It's the Epiphany today

Feast of the Three Kings, Little Christmas, etc. May your day be filled with small moments of infinite joy and wisdom.


While ACME is still re-tooling this blog, here are some last words of the famous (and not so famous) A - M

Agrippina, mother of the Roman Emperor Nero:
"Smite my womb." (Spoken to assassins sent by her son.)


Louisa Alcott, author:
"Is it not meningitis?"


Ethan Allen, American revolutionary general, upon being told "the angels are waiting for you":
"Waiting are they? Waiting are they? Well - let 'em wait."


J. M. Barrie, writer:
"I can't sleep."


John Barrymore, actor:
"Die? I should say not, dear fellow. No Barrymore would allow such a
conventional thing to happen to him." or "You heard me, Mike."


Ludwig van Beethoven, 18th century German composer, having just been
given Last Rites: "Friends applaud, the comedy is over."


Alexander Graham Bell:
"So little done, so much to do."


Henry McCarty, aka William Bonney and Billy the Kid:
"Quién es?" ("Who is it?")


Simón Bolívar, to his physician:
"The three biggest fools in the world have been Jesus Christ, Don Quixote, and... me."


Lenny Bruce, stand-up comic and satirist:
"Does anybody know where I can get some shit?" (meaning some heroin)


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


Lord Byron:
"Now I shall go to sleep. Good night."


Gaius Caligula, Roman Emperor, stabbed to death by his own guards (as reported by Tacitus):
"I am still alive!"


Donald Campbell, during the attempt on the world water speed record, as Bluebird flipped out of the water and crashed:
"The water's dark green and I can't see a bloody thing. Hello the bow is up. I'm going. I'm on my back. I'm gone."


Anton Chekhov, Russian author and medic, sipped a glass of Champaigne and said:
"Ich sterbe" ("I am dying", in German).


Charlie Chaplin, actor, after a priest said "May the Lord have mercy on your soul":
"Why not? After all, it belongs to him."


Winston Churchill:
"Everything is so boring."


Kurt Cobain, quoting Neil Young's "Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)", found in Cobain's suicide note.
"It's better to burn out than to fade away."


Noel Coward:
"Good night, my darlings. I'll see you in the morning."


Joan Crawford:
"Damn it! Don't you dare ask God to help me!"


George Eastman:
"My work is done, why wait?"


Thomas Edison, inventor:
"It's very beautiful over there."


Elizabeth I, Queen of England:
"All my possessions for a moment of time."


Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.:
"Never felt better."


W.C. Fields:
"God damn the whole friggin' world and everyone in it but you, Carlotta."


Millard Fillmore, thirteenth U.S. president, upon being fed some soup on his deathbed:
"The nourishment is palatable."


James Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy during World War II (quoted from Ajax by Sophocles, found in Forrestal's suicide note):
"Frenzy hath seized thy dearest son,
Who from thy shores in glory came
The first in valor and in fame;
Thy deeds that he hath done
Seem hostile all to hostile eyes...
Better to die, and sleep
The never waking sleep, than linger on,
And dare to live, when the soul's life is gone."


Benjamin Franklin, when asked to roll over on the bed so he could breathe more easily:
"A dying man can do nothing easy."


Sigmund Freud:
"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."


Charles Frohman:
"Why fear death? Death is only a beautiful adventure."


John Wayne Gacy: serial killer;
After being led into the death chamber, Gacy was asked if he had any last words, to which he replied: "Yeah; Kiss my ass."


Mahatma Gandhi, India's "Father of the Nation" - after being shot.
These words are also inscribed on Gandhi's memorial, the Raj Ghat.
"Hai Ram!" (or) "Oh! Lord(Rama)"


Genghis Khan:
"Let not my end disarm you, and on no account weep or keen for me, lest the enemy be warned of my death."


Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 19th century poet, novelist, playwright,
scientist and thinker:
"Light! More light!" (Disputed)


Barbara Graham, convicted murderess to executioner Joe Feretti who was in charge of her 1955 gas-chamber execution. "Now take a deep breath and it won't bother you", Feretti said. To which Barbara retorted:
"How in the hell would you know?"


Joseph Henry Green, British surgeon, after checking his own pulse:
"Stopped."


George Harrison:
A quote from Paramahansa Yogananda: "Everything can wait, but the search for God cannot wait." He then added, "and love one another."


Georg Hegel: "Only one man ever understood me. And he really didn't understand me."


Heinrich Heine, German poet (died of syphilis): "God will forgive me--that's his job."


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


Thomas Hobbes:
"I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap in the dark."


Doc Holliday: gambler, gunfighter.
"This is funny."


Henrik Ibsen, after his housekeeper told a guest he was feeling better:
"On the contrary!"


Milton Jacobs, chemist, geologist, electrical engineer, layman physicist, sailor for the US Navy and World War II veteran, spoken before slipping into a dementia induced coma:
"I used to know a lot, now I don't know nuttin'".


Alfred Jarry, French playwrite and absurdist:
"I am dying, please...bring me a toothpick."


Jeanne d'Arc:
"Hold the cross high so I may see it through the flames!"


Al Jolson:
"This is it! I'm going. I'm going."


James Joyce:
"Does no one understand it?"


Charles Foster Kane, fictional newspaper tycoon:
"Rosebud."


John Meynard Keynes:
"I should have drunk more Champagne"


Sam Kinison: comedian;
"Oh, ok. Ok."


Timothy Leary:
"Why not? Why not? Why not?"


John Lennon, after being shot and in response to a policeman asking "How do you feel?":
"I'm in pain."


Leonardo da Vinci, artist, inventor:
"I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have."


Abraham Lincoln, US president, when his wife Mary asked what the lady sitting next to them at Ford's Theater would say if she saw them holding hands:
"She won't think anything of it."


Louis XIV, King of France:
"Why do you weep? Did you think I was immortal?"


Karl Marx, on his deathbed, to his housekeeper who had just asked if he had any last words:
"Go on, get out! Last words are for fools who haven't said enough!"


Edgar Lee Masters, American author:
"Here, world, I hand you like an orange to a child. I can no more with you; do what you will."


Auvo Maunula, Finnish fighter ace, to Sgt. Ringbom, after he had warned about taking his plane, assumed to be in an unflyable condition:
"Is the sergeant going to teach me how to fly?"


Louis B. Mayer, film producer:
"Nothing matters. Nothing matters."


Lauren Miller, actress,
"Life is like..." And then she died.


Yukio Mishima, Japanese novelist and playwright:
"Human life is limited; but I would like to live forever."


And so it goes.