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Famous Last Words

Reading · 6 min read · First published 2003 · Updated November 2026

A notebook and pen on a wooden table in soft light
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Ever wonder what your favorite historical figure said at the very end? Here is a collection of well-known, and sometimes humorous, dying words.

A note before you read. Last words are often remembered more neatly than they were spoken. People who are dying are usually tired, and what they say is often short and plain. Many famous "last words" were written down by family or friends later, and some were polished in the retelling. Below, the words are listed as they are reported, and I have noted where a quote is disputed.

If you were with someone when they died, please know that whatever they said, or did not say, does not measure how much they loved you or how well you cared for them. Often the quiet moments mean the most.

Words as reported

Charles Darwin (naturalist, 1809-1882). "I am not the least afraid of death." Said to his wife, Emma, in his final illness, as she recorded it in her notes. He also told her to remember what a good wife she had been to him, and asked that his children be told how good they had been to him.

Emily Dickinson (poet, 1830-1886). Shortly before she died, she sent her cousins Louise and Frances Norcross a letter that read simply, "Little Cousins, Called Back. Emily."

Grover Cleveland (22nd and 24th U.S. president, 1837-1908). "I have tried so hard to do right." He died in Princeton, New Jersey, in June 1908.

Bing Crosby (singer and actor, 1903-1977). Crosby died in Spain in 1977, moments after a round of golf near Madrid. Walking off the 18th green, he is reported to have said, "That was a great game of golf, fellas."

Dwight D. Eisenhower (34th U.S. president, 1890-1969). Near the end, he spoke of his love for his family and his country. His last words are reported as "I want to go. I'm ready to go. God take me." He died at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

More last words that are well documented

These come from people whose final words were recorded by someone who was there, or who are quoted in trusted histories. Even so, treat each as "as reported."

George Washington (1732-1799). "'Tis well." Recorded by his longtime secretary, Tobias Lear, who was with him.

John Quincy Adams (6th U.S. president, 1767-1848). "This is the last of earth. I am content." He had collapsed from a stroke in the U.S. House of Representatives and died two days later in the Speaker's Room.

John Keats (poet, 1795-1821). Keats died in Rome, cared for by his friend, the painter Joseph Severn. Severn recorded his words: "Severn – I – lift me up – I am dying – I shall die easy; don't be frightened – be firm, and thank God it has come."

Socrates (Greek philosopher, died 399 BCE). In Plato's account, Socrates' final words were a quiet request to his friend Crito. In Benjamin Jowett's translation: "Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepius; will you remember to pay the debt?" This is Plato's account, written down afterward, so it is a recorded tradition and not a transcript.

Humphrey Bogart (actor, 1899-1957). On a last visit from his friend Spencer Tracy, the day before he died, Tracy said, "Goodnight, Bogie," and Bogart answered, "Goodbye, Spence." That farewell is often quoted as his last words.

The Buddha (died around the 5th century BCE). According to the Pali scriptures, the Buddha's last teaching to his followers, in T. W. Rhys Davids' 1881 translation, was: "Decay is inherent in all component things! Work out your salvation with diligence!" Newer translations word it differently.

Myth and fact

Beethoven: "Friends applaud, the comedy is over." Often quoted, but I could not confirm it in a source I trust, so please treat it as a legend. The words reported as his last concern a case of wine he received from his publisher, Schott, shortly before he died: "Pity, pity, too late!"

Julius Caesar: "Et tu, Brute?" This line comes from Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, written in the late 1500s, more than 1,500 years after Caesar died. Some accounts suggest Caesar may instead have said a Greek phrase meaning "You too, child?" but nothing definite survives.

A last thought

Our animal companions cannot leave us words. Many people find that a quiet last moment, with a hand resting on soft fur and a whispered goodbye, becomes the memory they treasure most.

Sources

Written by Words to Comfort

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