Epitaphs

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Grave of W. B. Yeats; Drumecliff, Co. Sligo

Epitaphs are the inscriptions on headstones.

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As many epitaphs are not written by the person who is being honoured, the format shall be as follows:

  • Honouree (author) - Year of birth - Year of Death
    • Text of Epitaph
      • More explanation text

Sorted alphabetically by lastname.


A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Fiction Unknowns

[edit] A

[edit] B

  • Clyde Barrow (unknown) - 1909 - 1934
    • "Gone but not forgotten."
      • Buried beside, and sharing a tombstone with, his brother Marvin (aka "Buck").
      • Outlaw, bank robber and partner of Bonnie Parker
  • Hilaire Belloc (unknown) - 1870 - 1953
    • "When I am dead, I hope it may be said: His sins were scarlet, but his books were read."
      • from Sonnets and Verse 'On His Books'
  • Jakob Bernoulli (by himself) - 1654-1705
    • "Eadem mutata resurgo"
      • Translation: "Though changed I shall arise the same"
      • Referring to the accompanying inscription of a logarithmic spiral, which remains the same after mathematical transformations. He considered it a symbol of ressurrection. CLARIFICATION: Bernoulli called the logarithmis spiral Spira mirabilis, "the marvelous spiral", and wanted one engraved on his headstone. Unfortunately, an Archimedean spiral was placed there instead (picture).
  • Mel Blanc (by himself)1908 - 1989
    • "That's all, folks!"
      • Trademark line of cartoon character Porky Pig, whose voice was provided by Blanc for many years.
  • William Bligh (unknown)1754 - 1817
    • "Sacred
      To The Memory Of
      William Bligh, Esquire F.R.S.
      Vice Admiral Of The Blue,
      The Celebrated Navigator
      Who First Transplanted The Breadfruit Tree
      From Otahette To The West Indies,
      Bravely fought The Battles Of His Country
      And Died Beloved, Respected, And Lamented
      On The 7th Day Of December, 1817
      Aged 64"
  • Ludwig Boltzmann (by himself) - 1844-1906
    • "S = k log W"
      • The formula for entropy of a system. Boltzmann committed suicide after failing to convince contemporary scientists of the validity of the formula. Grave in the Zentralfriedhof, Vienna.
  • John Brown (unknown)
    • "Stranger! Approach this spot with gravity!
      John Brown is filling his last cavity."
  • Samuel Butler (by Samuel Wesley) - 1612-1680
    • "While Butler, needy wretch, was yet alive,
      No generous patron would a dinner give;
      See him, when starv'd to death, and turn'd to dust,
      Presented with a monumental bust.
      The poet's fate is here in emblem shown,
      He ask'd for bread, and he received a stone."

[edit] C

  • George Carlin (suggested by himself)
    • "Hey! He was just here a minute ago!"
  • Andrew Carnegie (unknown)
    • "Here lies a man who knew how to enlist the service of better men than himself."
  • George Washington Carver (unknown)
    • "He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world."
  • Walter Chiari (by himself)
    • "O friends, don't cry - it's just unused sleep."


  • Winston Churchill (unknown)
    • I am ready to meet my Maker.
      Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge (by himself)
    • "Stop, Christian Passer-by! - Stop, child of God,
      And read with gentle breast. Beneath this sod
      A poet lies, or that which once seem'd he.
      O, lift one thought in prayer for S.T.C.;
      That he who many a year with toil of breath
      Found death in life, may here find life in death!
      Mercy for praise - to be forgiven for fame
      He ask'd, and hoped, through Christ. Do thou the same!"
  • Ian Curtis (Himself)
    • "Love Will Tear Us Apart"
      • Singer/Songwriter of the band Joy Division
      • Chosen for his headstone by his wife Deborah Curtis

[edit] D

  • Jefferson Davis (unknown)
    • "At Rest
      An American Soldier
      And Defender of the Constitution"
  • John Donne (Himself)
    • "He lies here in the dust but beholds Him
      whose name is Rising."
  • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (unknown)
    • "Steel-true and blade-straight
      The great artificer
      Made my mate."
  • Diophantus of Alexandria (unknown)
    • "This tomb holds Diophantus. Ah, what a marvel! And the tomb tells scientifically the measure of his life. God vouchsafed that he should be a boy for the sixth part of his life; when a twelfth was added, his cheeks acquired a beard; He kindled for him the light of marriage after a seventh, and in the fifth year after his marriage He granted him a son. Alas! late-begotten and miserable child, when he had reached the measure of half his father's life, the chill grave took him. After consoling his grief by this science of numbers for four years, he reached the end of his life."

[edit] E

  • Wyatt Earp (unknown)
    • Nothing's So Sacred As Honor
      And
      Nothing's So Loyal As Love.
  • Eazy-E (Eric Wright)
    • We loved him a lot. But God loved him more.
  • Robert Emmet (Himself) - 1778-1803
    • "Let no man write my epitaph; for as no man who knows my motives dare now vindicate them, let not prejudice or ignorance asperse them. Let them and me repose in obscurity and peace, and my tomb remain uninscribed, until other times, and other men, can do justice to my character; when my country takes her place among the nations of the earth, then, and not till then, let my epitaph be written. I have done."
  • Edward I of England (unknown)
    • "Hic est Edwardvs Primus Scottorum Malleus"
      • Translation: "Here is Edward I, Hammer of the Scots"

[edit] F

  • William Faulkner (unknown)- 1897-1962
    • "William Cuthburt Faulkner
      Born Sept. 25 1897
      Died July 6, 1962"
    • Belove'd Go With God


  • W.C. Fields (unknown)- 1880-1946
    • "W. C. Fields 1880 - 1946"
    • In a 1925 article in Vanity Fair Fields had proposed the epitaph "Here lies W.C. Fields. I would rather be living in Philadelphia." because of his long-standing jokes about Philadelphia (he was actually born there), and the grave being one place he might actually not prefer to be. This is often repeated as "On the whole, I'd rather be in Philadelphia." which he might have stated at other times, and sometimes is distorted into a last dig at Philadelphia: "Better here than in Philadelphia." His actual tomb at Forest Lawn in Glendale, California simply reads as above.
  • Benjamin Franklin (himself)
    • "The Body of B. Franklin, printer
      Like the Cover of an old Book
      Its Contents torn out
      And stripped of its Lettering & guilding
      Lies here food for worms
      For, it will as he believed appear once more
      In a new and more elegant edition
      Corrected and improved by the Author."
  • Robert Frost (himself)
    • "I had a lover's quarrel with the world"
  • R. Buckminster Fuller (himself)
    • "Call Me Trimtab"
      • A trimtab is the smallest part of a rudder for a ship or airplane, and controls the direction of the craft. He was probably alluding how much power one individual can have in the world.

[edit] G

  • Rene Gagnon (unknown) 1925 - 1979
    • "For God And His Country
      He Raised Our Flag In Battle
      And Showed A Measure Of His
      Pride At A Place Called "Iwo Jima"
      Where Courage Never Died"
  • John Gay (himself) 1635 - 1732
    • "Life's a jest, and all things show it;
      I thought so once, and now I know it."
  • Kenneth Grahame (Anthony Hope, his cousin) 1859 - 1932
    • "To the beautiful memory of Kenneth Grahame, husband of Elspeth and father of Alastair, who passed the River on the 6 July 1932, leaving childhood and literature through him the more blest for all time".


Has broken down all barriers,
And she has passed far beyond
The limited hold of human existence;
Forever now, in mind and spirit...
She traverses the boundless universe."
      • Adapted from Lucretius.


  • [Santiago Vizan Gulizia]
    • "I dont regret anything, thanks"
      • In reference to his wild lifestyle.

[edit] H

  • Henry II (by Ralph of Diceto)
    • "I was Henry the King
To me Diverse realms were subject, I was duke and count of many provinces.
Eight feet of ground is now enough for me, whom many kingdoms failed to satisfy.
Who reads these lines, let him reflect, upon the narrowness of death.
And in my case behold, the image of our mortal lot.
This scanty tomb doth now suffice,
For whom the Earth was not enough."
  • Werner Heisenberg (unknown)
    • "He lies here, somewhere."
      • This is a joke about the famous Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, which implies that one may not know the position and momentum of a particle simultaneously.
  • Richard Hind
    • "Here lies the body of Richard Hind,
      Who was neither ingenious, sober, nor kind."

[edit] I

  • Vladislav Illich-Svitych - 1934 - 1966
    • "K̥elHä wet̥ei ʕaK̥un kähla
      k̥aλai palhʌ-k̥ʌ na wetä
      śa da ʔa-k̥ʌ ʔeja ʔälä
      ja-k̥o pele t̥uba wete"
      • A poem in Proto-Nostratic language, probably spoken several millenia ago, which was reconstructed by Illich-Svitych.
        English translation:
        "Language is a ford through the river of time,
        It leads us to the dwelling of those gone before;
        But he cannot arrive there,
        Who fears deep water".

[edit] J

  • Jesse James (by his mother) 1847 - 1882
    • "Murdered by a traitor and a coward whose name is not worthy to appear here"
  • Thomas Jefferson (by himself) 1743 - 1826
    • "Author of the Declaration of American independence
      of the statute of Virginia for religious freedom
      and father of the University of Virginia"
      • Despite his being the 2nd Vice-President and 3rd President of the USA, these are not mentioned. He had said that he wanted to be remembered for what he gave to America, and not what America had given to him.
  • George Johnson (unknown)
    • "Here lies George Johnson
      Hanged by mistake, 1882
      He was right
      We was wrong
      But we strung him up
      And now he's gone"
  • Jeremiah Johnson (unknown)
    • "I told you I was sick."
  • John Jones (by Himself)
    • "Hold my drink, you're gonna' love this."
  • Carl Jung (unknown) 1875 - 1961
    • "Vocatus atque non vocatus
      Deus aderit"
      • Translation: "Invoked or not invoked, God will be present."

[edit] K

  • Nikos Kazantzakis (by himself)
    • "Then elpizo tipota. The fovamai tipota. Eimai eleftheros." ("Δεν ελπιζω τιποτα. Δε φοβαμαι τιποτα. Είμαι ελευθερος")
      • Translation: "I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free."
  • John Keats (by himself and his friends) - 1795-1821
    • "This Grave contains all that was mortal, of a Young English Poet, who on his Death Bed, in the Bitterness of his heart, at the Malicious Power of his enemies, desired these words to be Engraven on his Tomb Stone: Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water."
      • Keats desired only the phrase "Here lies one whose name was writ in water" to be on his tombstone. However his friends, Joseph Severn and Charles Brown, added the rest.
    • "K-eats! if thy cherished name be "writ in water"
      E-ach drop has fallen from some mourner's cheek;
      A-sacred tribute; such as heroes seek,
      T-hough oft in vain - for dazzling deeds of slaughter
      S-leep on! Not honoured less for Epitaph so meek!"
      • Written on a small plaque, on the cemetery wall nearby.
  • Kent (by himself)
    • "Grim death took me without any warning
      I was well at night and dead at nine in the morning"
  • Martin Luther King, Jr.
    • "Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty I'm Free At Last."
      • Lyrics of an old Negro Spiritual he frequently quoted.

[edit] L

  • Brandon Lee
    • "Because we do not know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. And yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, an afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you cannot conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four, or five times more? Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless..."
  • Jack Lemmon (by himself)
    • "In"
      • 30's- 60's Hollywood Comedian
  • King Leonidas of Sparta
    • "Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here, by Spartan law, we lie."
  • Primo Levi
    • 174517
      • It was his number in Auschwitz.
  • John Locke (unknown)
    • Stop Traveller! Near this place lieth John Locke. If you ask what kind of a man he was, he answers that he lived content with his own small fortune. Bred a scholar, he made his learning subservient only to the cause of truth. This thou will learn from his writings, which will show thee everything else concerning him, with greater truth, than the suspect praises of an epitaph. His virtues, indeed, if he had any, were too little for him to propose as matter of praise to himself, or as an example to thee. Let his vices be buried together. As to an example of manners, if you seek that, you have it in the Gospels; of vices, to wish you have one nowhere; if mortality, certainly, (and may it profit thee), thou hast one here and everywhere." (translated from the orginal Latin)
  • Jack London (Psalm 118:22)
    • "The Stone the Builders Rejected"

[edit] M

  • Rob Roy MacGregor (unknown)
    • "Despite them"
      • At the time of Rob Roy's fame, the MacGregor name became banned and was never allowed to be heard or seen by law. The epitaph phrase in full, "Rob Roy MacGregor, despite them" is a last standing testament to defy that law.
  • Dean Martin (by himself) 1917 - 1995
    • "Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime"
      • Title of one of his songs
  • Groucho Marx (by himself)
    • "Groucho Marx w:1890 - w:1977"
      • In an interview, he jokingly suggested his epitaph read "Excuse me, I can't stand up.", but his mausoleum marker bears only his stage name and years of birth and death.
  • Karl Marx (unknown)1818 - 1883
    • "Workers of all lands unite. The philosophers have only
      interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it."
  • Leonard Matlovich (by himself) - 1943 - 1988
    • "When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one."
  • [John Laird McCaffery] ("your friends") - 1940 - 1995
    • "John
      Free your body and soul
      Unfold your powerful wings
      Climb up the highest mountains
      Kick your feet up in the air
      You may now live forever
      Or return to this earth
      Unless you feel good where you are!
      ---Missed by your friends"
      • Mr. McCaffery is buried in Montreal. The epitaph is an acrostic poem, in that the first letters of each line spell out, "F-U-C-K Y-O-U" The motive of his "'friends'" is unknown. However, the Montreal Mirror quoted the gravestone's engraver as saying that the stone was ordered by McCaffery's "ex-wife and mistress... They said the message represented him. It was a thing between the three of them."[1]
  • H. L. Mencken (by himself) - 1880 - 1956
    • "If after I depart this vale you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner, and wink your eye at some homely girl"
  • Spike Milligan (by himself) - 1918 - 2002
    • Dúirt mé leat go raibh mé breoite.
      • Translation from Irish: "I told you I was ill."
  • [Lester Moore] (unknown)
    • "Here lies
      Lester Moore
      four slugs
      from a 44
      no Les
      no more"
  • Jim Morrison (unknown) - 1943 - 1971
    • "Truth to your own spirit" (originally in Greek, ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΝ ΔΑΙΜΟΝΑ ΕΑΥΤΟΥ)
      • His body is buried in Paris's famous Père LaChaise cemetery in the company of many other celebrities. Next to him in the "Poet's Corner" are buried many celebrated writers, including Balzac, Molière, Oscar Wilde and Frédéric Chopin.
  • Matthew Mudd (unknown) from Massachusetts:
    • "Here lies Matthew Mudd,
      Death did him no hurt;
      When alive he was only Mudd,
      But now he's only dirt."

[edit] N

  • Isaac Newton (Alexander Pope)
    • On his tombstone, "Hic depositum est, quod mortale fuit Isaaci Newtoni," which is translatable as "here is deposited what was mortal of Isaac Newton"
    • On the adjacent monument "Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night:
      God said, 'Let Newton be!' and all was light."
  • Joshua A. Norton
    • "Norton I
      Emperor of the United States
      and
      Protector of Mexico"

[edit] O

  • Osho
    • "Never born, Never died: visited the planet earth between December 11, 1931 and, January 19, 1990."

[edit] P

  • Bonnie Parker (Unknown) 1910 - 1934
    • "As the flowers are all made sweeter by
      the sunshine and the dew, so this old
      world is made brighter by the lives
      of folks like you."
      • Outlaw, bank robber and partner of Clyde Barrow
        • Reportedly taken from one of Bonnie's poems.
  • Dorothy Parker - 1893 - 1967
    • "Here lie the ashes of Dorothy Parker (1893 - 1967) Humorist, Writer, Critic, Defender of human and civil rights. For her epitaph, she suggested "Excuse My Dust". This memorial garden is dedicated to her noble spirit which celebrated the oneness of humankind and to the bonds of everlasting friendship between Black and Jewish people. Dedicated by The National Association of the Advancement of Colored People, October 20, 1988." (On a memorial plaque)
  • Penn and Teller (by themselves)
    • "Is this your card?" and a graphic of a card of the 3 of clubs.
      • From the Book "Penn and Teller's How to play in traffic" ISBN 1572972939 - Penn and Teller bought a cenotaph (an epitaph without a grave beneath it) and placed it in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood. They invite people touring there to use it to surprise their friends as a punchline for a card trick.
  • Fernando Pessoa (himself)
    • "Fui o que não sou"
      • Translation: "I was what I am not."
  • James Louis Petigru (unknown) - 1789-1863
    • "In the admiration of his Peers;
      In the respect of his People,
      In the affection of his Family,
      His was the highest place."
  • Fritiof Nilsson Piraten (by himself) - 1895-1972
    • "Här under är askan av en man som hade vanan att skjuta allt till morgondagen. Dock bättrades han på sitt yttersta och dog verkligen den 31 januari 1972."
      • Roughly translated: "Here lie the ashes of a man who had the habit of postponing everything until tomorrow. However, at the end of his life he improved, and actually died on the 31st of January 1972."

[edit] Q

  • Quick Draw McGraw
  • He had the 2nd fastest draw. Only bettered by Slow Draw Shaw.

[edit] R

  • Will Rogers (himself)
    • "If you live life right
      death is a joke
      as far as fear is concerned"
  • William P. Rothwell (unknown) from Rhode Island:
    • (carved into a boulder) "This is on me."
  • Babe Ruth (Cardinal Spellman)
    • "May
      That Divine Spirit
      That Animated
      BABE RUTH
      to Win the Crucial
      Game of Life
      Inspire the Youth
      of America"

[edit] S

  • William Shakespeare - baptized April 26, 1564- April 23, 1616
    • "Good friend, for Jesus sake forbeare
      To dig the dust enclosèd here.
      Blessed be ye man that spares these stones,
      And curst be he that moves my bones."
      • It was not unusual, at the time of Shakespeare's death, for corpses to be removed from graves and burnt allowing for the reuse of the grave site. Shakespeare's grave remains undisturbed.
  • Harry Edsel Smith (unknown) - 1903-1942
    • "Looked up the elevator shaft
      To see
      If the car was on the way down.
      It was."
  • The 300 Spartans (Simonides) - 480 BC
    • "Go Tell the Spartans, Stranger passing by, that here, obedient to their laws, we lie."
  • Robert Louis Stevenson (by himself) - 1850-1894
    • "Under the wide and starry sky
      Dig the grave and let me lie,
      Glad did I live and gladly die
      And I laid me down with a will.
      This be the verse you grave for me:
      Here he lies where he longed to be.
      Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
      And the hunter home from the hill."
      • This epitaph also prefaces the Robert Heinlein story "Requiem" and serves as the protagonist's epitaph.
  • [Harold J. Story] (1919 - 1993)
    • "Before you jump in here with me,
      make sure you bring good memories.
      For here they're all we have to trade,
      and where you are is where they're made."
  • Jonathan Swift (unknown) 1667 - 1745
    • "Here lies the body of Jonathan Swift,
      Professor of Holy Theology, for thirty
      years Dean of this cathedral church,
      where savage indignation can tear his
      heart no more. Go, traveller, and if you
      can imitate one who with his utmost
      strength protected liberty. He died in the year 1745, on the 19th of October,
      aged seventy-eight"

[edit] T

And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;
For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar."
  • This poem ("Crossing the Bar") is included at the end of every collection of his works.
  • Studs Terkel (Suggested by himself)
    • "Curiosity did not kill this cat."
In Memory of Thomas Thetcher
a Grenadier in the North Reg.
of Hants Militia, who died of a
violent Fever contracted by drinking
Small Beer when hot the 12th of May
1764. Aged 26 Years.
In grateful remembrance of whose universal
good will towards his Comrades, this Stone
is placed here at their expence, as a small
testimony of their regard and concern.
Here sleeps in peace a Hampshire Grenadier,
Who caught his death by drinking cold small Beer,
Soldiers be wise from his untimely fall
And when ye're hot drink Strong or none at all.
This memorial being decay'd was restord
by the Officers of the Garrison A.D. 1781.
An Honest Soldier never is forgot
whether he die by Musket or by Pot.
The Stone was replaced by the North Hants
Militia when disembodied at Winchester,
on 26th April 1802, in consequence of
the original Stone being destroyed.
And again replaced by
The Royal Hampshire Regiment 1966.
J.R.R.Tolkien and his wife's tomb.
"Beren"
Beren was a famous human hero during the
First Age of Tolkien's fictional world
Middle-earth. Beren's love was the immortal
Elven maid Lúthien who chose the fate of
mortality to be able to follow Beren after
he died. The name "Lúthien" is inscribed
underneath the name Edith Tolkien on the
pair's headstone.

[edit] U

  • Peter Ustinov (suggested by himself) - 1921-2004
    • "Do not walk on the grass"
      • According to an obituary in DIE ZEIT, Ustinov's answer to the question what he would like to see written on his headstone.

[edit] V

  • Verginius Rufus
    • Hic situs est Rufus, pulso qui Vindice quondam imperium asseruit non sibi sed patriae.
      • "Here lies Rufus, who after defeating Vindex, did not take power, but gave it to the fatherland"
      • from : (Plinius Secundus Minor, Epistulae, liber VI, 10)

[edit] W

  • George Washington (unknown) 1732 - 1799
    • "Looking into the portals of eternity teached that
      The Brotherhood of Man is inspired by God's Word;
      Then all prejudice of race vanishes away."
  • John Wayne (himself) 1907 - 1979
    • "Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday."
  • Hank Williams (his wife)
    • "Thank you for the love you gave me
      There could be nobody stronger
      Thank you for many beautiful songs
      They will live long, and longer"
  • Christopher Wren (unknown)
    • "Lector, si monumentum requiris circumspice."
      • Translation: "Reader, if you seek his monument, look around."
      • Wren is buried in St Paul's Cathedral, London, which he designed.
  • Virginia Woolf (by herself)
    • "Against you I will fling myself
      unvanquished and unyielding, O Death!"

[edit] X

[edit] Y

  • William Butler Yeats (by himself)
    • "Cast a cold eye
      On life, on death.
      Horseman, pass by!"
      • This epitaph is from Under Ben Bulben, one of Yeats' last poems. The last section of Under Ben Bulben describes Yeats' resting-place-to-be. See W.B. Yeats at Wikisource and Wikipedia

[edit] Z

[edit] Epitaphs in fiction

  • King Menethil II
    • Here lies King Terenas Menethil II -- Last True King of Lordaeron.
Great were his deeds -- long was his reign -- unthinkable was his death.
"May the Father lie blameless for the deeds of the son.
May the bloodied crown stay lost and forgotten."
      • Source: WarCraft
      • Note: He was murdered by his son, and the kingdom of Lordaeron fell.


  • Edmund Blackadder (by himself)
    • "Here lies Edmund Blackadder, and he's bloody annoyed."
Courage and faith; vain faith, and courage vain.
For him I threw lands, honours, wealth, away,
And one dear hope, that was more prized than they.
For him I languish'd in a foreign clime,
Gray-hair'd with sorrow in my manhood's prime;
Heard on Lavernia Scargill's whispering trees,
And pined by Arno for my lovelier Tees;
Beheld each night my home in fever'd sleep,
Each morning started from the dream to weep;
Till God, who saw me tried too sorely, gave
The resting-place I ask'd, an early grave.
O thou, whom chance leads to this nameless stone,
From that proud country which was once mine own,
By those white cliffs I never more must see,
By that dear language which I spake like thee,
Forget all feuds, and shed one English tear
O'er English dust. A broken heart lies here."
  • Baldur's Gate
    • "Stranger, Tread this ground with gravity
      Dentist Mark B is filling his last cavity."
  • Scrooge McDuck (Keno Don Rosa)
    • "Fortuna favet fortibus"
      • Translation: "Fortune favours the brave"
      • Appears on an (unpublished) drawing by author Keno Don Rosa
  • Jenny Sparks (unknown)
    • "Bugger this. I want a better world."
  • David St. Hubbins (himself)
    • "Here lies David St. Hubbins...and why not?"
      • from "This is Spinal Tap"
  • Senator Vrooman (Ambrose Bierce)
    • "Here lies the bones of Senator Vrooman
      Whose head was as hard as the heart of a woman
      Whose heart was as soft as the head of a hammer
      Dame Fortune inspired him to eminence, damn her!
      • Fictional future senator used as one of five examples under "Epitaph", from The Devil's Dictionary.
  • Van Ruijven
    • "He Painted Me."
      • In reference to painter Jan Vermeer; from the film Girl with a Pearl Earring
  • Royal Tenenbaum (At his suggestion)
    • Royal O'Reilly Tenenbaum (1932-2001) Died Tragically Rescuing His Family From The Remains Of A Destroyed Sinking Battleship


  • The Big Boss grave


  • Arcanum
    • "He had six bullets but he needed seven."
  • Charles Xavier (Age of Apocalypse version)
    • "Any dream worth having is a dream worth fighting for."
  •              Balin
              Fundinul
    Uzbad Khazad-dumu
    Balin son of Fundin Lord of Moria

[edit] Unknown

  • from a Canadian WWI Memorial (Rudyard Kipling)
    • "From little towns in a far land we came
      To save our honour and a world aflame.
      By little towns in a far land we sleep
      And trust the world we won for you to keep."
  • from Ireland
    • "Tears cannot
      Restore her:
      Therefore I weep."
  • From a grave in Muçum, Brazil
    • Do escuro vieram, nas trevas viveram e para o além se foram.
      • Translation: From the dark they've come, among obscurity they've lived and to the hereafter they've gone.
  • Adult's grave in Rome, Italy
    • "Quello che siete fummo, quello che siamo sarete"
      • Translation: "What you are we were and what we are you will become"
  • Child's grave in Miami, FL (by Edmund Waller)
    • "What small amount of time they share
      Who are so wondrous sweet and fair"
      • From Waller's poem "Go, Lovely Rose"
  • Infant
    • "Since I am so quickly done for
      I wonder what I was begun for?"
  • Infant in Vermont
    • "Here lies our darling baby boy
      He never cries or hollers
      He lived for one and twenty days
      And cost us forty dollars."
  • from Tasmania, Australia
    • "Stop ye travellers as you pass by
      As you are now, so once was I
      As I am now, soon you shall be -
      Prepare yourself to follow me."
      • Graffiti response:
        "To follow you
        I am not content --
        How do I know
        which way you went?"
  • from Perth, Scotland
    • "Reader one moment stop and think,
      That I am in eternity and you are on the brink."
  • from Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia
    • "Death is a debt to Nature due
      Which we have paid and so must you."
  • from Nanuet, New York
    • "Remember man as you walk by,
      As you are now so once was I,
      As I am now, so to you shall be,
      Bow your head and pray for me."
  • from Fable (game)
    • "Blimey it's darker than I thought in here."
    • "No man can hold his breath for ten minutes."
    • "What you lookin' at?"
    • "You're standing on my head."
    • "Rover was a true friend and pet, but ran in thunderstorms when wet."
    • "Not dead only sleeping, buried me anyway. Unlucky."
    • "I finished before you in the human race."
    • "Anyone want to swap places?"
    • "Thank you for reading this grave now bugger off!"
    • "Let me out!"
  • from Évora, Portugal, in the Chapel of Bones
    • "Nós ossos que aqui estamos pelos vossos esperamos" - "We, bones that here lie, for yours we wait"

[edit] Unknown Soldiers

    • "Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God."
      • Tomb of the Unknowns, Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia; also used in other American War cemeteries, such as the ones in Normandy.
  • British Soldier, in Westminster Abbey
    • Beneath this stone lies the body
      of a British warrior
      Unknown by name or rank
      brought from France to lie among
      the most illustrious of the land
      and buried here on Armistice Day
      11 Nov: 1920, in the presence of
      His Majesty King George V
      His Ministers of State
      the Chiefs of his Forces
      and a vast concourse of the nation.

      Thus are commemorated the many
      multitudes who during the Great
      War of 1914-1918 gave the most that
      Man can give Life itself
      for God
      for King and country
      for loved ones, home and empire
      for the sacred cause of Justice and
      the Freedom of the world.

      They buried him among the kings because he
      had done good toward God and toward
      his house.
  • British Soldier, Tobruk Commonwealth Cementary, Libya
    • At the going down of the sun

And in the morning We will remember them

    • We do not know this Australian’s name and we never will. We do not know his rank or battalion. We do not know where he was born, nor precisely how he died ... We will never know who this Australian was ... he was one of the 45,000 Australians who died on the Western Front ... one of the 60,000 Australians who died on foreign soil. One of the 100,000 Australians who died in wars this century. He is all of them. And he is one of us.

former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating

[edit] See also

Wikipedia
Wikipedia has an article about:
Wiktionary has an entry about epitaph.
Commons
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Retrieved from "http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Epitaphs"