“A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it”

“Since my earliest childhood a barb of sorrow has lodged in my heart. As long as it stays I am ironic, if it is pulled out I shall die”

“Because of its tremendous solemnity death is the light in which great passions, both good and bad, become transparent, no longer limited by outward appearances”

“The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins”

“I am not the least afraid to die”

“If I had listened to the critics I'd have died drunk in the gutter”