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Last Words

Aphorisms of the departing.
"Josephine..." -Napoleon Bonaparte

"Useless... useless..." -John Wilkes Booth

"And now, O priests, I take my leave of you; all the elements of being are transitory. Work out your salvation with diligence." -Buddha

"This thing will hurt someone." -R. Budd Dwyer, speaking to panicked journalists about the gun he was about to put in his mouth.

"We are running north and south." -Amelia Earhart, in her last radio communication before losing contact

"Long live Germany. Long live Austria. Long live Argentina. These are the countries with which I have been most closely associated and I shall not forget them. I had to obey the rules of war and my flag. I am ready." -Adolf Eichmann

"A dying man can do nothing easy." -Benjamin Franklin

"How about this for a headline for tomorrow's paper? 'French Fries'." -James French, sentenced to death in the Electric Chair

"My dear Schur, you remember our first talk. You promised to help me when I could no longer carry on. It is only torture now, and it has no longer any sense." -Sigmund Freud

"I did not get my Spaghetti-O's, I got spaghetti. I want the press to know this." -Thomas J. Grasso, regarding his last meal before being put to death

"I know you have come to kill me. Shoot, coward. You are only going to kill a man." -Che Guevara

"Nobody. Nobody shot me." -Frank Gusenburg, mobster killed in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre

"You can be a king or a street sweeper, but everyone dances with the grim reaper." -Robert Alton Harris, put to death in the Gas Chamber

"I've said all I have to say." -groundbreaking comedian Bill Hicks. He lived for another two weeks after speaking these words, but never spoke again.

"Come get me." -Robert Karl Hicks, executed by lethal injection in Georgia

"I am dying, please... bring me a toothpick" -Alfred-Henri Jarry, author of UBU ROI

"Rosebud." -Citizen Kane

"Why not?" -Timothy Leary

"Oh shit." -Marc Lepine, before putting the gun below his face and firing

"You're fired." words mouthed silently by death row inmate Leslie Dale Martin, to his lawyer sitting in the viewing area, before being executed by lethal injection

"Go on, get out! Last words are for fools who haven't said enough!" -Karl Marx, to his housekeeper

"¿Quién es?" (Who is it?) -Henry McCarty, aka Billy the Kid

"Shoot me in the chest!" -Benito Mussolini

"I will be glad to discuss this proposition with my attorney, and that after I talk with one, we could either discuss it with him or discuss it with my attorney if the attorney thinks it is a wise thing to do, but at the present time I have nothing more to say to you." -Lee Harvey Oswald

"Lord help my poor soul." -Edgar Allen Poe

"I will show you how an Italian dies!"—Fabrizio Quattrocchi, hostage in Iraq, refusing to kneel before his self-dug grave

"None greater than thee, Oh Lord. None greater than thee."—Daniel "Danny" Harold Rolling, executed in Florida by lethal injection. He sang his last words as a hymn.

"I feel here that this time they have succeeded." -Leon Trotsky

"I told u I was hardcore." -Brandon Vedas, typed to an IRC room watching him on his webcam. Vedas deliberately overdosed on prescription painkillers.

"Well, one of us had to go." -Oscar Wilde, while looking at the wallpaper of the room he lay dying in.

"Get to hell out of here, you sonofabitch [spoken to the attending minister]... I go sit down all by myself... Viva Italia! Goodbye to all poor peoples everywhere!... Lousy capitalists! No picture! Capitalists! No one here to take my picture. All capitalists lousy bunch of crooks. Go ahead. Pusha da button!" -Giuseppe Zangara

  • Japanese death poetry
The Henry Ford Museum claims to have Thomas Edison's last breath saved in a jar. Probably not much to look at there...

The Last Seven "Words" of Christ. Not actually words but statements He spake as the Roman nails did their work. His final statement was, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." (Luke 23:46, KJV)


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