PEOPLE HAVE ALWAYS been fascinated by the last words of others.
Perhaps they hold a touch of wisdom, a final joke, or even confirmation of who’s getting what in the will.
In light of that, Business Insider put together a list of the reported last words of 18 famous historical figures.
Check them out below.
Last words are for fools who haven’t said enough.
Karl Marx, philosopher.
I’d hate to die twice. It’s so boring.
Richard Feynman, theoretical physicist.
Stand away, fellow, from my diagram!
Archimedes, mathematician. He was killed during the Second Punic War. According to the historian Plutarch, a soldier reportedly came up to the mathematician and told him to go with him to Marcellus. Archimedes, however, refused to do so until he finished the problem he was working on. Enraged, the soldier killed him.
France, the army, the head of the army, Joséphine.
Napoléon Bonaparte, French military and political leader.
I should never have switched from scotch to martinis.
Humphrey Bogart, actor.
(To his subjects) I found Rome of clay; I leave it to you of marble.
(To his friends) Have I played the part well? Then applaud me as I exit.
Augustus Caesar, first Roman emperor.
I am not the least afraid to die.
Charles Darwin, best known for his contributions to evolutionary theory.
I finally get to see Marilyn.
Joe DiMaggio, baseball player.
Money can’t buy life.
Bob Marley, musician.
I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have.
Leonardo da Vinci, inventor and painter.
Pardon me. I didn’t do it on purpose.
Marie Antoinette, queen of France, after accidentally stepping on her executioner’s foot as she climbed the scaffold to the guillotine.
You will not find me alive at sunrise.
Michel de Nostradamus, French apothecary and alleged soothsayer.
Thomas Jefferson survives.
John Adams, second president of the United States. Adams and Thomas Jefferson started out as rivals, but they became friends later in life. As Adams lay on his deathbed, on July 4, he said these last words. Jefferson had actually died some hours earlier, also on July 4.
You are wonderful.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, writer and physician best known for creating Sherlock Holmes, to his wife.
I will hear in heaven.
Plaudite, amici, comedia finita est. (Applaud, friends, the comedy is finished)
Pity, pity, too late!
These are several differing accounts for the last words of Ludwig van Beethoven, composer and pianist. The latter is after a publisher brought him 12 bottles of wine.
I’m going away tonight.
James Brown, singer.
It is very beautiful out there.
Thomas Edison, inventor and businessman, who reportedly right before his death came out of a coma and looked out the window.
Leonard Nimoy, actor. Not quite his last words, but his last tweet. LLAP is short for “Live long and prosper”, a saying made famous by Nimoy’s Star Trek character Mr. Spock.
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