Croat-Bosniak War and sentenced to 20 years in prison, said the first line above after the judges chose to uphold his sentence. He then pulled out a small bottle filled with cyanide and proceeded to drink its contents. Almost a minute later, he said the second line, which an interpreter translated. The hearings were suspended and Praljak was rushed to the hospital where he died.

• Okay, I won’t.
  • Who: Elvis Presley
    • Note: Those were his last words to fiancée Ginger Alden. Prior to this, he told her, «I’m going to the bathroom to read.» As he was on the way to the bathroom, Alden replied, «Don’t fall asleep in there.»

• Viva Cristo Rey!
  • Translation: Long live Christ the King!
  • Who: Blessed Miguel Pro, S.J.
    • Note: Said directly before he was executed by firing squad during the Cristero rebellion in Mexico.

• «Mayday, mayday, mayday, Helios Airways Flight 522, Athens…[unintelligible]…» «Mayday! Mayday!»
  • Who: Andreas Prodromou, flight attendant aboard Helios Airways Flight 522
    • Note: After the cabin depressurized mid-flight, incapacitating the flight crew (the plane continued to fly in a holding pattern as it was on autopilot) and eventually the passengers, Prodromou survived by utilizing portable oxygen supplies on the plane and gained access to the cockpit, as witnessed by F-16 pilots following the flight. The flight’s CVR picked up Prodromou’s mayday calls shortly after one engine flamed out, but these were never heard by air traffic control as the flight’s radio was tuned to Larnaca ATC (the plane departed from Larnaca, Cyprus).

• Me l’aspettavo.
  • Translation: I expected it to happen
  • Who: Pino Puglisi, Italian priest shot by a Mafia assassin
    • Note: Pino Puglisi was reported to have smiled to his killer.

• I love you, Kathy. I love the baby, but I need to find peace. I can’t go on.
  • Who: Freddie Prinze, stand-up comedian and actor, who left a suicide note and made a series of phone calls to his friends and family. The last statement was a phone call to his wife. After the call, Prinze pulled out a gun from the sofa and shot himself in the head.

• Η πόλη έχει πέσει και είμαι ακόμα ζωντανός. (I póli échei pései kai eímai akóma zontanós.)
  • Translation: The city is fallen and I am still alive.
  • Who : Constantine XI Palaiologos, final Byzantine emperor, before charging into the final battle at the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453.

• Are you all right?
  • Who: Ernie Pyle
    • Note: Said to Lieutenant Colonel Joseph B. Coolidge after the two jumped into a ditch following a burst of Japanese machine gun fire on the island of Iejima. A round from a second burst entered Pyle’s left temple, killing him instantly.

Q

• Adesso (or ora) vi faccio vedere come muore un italiano!
  • Translation: Now I will show you how an Italian dies!
  • Who: Fabrizio Quattrocchi, Italian security officer taken hostage in Iraq early in the Iraq War. When his captors came to execute him he rose from his knees, refused to kneel back down, and said these words.

• Jeg er urettferdig dømt, og jeg dør uskyldig.
  • Translation: I’m convicted unfairly, and I die innocent.
  • Who: Vidkun Quisling, before being executed by firing squad.

R

• Je m’en vais chercher un grand peut-être.
  • Translation: I go to seek a Great Perhaps.
• Tirez le rideau, la farce est jouée.
  • Translation: Draw the curtain, the farce is played.
• Beati qui in domino moriuntur.
  • Translation: Blessed are those who die in the Lord or Blessed are those who die wearing a cloak.
  • Who: François Rabelais, major French Renaissance writer, physician, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar.
    • Note: Rabelais is attributed the third pair of last words from having said to have spoken this after wrapping himself in his domino, a Spanish hooded cloak, a word which, in Latin, means lord or master.

• כן, כן, זה כואב מאחור, אבל לא נורא (Khein, khein, zeh ko’eiv mei’akhor, aval lo nora)
  • Translation: Aye, aye, it hurts in the back, but not terribly
  • Who: Yitzhak Rabin, fifth Prime Minister of Israel
    • Note: Rabin was assassinated by an Orthodox Jewish extremist in 1995. As such, Israeli media often cited these as his last words:
    • אני לא מאמין שזה יהודי (Ani lo ma’amin shazeh y’hudi)
    • Translation: I can’t believe it’s a Jew.

• I want to go home.
  • Who: Angela Raiola, American reality television personality.

• Strike, man, strike!
  • Who: Sir Walter Raleigh, English landed gentleman, writer, poet, soldier, politician, courtier, spy, and explorer.
    • To his executioner, as he waited for the axe to fall.

• We’ll capture the objective.
  • Who: Richhpal Ram, Indian recipient of the Victoria Cross.

• What the devil do you mean to sing to me, priest? You are out of tune.
  • Who: Jean-Philippe Rameau, French Baroque composer
    • Note: At his bedside, he objected to a song sung.

• Thank you all very much, I certainly appreciate it. Goodbye.
  • Who: Ayn Rand, Russian-born American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter.
    • Note: Last known words spoken to the public at a lecture entitled The Sanction of the Victims.

• Komisch
  • Translation: Funny, comical; strange
  • Who: Otto Rank
    • Note: German/American Psychoanalyst, cited By E. J. Lieberman in «Acts of Will: The Life and Work of Otto Rank».

• Felice.
  • Translation: Happy.
  • Who: Raphael, Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance.

• Что они от меня хотят! Чего они хотят? (Chto oni ot menya khotyat! Chego oni khotyat?)
  • Translation: What do they want of me! What do they want?
  • Who: Grigori Rasputin, Russian mystic
    • Note: Last words also reported as, Феликс, Феликс, царице всё скажу. (Feliks, Feliks, tsaritse vso skazhu.) – «Felix, Felix, I will tell the tsarina!», «Felix» being Prince Felix Yusupov, one of Rasputin’s assassins.

• Azərbaycan, Azərbaycan, Azərbaycan!
  • Transation: Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan!
  • Who: Mammad Amin Rasulzadeh

• I’m tired. I’m going back to bed.
  • Who: George Reeves
    • Note: Reeves committed suicide. This was the last thing he said to his friends before shooting himself in his bedroom.

• I miss her so much, I want to be with Carrie.
  • Who: Debbie Reynolds
    • Note: Her daughter, actress Carrie Fisher, had died of heart failure the day before. and both Debbie and her son Todd Fisher were planning Carrie’s funeral. According to Todd, she had made the comment, and 15 minutes later, suffered a stroke that she later died from.

• Forward! For God’s sake, forward!
  • Who: John F. Reynolds, Union General at Gettysburg, seconds before he was shot by a Confederate sharpshooter.

• I vvill die King of England! I ne vvill boughe a foot! Treason! Treason!
  • Translation: I will die King of England! I will not budge a foot! Treason! Treason!!
  • Who: Richard III

• Yeah, country music.
  • Who: Buddy Rich
    • Note: Said to a nurse who asked him, «Is there anything you can’t take?» He died from heart failure following surgery to remove a brain tumor.

• Now I’m going to tell you a story from the Bible about spiritual courage…
  • Who: Baseball impressario Branch Rickey
    • Note: He was in the middle of an acceptance speech at Missouri’s Sports Hall of Fame when he collapsed in mid-sentence and never regained consciousness. Rickey died 26 days later.

• No words can express just how sorry I am for taking the lives of my babies. No way I can make up for or take away the pain I have caused everyone who knew and loved them. I love you, my babies.
  • Who: Christina Marie Riggs, first woman executed in Arkansas on May 2, 2000. In 1997 she killed her two small children and then failed in her attempt to commit suicide.

• I don’t want the doctor’s death. I want to have my own freedom.
  • Who: Rainer Maria Rilke, Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist

• Consummatum est!
  • Translation: It is finished!
  • Who: Jose Rizal
    • Note: Rizal mentioned it moments before being shot by a firing squad. These are the last words spoken by Jesus (John 19:30).

• My God, Ned, help me! I’m on fire!
  • Who: Edward «Fireball» Roberts, 1962 Daytona 500 winner
    • Note: Last recorded words said to Ned Jarrett in an attempt to save him, and recorded by many of the witnesses just moments after his fatal wreck during the 1964 World 600. In an attempt to avoid a wreck in front of him, Roberts swerved right to avoid, and spun out. His car hit an open patch in the wall, ripped the fuel tank, and was subsequently engulfed in fire. He slipped into a coma as a result of the accident, and died of third-degree burns three months later.

• I love you.
  • Who: Jackie Robinson, American baseball player
    • Note: Spoken to his wife. Robinson suffered a fatal heart attack moments later.

• Yeah
• Oh shit!
  • Who: John Robinson, First Officer of Flying Tiger Line Flight 66
    • Note: Robinson was the First Officer on Flying Tiger Line Flight 66 when it crashed into a hill on approach to Kuala Lumpur on February 19 1989 killing all four on board. The first line was in response to the Captain asking if he was carrying out an Instrument landing system approach, where are his last confirmed words. In the final seconds of the flight, a voice declared the second line and it is unclear whether it was Robinson or the Captain on realizing they were about to crash.

• Hey, what’s up?
  • Who: Elliot Rodger, perpetrator of the Isla Vista shootings
    • Note: Said to Sierra Swartz after pulling up next to her, before firing at her multiple times (each bullet missed). Minutes later, Rodger crashed his car and committed suicide via self-inflicted gunshot wound.^[13]

• Yes, a bullet-proof vest.
  • Who: James W. Rodgers, American construction worker and convicted murderer
    • Note: Asked if he has any last requests before facing a firing squad.

• I forgot something.
  • Who: George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party
    • Note: He was in the Econowash laundromat at the Dominion Hills Shopping Center in Arlington, Virginia, and spoke those words to no one in particular as he left the laundromat to get something from his car. Moments later, John Palter, a former member of Rockwell’s group, fatally shot Rockwell from the roof of the shopping center.

• I would like to tell you what I often told you when you were much younger. I like you just the way you are. And what’s more, I’m so grateful to you for helping the children in your life to know that you’ll do everything you can to keep them safe. And to help them express their feelings in ways that will bring healing in many different neighborhoods. Its such a good feeling to know that we’re lifelong friends.
  • Who: Fred Rogers, best known as the creator and host of children’s show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.
    • Note: Rogers made these remarks in a video released several months before his death from stomach cancer on February 27, 2003. They are not his deathbed words, but they are his last words to the public.

• Wenn ich schon umgebracht werden soll, dann soll Adolf es selbst tun.
  • Translation: If I am to be killed, let Adolf do it himself.
  • Who: Ernst Röhm
    • Note: He was co-founder of the («Storm Battalion»; SA) and was among a number of Nazi officials who were suspected of conspiring against Adolf Hitler. He was executed during the 1934 Night of Long Knives. Hitler was hesitant in ordering his execution and gave Röhm the opportunity to commit suicide. On July 2, he was given a pistol by 2 SS officers and was told he had 10 minutes to use it. He refused and stated what were to be his last words. He was later shot in the chest by SS-Obersturmbannführer Michael Lippert.

• I am in debt to so many people. I have caused too great a burden to be placed upon them. I can’t begin to fathom the countless agonies down the road. The rest of my life would only be a burden for others. I am unable to do anything because of poor health. I can’t read, I can’t write. Do not be too sad. Isn’t life and death all a part of nature? Do not be sorry. Do not feel resentment toward anyone. It is fate. Cremate me. And leave only a small tombstone near home. I’ve thought on this for a long time.
  • Who Roh Moo-hyun, 9th President of South Korea
    • Note: These words were from a suicide note typed on Roh’s PC, before he eventually jumped off a mountain cliff behind his home in Bongha.

• May God have mercy on the assassins.
  • Who: Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar Romero
    • Note: He was fatally shot while saying Mass in San Salvador by a death squad assassin who fired from the entrance of the Church, whom Romero presumably saw.

• Utter nonsense.
  • Who: Eleanor Roosevelt
    • Note: Spoken to the nurse who told her she would die when the reason God put her on earth was fulfilled.

• I have a terrific headache.
  • Who: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States, who died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage
    • Note: According to Conrad Black in his biography Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom, page 1110, FDR was sitting for a portrait when he put his left hand to the back of his head and said: «I have a terrific pain in the back of my head.» He then was carried to his bed by several people — as they were doing this, «he was understood by Laura Delano to say, only semiconsciously, ‘Be careful.'» These were his last words.

• James, will you please put out the light?
  • Who: Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States
    • Note: Spoken to his valet, James Amos. Roosevelt died in his sleep.

• That’s it, I’m dead.
  • Who: Warren Rose, flight engineer of Surinam Airways Flight 764
    • Note: The flight attempted an ILS landing rather than a VOR/DME approach in thick fog. The plane’s engine and right wing struck trees on the approach and inverted, killing all but eleven passengers.

• No.
  • Who: Alfred Rosenberg, Nazi ideologist and minister
    • Note: when asked if he had any last words before being executed by hanging.

• We are the first victims of American fascism!
  • Who: Ethel Rosenberg
    • Note: She and her husband Julius were executed in 1953 in the electric chair at Sing Sing prison for treason, having been convicted of passing information to the Soviet Union concerning the construction of the atomic bomb. The judge who condemned them to death said that he did so to prevent the Rosenbergs from ever being released from prison. Their two young children were eventually adopted by songwriter Abel Meeropol.

• We are innocent. That is the whole truth. To forsake this truth is to pay too high a price even for the priceless gift of life. For life thus purchased we could not live out in dignity.
  • Who: Julius Rosenberg
    • Note: He and his wife Ethel were executed in the electric chair in 1953 for treason (passing in blueprints of the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union; see above.)

• I’d like to say just thanks for this time today—a chance to share your world along the way. One day soon, our paths may cross again; until then, God bless, my friend.
  • Who: Bob Ross, American painter, host of The Joy of Painting
    • Note: A poem Ross recited as a farewell message, in the last days of his terminal bout with lymphoma; Ross’s traditional sign-off on The Joy of Painting was «happy painting, and God bless.» It aired after Ross’s death as part of the children’s series The Adventures of Elmer and Friends, which also set the poem to music. (These were Ross’s last words to the public; his last words overall were likely related to a dispute he and his son Steve had with his business partners, Annette and Walt Kowalski, over Ross’s intellectual properties, including his appearance on Elmer and Friends. Any recordings of these were destroyed as part of a legal settlement.)

• No thank you.
  • Who: Michael Bruce Ross, executed in Connecticut on May 13, 2005
    • Note: When asked if he had any last words.

• Don’t go away. I don’t want to be alone. I can’t stand being alone.
  • Who: Arnold Rothstein, a.k.a. Mr. Big. Said to his wife Carolyn as he tried to raise himself he fell back and into unconsciousness. Rothstein would not regain consciousness and died the following morning.

• I here declare my unmitigated hatred to Yankee rule — to all political, social and business connection with the Yankees and to the Yankee race. Would that I could impress these sentiments, in their full force, on every living Southerner and bequeath them to every one yet to be born! May such sentiments be held universally in the outraged and down-trodden South, though in silence and stillness, until the now far-distant day shall arrive for just retribution for Yankee usurpation, oppression and atrocious outrages, and for deliverance and vengeance for the now ruined, subjugated and enslaved Southern States!…And now with my latest writing and utterance, and with what will be near my latest breath, I here repeat and would willingly proclaim my unmitigated hatred to Yankee rule—to all political, social and business connections with Yankees, and the perfidious, malignant and vile Yankee race.
  • Who: Edmund Ruffin (Diary entry, 17 June 1865)
    • Note: Ruffin was an ardent supporter of the Confederacy during the Civil War and fired one of the first shots of the war at Fort Sumter in 1861. He wrote his final diary entry on the occasion of General Robert E. Lee’s surrender, and after completing his entry, shot himself in the head.

• Hurry it up! I want to be in hell in time for dinner.
  • Who: Edward H. Rulloff, a convicted serial killer and last person to be executed by hanging in the State of New York.

• I feel like one of my engines is going out or something.
  • Who: Richard Russell
    • Note: Russell had stolen a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 from Seattle-Tacoma airport and taken it for a joyride. This was Russell’s last communication with SeaTac ATC, approximately four minutes before committing suicide by crashing into Keaton Island. (SeaTac ATC recordings from 8:24pm to 8:54pm on August 10, 2018 — Russell’s last communication occurs at 18:49)

• What’s happening?
  • Who: Tim Russert, longtime host of Meet the Press on NBC
  • Spoken as a greeting, shortly before he collapsed, according to NBC Washington bureau editing supervisor Candace Harrington [24]

• Goodbye, cobber. God bless you.
  • Who: Harold Rush, Australian 10th Light Horse Regiment trooper in World War I
    • Note: His last words before joining his attack wave during the Battle of The Nek. «Cobber» is an Australian colloquialism that means «friend».

• I’m going over the valley.
  • Who: Babe Ruth, baseball player.
    • Note: His doctor had asked him where he was going when he got up to wander around his hospital room.#

• I want to think about it. I am not coming out until I know about my mother.
  • Who: Michael Ryan, perpetrator of the Hungerford massacre
    • Note: Ryan had been speaking to a Police negotiator when he asked for the time. He had killed his Mother in the shooting earlier in the day.

• God bless you, please make it quick.
  • Who: Ronald Ryan, the last man to hanged in Australia on 3 February 1967.

S

• Loved tonight’s show (at the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall) in Jacksonville. Appreciative audience. Thanks again to Tim Wilkins for opening. I had no idea I did a 2 hr set tonight. I’m happily addicted again to this shit. Check BobSaget.com for my dates in 2022.
  • Who: Bob Saget

• Put out the bloody cigarette!
  • Who: Saki (British author Hugh Hector Munro)
    • Note: Spoken to a fellow officer while in a trench during World War I, for fear the smoke would give away their positions; he was then shot by a German sniper who had heard the remark.

• «yea…usually @ north camarillo»
  • Who: Robert M. Sanchez
    • Note: Texted one minute before Sanchez, a Los Angeles Metrolink engineer, collided his commuter train with a Union Pacific freight train in the Chatsworth train collision.

• תמות נפשי עם־פלשתים (Tamot nafshi im-pelishtim)
  • Translation: Let me die with the Philistines!
    • Who: Samson

• Dear World, I am leaving because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool. Good luck.
  • Who: George Sanders, British actor
    • Note: Written on a suicide note.

• Tell my family I love them.
  • Who: William David Sanders, American schoolteacher
    • Note: Sanders was injured in the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999. He then managed to get himself into a science lab where he succumbed to a loss of blood nearly three hours later.

• Thank you Palestrina. It’s a wonderful evening, it’s great to be here and I wanna dedicate you a super sexy song.
  • Who: Mark Sandman (American jazz singer)
    • Note: Sandman collapsed on stage at the Giardini del Principe in Palestrina, Italy while performing with his band Morphine, just after saying this to the audience.

• A party! Let’s have a party.
  • Who: Margaret Sanger, American birth control activist

• God bless, God damn!
  • Who: Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna
    • Note: Santa Anna was known to spend many long hours trying to decide what his last words would be; one can only speculate if this is what he had intended to say.

• We figured we’d wait to go to your center. Ah, we heard a suspicious transmission on our departure out of Boston, ah, with someone, ah, it sounded like someone keyed the mikes and said, ah, «Everyone, ah, stay in your seats.» It cut out.
  • Who: Victor Saracini
    • Note: Saracini was the captain of United Airlines Flight 175 on September 11, 2001. It was the last transmission he made to the ground as only minutes later the flight was hijacked and the plane later crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

• Let’s be wild tonight.
  • Who: Sirkka Sari
    • Note: Sari was a Finnish actress who died by falling down a chimney during a party. These are her last recorded words, by which she convinced the crew and her castmates to have a party at the Aulanko hotel, where they were shooting; during the party, Sari and one of the men in the group (she was engaged, but the man was not her fiancee) went up to the roof of the hotel. On the flat roof, there was a several-feet high chimney, with a ladder leading up to the top; Sari mistook this chimney for a scenery balcony, climbed up, and fell into a heating boiler, where she died instantly.

• Everybody has got to die, but I have always believed an exception would be made in my case. What now?
  • Who: William Saroyan, American writer

• I love you very much, my dear Beaver.
  • Who: Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher
    • Note: Said to his partner, Simone de Beauvoir

• おいしい。 (Oishii.)
  • Translation: It’s good. or It’s tasty.
  • Who: Sadako Sasaki, Hiroshima atomic bomb victim, after tasting her ochazuke (tea on rice) before dying of leukemia at age 12.^[14][15]

• فيصل، سعود هو أخيك. سعود، فيصل هو أخيك. ليس هناك قوة ولا قوة إنقاذ في الله. (Faysal, Sueud hu ‘akhiku. Saeudun, Faysal hu ‘akhiuk. Lays hunak quat wala quat ‘iinqadh fi Allah)
  • Translation: Faisal, Saud is your brother. Saud, Faisal is your brother. There is no power and no strength save in God.
  • Who: Ibn Saud; quoted in Ibn Saud, by Leslie McLoughlin
    • Note: Saudi sources claim Ibn Saud’s last words were the Shahada prayer, which Ibn Saud recited several times before sleeping.

• שלף חרבך ודקרני בה פן־יבאו הערלים האלה והתעללו־בי (Shelof charbecha vedakereni vah, pen-yavo’u ha’arelim ha’elleh vehit’allelu-vi)
  • Translation: Draw your sword and pierce me with it, lest these uncircumcised ones come upon me and make a mockery of me
  • Who: Saul, first king of the United Monarchy of Israel
    • Note: Saul spoke this to his sword-bearer after losing a battle at Mount Gilboa to the Philistines. His weapon-bearer refused to kill the king, so Saul committed suicide to prevent himself from falling into enemy hands. Three of his sons had died in the battle. His and their bodies were discovered by the Philistine soldiers the following day, and were then mutilated and displayed before being recovered by David and buried.

• Ik schiet beter!
  • Translation: I could shoot better!
  • Who: Hannie Schaft
    • Note: Spoken to a German soldier after having been shot in her execution; the soldier subsequently emptied his machine gun into her.

• Hier, hier ist das deutsche Herz!
  • Translation: Here, here is the German heart!
  • Who: The last of the «Schillschen officers» — a group of eleven Prussian officers executed on the Schillschen Field in Wesel, Germany, by Napoleon’s troops. Reportedly said after his ten fellow-officers were shot by the firing squad, leaving him alive unintentionally. He was promptly shot.

• I have a problem — I have a real problem.
  • Who: Art Scholl
    • Note: Said as his plane entered a flat spin and subsequently crashed.

• Es lebe die Freiheit!
  • Translation: Long live freedom!
  • Who: Hans Scholl, leader of The White Rose, German anti-Hitler resistance movement.
  • His last words from the guillotine before sentence of death for high treason was executed (22 February 1943)
• Let them leave me alone.
  • Who: Dutch Schultz, Jewish-American gangster
    • Note: Schultz had been shot, and gave a long, stream-of-consciousness babble while on his deathbed as police tried to extract information from him.

• Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy…how can I ever forget them…
  • Who: Charles Schulz
    • Note: From the final Peanuts comic strip released on February 13, 2000 (one day after his death).

• Roger, go at throttle-up.
  • Who: Francis Richard «Dick» Scobee
    • Note: These were his last recorded words before the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated, killing him and six other astronauts.

• For God’s sake look after our people.
  • Who: Robert Falcon Scott.
    • Note: These were the last words he wrote in his diary, before he froze to death.

• My dear, be a good man — be virtuous — be religious — be a good man. Nothing else will give you any comfort when you come to lie here. …God bless you all.
  • Who: Walter Scott
  • As quoted in John Gibson Lockhart Memoirs of the life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart, Vol. VII (1838), p. 294

• Just leaving for God’s own country.
  • Who Richard Seddon, Prime Minister of New Zealand.
    • Note: Final telegram sent to the Premier of Victoria, Sir Thomas Bent, from on board the Oswestry Grange heading back to New Zealand, 10 June 1906. He died later that evening of heart failure. «God’s Own Country» has long been a nickname for New Zealand.

• What? Men dodging this way for single bullets? What will you do when they open fire along the whole line? Why are you dodging like this? They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.
  • Who: John Sedgwick
    • Note: Sedgwick was a Union Civil War general who was hit by sniper fire moments after saying these, at the battle of Spotsylvania, on May 9, 1864. They are often portrayed as if they were his absolute final statement, the sentence often being presented as if he did not even finish it, and altered into the form: «They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist…». Though this may be a slightly more striking version of events, his actual last words are believed to be «All right, my man; go to your place», in response to a soldier telling him that he preferred to duck when being shot at, even from a great distance. — (External link: Death of General John Sedgwick)

• Yolanda, in Room 158.
  • Who: Selena
    • Note: Selena had been shot in the back by Yolanda Saldívar during an argument over missing financial records. Before losing consciousness, Selena named Saldivar as her assailant and the room number she was staying at to a Days Inn motel employee.

• The car seems OK…
  • Who: Ayrton Senna, three time Formula One World Racing champion
    • Note: He said these last words over his team radio before his steering column broke and he subsequently crashed into a wall, killing him instantly.

• My boys, I’m going down.
  • Who: Alexandru Şerbănescu, Romanian World War II flying ace.
    • Note: Said as his aircraft was shot down.

• Nothing, only «love one another.»
  • Who: William H. Seward, United States Secretary of State and architect of the Alaska purchase
    • Note: Whispered to his children after he asked if he had any last words.

• Days betray me when I am not working. None of my guests nor I mentioned it was Saturday, so, for me, it was a Sunday dinner. Perhaps I’ll have another tomorrow!
  • Who: Glenn Shadix, American actor
    • Note: Actor; died on a Saturday.

• Fuck you.
  • Who: Tupac Shakur, American rapper
    • Note: Spoken to a police officer who had asked who shot him (Shakur).

• Mommy…
  • Who: Shanda Sharer
    • Note: Shanda Sharer was a 12-year old girl who was abducted and tortured by four teenage girls during the late night hours of January 11, 1992 in Madison, Indiana. After eight hours of torture they took her out to a field and she was calling for her mother before they burned her alive.

• Dying is easy, comedy is hard.
  • Who: George Bernard Shaw
    • Note: Said on his death bed.’

• If elected, I will not lay down on the job.
  • Who: Dick Shawn, American comedian
    • As part of his comedy act. Shawn suffered a fatal heart attack in the middle of his act, which most in attendance assumed was part of the act.

• I want to see my mom.
  • Who: Isaiah Shoels
    • Note: Shoels was one of 13 people killed in the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999. His killers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold made racist comments towards him before fatally shooting him.

• Ooh-ee, I can feel that!
  • Who: Anthony Allen Shore, American serial killer
    • Note: Shore’s last words before he was executed by lethal injection.

• Braćo, spasavaj se ko hoće i ko može!
  • Translation: Brothers, save yourself those of you who want and who can!
  • Who: Stevan Sinđelić, Serbian military commander.
    • Note: Sinđelić uttered it during Battle of Čegar, before igniting the gunpowder kegs in the powder cave, creating an enormous explosion that killed him, all of the Serb rebels and Ottoman soldiers.

• Up…up…
  • Who: Tom Simpson, British cyclist
    • Note: Tom Simpson died on the Mont Ventoux, probably because of a combination of amphetamines, alcohol and the heat. His last words are often erroneously quoted as «Put me back on my bike»; Simpson’s soigneur told reporters that he wanted to be «put back on his bike», and this was reported as such.

• I’m losing it.
  • Who: Frank Sinatra, American singer, actor and producer
    • Note: According to his daughter Nancy Sinatra, as told to Variety magazine senior columnist, Army Archerd. Other sources quote him as saying, «I’m losin’ it.»

• I am not going. Do with me what you like. I am not going. Come on! Come on! Take action! Let’s go!
  • Who: Chief Sitting Bull, famous for leading the Sioux tribe against General Custer’s troops at the Battle of Little Bighorn
    • Note: About 43 members of the Indian police decided to arrest him. Sitting Bull refused to leave with the police and a crowd of angry supporters gathered around him. A fight broke out and Sitting Bull wound up getting shot in the head.

• This is the first time authorities helped me escape prison.
  • Who: George Sitts, convicted murderer before his electrocution in 1947 in South Dakota

• They’re not shooting me for deserting the United States Army — thousands of guys have done that. They’re shooting me for that brass I stole when I was 12 years old.
  • Who: Eddie Slovik, the only US soldier shot for desertion during World War II. Said shortly before his execution by firing squad at 10:04 a.m. on January 31, 1945, near the village of Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, France.

• Która godzina?
  • Translation: What time is it?
  • Who: Juliusz Słowacki, Polish romantic poet.

• My wife is very good at putting me to sleep just by rubbing my hands… Be strong my darling…
  • Who: Peter Smedley, English Hotelier
    • Note: Smedley had an assisted death at a Dignitas euthanasia clinic after suffering from motor neurone disease for much of his life. His assisted death was televised as part of Terry Pratchett’s documentary Choosing To Die. He died holding his wife’s hand, calmly and of his own choice.

• I believe we should adjourn this meeting to another place.
  • Who: Adam Smith

• I’m going, but I’m going in the name of the Lord.
  • Who: Bessie Smith

• Now he’s going into a parking lot, now he’s stopped. We’ll see what happens here. He has stopped. This may be the end of this thing. Okay, he’s out, okay now it’s a foot chase. Now he’s in another vehicle. Okay, okay, doors open, police, okay. Oh, jee-
  • Who: Craig Smith, pilot for KNXV-TV’s Chopper15 involved in the Phoenix mid-air collision
  • Note: While covering a police chase, Smith’s chopper collided with KTVK’s Newschopper3. Both choppers crashed to the ground, killing all four occupants on both aircraft. Just as the audio from the incident fades out as ABC15 News cuts back to anchor Rebecca Thomas, Smith can be heard screaming.

• I’m a dead man!
  • Who: Hyrum Smith upon being shot in the face, just before his brother Joseph was as well.

• Oh Lord, my God…
  • Who: Joseph Smith, Jr. crying out while being shot by a mob inside Carthage Jail and then falling out of a window.

• Uh-oh…
  • Who: Michael J. Smith, crew member of the ill-fated Space Shuttle Challenger 51-L mission, 28 January 1986. Last statement recorded on the spacecraft’s cockpit voice recorder, less than half a second before the shuttle disintegrated.

• My God, don’t shoot!
  • Who: Soapy Smith, American con artist
    • Note: Said during the Shootout on Juneau Wharf

• My name is Tris Speaker.
  • Who: Tris Speaker, American baseball player

• My God, what’s happened?
  • Who: Lady Diana Spencer, 31 August 1997 (after being mortally wounded in a car accident)

• My vocabulary did this to me. Your love will let you go on…
  • Who: Jack Spicer, Poet. Spoken to fellow poet Robin Blaser in a near-coma brought on by Spicer’s Alcoholism. [25]

• Ὦ Κρίτων… τῷ Ἀσκληπιῷ ὀφείλομεν ἀλεκτρυόνα. ἀλλὰ ἀπόδοτε καὶ μὴ ἀμελήσητε. (Ô Krítōn… tôi Asklēpiôi opheílomen alektruóna. allà apódote kaì mḕ amelḗsēte.)
  • Translation: Crito, we ought to offer a cock to Asclepius. See to it, and don’t forget.
  • Who: Socrates, quoted by Plato in Phaedo
    • Note: Asclepius was a Greek god of healing (his shrine is on the side of the Acropolis). It seems to many that Socrates considered death to be a relief, and thus was thanking the god for the service of killing him.

• Refill my whiskey, please.
  • Who: Russ Solomon, entrepreneur and founder of the retailer Tower Records
    • Immediately prior to the request to his wife, Solomon, who was watching the Academy Awards on television at the time, also commented that one of the dresses an attendee was wearing was ugly. By the time his wife returned with the whiskey, he was dead.

• It must have been the coffee.
  • Who: Jack Soo, Actor and Comic, quoted by Hal Linden
    • Note: This was a reference to the running gag of his character Nick Yemana from the TV show Barney Miller having the reputation for making horrible coffee. According to friend and fellow cast-member Hal Linden, these were Soo’s last words before being taken to surgery for cancer of the esophagus.

• Not bad. I can’t feel a thing.
  • Who: Franklin Sousley

• Capital punishment: Them without the capital get the punishment!
  • Who: John Arthur Spenkelink
  • Before his electrocution in Florida in 1979. He was the first person executed involuntarily after moratorium was lifted

• Dan liever de lucht in!
  • Translation: Rather to blow up, then!
  • Who: Jan van Speyjk

• There will be a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today!
  • Who: August Spies, anarchist Haymarket martyr, prior to his hanging.

• I’m tired.
  • Who: Ken Stabler

• Going southbound, sir.
  • Who: Andrew Joseph (Joe) Stack II, software engineer and tax protestor.
  • As he was preparing to fly his Piper Cherokee PA-28-236 into Building I of the Echelon office complex in Austin, Texas, United States, killing himself and Internal Revenue Service manager Vernon Hunter and injuring 13 others, he radioed the control tower he was flying southbound. The tower operator replied, «Have a great day.»[26] Prior to his suicide, Stack posted an anti-government manifesto on his business website. [27]

• Not like this. Don’t leave me like this.
  • Who: Layne Staley, lead singer of Alice in Chains
    • Note: Staley was calling after friend and former bandmate Mike Starr, who angrily stormed out of Staley’s apartment following an argument. Staley is believed to have passed away a day later, on April 5, 2002, of a drug overdose. Staley’s body wasn’t found by police until two weeks after his death.

• Я закончил. Я даже не доверяю себе. (Ya zakonchil. Ya dazhe ne doveryayu sebe.)
  • Translation: I am finished. I don’t even trust myself.
  • Who: Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union
    • Note: Stalin’s health had been falling in the previous weeks and he made this remark as his paranoia grew ever stronger. These were his final remarks to his subordinates, his actual final words, if any, are not known because Beria left him unattended for up to twelve hours after he suffered a stroke. His daughter Svetlana remarked that, as Stalin was on his deathbed, «He suddenly sat up, groaned, shook his fist at the ceiling as if he could see beyond it, then fell back and died.»

• Get out of it! Get out of it!
  • Who: Ed States, captain aboard American Airlines Flight 587
    • Note: Said as the flight spun out of control following the separation of the stabilizer from the airplane, shortly after Sten Molin’s last words. The plane crashed four seconds later, killing all 260 passengers and crew (plus five civilians on the ground).

• Es lebe unser heiliges Deutschland!
  • Translation: Long live our holy Germany!
  • Who: Claus von Stauffenberg, seconds before being executed by a Nazi firing squad for his role in an attempt on the life of Adolf Hitler. Stauffenberg’s biographer, Peter Hoffmann, speculates that the words, which exist in differing versions, were actually Es lebe die geheime Deutschland! (Long live the secret Germany!), a tenet held by the poet Stefan George and his circle.

• Náða góðan daginn, ástin mín.
  • Translation: Have a good day, my love.
  • Who: Stefán Karl Stefánsson
    • Note: Last words publicly known, taken from a video filmed on the day of his death.

• What is the answer? [no response] In that case, what is the question?
  • Who: Gertrude Stein, spoken to Alice B. Toklas.

• I’m feeling much better now, Doc.
  • Who: Jock Stein, manager of the Scotland national football team.
    • Note: While managing for Scotland in their last group game of the 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification, Stein suffered a pulmonary edema (fluid buildup in the lungs) two minutes before the final whistle (and Scotland’s unlikely qualification for the UEFA-OFC playoff against Australia). Stein was carried into the medical room and given an injection by team doctor Stewart Hillis, who heard Stein’s whisper his last words seconds before falling unconscious. It was later revealed that Stein had stopped taking diuretics leading up to the match, which likely caused his death.

• Herr Heise, für heute reicht.
  • Translation: Mr. Heise, enough for today.
  • Who: Robert Steinhäuser, perpetrator of the Erfurt school massacre in Germany in 2002.
    • Note: Steinhäuser, an expelled student of the school, had been confronted by a teacher (Mr. Heise), and promptly committed suicide after saying this.

• מרן לא תקים להון הדא חטיתא (Maran la t’qim l’hun hadhei kh’titha)
  • Translation: Lord, do not hold this sin against them
    • Who: Saint Stephen

• Do not walk quite so fast and do hold your head up Marietta.
  • Who: Adlai Stevenson II, speaking to his girlfriend while walking. He then collapsed and died.

• Does my face look strange? . . . My head! My head!
  • Who: Robert Louis Stevenson, author
    • Note: Stevenson collapsed from cerebral hemorrhage and died shortly after.

• I’m going to go be with Gloria now.
  • Who: Jimmy Stewart, speaking of his late wife

• Make the world better.
  • Who: Lucy Stone, American abolitionist, feminist, activist

• We have been together for 40 years, and we will not separate now.
  • Who: Ida Straus, wife of Isidor Straus, co-owner of Macy’s, and victim aboard the Titanic.
    • Note: She refused to take a lifeboat, which would have meant separating from her husband.

• Heil Hitler! Dies ist mein Purimfest 1946. Ich gehe zu Gott. Die Bolschewisten werden eines Tages Euch auch hängen.
  • Translation Heil Hitler! This is my Purim celebration 1946. I go to God. The Bolshevists will one day hang you, too.
  • Who: Julius Streicher, publisher of the infamous Nazi tabloid Der Stürmer and one-time Gauleiter of Franconia, moments before being hanged for crimes against humanity.
    • Note: Of all the condemned Nazis, he was the only one to salute Hitler before his own execution.

• ¡Carajo, un balazo!
  • Translation: Damn, a bullet!
  • Who: Antonio José de Sucre, after being shot while riding his horse in the jungle in Colombia on his way home. He was said to be a fine gentleman who had never cursed until that day, according to Ricardo Palma’s «Tradiciones en Salsa Verde».

• Hang down one of my hands out of coffin. People should see that Suleyman, the sultan, has left this world empty-handed.
  • Who: Suleiman the Magnificent, Ottoman Sultan

• Please don’t let me fall.
  • Who: Mary Surratt, before being hanged for her part in the conspiracy to assassinate President Lincoln. She was the first woman executed by the United States federal government.

• I’m not afraid of death. I’m going home.
  • Who: Patrick Swayze, American actor.
    • Note: As quoted by his family, prior to his death from pancreatic cancer.

• They might come back here. I might have to go. We are going to try to do something about this.
  • Who: Brian David Sweeney, passenger aboard United Airlines Flight 175, which crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
    • Note: Like United Airlines Flight 93, it appeared that the passengers aboard also planned to resist the hijackers by storming the cockpit. However, just two minutes later, the plane flew into the South Tower.

• I see water. I see buildings. I see buildings! We are flying low. We are flying very, very low. We are flying way too low. Oh my God we are flying way too low. Oh my God!
  • Who: Madeline Amy Sweeney, flight attendant who was on the phone with airline manager Michael Woodward when American Airlines Flight 11 was crashed by terrorists into the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

• I’m going to kill you!
  • Who: Carl Switzer
    • Note: Said during a brawl with an acquaintance over a dispute on money. After screaming the above line, he was shot in the groin.

• One – two – three… eight feet long

Two strides across, the rest is dark…
Life is a fleeting question mark
One – two – three… maybe another week.
Or the next month may still find me here,
But death, I feel is very near.
I could have been 23 next July
I gambled on what mattered most, the dice were cast. I lost.

• • Who: Hannah Szenes
    • Note: This poem, found in her cell, is the last poem she is known to have written.

• Dear mother, I don’t know what to tell you. I will only say this: A thousand thanks and more, and forgive me, if you can. After all, you will understand, better than anyone else, that words are not necessary now. With great love, your daughter.
  • Who: Hannah Szenes
    • Note: This letter was found on her body after her execution.

T

• Good morning.
  • Who: William Howard Taft, 27th President of the United States

• もうダメ! (Mō dame!)
  • Translation: We can’t do anything now!
  • Who: Masami Takahama, captain of Japan Airlines Flight 123
    • Note: Said just before the flight impacted Mount Takamagahara, killing all but four of 524 people aboard. Sources often state that Takahama’s words were «It’s the end». The aircraft accident report, however, considers the recorded words indecipherable.

• It is time for a new direction…
  • Who: Andrei Tarkovsky, as reported by his wife.

• Please — please don’t kill me — I don’t want to die. I just want to have my baby.
  • Who: Sharon Tate, victim of confessed murderer Susan Atkins (aka Sadie Mae Glutz) of the Manson family, as reported in the court testimony of Virginia Graham. Atkins told Graham she responded to Tate’s plea with: «Look, bitch, you might as well face it right now, you’re going to die, and I don’t feel a thing behind it.»

• I am about to die. I expect the summons very soon. I have tried to discharge my duties faithfully. I regret nothing, but I am sorry I am about to leave my friends.
  • Who: Zachary Taylor, 12th President of the United States

• I hope you guys enjoyed my content and that I made some of you laugh, and I hope you all go on to live long, prosperous, and happy lives because I love you guys. Technoblade out.
  • Who: Technoblade, prominent Minecraft YouTuber and streamer.
    • Note: Written as part of his final message on his father’s laptop, eight hours before his death from a Stage 4 sarcoma. The message was read out by his father in a video titled «so long nerds».

• Die, my dear doctor, that’s the last thing I shall do!
  • Who: Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston

• Oh that press will have me now!
  • Who: Alfred, Lord Tennyson

• Jesus, I love you. Jesus, I love you.
  • Who: Mother Teresa (Sept 5, 1997)
    • Note: Sister Nirmala Joshi recalled, «Just hours before her death, Mother Teresa spoke about the Little Flower, St. Therese. She has just been declared a ‘Doctor of the Church’ by Pope John Paul II. Her last words are: «Can you imagine, for doing little things with great love, the Church is making her a Doctor, like St. Augustine and the big St. Teresa! It is just like Jesus said in the Gospel to the one who was seated in the lowest place: «Friend, come up higher.» St. Therese’s last words were quite similar, «Oh, I love him; my God, I love you».

• Pity me not. I die as a man of honour ought, in discharge of my duty. They indeed are objects of pity who fight against their king, their country, and their oath.
  • Who: Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard (April 30, 1524)
    • Note: Le chevalier sans peur et sans reproche, died of an arquebus shot to the back in battle with the Spaniards. He was propped up against a tree and, for want of a crucifix, he was confessed with his sword. Even the enemy commander attended him at his death.

• 頼むから仕事をさせてくれ！ (Tanomu kara shigoto wo sasete kure!)
  • Translation: I’m begging you, let me work!
  • Who: Osamu Tezuka, legendary Japanese cartoonist and animator
    • He spoke these words as a nurse took his drawing board from his hospital bed and encouraged him to get some sleep.

• Take a picture!
  • Who: Alan Thicke
    • Thicke had suffered an aortic dissection while playing hockey and joked to his son to take a picture of him. Thicke unexpectedly died after being taken to the hospital.

• Roses plural or Rose’s roses with an apostrophe?
  • Who: Dylan Thomas
    • Note: Spoke those words to his girlfriend Liz, who told him that her friend had seen white mice and roses. He lapsed into a coma from excessive drinking and died.

• Is the mic still on?
  • Who: Shannon Charles Thomas
    • Note: Thomas, a death row inmate executed by the state of Texas in 2005 for murder, had made a lengthy final statement before the lethal injection started. After the drugs began to take effect he asked this final question.

• Pretty weak, but I’ll be all right in a little while, don’t worry, darling.
  • Who: Olive Thomas
    • Note: Thomas had accidentally ingested a lethal dose of her husband’s syphilis medicine, composed of the poisonous compound mercuric bichloride. She died three days later, and her husband, Jack, said that these were her last words, a response to his asking how she felt, before she died later that day.

• No more games. No more bombs. No more walking. No more fun. No more swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No fun — for anybody. 67. You are getting greedy. Act your old age. Relax — This won’t hurt.
  • Who: Hunter S. Thompson
    • Note: Said on a suicide note written four days before his death. He was 67 when he took his own life.

• Ah, here we go.
  • Who: Ted Thompson, captain of Alaska Airlines Flight 261
    • Note: The plane had gone into an upside-down nosedive after the jackscrew assembly failed, causing a loss in pitch control, shortly after recovering from an earlier nosedive caused by unjamming the horizontal stabilizer. The pilots had been attempting to regain control. The plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean about one second later, killing all crew and passengers.

• Moose … Indian.
  • Who: Henry David Thoreau
    • Note: These words he had said in a delirium before expiring. When urged earlier to make his peace with God his last coherent response was, «I did not know that we had ever quarreled.»

• God bless… God damn.
  • Who: James Thurber, humorist, d. 1961

• I’m Pat Fucking Tillman
  • Who: Pat Tillman, Former American professional football player in the National Football League (NFL) who left his sports career and enlisted in the United States Army in May 2002. Killed in action as a result of friendly fire. ^[16]

• No, I’m not!
  • Who: American musician, music historian and ukulele player Tiny Tim (real name: Herbert Khaury)
  • Tiny Tim suffered a heart attack while playing «Tiptoe Through the Tulips» at a Gala Benefit. His wife asked him if he was okay and he said, «No, I’m not!» After that he collapsed and died at a hospital in Minnesota.

• Što sve to znači?
  • Translation: What is this all about?
  • Who: Josip Broz Tito, leader of the w:Yugoslav Partisans and president Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
    • Note: Words spoken in the hospital, where Tito had been for some time as his condition continued to worsen.

• Mihi vita immerenti eripitur; neque enim extat ullum meum factum paenitendum expecto dumtaxat uno.
  • Translation: I deserve not death, but I repent nothing else in my life except for one thing.
  • Who: Titus, Roman Emperor

• Get out here. I’m getting killed.
  • Timothy Treadwell to his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, as he was being mauled to death by a bear. Huguenard was also killed.
  • Medred, Craig (October 9, 2003). «Treadwell: ‘Get out here. I’m getting killed'». Anchorage Daily News. Retrieved on 2010-06-02.

• I am very sorry it is taking me so long to die. The Greater East Asia War was justified and righteous. I am very sorry for the nation and all the races of the Greater Asiatic powers. I wait for the righteous judgment of history. I wished to commit suicide but sometimes that fails.
  • Who: Hideki Tōjō
    • Note: He said these words after unsuccessfully trying to shoot himself in the heart.

• Yes.
  • Who: Alice B. Toklas
    • Note: Her response when asked if she wanted to die.

• But the peasants…how do the peasants die?
  • Who: Leo Tolstoy

• I’m at 900 feet. I don’t think I can make the airport. Negative on the airport.
  • Who: Peter Tomarken, game show host
    • Note: Spoken over his plane’s CVR, moments before it splashed into Santa Monica Bay, killing him and his wife Kathleen.

• Yes, it’ll be 150, Forest Lawn Cemetery, in the back of a Ford pickup.
  • Who: Dick Trickle, NASCAR driver
    • Note: From a 911 call asking who was going to commit suicide. Trickle responded with «I’m the one.» His granddaughter, who died in a car accident, was buried in the same cemetery.

• I will not survive this attack. Stalin has finally accomplished the task he attempted unsuccessfully before.
  • Who: Leon Trotsky
  • According to: James P. Cannon, the secretary of the Socialist Workers Party (USA)
  • Don’t kill this man. He has a story to tell.
    • Right after being hurt, Trotsky said this to his guards, who were about to kill Mercader, the man who had mortally wounded him with an ice axe.
  • I am close to death from the blow a political assassin… struck me down in my room. I struggled with him… we… entered… talk about French statistics… he struck me… Please say to our friends… I am sure… of the victory… of the Fourth International… Onward
    • These are his last words as recorded by Isaac Deutscher in his book The Prophet Outcast.

• I go to prepare a place for you.
• Swing low, swing chariot.
  • Who: Harriet Tubman, African-American abolitionist and political activist
    • Note: The first quote was said to friends and family at her deathbed. One account states that Tubman told a clergyman, «Give my love to all the churches», and then a variation of the first quote which is a farewell passage that Tubman learned from Matthew: «I go away to prepare a place for you, and where I am ye may be also». The second quote is attributed to a report that Tubman gathered her family around and they sang together.

• Yes sir, I would like to say to all of you – the Thornton family and Jerry Dean’s family that I am so sorry. I hope God will give you peace with this. Baby, I love you. Ron, give Peggy a hug for me. Everybody has been so good to me. I love all of you very much. I am going to be face to face with Jesus now. Warden Baggett, thank all of you so much. You have been so good to me. I love all of you very much. I will see you all when you get there. I will wait for you.
  • Who: Karla Faye Tucker
    • Note: Last words before being executed by lethal injection

• אין דבר, טוב למות בעד ארצנו (Ein davar, tov lamut be’ad arzenu)
  • Translation: Never mind; it is good to die for our country
  • Who: Joseph Trumpeldor (1880-1920)
  • Trumpeldor was a soldier and early pioneer/settler in Israel, he died defending the Tel-Hai settlment from an Arab attack.
  • Variant Translation: It is all right; It is better to die for our country
    • Note: Modern Israeli jocular rumor claims Trumpeldor’s true last words were merely a juicy Russian curse.

• The sun is God.
  • Who: J. M. W. Turner

• It’s in God’s hands now.
  • Who: Nat Turner, enslaved African-American preacher and leader of a slave rebellion, which he was later executed for.
    • Note: Said immediately before he was hanged.

• Good bye. If we meet-
  • Who: Mark Twain
    • Note: Spoken to his daughter Clara.

• Doctor, I am going. [Doctor: «I hope not, sir.»] Perhaps it is best.
  • Who: John Tyler, 10th President of the United States

U

• Tell the boys I’m coming home.
  • Who: Wilbur Underhill, bank robber.

• No WWE talent becomes a legend on their own. Every man’s heart one day beats its final beat. His lungs breathe their final breath. And if what that man did in his life makes the blood pulse through the body of others and makes them believe deeper in something larger than life then his essence, his spirit, will be immortalized. By the story tellers, by the loyalty, by the memory of those who honor him and make the running the man did live forever. You, you, you, you, you, you are the legend makers of Ultimate Warrior. In the back I see many potential legends. Some of them with warrior spirits. And you will do the same for them. You will decide if they lived with the passion and intensity. So much so that you will tell your stories and you will make them legends, as well. I am Ultimate Warrior. You are the Ultimate Warrior fans. And the spirit of the Ultimate Warrior will run forever!
  • Who: Ultimate Warrior, American professional wrestler.
    • Note: Spoken on the April 7, 2014 edition of WWE Monday Night Raw, addressing the live audience in what would be his final live appearance. The next day, he would die of a heart attack. Although these are not technically his last words, they are the last words the public heard him say.

• There is shooting, people are being terrorized, people are inside their homes lying on the floor. We are suffering the consequences of the death of the head of state, I believe. We, the civilians, are in no way responsible for the death of our head of state.
  • Who: Agathe Uwilingiyimana, Prime Minister of Rwanda. Better known as «Madame Agathe».
    • Note: This was part of an interview with Radio France on the night of President Juvénal Habyarimana’s assassination. The following day, Rwandan troops stormed Madame Agathe’s home and killed her. This event helped set off the Rwandan genocide.

V

• Don’t pull down the blinds. I feel fine. I want the sunlight to greet me!
  • Who: Rudolph Valentino, Italo-American actor and Latin Lover.

• I wish we could be there; you know how I love a party.
  • Who: Rudy Vallee, one of the first American crooners.
  • «There» was the centennial celebration of the Statue of Liberty, which Vallee was watching on television.

• There is but one reliance.
  • Who: Martin Van Buren, 8th President of the United States

• Genade, genade! We kunnen er toch over praten?
  • Translation: Mercy, mercy! Can’t we talk this over?
  • Who: Theo van Gogh, Dutch film director and publicist.
    • Note: Van Gogh said this to his murderer Mohammed Bouyeri, just before the latter stabbed him in his throat.

• La tristesse durera toujours.
  • Translation: The sadness will last forever.
  • Who: Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter.

• It is hovering and it’s not an aircraft.
  • Who: Frederick Valentich
    • Note: These were the last recorded words of Valentich, an Australian pilot, who disappeared after contacting air traffic control claiming to be pursued by a purported UFO.

• I have had no real gratification or enjoyment of any sort more than my neighbour on the next block who is worth only half a million.
  • Who: William Henry Vanderbilt (1821-1885), American businessman

• …e saio da vida, para entrar na história.
  • Translation: …and I leave life so that I can walk into history.
  • Who: Getulio Vargas, Brazilian President.
    • Note: These were the last words written in his suicide letter.

• Please leave the window open.
  • Who: Jim Varney, actor.
    • Note: These words were said to Varney’s companion before dying from lung cancer.

• All right then, I’ll say it: Dante makes me sick.
  • Who: Lope de Vega, famous playwright, on being assured that the end was very near.

• La Révolution est comme Saturne : elle dévore ses propres enfants.
  • Translation: The revolution is like Saturn: It devours its own children.
  • Who: Pierre Vergniaud, French revolutionary

• Vae, puto, deus fio… imperatorem stantem oportet mori. (when he thought he was dying)
  • Translation: Woe, I think I’m turning into a god… An emperor should die on his feet.
  • Who: Vespasian, Roman emperor
  • Source: Suetonius
    • Note: And indeed, Vespasian was deified after his death. This comment is thought to be sarcastic, expressing Vespasian’s disdain for apotheosis.

• We made a death pact, and I have to accomplish my part of the deal. Please bury me next to my baby. Please bury me with my leather jacket, jeans and motorcycle boots. Goodbye. With love, Sid.
  • Who: Sid Vicious, bassist of the Sex Pistols
    • Note: Talking about his girlfriend, Nancy, who had died a month earlier.

• For hearing, we need a language.
  • Who: M. N. Vijayan
    • • Note: Vijayan died from a massive heart attack during a recorded speech. These were his last words.

• Ho offeso Dio e l’umanità perché il mio lavoro non ha raggiunto la qualità che dovrebbe avere.
  • Translation: I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have.
  • Who: Leonardo da Vinci

• Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthenope; cecini pascua rura duces.
  • Translation: Mantua bore me, Calabria snatched me away, now Naples holds me; I sang of pastures, fields, and kings.
  • Who: Virgil, Roman Poet, he wrote the Eclogues (pastoral poetry), the Georgics (ostensibly a didactic guide to farming), and the Aeneid (the foundation myth of Rome), hence «pastures, fields and kings.»

• Now, now, my good man, this is no time for making enemies. [attributed]
  • Who: Voltaire, when asked by a priest to renounce Satan
    • Note: Other sources say his final words were «I am abandoned by God and man! I will give you half of what I am worth if you will give me six months’ life. Then I shall go to hell; and you will go with me. O Christ! O Jesus Christ!»; the earliest report of this version was by Charles Buck, an American preacher, who wrote of it in 1822, more than forty years after the death of Voltaire.
  • Another variant is «For God sake, leave me alone!», when asked by the priest to renounce Satan.

W

• The doctor says I won’t get home for the celebration.
  • Who: Robert Wadlow, Also known as the Alton Giant, tallest man in the world
    • Note: This is what Wadlow said before he died in his sleep.

• Meine Uhr!
  • Translation: My watch!
  • Who: Richard Wagner, German composer
    • Note: Wagner was dying in his wife’s arms when a watch fell from his pocket onto the floor. These words have been contradicted by other sources. The words «Love – Tragedy» have also been attributed as his final; his last recorded words were «I am fond of them, of the inferior beings of the abyss, of those who are full of longing.»

• Let’s go for a drive.
  • Who: Paul Walker

• Take me home. I was born in the South and I wish to die and be buried in the South.
  • Who: Booker T. Washington

• I am just going. Have me decently buried and do not let my body be into a vault in less than two days after I am dead. Do you understand me? [«Yes,» replied Tobias Lear, his secretary.] ‍’‍Tis well.
  • Who: George Washington, first President of the United States
    • Note: Washington had a fear of being buried alive.

• Ain’t that a bitch.
  • Who: Johnny «Guitar» Watson, American blues, soul, and funk musician.

• I am very sensible of the attatchment you show me, and I hasten to thank you for it, as I feel I am now come to my last illness.
  • Who: James Watt, Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist.
    • Note: He was speaking to his friends, who were at his bedside.

• I’m out of here, man. I’m gone. Keep me in your hearts.
  • Who: Kevin Watts
    • Note: Last words before being executed by lethal injection for a triple murder.

• Carry me to the fort, boys. Let’s go forward.
  • Who: Anthony Wayne
    • Note: The «fort» might be Fort Presque Isle, which is now Erie, PA.

• Of course I know who you are. You’re my girl. I love you.
  • Who: John Wayne, spoken to his wife.

• This is your friend. Don’t forget to tell me how your mother is.
  • Who: Orson Welles
    • Note: Message left on a friend’s answering machine before he died.

• Go away. I’m all right.
  • Who: H. G. Wells
    • Note: Wells did not realize he was dying.

• The best of all is: God is with us.
  • Who: John Wesley

• Get ’em all out of here!
  • Who: Roy Westerfield, Company Comptroller for Pacific Engineering Production Company of Nevada (PEPCON) of Henderson, Nevada
    • Note: Moments before the plant was engulfed in a massive explosion on May 4, 1988, he was talking to a fire department dispatcher over the telephone, when he shouted those words to fellow employee Bruce Halker, who was guiding other employees out of the building. They were both killed in the explosion.[28]

• What did I do wrong?
  • Who: Jacob Wetterling
    • Note: Jacob Wetterling was an 11-year old boy who was kidnapped and sexually assaulted by pedophile Danny Heinrich on October 22, 1989. Years later, Heinrich himself admitted that Wetterling said these words before he killed him by shooting him twice in the head.

• I know it!
  • Who: Captain Larry Wheaton to First Officer Roger Pettit of Air Florida Flight 90, January 13, 1982. Spoken in response to Pettit’s comment, «Larry! We’re going down, Larry!»

• Let’s go, I’m ready to go for this thing, we can win this thing!
  • Who: Dan Wheldon, two time Indianapolis 500 winner and 2005 IndyCar Champion
    • Note: According to his team owner at the time, Sam Schmidt, these were his last words over his team radio during the early stages of the 2011 IndyCar IZOD World Championships at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Eleven laps into the event, a fifteen-car accident in Turn 3 launched his car into the air, and up against the catchfence, killing him instantly.

• Leave me alone — I’m fine.
  • Who: Barry White

• Allen!
  • Who: Betty White, American comedienne
    • Note: Reportedly. If genuine, probably referring to her late husband Allen Ludden, who had died 40 years prior.[29]

• Shift! Shift!
  • Who: Walt Whitman

• My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go.
  • Who: Oscar Wilde
  • Variation: These curtains are killing me, one of us has got to go.
  • Popular variation often found in «Famous Last Words»-lists: «Either the wallpaper goes, or I do.»
    • Note: Mr. Wilde said this in the Left Bank hotel where he died on November 30 1900, the wallpaper has since been removed and the room re-furnished in the style of one of Mr. Wilde’s London flats.
  • Quibble: He actually said this a couple of weeks before his death.
  • He was also reported to have ordered a bottle of the hotel’s most expensive champagne to later say: I am dying beyond my means.
  • Oscar Wilde died of cerebral meningitis on 30 November 1900. The last words he tried to utter were the Holy Names, the Acts of Contrition, Faith, Hope and Charity, with acts of humble resignation to the Will of God, which are all part of the Last Sacraments that were administered to him on 29 November.

• A mon Madame, de Sacré Maria, jo comant cros, a il, a ses preres, vait moi acorder a privé Fiz, nostre Seignur, Jhesu Christ.
  • Translation: To my Lady, the Holy Mary, I commend myself; that she, by her prayers, may reconcile me to her most dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
  • Who: William I of England, aka William the Conqueror.

• Descorde, Walter, a nom de le deable!
  • Translation: Shoot, Walter, in the devil’s name!
  • Who: William II of England

• Can this last long?
  • Who: William III of England, when his doctor told him that he was ill.

• Mon Dieu, mon Dieu, ayez pitié de mon âme et de ce pauvre peuple.
  • Translation: My Lord, my Lord, have pity upon my soul and these poor people.
  • Who: William the Silent, Father of the Netherlands. He was shot and died soon after.

• That’s a nice way to die. They was laughing when I made my last exit.
  • Who: Bert Williams, one of the first successful black vaudevillians
    • Note: Williams collapsed on-stage in 1922, which the audience presumed was part of the comedy act and laughed.

• Oh, what’s the bloody point?
  • Who: Kenneth Williams, British actor and raconteur. This was the final entry in his diary.

• Goodnight, my love. Goodnight. Goodnight.
  • Who: Robin Williams
    • Note: Spoken to his wife Susan on the night before he committed suicide; she confirmed that these were the last words he said to her in an interview on ABC News.

• You guys doin’ that right?
  • Who: Stanley ‘Tookie’ Williams, gangster and co-founder of The Crips, d. December 13, 2005. Said to his executioners who appeared to be having trouble operating the machinery.

• The act of taking my own life is not something I am doing without a lot of thought. I don’t believe that people should take their own lives without deep and thoughtful reflection over a considerable period of time. I do believe strongly, however, that the right to do so is one of the most fundamental rights that anyone in a free society should have. For me much of the world makes no sense, but my feelings about what I am doing ring loud and clear to an inner ear and a place where there is no self, only calm. Love always, Wendy.
  • Who: Wendy O. Williams, punk rock performer

• Man, it’s just raining like a son of a gun.
  • Who: Kelley Williamson, storm chaser and co-host of The Weather Channel series Storm Wranglers.
    • Note: During a livestreamed storm chase on March 28, 2017, Williamson uttered these words just before he sped through a stop sign near the town of Spur, Texas (the stream audio and video cuts out moments before entering the junction). The car struck a Jeep driven by another storm chaser, and Williamson, not wearing a seatbelt, was ejected from the vehicle and killed instantly. Series co-host Randy Yarnall, who was Williamson’s passenger, and the driver of the Jeep were also killed instantly.

• My heart is crying, crying…
  • Who: Jackie Wilson, American singer and performer
    • Note: On 29 September 1975, he was singing his hit song «Lonely Teardrops» when he suffered a massive heart attack on stage at the Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, NJ. The lack of oxygen to his brain left him comatose for the remainder of his life. He died nine years later on 21 January 1984. Brahms, William B. (2005). Notable Last Facts: A Compendium of Endings, Conclusions, Terminations and Final Events Throughout History. Haddonfield, NJ: Reference Desk Press, Inc. p. 354. ISBN 978-09765325-0-6 Invalid ISBN..

• Various medical authorities swarm in and out of here predicting I have between two days and two months to live. I think they are guessing. I remain cheerful and unimpressed. I look forward without dogmatic optimism but without dread. I love you all and I deeply implore you to keep the lasagna flying. Please pardon my levity, I don’t see how to take death seriously. It seems absurd.
  • Who: Robert Anton Wilson, Philosopher, Playwright, Science Fiction Author. Final blog entry, five days before his death (6 January 2007)

• I’m not going to waste no time talking about my lifestyle, my case, my punishment. Mom, you’ve been there for me from the beginning. I love you. To my nieces, nephew and uncle I love you very much. Y’all stick together. Don’t worry about me. I’m OK.
  • Who: William James «Flip» Williams, Jr., executed by the State of Ohio for murder. He was pronounced dead at 10:20 a.m. EDT on October 25, 2005 after the lethal injection at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio. He did not have a last meal request, though did have a cup of coffee. His final statement is recorded above.

• I am a broken piece of machinery. When the machine is broken… I am ready.
  • Who: Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States

• I don’t want to die.
  • Who: Amy Winehouse
    • Note: Spoken to her doctor over the phone two hours prior to her death.

• Tell them I’ve had a wonderful life.
  • Who: Ludwig Wittgenstein
    • Note: This came as a surprise to the friends that heard this, as he was considered not to have lived an easy life.

• Six one going down.
  • Who: Chief Warrant Officer Cliff «Elvis» Wolcott, pilot of black hawk helicopter Super Six One.
    • Note: Wolcott’s helicopter was shot down by an RPG during the Battle of Mogadishu. This was his last recorded radio transmission; he and copilot CWO Donovan «Bull» Briley were killed in the crash.
  • Source: Black Hawk Down.

• Dearest, I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can’t go through another of those terrible times. And I shan’t recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can’t concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don’t think two people could have been happier ’til this terrible disease came. I can’t fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can’t even write this properly. I can’t read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that – everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can’t go on spoiling your life any longer. I don’t think two people could have been happier than we have been. V.
  • Who: Virginia Woolf, author, in her suicide note to her husband. d. March 28, 1941

• Yes, I would just like to say I’m sailing with the rock, and I’ll be back, like Independence Day with Jesus. June 6, like the movie. Big mother ship and all, I’ll be back, I’ll be back.
  • Who: Aileen Wuornos, convicted and executed serial killer.

X

• Brothers! Brothers, please! This is a house of peace!
  • Who: Malcolm X
  • Other reports have his last words being «Now, now, brothers, break it up, be cool, be calm.»
    • Note: Two men were staging a fight in the audience he was addressing to distract attention from assassins who were drawing their guns to shoot him. Reportedly, Malcolm was dead before his body struck the floor.

• In Thee, O Lord, have I trusted.
  • Who: Francisco Ximenez de Cisneros
    • Note: A prayer from the Psalms.

Y

• I don’t blame my executioners. I’ll pray that the Gods bless them. Please send my thankful word to Col. Clarke and Lt. Col. Feldhaus, Lt. Col. Hendrix, Maj. Guy, Capt. Sandburg, Capt. Reel, at Manila court, and Col. Arnard. I thank you. I pray for the Emperor’s long life and prosperity forever.
  • Who: General Tomoyuki Yamashita

• 나의 죽음을 알리지 마라. (Naui jug-eum-eul alliji mala.)
  • Translation: Do not let my death be known.
  • Who: General Yi Sun-sin, a Korean naval commander.
    • Note: He told his nephew to wear his armor and to hide his death until the battle is over to avoid demoralizing his men in the middle of battle.

• Kill me good.
  • Who: Lum You, convicted murderer.
    • Note: Spoken to his executioner.

• והכינו כסא לחזקיהו מלך יהודה שבא (Vehachinu kisse leChizkiyyahu melech Yehudah shebba)
  • Translation: And prepare a throne for Hezekiah, King of Judah, who is coming.
  • Who: Yohanan ben Zakkai

• Joseph! Joseph! Joseph!
  • Who: Brigham Young
    • Referring to his predecessor as LDS Church president, Joseph Smith, Jr.

Z

• Let’s rock.
  • Who: Edmund Zagorski, convicted murderer, shortly before execution November 1, 2018.

• You give me electric chair. I no afraid of that chair! You one of capitalist! You is crook man, too! Put me in electric chair! I no care! [upon a minister trying to calm him] Get the hell out of here, you son of a bitch! [resuming his initial speech] I got sit down all by myself… Viva Italia! Goodbye to all poor peoples everywhere! Lousy capitalist! No picture! No one here to take my picture! All capitalists lousy bunch of crooks! [as his head was strapped in] Adios to all the world! Go ahead! Push the button!
  • Who: Giuseppe Zangara, who in 1933 had attempted to assassinate President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, and in doing so mortally wounded Chicago mayor Anton Cermak. His last words were dramatized in the 1991 musical Assassins by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman.

• ירא יהוה וידרש (Yerei Yawe v’yid’rosh)
  • Translation: May Yahweh see and avenge!
    • Who: Zechariah ben Jehoiada

• 我感觉不舒服。 打电话给医生。 (Wǒ gǎnjué bú shūfú. Dǎ diànhuà gěi yīshēng.)
  • Translation: I feel ill. Call the doctors.
    • Who: Mao Zedong

• I’m about to board a boat full of white snow.
  • Who: Oscar Zeta Acosta
  • Spoken to his son shortly before his disappearance in Mexico. His son surmises that Zeta angered the drug cartels with whom he was dealing, who in turn killed him and hid or disposed of the body.

• Well, we fooled ’em for a long time, didn’t we?
  • Who: William Henry «Zip the Pinhead» Johnson, spoken to his sister, Sarah van Duyne
  • Also known as «What-Is-It?», he was a circus sideshow performer, known for his oddly tapered head. While he was presented as a microcephalic (or «pin-head’), he was not one in reality, nor did he have any mental disabilities as do authentic microcephalics.

• Curtain! Fast music! Light! Ready for the last finale! Great! The show looks good, the show looks good!
  • Who: Florenz Ziegfeld, Showman
    • Note: He shouted these words in a delirium on his deathbed.

• Uh, we climbing to four thousand, two echo x-ray.
  • Who: Ara Zobayan, pilot of the Kobe Bryant helicopter crash
    • Note: Last transmission sent by Zobayan at 9:45:19am, in response to SCT TRACON asking for the pilot’s intentions after confirming flight following for N72EX. The pilot, likely losing situational awareness due to flying in low visibility, accidentally crashed into a mountainside twenty seconds later. All nine onboard, including Kobe Bryant and daughter Gianna, were killed instantly.

• Farewell, comrades! Fight, do not be afraid! Stalin is with us! Stalin will come!
  • Who: Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, Soviet partisan
    • Note: She was executed after acts of sabotage against the invading armies of Nazi Germany.

?

• Not bloody likely!
  • Who: Unknown British Sergeant
    • Note: Reportedly said during the last stand of the 44th Regiment of Foot, in response to an offer of surrender, shortly before their massacre by Afghan fighters at the Battle of Gandamak.

• Mein Gott, warum hast du mich verlassen? Sich füß heißen lügen. Wenn es einen Gott gibt, muß er mich um Verzeihung bitten.
  • Translation: My god, why have you forsaken me? To bend means to lie. If there is a god, he must ask me forgiveness.
  • Who: Unknown concentration camp prisoner
    • Note: These words were found scribbled into a cell wall at the Mauthausen concentration camp, its author a Jewish prisoner. ‘To bend means to lie’ is from a 1920 poem titled «The Prisoner», written by Erich Mühsam, a German-Jewish antimilitarist anarchist poet.

• Ma, I love you.
  • Who: Unidentified PSA Flight 182 crew member.
    • Note: Last words recorded by the CVR of the flight, shortly after colliding mid-air with a Cessna while attempting to land. The plane crashed three seconds later.

• June 3. Cold Harbor. I was killed.
  • Who: Unidentified Union Soldier
    • Note: Found in a blood-spattered diary on the body of an anonymous Union soldier on June 3, 1864.

See also

• Cemetery
• Death
• Epitaph
• Funeral
• Grave (burial)
• Immortality
• Suicide notes
• Undertakers

External links

• Last Words of Notable People
• Dying words of famous people
• «Geeking out over dying declarations»

References