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For other uses of the term Epitaph, please see Epitaph (disambiguation).

An epitaph (ἐπιτάφιος literally: "on the gravestone" in ancient Greek) is text honoring the deceased, most commonly inscribed on a tombstone or plaque. Traditionally an epitaph is in verse, but there are exceptions. Many poets have been known to compose their own epitaphs prior to their death.

Many are quotes from holy texts, or aphorisms. A wry trick of many successful epitaphs is to 'speak' to the reader and warn them about their own mortality; another is a request of the reader to get off their resting place, as often it would require the reader to stand on the ground above the coffin to read the inscription. Some record achievements, (e.g. past politicians note the years of their terms of office) but nearly all (excepting Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where this is impossible) note name, date of birth and date of death.

Contents 1 Famous epitaphs 2 References 3 See also 4 External links

I knew if I waited around long enough something like this would happen

— George Bernard Shaw

Pardon me for not getting up

— Ernest Hemingway

Through this dust these hills once spoke

— T. S. Stribling

Go away -- I'm asleep.

— Joan Hackett

The actress, who was a regular on TV throughout the 1960s and 1970s, appearing on shows like The Twilight Zone and Bonanza, died in 1983 of ovarian cancer at the mere age of 49 at Encino Hospital in California. Both of her parents had also died of cancer. Her epitaph was copied from the note she hung on her dressing room door when she didn't want to be disturbed.

Ὦ ξεῖν’, ἀγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδε
κείμεθα, τοῖς κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι.

O xein', angellein Lakedaimoniois hoti têde
keimetha tois keinôn rhêmasi peithomenoi

Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by
that here, obedient to their law, we lie.

— Simonides's epigram at Thermopylae

I lie somewhere over here

— Werner Heisenberg, as in Uncertainty Principle.

When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say,
For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today

The Kohima Epitaph which is on the World War II War Memorial for the Allied fallen at the battle of Kohima. Written by John Maxwell Edmonds (1875-1958), an English classicist, suggested for the memorial by Major John Etty-Leal, the GSO II of the 2nd Division, another classical scholar. In fact this is a misquotation. The correct version runs:

When you go home, tell them of us, and say,
For your tomorrows these gave their today.
Edmonds was a Fellow of Jesus College Cambridge and one of his contemporaries, and his friend and executor, Dr Freddy Brittain, another eminent Jesuan wrote of him, ‘always courteous, (he) used to say that he would not have minded the misattribution of authorship or the breaches of copyright, if only the text had not been commonly misquoted, as it is on the Kohima memorial and even in the Ashenden Press editions of his epitaphs.'

And when he gets to Heaven,
To St. Peter he will tell:
One more soldier reporting sir,
I've served my time in Hell.

An epitaph on the Grave of the Unknown Soldier in Guadalcanal.

Hodie mihi, cras tibi

Today for me, tomorrow for thee

— Famous Latin epitaph

No greater friend, no worse enemy

— Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Roman Dictator

Non fui, fui, non sum, non curo

I was not, I was, I am not, I do not care

— Famous Latin epitaph

Don't Try

— Poet Charles Bukowski

Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear,
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blest be the man that spares these stones,
And cursed be he that moves my bones.

— From the grave of William Shakespeare

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.

— From the grave of Dorothy Parker

Nature, and nature's laws, lay hid in night,
God said, let Newton be! And all was light.

— from the grave of Newton, a poem from Alexander Pope

SWIFT has sailed into his rest;
Savage indignation there
Cannot lacerate his breast.
Imitate him if you dare,
World-besotted traveller; he
Served human liberty.

— by and for Jonathan Swift, translated from Latin by William Butler Yeats

Cast a cold eye
On life, on death
Horseman, pass by!

— W.B. Yeats

Stranger by the roadside, do not smile
When you see this grave, though it is only a dog's,
My master wept when I died, and his own hand
Laid me in earth and wrote these lines on my tomb.

— (unknown origin)

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"
FEB 24 1821

— John Keats

She did it the hard way.

— Bette Davis

Here lies one of the most intelligent animals who ever appeared on the face of the earth.

— Benito Mussolini

Never Born, Never Died—Only visited this planet Earth between December 11, 1931 and January 19, 1990.

— Rajneesh

That's all folks!

— Mel Blanc

Love Will Tear Us Apart

— Ian Curtis

Δεν ελπίζω τίποτε. Δεν φοβούμαι τίποτε. Είμαι λεύτερος

I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.

— Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek author.

Dúirt mé leat go raibh mé breoite

(Gaelic for I told you I was ill)

— Spike Milligan, Irish comic, writer, musician

J. R. R. Tolkien is buried next to his wife, and on their tombstone the names "Beren" and "Lúthien" are engraved, a fact that sheds light on the love story of Beren and Lúthien which is recorded in several versions in his works.

3.14159265358979323846264338327950288...

— Ludolph van Ceulen, he was so proud of his achievement, computing π (pi) to 35 digits, that he ordered it to be inscribed on his tombstone.

Finally I am becoming stupider no more

— Paul Erdos, Hungarian mathematician.

Här det jordiska af Kraus, det himmelska lefver i hans toner

Here the earthly of Kraus, the heavenly live in his music

— Joseph Martin Kraus, German-Swedish composer.

Here lies Jiri Wolker, poet, who loved world,
and for its justice wanted to fight.
Before he could jerk his heart into battle out,
he died, only when he twentyfour was.

— Jiri Wolker, Czech poet.

Here was buried Thomas Jefferson
Author of the Declaration of American Independence
Of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom
And Father of the University of Virginia

— Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President.

Life's a jest, and all things show it.
I thought so once, and now I know it.

— John Gay, English poet.

The Best is yet to come.

— Frank Sinatra, American singer.

And now we rise
And we are everywhere

— Nick Drake, English singer-songwriter.

I seen a rainbow yesterday but too many storms have come and gone leavin' a trace of not one God-given ray is it because my life is ten shades of gray I pray all ten fade away seldom praise Him for the sunny days And like His promise is true only my faith can undo the many chances I blew to bring my life to anew clear blue and unconditional skies have dried the tears from my eyes no more lonely cries my only bleedin' hope is for the folk who can't cope wit such an endurin' pain that it keeps 'em in the pourin' rain who's to blame for tootin' caine in your own vein what a shame you shoot and aim for someone else's brain you claim the insane and name this day and time for fallin' prey to crime I say the system got you victim to your own mind dreams are hopeless aspirations in hopes of comin' true believe in yourself the rest is up to me and you.

— Lisa "Left-Eye" Lopes, American rapper from trio TLC

HERE LIES LESTER MOORE. FOUR SLUGS FROM A 44. NO LES. NO MORE.

—Gravestone at Boot Hill in Tombstone, Arizona.

This article is missing citations or needs footnotes. Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies.(December 2006)

• Chronogram
• Epigraph
• Hero stone

• What is the Kohima Epitaph?
• Kohima Epitaph