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Monday, February 16, 2015

Last words: 'και συ τεκνον;' (kai su, teknon)... 100 micrograms I.M.

Last words from wikiquote

Classic
         Caesar, Arquimedes, Socrates

3 endings: take in the one you prefer!
mè mou tous kuklous taratte (Μη μου τους κύκλους τάραττε)Translation: Don't disturb my circles!Alternate: Don't disturb my equation.Who: ArchimedesNote: In response to a Roman soldier who was forcing him to report to the Roman general after the capture of Syracuse, while he was busy sitting on the ground proving geometry theorems. The soldier killed him, despite specific instructions not to.

Crito, we ought to offer a cock to Asclepius. See to it, and don't forget.Who: Socrates, quoted by Plato in PhaedoNote: Asclepius was a Greek god of healing (his shrine is on the side of the Acropolis). It seems to many that Socrates considered death to be a relief, and thus was thanking the god for the service of killing him.

1) In his Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Suetonius records some famous last words according to other sources:
Life of Julius Caesar 82.2: 
"You too, my child?" Caesar said this in Greek, 'και συ τεκνον;' (kai su, teknon)".  
The words are usually rendered in Latin as 
       "Et tu, Brute?" ("You too, Brutus?").
2) Others say words were instead "Why, this is violence!"

3) In Shakespeare's play, 
there is a little more to the quote. 
The full quote is: "Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar."

NB: Suetonius and Plutarch stated Caesar said nothing! 

middle ages: Becket, Polo

If all the swords in England were pointed against my head, your threats would not move me. [to the killers]
I am ready to die for my Lord, that in my blood the Church may obtain liberty and peace.Who: Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, d.1170
I have not told half of what I saw.Marco Polo, Venetian traveller and writer
whose book was calle "il milione" 
(of lies about the foreign lands os Asia)

modern:   
 Rabelais, Da Vinci, Pascal. 

 Darwin, Heine, Goethe



Je m'en vais chercher un grand peut-être.Translation: I am off in search of the great perhaps.Who: François Rabelais
I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have.Who: Leonardo da Vinci
I am about to -- or I am going to -- die:  either expression is correct.~~ Dominique Bouhours, French grammarian, d. 1702
May God never abandon me.Who: Blaise Pascal 
Come my little one, and give me your hand.Spoken to his daughter, Ottilie.~~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1832 
I am not the least afraid to die.Who: Charles Darwin
God will pardon me, that's his line of work.~~ Heinrich Heine, poet, d. February 15, 1856 
Only you have ever understood me. … And you got it wrong.Who: Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel, to his favorite student. 
Mozart! Mozart!Who: Gustav Mahler, according to his wife, Alma.

XXth century:    Shaw, Joyce, Wittgenstein, 
                          Huxley, G. Marx et alii



Dying is easy, comedy is hardWho: George Bernard Shaw
Does nobody understand?Who: James Joyce 
Tell them I've had a wonderful life.Who: Ludwig Wittgenstein 
LSD, 100 micrograms I.M.Who: Aldous Huxley in a note to his wife. She obliged and he was injected twice before his death. 
Die, my dear? Why, that's the last thing I'll do!Who: Groucho Marx 
I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis.Who: Humphrey Bogart 
Drink to me, drink to my health, you know I can’t drink any more.Who: Pablo Picasso
Nothing soothes pain like human touch.Who: Chess Grandmaster Bobby Fischer
 PS:  let’s have Mark Twain just for fun! 
 

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