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What if thou be saint or sinner,
Crooked gray-beard, straight beginner,—
Empty paunch, or jolly dinner,
When Death thee shall call.
All alike are rich and richer,
King with crown, and cross-legged stitcher,
When the grave hides all.

— Richard Watson Gilder Drinking Song, as reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922)

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Death

More quotes by Richard Watson Gilder

I am a woman—therefore I may not
Call to him, cry to him,
Fly to him,
Bid him delay not.

Lyrics and Other Poems (1885)

Heaven from the hopeless doubter
The true believer makes:
Against the darkness outer
The light God's likeness takes.

The New Day (1875)

Through love to light! Oh wonderful the way
That leads from darkness to the perfect day!

The New Day (1875)

The Smile of her I love is like the dawn
Whose touch makes Memnon sing:
O, see where wide the golden sunlight flows—
The barren desert blossoms as the rose!

The New Day (1875)

A man not perfect, but of heart
So high, of such heroic rage,
That even his hopes became a part
Of earth's eternal heritage.

All Richard Watson Gilder quotes →

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The thunderstorm is a constant phenomenon, raging alternately over some part of the world or the other. Can a single man or creature escape death if all that charge of lightning strikes the earth?

Kalki Krishnamurthy Sivakozhundu of Tiruvazhundur (1939)

So what if a kid dies? God will take care of him.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Richard Watson Gilder (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.