More famous last words
“Never again allow a woman to hold the supreme power in the State… [and] be careful not to allow eunuchs to meddle in government affairs.”
— Empress Dowager Cixi, de facto ruler of China, 1908. Known in the West as the Dragon Lady, she was a powerful force for trying to keep modernization out of her country.
“Pull up the shades; I don’t want to go home in the dark.” — William Henry Porter (aka O. Henry), American writer (5 June 1910), to a hospital nurse.
“But the peasants…how do the peasants die?”
— Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist 20 November, 1910), to a station master in whose home he died.
“My love of God is greater than my fear of death.”
— Cecil Pugh, GC, MA, Congregational Church minister and RAF chaplain (5 July 1941), asking to be lowered into the hold of the sinking SS Anselm, where injured airmen were trapped. Pugh then prayed with the men until the ship sank. He was the only clergyman to be awarded the George Cross.
“I have lost my mind by spells and I do not dare think what I may do in those spells. May God forgive me and I hope everyone else will forgive me even if they cannot understand. My position is too awful to endure and nobody realizes it. What an end to a life in which I tried always to do my best.”
— Lucy Maud Montgomery OBE, Canadian author (24 April 1942); conclusion of note found on her bedside table after her death. It may or may not have been a suicide note. A sad way to end for the author of Anne of Green Gables.
“Remember, Honey, don’t forget what I told you. Put in my coffin a deck of cards, a mashie niblick, and a pretty blonde.” — Chico Marx, American actor and comedian (11 October 1961), giving his wife Mary humorous instructions for his funeral. A mashie niblick was a golf club, equivalent to a 6 iron.