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Soldier: If only I could also stay young forever and ever like [France], wouldn't that be wonderful? Right, don't you think so—
His Girlfriend: Are you sure? You'd be living forever, you know. In a different tempo than everyone else, with time flowing... We'd go to Paris for work, live together... and we'd have all these children and those children would grow up... My hands would get all wrinkly and I wouldn't be able to hear your voice anymore... And then I would die. And even after me, you'd be attending a lot, lot more funerals. Can a normal human being even bear so much? And no matter how many people you fall in love with, they would always leave you behind. Wouldn't you always be alone like that?
His Girlfriend: Are you sure? You'd be living forever, you know. In a different tempo than everyone else, with time flowing... We'd go to Paris for work, live together... and we'd have all these children and those children would grow up... My hands would get all wrinkly and I wouldn't be able to hear your voice anymore... And then I would die. And even after me, you'd be attending a lot, lot more funerals. Can a normal human being even bear so much? And no matter how many people you fall in love with, they would always leave you behind. Wouldn't you always be alone like that?
"Hell is enduring the pain of death, only to be reborn. This limbo I suffer has the persistence of the rising sun; never a sign of salvation or deliverance into the next world. To me, that is Hell."
— Tenzen Yakushiji, Basilisk
"Immortality ain't nothing but a nightmare. Life's valuable because it's short. We gotta do our best with the time we got."
— Heiji, Case Closed
Alphonse: What is it like... to never die?
Hohenheim: What's it like? This body has its perks, but... It hurts so much to see friends die while I never get a day older.
Hohenheim: What's it like? This body has its perks, but... It hurts so much to see friends die while I never get a day older.
"I've been destined to live forever, even if humanity is annihilated as a result. However, I'm able to die. To be or not to be. It makes no difference to me. My death is the only absolute liberty."
— Kaworu/Tabris, Neon Genesis Evangelion
"I am Evangeline A.K. McDowell. A vampire. I've been alive for 700 years.]] What? You're jealous? Settle down, youngster. Immortality isn't as good as it sounds. It can be quite harsh on you, you know. Well, there are fun times along the way. But when you're living a long life, before you know it... you'll be on your own at the end. No, even before that you'll grow tired of the things you loved. Devotion and attachment become impossible. You'll rapidly forget just about everything. Bringing up things isn't worth it anymore. What kind of fate... is this?
This is the story of such people, who ended up being such trivial."
This is the story of such people, who ended up being such trivial."
— Opening narration of UQ Holder!
"For you people who are destined to die one day, can you understand the feelings of an undead who wants to die, but can't?"
— Uratarou to Chiyo, Uratarou
"I have lived for 10,000 years. Believe me, you have no idea what that means for me: boredom. Everlasting, hideous boredom. A never-ending search for ways to pass the time, and mating with a human woman is one of the few I enjoy."
— Count Magnus Lee, Vampire Hunter D
"In life, you can find salvation because there's an end. Not being able to die means you're going to be left behind in the world. Everyone who knows you will ultimately leave behind and die. Lives appear and disappear one after another and all you can do is watch. As they fall like endless snows... As they walk to the unreachable moon... No matter what situation you find yourself in, the day you obtain an immortal life will be the day your eternal hell begins for all time."
— Kaguya Gekkou, Fly Me to the Moon Chapter 141
Audio Plays
The Doctor: It's one of the most wonderful things about Lady Time, isn't it? How nothing's constant, how everything decays and changes?
Charley: You call that wonderful?
The Doctor: I call it absolutely beautiful! How would it be if everything was always the same? If you never got too big for your dresses, if you never got to pass them on to your sister? If the rainy autumn lasted forever and the spring never came? At least I change. I'm stumbling my way through bodies like I own a particularly dangerous bicycle. Grayle never changes, not inside, not who he is. So time piles on top of him and kills everything good. No one should have to go through that.
Charley: You call that wonderful?
The Doctor: I call it absolutely beautiful! How would it be if everything was always the same? If you never got too big for your dresses, if you never got to pass them on to your sister? If the rainy autumn lasted forever and the spring never came? At least I change. I'm stumbling my way through bodies like I own a particularly dangerous bicycle. Grayle never changes, not inside, not who he is. So time piles on top of him and kills everything good. No one should have to go through that.
— "Seasons of Fear"
Comic Books
"I got no arms, I'm blind, I didn't have an erection since the planet stopped moving and you want me to be like this for eternity!"
— Marvin, Dungeon Twilight
"My armies have long been dust in the desert out there, my slave girls, too! I go gladly to join them! Everlasting life, good-bye!"
— Swami Khan Khan, Uncle Scrooge #71: "King Scrooge the First"
Master Healer Robot: At last... You nearly died... But I saved your life!
Superman: What? Why did you do a fool thing like that? I'm over a million years old... I've outlived everything and everybody I cared for! I wanted to die!
Superman: What? Why did you do a fool thing like that? I'm over a million years old... I've outlived everything and everybody I cared for! I wanted to die!
"Do you hear, ye accursed Elder Gods? Do you truly hear?? That's the sound of death there, slicing away at that bolted door... the sound of laughing death, always triumphant in the end... and here, at last, is my deliverer! The one whom even your guardians could not keep from me! White wolf — elementals — you were determined that, though I had bargained with you for eternal life, I still should not enjoy it — but stay a prisoner here for all time! But you left a slight hope, if only to torment me: that one might slay me, if he got past all those guardians. Well, one has done that which no amount of outrage could spur any weak-kneed villager to do... one whom even your wind-elementals cannot keep from reaching the calm eye of the now-rising hurricane! And, in that eye stand I... Ranephi... weary of aimless living... grateful to be set free of my bondage to undeath... by the downward stroke of a barbarian-wielded axe! You lose, ye hated Elder Gods! You lo—"
— Ranephi, The Savage Sword of Conan #8: "The Forever Phial"
"So, I've tried many times to have Obrinrin's miserable curse undone. The most obscure attempt was guided by an Old Roots Shaman who lived deep in the bush. He claimed that the light from his fire could not remove the shadow that marked my steps. He failed. In the end, they all failed, each time proving more pointless and eternally frustrating.
I am reduced to existing as an ageless animal. I eat and shit and roam forever without rot."
I am reduced to existing as an ageless animal. I eat and shit and roam forever without rot."
—Aja Oba, Infinitum: An Afrofuturist Tale
Fan Works
"OUR PAST IS YOUR FUTURE. THAT MANKIND ACCEPTS YOU NOW IS IRRELEVANT, FOR IT IS THE NATURE OF TIME TO CHANGE, AND ALL THINGS CHANGE IN TIME. VOWS CAN BE BETRAYED. CREEDS CAN LOSE THEIR MEANING. COVENANTS CAN BE BROKEN. ALL WHO KNOW YOU WILL DIE. AND IN A THOUSAND YEARS, WHO WILL KNOW YOU AS YOU WERE?"
— Ghidorah's middle head (Ichi, Eldest Brother, the First) to Vivienne Graham, Abraxas (Hrodvitnon)
"Mothra understands the problem; not only are The Two Who are One grieving, but the male half is closing himself off in an attempt to cope with it, perhaps hoping if he just ignores his hurt for long enough it will eventually go away. But the female half knows that this will just be the first of many losses like it, that one by one they will outlive everyone she's ever known. San doesn't know how to deal with that, not after eons of seeing little ones as little more than playthings."
"He never saw her again after that. Not even as the years ticked by, as the voices surged in intensity then lulled, then surged once more like the tides washing away etchings in the sand. Years, decades, centuries. Sollux moved through all of them, never changing, never wasting into nothing.
Stuck in his ways, in the sounds of the to-be dead pleading, Sollux knew the answer to the age-old question: What’s a fate worse than Death?
Easy. Being loved by her."
Stuck in his ways, in the sounds of the to-be dead pleading, Sollux knew the answer to the age-old question: What’s a fate worse than Death?
Easy. Being loved by her."
— Courting Death
, a Homestuck fic
, a Homestuck fic"Immortality is seen by many as a gift, to never die and face the eternal silence. What it is, however, is a curse. Living on, longer than anything should. Waiting. Waiting for one day, the miracle of death to take you. The year is 5387."
— Summary of The End of the Road, a Sonic the Hedgehog fic
, a Sonic the Hedgehog fic"Celestia nodded in silence, composing herself. 'It's... not as bad as they make it sound,' she said, though the wistfulness in her voice rendered it somewhat unconvincing. 'It is not as if the years will go by any faster than they already do; you will have all the time in the world for your friends, and the friends after them — and there will be friends after them, I assure you. Friends are what make it all worthwhile.
When ponies imagine immortality, they imagine what it would be like to grow old and not die. They look at old ponies who have lost much, who are spent and who welcome the end with a healthy appreciation for their life; they imagine that eventually the pain of loss becomes too great for these ponies to handle and they imagine how horrible it must be to be denied release.
Now, a life well lived is a beautiful thing — and to be proud enough to think it complete is enviable indeed — but as much as I wish it weren't so, many of those old ponies who greet death with a smile have not lost half so much as some a quarter their age. It is pony nature to grieve and move on. You will be sad, and you will remember your friends forever; you may never have the same kind of friends again, but when the time comes, you will not be left an old mare with nothing left before you.
Immortality is not an eternity of looking back and regretting all the things you could have done; as an alicorn your past will always be finite, your future infinite. Mathematically, you could even say you will always have your entire life ahead of you.'"
When ponies imagine immortality, they imagine what it would be like to grow old and not die. They look at old ponies who have lost much, who are spent and who welcome the end with a healthy appreciation for their life; they imagine that eventually the pain of loss becomes too great for these ponies to handle and they imagine how horrible it must be to be denied release.
Now, a life well lived is a beautiful thing — and to be proud enough to think it complete is enviable indeed — but as much as I wish it weren't so, many of those old ponies who greet death with a smile have not lost half so much as some a quarter their age. It is pony nature to grieve and move on. You will be sad, and you will remember your friends forever; you may never have the same kind of friends again, but when the time comes, you will not be left an old mare with nothing left before you.
Immortality is not an eternity of looking back and regretting all the things you could have done; as an alicorn your past will always be finite, your future infinite. Mathematically, you could even say you will always have your entire life ahead of you.'"
—Sharing the Night, Chapter 3; a deconstruction of this trope
Films — Animation
Scamper: You want to be trapped in an endless existential nightmare - forced to keep living even though life is meaningless and nothing matters?
Brain: Possibly. Tt... What exactly did you say?
Brain: Possibly. Tt... What exactly did you say?
— Igor
"Immortality is a curse! Brother, trust me!"
— Max Winters, TMNT
Death: Life can bring great suffering, and eternal life can bring eternal suffering.
Pinocchio: Aw, it's not so bad as all that. Yeah, I get a little beat up every time, but as soon as I get back, I'm going home to my papa.
Death: Ah, but Pinocchio, what if you don't see your father again?
Pinocchio: Of course I will. Why wouldn't I?
Death: While you may have eternal life, your friends, your loved ones, they do not. Every moment shared with them may be the very last. You never know how long you have with someone until they're gone.
Pinocchio: Aw, it's not so bad as all that. Yeah, I get a little beat up every time, but as soon as I get back, I'm going home to my papa.
Death: Ah, but Pinocchio, what if you don't see your father again?
Pinocchio: Of course I will. Why wouldn't I?
Death: While you may have eternal life, your friends, your loved ones, they do not. Every moment shared with them may be the very last. You never know how long you have with someone until they're gone.
Films — Live-Action
"Time... Time flows by us like water. The ages pass until we are weary, so weary of life. Everything we create is destroyed, the lands we love are upturned. Mortal man may pass beyond this world, even if they do not know what lies there, but the elves... the elves must stay. You are about to face something, Ancanar, that may require stronger faith then you know have. Death... death is a gift. Ancanar."
"That fucker does nothing but shit and piss all day, and he wants to live longer?"
— Angel de la Guardia, Cronos
"Yeah, well, life is a bitch, ain't it? Then you don't die".
Maria Yudina: But I'm confident of everlasting life.
Nikita Khrushchev: Who the fuck in their right mind would want everlasting life? The endless conversation!
Nikita Khrushchev: Who the fuck in their right mind would want everlasting life? The endless conversation!
"Well, it's everything you've ever wanted; eternal life as part of The One. You're not going to like it."
"Ah, well, who wants to live forever? HAHAHAHAH! DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!"
— Prince Vultan, Flash Gordon
"Oh I've lived to see some amazing things, Elly. Another century come to pass, but I've... I've had to see my friends and loved ones die off through the years... Hal and Melinda... Brutus Howell... my wife... my boy. And you Elaine... you'll die too, and my curse is knowing that I'll be there to see it. It's my atonement you see; it's my punishment, for letting John Coffey ride the lightning; for killing a miracle of God. You'll be gone like all the others. I'll have to stay. Oh, I'll die eventually, that I'm sure. I have no illusions of immortality, but I will have wished for death... long before death finds me. In truth, I wish for it already."
— Paul Edgecomb, The Green Mile
"We're damned to live forever - with no release, no end."
— Miriam Blaylock, The Hunger
"Everyone you love is gone! I can see it in your eyes: you wish for death! [...] I curse you with life. To never know peace. To walk the Earth alone for eternity. You will never die..."
"We are not among the living, and so we cannot die. But neither are we dead. For too long I've been parched with thirst and unable to quench it. Too long I've been starving to death and haven't died. I feel nothing. Not the wind on my face, nor the spray of the sea, nor the warmth of a woman's flesh."
— Hector Barbossa, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Captain Jack Sparrow: You've seen it all, done it all, you survived. That's the trick, isn't it? To survive?
Captain Edward Teague: It's not just about living forever, Jackie. The trick is living with yourself, forever.
Captain Edward Teague: It's not just about living forever, Jackie. The trick is living with yourself, forever.
"C'mon, you apes, you wanna live forever?!"
— Starship Troopers, paraphrasing a Real Life quote from two-time Medal of Honor recipient Daniel Daly
"This is what happens when you're a vampire. You have to watch everyone die. Your mother and father. All your friends. Sometimes brutal, like slipping and falling onto a giant spike. Or falling asleep in an autumn pile of leaves and having some of them block your windpipe. Or making the simple mistake of fashioning a mask out of crackers and being attacked by ducks, geese, swans. Or simply dying of old age. But even old age is brutal. Watching your friends grow old. They can't piss, and they say stupid things, and their brains go, and they can't remember anything. And then one day they can't even remember who you are, and you wish they were dead, and then they do die."
— Deacon, What We Do in the Shadows
"Immortality seems like a good idea until you realize you're going to spend it alone."
— The Vampire Lestat, Queen of the Damned
Lisle: Drink! It's the right choice! The only choice! Drink! SEMPRE VIVE! LIVE FOREVER!
Ernest: *raises the immortality potion vial to his lips, but then stops* ...then what?
Lisle: *taken aback* ...what?
Ernest: Then what happens?
Lisle: What?
Ernest: I don't wanna live forever... I mean it sounds good, but what am I gonna do? What if I get bored?
Lisle: What?
Ernest: And what if I get lonely?! Who am I gonna hang around with, Madeleine and Helen?! What if something happens to me, what if I get maimed, what if I get shot?! What if someone pushes me down a... what if I fall down a flight of stairs or something?!
Lisle: But you'll never grow old!
Ernest: Yes, but everybody else will. I'll have to watch everyone around me die... I don't think this is right. This is not a dream, this is a nightmare!
Ernest: *raises the immortality potion vial to his lips, but then stops* ...then what?
Lisle: *taken aback* ...what?
Ernest: Then what happens?
Lisle: What?
Ernest: I don't wanna live forever... I mean it sounds good, but what am I gonna do? What if I get bored?
Lisle: What?
Ernest: And what if I get lonely?! Who am I gonna hang around with, Madeleine and Helen?! What if something happens to me, what if I get maimed, what if I get shot?! What if someone pushes me down a... what if I fall down a flight of stairs or something?!
Lisle: But you'll never grow old!
Ernest: Yes, but everybody else will. I'll have to watch everyone around me die... I don't think this is right. This is not a dream, this is a nightmare!
Literature
"Without death, life is meaningless. It is a story that can never be told. A song that can never be sung. For how would one finish it?"
— Henry, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
"Immortality is only for the gods. I wonder how they can stand it."
— Henpecked Ho, Bridge of Birds
"Harry, let me tell you something. Believe me if you like, or disbelieve, but I am at peace - with myself, anyway. I have had my day, and I am satisfied. If you had lived for thirteen-hundred years, perhaps you might understand."
— Faethor Ferenczy, Necroscope II: Wamphyri
Albert: I'm more than two thousand years old, I am. I've lived longer than anyone else in the world.
Mort: You haven't, you know. You've just stretched things out more. No one really lives here. The time in this place is just a sham. It's not real. Nothing changes. I'd rather die and see what comes next than spend eternity here.
Mort: You haven't, you know. You've just stretched things out more. No one really lives here. The time in this place is just a sham. It's not real. Nothing changes. I'd rather die and see what comes next than spend eternity here.
— Mort
"I couldn't have given them more life. I could only have given them immortality. They didn't think it was worth the price."
— Death, Soul Music
"To one as young as you, I'm sure it seems incredible, but to Nicolas and Perenelle, it really is like going to bed at the end of a very, very long day."
— Professor Dumbledore on the the Flamels returning to mortality and imminent death by old age, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
"Life's only precious because it ends, kid. Take it from a god. You mortals don't know how lucky you are."
— Mars, The Heroes of Olympus
"The first ten million years were the worst. And the second ten million years, they were the worst too. The third ten million years I didn't enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline."
— Marvin the Paranoid Android, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
"Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged was - indeed, is - one of the Universe's very small number of immortal beings.
Most of those who are born immortal instinctively know how to cope with it, but Wowbagger was not one of them. Instead, he had come to hate them, the load of serene bastards. [...]
To begin with it was fun; he had a ball, living dangerously, taking risks, cleaning up on high-yield long-term investments, and just generally outliving the hell out of everybody.
In the end, it was the Sunday afternoons he couldn't cope with, and that terrible listlessness that starts to set in at about 2:55, when you know you've taken all the baths you can usefully take that day, that however hard you stare at any given paragraph in the newspaper you will never actually read it, or use the revolutionary new pruning technique it describes, and that as you stare at the clock the hands will move relentlessly on to four o'clock, and you will enter the long dark teatime of the soul."
Most of those who are born immortal instinctively know how to cope with it, but Wowbagger was not one of them. Instead, he had come to hate them, the load of serene bastards. [...]
To begin with it was fun; he had a ball, living dangerously, taking risks, cleaning up on high-yield long-term investments, and just generally outliving the hell out of everybody.
In the end, it was the Sunday afternoons he couldn't cope with, and that terrible listlessness that starts to set in at about 2:55, when you know you've taken all the baths you can usefully take that day, that however hard you stare at any given paragraph in the newspaper you will never actually read it, or use the revolutionary new pruning technique it describes, and that as you stare at the clock the hands will move relentlessly on to four o'clock, and you will enter the long dark teatime of the soul."
"We could not die. We had tried it. We had attempted suicide, oh one or two of us had. But AM had stopped us. AM was intent on keeping us in his belly forever, twisting and torturing us perpetually."
"Death is part of who we are. It guides us. It shapes us. It drives us to madness. Can you still be human if you have no mortal end?"
— Roran Stronghammer, Brisingr
"What do mortals know? Flesh can heal, but the soul can be scarred! To be doomed to wander through eternity... branded an outcast, no land to call home, no man to name friend! Whatever he seeks to love - to grasp - slips through his embrace inevitably. Age consumes the bones of his hope. The loneliness! Only memories, cold phantoms to torture his dreams. And the hideous, smothering boredom that creeps more stifling with each decade, as the taste of life's frantic delights and transient interests grows stale and dry upon his spirit! It is a curse that waxes less endurable with each passing year."
— Kane Series, Bloodstone
"Everything dies. It is good that everything dies. I want to die when you die. Do not let him enchant me, do not let him make me immortal."
— Lady Amalthea, The Last Unicorn
"But length of days with an evil heart is only length of misery and already she begins to know it. All get what they want; they do not always like it."
— Aslan (talking about Jadis the White Witch), The Magician's Nephew
"People do not want immortality. They simply do not want to die [...] They want to live. They want to feel the ground beneath their feet, see the clouds overhead, love other people, be with them, and think. Nothing more. Everything that has been said beyond that is a lie."
— Ijon Tichy, Memoirs of a Space Traveller
"Ah, but to live forever, eh, Thibor the Wallach? How sweet is life, eh? But would you believe it can be boring, too? No, of course not, for you have not known the ennui of the centuries. Women? I have had such women! And food? Ah! Gobbets you've not yet dreamed of. And yet for these last hundred – nay, two hundred – years, all of these things have bored me."
— Faethor Ferenczy, Necroscope II: Wamphyri
"Those who used the Nine Rings became mighty in their day, kings, sorcerers, and warriors of old. They obtained glory and great wealth, yet it turned to their undoing. They had, it seemed, unending life, yet life became unendurable to them... and they became forever invisible, save to him that wore the Ruling Ring, and they entered into the realm of shadows. The Nazgûl were they, the Ringwraiths, the Enemy's most terrible servants; darkness went with them, and they cried with the voices of death."
— The Silmarillion, "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age"
"At twenty, you acted circumspectly, taking no risks, because if you worked for the Company you had centuries ahead of you. A shame to throw them away by fast driving or high living.
At 200, who cared? You'd been everywhere and done everything. All new experiences were old experiences, rearranged. By 300, you were probably dead. Not quite by suicide, however, not quite. You just climbed higher and higher mountains, or free-fell higher and higher, or back-packed across Mercury the difficult way, and sooner or later the odds ran out. Boredom drove you frenetic. Death was nature's way of telling you to slow down.
That's why Cheng led a party of green-hand colonists to a new world. There was really nothing to lose except a life stretched thin by endless living."
At 200, who cared? You'd been everywhere and done everything. All new experiences were old experiences, rearranged. By 300, you were probably dead. Not quite by suicide, however, not quite. You just climbed higher and higher mountains, or free-fell higher and higher, or back-packed across Mercury the difficult way, and sooner or later the odds ran out. Boredom drove you frenetic. Death was nature's way of telling you to slow down.
That's why Cheng led a party of green-hand colonists to a new world. There was really nothing to lose except a life stretched thin by endless living."
— Strata
"With my own eyes I saw the Sybil of Cumae hanging in a bottle, and when the boys said to her, 'Sybil, what do you want?' she replied, 'I want to die.'"
— Satyricon of Petronius, quoted in Latin and Greek by T. S. Eliot in The Wasteland
"The longer Brad lived, the more alienated he became. He'd seen through the facade of existence, had cracked the secrets of time. Not like it mattered. Somehow he'd drifted through life the third time without making any actual friends. There was no one he could talk to about his situation after all. No one could relate. He had no love. He'd forgotten how to feel.
Everything was a lie.
He woke up in the womb."
Everything was a lie.
He woke up in the womb."
— Repeat
Live-Action TV
"Though immortality may have eluded me... perhaps it's for the best. After all... what is eternity without my beloved Agnes by my side?"
— Holden Radcliffe, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., "World's End"
Chad: I feel like I'm doomed for all of eternity to be trapped in an adulterous, unhappy relationship working on this goddamn house... which will never be just the way I want it.
Moira: You are.
Moira: You are.
"We've lived too long — seen too much. To live on as we have is to leave behind joy, and love, and companionship, because we know it to be transitory, of the moment; we know it will turn to ash. Only those whose lives are brief can imagine that love is eternal. You should embrace that remarkable illusion. It may be the greatest gift your kind has ever received."
— Lorien, Babylon 5, "Into the Fire"
Angel: Buffy, be careful with this gift. A lot of things that seem strong, good and powerful, they can be painful.
Buffy: Like, say... immortality?
Angel: Exactly. I'm dying to get rid of that.
Buffy: Like, say... immortality?
Angel: Exactly. I'm dying to get rid of that.
"I don't age. I regenerate. You wither and decay. You can spend the rest of your life with me, but I can't spend the rest of my life with you. That's the curse of the Time Lords."
— The Doctor, Doctor Who, "School Reunion"
The Doctor: Some people live more in twenty years than others do in eighty. It's not the time that matters, it's the person.
Lazarus: You're so sentimental, Doctor. Maybe you are older than you look.
The Doctor: I'm old enough to know that a longer life isn't always a better one. In the end you just get tired. Tired of the struggle. Tried of losing everyone that matters to you. Tired of watching everything turn to dust. If you live long enough, the only certainty left is that you'll end up alone.
Lazarus: That's a price worth paying.
The Doctor: Is it?
Lazarus: You're so sentimental, Doctor. Maybe you are older than you look.
The Doctor: I'm old enough to know that a longer life isn't always a better one. In the end you just get tired. Tired of the struggle. Tried of losing everyone that matters to you. Tired of watching everything turn to dust. If you live long enough, the only certainty left is that you'll end up alone.
Lazarus: That's a price worth paying.
The Doctor: Is it?
The Doctor: Hang on. Is it you? Am I back on Karn? You're the Sisterhood of Karn. Keepers of the Flame... of utter boredom.
Ohila: Eternal life.
The Doctor: That's the one.
Ohila: Eternal life.
The Doctor: That's the one.
"Immortality isn't living forever. That's not what it feels like. Immortality is everybody else dying."
— The Doctor, Doctor Who, "The Girl Who Died"
The Doctor: Why should I be responsible for you?
Ashildr: You made me immortal!
The Doctor: I saved your life. I didn't know that your heart would rust because I kept it beating. I didn't think your conscience would need renewing, that the well of human kindness would run dry. I just wanted to save a terrified young woman's life.
Ashildr: You didn't save my life, Doctor. You trapped me inside it.
Ashildr: You made me immortal!
The Doctor: I saved your life. I didn't know that your heart would rust because I kept it beating. I didn't think your conscience would need renewing, that the well of human kindness would run dry. I just wanted to save a terrified young woman's life.
Ashildr: You didn't save my life, Doctor. You trapped me inside it.
"A life this long, do you understand what it is? It's a battlefield, like this one, and it's empty. Because everyone else has fallen."
— The Doctor, Doctor Who, "Twice Upon a Time"
"I have been delivered from death. To a more permanent hell."
— LaCroix, Forever Knight
"I'd kill a thousand more to never have to be alone. You don't know the pain of living centuries watching the women you love grow old and turn to dust!"
— Dr. Knox, Smallville, "Cure"
"Immortality consists largely of boredom."
— Zefram Cochrane, Star Trek: The Original Series, "Metamorphosis"
"Look at us. When life has become futile, meaningless, unendurable, it must be allowed to end. Don't you see? For us, the disease is immortality."
— Quinn, Star Trek: Voyager, "Death Wish"
"I want to live, however briefly, knowing my life is finite. Mortality gives meaning to human life, captain. Peace, love, friendship. These are precious because we know they cannot endure. A butterfly that lives forever... is really not a butterfly at all."
— Data, Star Trek: Picard, "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2"
Dana Scully: You know, most people want to live forever.
Alfred Fellig: Most people are idiots, which is one of the reasons I don't.
Dana Scully: I think you're wrong. How can you have too much life? There's too much to learn, to experience.
Alfred Fellig: Seventy-five years is enough. Take my word for it. You live forever, sooner or later, you start to think about the big thing you're missing and that everybody else gets to find out about but you.
Dana Scully: What about love?
Alfred Fellig: What? Does that last forever? Forty years ago, I drove down to the city hall, down to the Hall of Records, Record Archives, whatever they call it. I wanted to look up my wife. It bothered me I couldn't remember her name. Love lasts 75 years, if you're lucky. You don't want to be around when it's gone.
Alfred Fellig: Most people are idiots, which is one of the reasons I don't.
Dana Scully: I think you're wrong. How can you have too much life? There's too much to learn, to experience.
Alfred Fellig: Seventy-five years is enough. Take my word for it. You live forever, sooner or later, you start to think about the big thing you're missing and that everybody else gets to find out about but you.
Dana Scully: What about love?
Alfred Fellig: What? Does that last forever? Forty years ago, I drove down to the city hall, down to the Hall of Records, Record Archives, whatever they call it. I wanted to look up my wife. It bothered me I couldn't remember her name. Love lasts 75 years, if you're lucky. You don't want to be around when it's gone.
— The X-Files, "Tithonus"
Music
"Forever young, I wanna be forever young
Do you really want to live forever, forever?"
Do you really want to live forever, forever?"
— Alphaville (and many other artists)
"But I am damned
If life itself is condemnation
I am immortal
Thus my freedom is captivity"
If life itself is condemnation
I am immortal
Thus my freedom is captivity"
— Kamelot, "Across the Highlands"
''"Sapphire Trans-Am
High beams in vain
Drive wild broncos
Down the plain
Push up to the corner
Where the turbines hiss
Someday we won't remember this.'"'
High beams in vain
Drive wild broncos
Down the plain
Push up to the corner
Where the turbines hiss
Someday we won't remember this.'"'
— the Mountain Goats, "Damn These Vampires"
"Who wants to live forever
When love must die?"
When love must die?"
— Queen, "Who Wants To Live Forever"
Podcasts
The Animus Bell: How would you like to live forever?
Magnus: I'd hate it. Shut the fuck up. [stuffs the Bell into his bag without another word]
Magnus: I'd hate it. Shut the fuck up. [stuffs the Bell into his bag without another word]
— The Adventure Zone: Balance, "The Suffering Game, Chapter Seven"
"And now a word from our sponsor.
We all want to live forever, right?
Wrong.
Think about watching your family die as you selfishly carry on, your children aging and passing, your grandchildren, and so on. Think of all the friends you’ll make, but eventually lose.
You don't want that! No!
You know the earth is eventually going to be swallowed by the sun, right? And one day, you would be present for this greatest of all apocalypses. As fascinating as this would be, scientifically speaking, this excitement would fade as the pain of thousand-degree flames engulfed your tender body, and your aged mind would be so alone in this interminable torture.
Does this sound like something you want? We didn't think so.
Immortality is stupid. Think before you wish.
This message brought to you by DirecTV."
We all want to live forever, right?
Wrong.
Think about watching your family die as you selfishly carry on, your children aging and passing, your grandchildren, and so on. Think of all the friends you’ll make, but eventually lose.
You don't want that! No!
You know the earth is eventually going to be swallowed by the sun, right? And one day, you would be present for this greatest of all apocalypses. As fascinating as this would be, scientifically speaking, this excitement would fade as the pain of thousand-degree flames engulfed your tender body, and your aged mind would be so alone in this interminable torture.
Does this sound like something you want? We didn't think so.
Immortality is stupid. Think before you wish.
This message brought to you by DirecTV."
Poetry
"From too much love of living,
From hope and fear set free,
We thank with brief thanksgiving
Whatever gods may be
That no life lives for ever;
That dead men rise up never;
That even the weariest river
Winds somewhere safe to sea."
From hope and fear set free,
We thank with brief thanksgiving
Whatever gods may be
That no life lives for ever;
That dead men rise up never;
That even the weariest river
Winds somewhere safe to sea."
— Algernon Charles Swinburne, "The Garden of Proserpine"
Radio
The Doctor: It's one of the most wonderful things about Lady Time, isn’t it? How nothing's constant, how everything decays and changes?
Charley: You call that wonderful?
The Doctor: I call it absolutely beautiful! How would it be if everything was always the same? If you never got too big for your dresses, if you never got to pass them on to your sister? If the rainy autumn lasted forever and the spring never came? At least I change. I'm stumbling my way through bodies like I own a particularly dangerous bicycle. Grayle never changes, not inside, not who he is. So time piles on top of him and kills everything good. No one should have to go through that.
Charley: You call that wonderful?
The Doctor: I call it absolutely beautiful! How would it be if everything was always the same? If you never got too big for your dresses, if you never got to pass them on to your sister? If the rainy autumn lasted forever and the spring never came? At least I change. I'm stumbling my way through bodies like I own a particularly dangerous bicycle. Grayle never changes, not inside, not who he is. So time piles on top of him and kills everything good. No one should have to go through that.
— Big Finish Doctor Who, "Seasons Of Fear"
"Everything ends... Eventually. Every story ever told finishes in death if you tell it long enough. Sort of a fact of life... Got used to that now. Across time... Across space... I've lost it all now. Family. Friends. My own people. My home. Donna... Rose... I've always survived, I've always endured. I've always got through whatever has been thrown at me. However much I lose, I always carry on. To bear that burden. To remember them. Everything ends, eventually..."
— The Doctor, Big Finish Doctor Who, "Darlek Universe"
Tabletop Games
"Another age turns and once more, the world is hung in the balance. Once again, my brethren must fight and die for a cause that means little to us. Long ago we made our decision and there is no changing it. But the long years have worn me, as the tide shatters the shore, and sometimes I grow weary of the endless battle. What is more, I now wonder if it truly was our decision. I’ve seen enough to know how manipulative the Architect of Fate can be. I suppose it matters not. In truth, the only time I truly feel alive is when I face a foe capable of killing me."
— Enrinsorga, Dragon Ogre Shaggoth, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Old World Bestiary - A Compendium Of Creatures Fair And Foul
"Death? What is Death? It is the natural state of all things. It is life that is the aberration. It is life that should be feared, for it can go by with our work undone, it can be wasted away in failure and indolence. Death is to be embraced."
— Daenyathos - "The Bullet and the Skull", Warhammer 40,000
Video Games
"Immortality is one of those things that seems cool, but... it's probably not for everyone."
— Celeste, Animal Crossing: New Horizons
"To tell the truth, I think I had enough of afterlives as it is - this one has been pretty purgatorial. Almost fifty years floating in supercooled jelly like some medical specimen, thoughts creeping like rats through cramped silicon corridors of machines trapped behind video screens and camera systems. Never sleeping, never resting, never ceasing to think about the world I no longer belong to. No, if this is a taste of the afterlife, I think simple oblivion will do nicely."
— Jacob Hargreave, Crysis 2
"I was infected with the swamp's poison, and I made a pact with the Tree out of fear. So now I give it knowledge, and in exchange, it keeps me one step away from the grave. I wish it would just let me go, but a pact made cannot be broken."
— Timue, Diablo IV
"In the world that I knew, aging was a thing to fear: a herald of coming death. I'm sure that many people must have felt they would give anything to never grow old. But in a world where exactly that has happened, everyone has realized the truth. Sooner or later, an endless life, without goals and without change, becomes mired in apathy."
— "A Most Deadly Game" Loading Screen, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
"We Bangaa live long. Any other race would consider it a blessing, but to me and mine it is a curse. More summers mean more suffering."
Rinok, Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood
"Even death is a luxury I do not have!"
— Raven, Guilty Gear Xrd
Alucard: I'm a 300-year-old vampire. We're opposites.
Tavia: Then, make me a vampire.
Alucard: No way!
Tavia: Why not? Can't you turn me into a vampire?
Alucard: Nobody wants to live forever.
Tavia: Oh, please. Please make me a vampire.
Tavia: Then, make me a vampire.
Alucard: No way!
Tavia: Why not? Can't you turn me into a vampire?
Alucard: Nobody wants to live forever.
Tavia: Oh, please. Please make me a vampire.
"To most, life is fleeting. To me, it is quagmire."
— Yorick Mori, League of Legends
Ruby: I don't want to grow up, Hiro! I don't want eternal life! I want to be with you forever! I don't want to be alone!
Hiro: Ruby... Don't you understand? it's up to you to decide whether you'll be alone or not!
Ruby: What do you mean?
Hiro: Didn't you hear Nall? Every day we spend together, we're making more memories. And those memories will always brighten your heart and take away your fear. You've lived with me since I was a little boy, Ruby. And you've spent plenty of time with our new friends. Your heart must be bursting with memories by now, Ruby! And as long as you have those memories, we will always be with you. You'll never be alone.
Ruby: I always pretended not to hear the voice inside of me. The voice that kept asking when I was going to grow up. I knew that I would have to become an adult to protect our world... but I didn't want to lose my friends. So I ignored that voice, no matter how loud it spoke. But now I know that I won't lose you. I won't be alone. I'll always be with all of you, whether it's in the real world or in my heart. I won't ignore that voice anymore. I'll let it tell me what I need to do..
Hiro: Ruby... Don't you understand? it's up to you to decide whether you'll be alone or not!
Ruby: What do you mean?
Hiro: Didn't you hear Nall? Every day we spend together, we're making more memories. And those memories will always brighten your heart and take away your fear. You've lived with me since I was a little boy, Ruby. And you've spent plenty of time with our new friends. Your heart must be bursting with memories by now, Ruby! And as long as you have those memories, we will always be with you. You'll never be alone.
Ruby: I always pretended not to hear the voice inside of me. The voice that kept asking when I was going to grow up. I knew that I would have to become an adult to protect our world... but I didn't want to lose my friends. So I ignored that voice, no matter how loud it spoke. But now I know that I won't lose you. I won't be alone. I'll always be with all of you, whether it's in the real world or in my heart. I won't ignore that voice anymore. I'll let it tell me what I need to do..
Shepard: What's it like living for nearly a thousand years?
Aethyta: Violent. Wars break out, colonies get destroyed. Mindoir, Eden Prime, Feros... it's been like that forever. Sometimes you hear good news, like that colony on Feros surviving. That's the exception, though. You find peace in whatever arms will hold you. Turian, elcor, hanar...Even had a pureblood daughter. I was the father. Didn't work out. [...] Then one day you wake up, your figure's gotten matriarchal, and everyone else is too young to remember how the quarians looked inside those suits.
Aethyta: Violent. Wars break out, colonies get destroyed. Mindoir, Eden Prime, Feros... it's been like that forever. Sometimes you hear good news, like that colony on Feros surviving. That's the exception, though. You find peace in whatever arms will hold you. Turian, elcor, hanar...Even had a pureblood daughter. I was the father. Didn't work out. [...] Then one day you wake up, your figure's gotten matriarchal, and everyone else is too young to remember how the quarians looked inside those suits.
"Eternity... it hurts... it really hurts...
Why just us... Why do we have to... We... We must... kill them all! We don't need it! We don't need this world!
We tried our best! In the rain. In the wind. In the storm. Even when our companions died, we kept fighting. But the eternal war... Our eternal pain... Hahaha... The eternal pain! It screamed at us! It told us there was nothing of value to protect in this world... The world had no meaning! Hahaha! It SCREAMED at us! HAHAHA! This pain! This sadness! This DESPERATION! YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT IT!!"
Why just us... Why do we have to... We... We must... kill them all! We don't need it! We don't need this world!
We tried our best! In the rain. In the wind. In the storm. Even when our companions died, we kept fighting. But the eternal war... Our eternal pain... Hahaha... The eternal pain! It screamed at us! It told us there was nothing of value to protect in this world... The world had no meaning! Hahaha! It SCREAMED at us! HAHAHA! This pain! This sadness! This DESPERATION! YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT IT!!"
— Emil's clones after 6,933 years of combat, NieR: Automata
"Wreck of Sugawara, who wished for immortality."
— Description of "Was Sugawara", Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
"When a thing seals itself against its own destruction, it merely dies a different death."
Sam: Did you know that there are jellyfish that can live forever?
Brock: Yeah, but who wants to be an immortal jellyfish?
Sam: I guess that would be pretty dull. Drift, drift, drift, sting. Drift, drift, drift, sting.
Claptrap: You know, as long as I get fresh batteries every couple hundred years, I'm pretty sure that I'm effectively immortal. That's really depressing!
Sam: I wouldn't worry about it. The way you're going, I'm pretty sure someone'll put you out of your misery long before the ennui of immortality kicks in.
Claptrap: Promise?
Brock: Trust me, I'll pull the trigger myself.
Brock: Yeah, but who wants to be an immortal jellyfish?
Sam: I guess that would be pretty dull. Drift, drift, drift, sting. Drift, drift, drift, sting.
Claptrap: You know, as long as I get fresh batteries every couple hundred years, I'm pretty sure that I'm effectively immortal. That's really depressing!
Sam: I wouldn't worry about it. The way you're going, I'm pretty sure someone'll put you out of your misery long before the ennui of immortality kicks in.
Claptrap: Promise?
Brock: Trust me, I'll pull the trigger myself.
"'What we do in life echoes in eternity.' But what if your life is eternal? What becomes of the echoes? I'll tell you. I'll tell you! They thunder and roar! They become deafening reminders of your failures! They remind you that you once stood with the blood of murdered friends on your hands, and that it was all for naught. And when you've listened long enough, you realise there's no absolution, no redemption. No point to any of it. So don't tell me how we can change the world, and how I am needed. This world has nothing left to offer me, nothing worth saving, and I couldn't care less if it all burned."
— Octavian, The Secret World
"Eternal life brings eternal pain."
"What good is a world that goes on forever? That sounds pretty lame!"
—Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic and the Black Knight
"The Hourai Elixir is a forbidden medicine that should never be consumed by humans. With but a single taste, you will never become an adult. With a second taste, you will forget all disease and illness. With a third taste.... your soul will forever churn in torment!"
— Fujiwara no Mokou, Hourai immortal, Touhou Eiyashou ~ Imperishable Night
"You're both gonna die and leave me behind? No! I don't wanna be alone! If you die, I wanna die, too!"
— Albedo learns his friends Rubedo and Nigredo aren't immortal, Xenosaga
Web Animation
Salem: What did you do to me?
The God of Light: I have made you immortal.
Salem: Immortal?
The God of Darkness: You cannot die. You cannot be with your beloved.
Both Gods: So long as this world turns, you shall walk its face.
The God of Light: You must learn the importance of life and death. Only then may you rest.
The God of Light: I have made you immortal.
Salem: Immortal?
The God of Darkness: You cannot die. You cannot be with your beloved.
Both Gods: So long as this world turns, you shall walk its face.
The God of Light: You must learn the importance of life and death. Only then may you rest.
"Don't you get it? She's been alive longer than you can comprehend. The only thing she craves now is release. Death."
Webcomics
"I was an Aliak in the service of The Empire. We acted as scouts, spies, and assassins. Those of us who served well were rewarded with a very special enchantment... We were 'blessed' by magic to live far beyond our years. I've come here every day ever since the fall of The Empire to pray for forgiveness and waiting for my time to come. And now, after outliving my families, my friends, and even my enemies, I'm just an old man with no one to talk to."
"You wanna know the most difficult part about being a toon? You never die... You just keep on living, year after year, and seeing everyone forget you existed."
"Ugh... the same nonsense, over and over again. How does Albia stand it?"
— Simon Voltaire, the Master of Paris, Girl Genius
Squid-Sophont: The Plutorialment will question your motives.
Oafan Ambassador: They are a deep breath too young to understand our motives.
Squid-Sophont: Old age makes you generous?
Oafan Ambassador: Longevity is a curse if one has no friends with which to share it.
Oafan Ambassador: They are a deep breath too young to understand our motives.
Squid-Sophont: Old age makes you generous?
Oafan Ambassador: Longevity is a curse if one has no friends with which to share it.
"I don't want to live forever. I'm not even sure I want the time I have."
"Holy crap! Is everyone out to kill me?? This whole undead immortality thing is totally overrated!!"
— Mark/"Prince Allen", Weregeek
Oscar: I know he's already dead, but... this feels like I'm leading him to his death.
Eliza: You are. But he's been trying to find it himself for a long time.
Eliza: You are. But he's been trying to find it himself for a long time.
— Wilde Life, #678
Caption: Fanfic as written by a 20-year-old:
Celestia: I'm sorry, Twilight, but...you're now immortal.
Twilight: I- immortal? But I don't want to live forever! Being forced to watch everpony I'll ever care about grow old and die. Whist never aging myself. Why would you do this to me princess? *Boo Hoo*
Celestia: I'm sorry, Twilight, but...you're now immortal.
Twilight: I- immortal? But I don't want to live forever! Being forced to watch everpony I'll ever care about grow old and die. Whist never aging myself. Why would you do this to me princess? *Boo Hoo*
— My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fancomic by goodmorningcelestia
by goodmorningcelestiaMonroe: But Bugs, the men I owe money to, they'll kill me!
Bugs Bunny: I'm immortal, Mr. Monroe. Believe me: Death is a blessing.
Bugs Bunny: I'm immortal, Mr. Monroe. Believe me: Death is a blessing.
— Space Jam 2: Illegal Horse Racing Space Jam by Onegianthand
by Onegianthand Web Original
"Ech. Living forever. You hear the stories of people who make stupid wishes like that. Never turns out well."
— Garret, Corruption of Champions II
Sam: what was it like
Sam: seeing everyone you loved die
Sam: slowly as time moved on
Phil: painful
Sam: I feel for you then
Phil: but not as painful as what I inflicted on their enemies
Sam: seeing everyone you loved die
Sam: slowly as time moved on
Phil: painful
Sam: I feel for you then
Phil: but not as painful as what I inflicted on their enemies
"I don't really wanna become immortal that much anyways, it's too much hard work. You gotta keep watching people going in and out of the White House for the rest of time. No thanks, Samuel!"
— JonTron
"Kivouackians don't perish with time. Billions of years we've been about, and life's not worth much once all the rest is gone. You get tired of the wind and the birds, the sound of laughter and the smell of pine. Life is like a piece of paper, and the writing is our lives. When you only have ninety years, the ink turns to gold, so valuable are the words, the days you live, because soon, the story will end. But what if you have a neverending page, a bottomless inkwell? The more you write, the less it all means. That's our curse! We live so long that it's not even life anymore. We're not living forever. We're dying forever."
SCP-1440: Should you choose to challenge Death to a game of cards for your life, there is one thing you must never do.
Dr. ████: And what is that?
SCP-1440: Win.
Should you choose to challenge Death to a game of cards for your life, there is one thing you must never do. Dr. ████: And what is that?
SCP-1440: Win.
— The SCP Foundation
"I think they [humanity] are just doing the best they can with immortality. A human being will rarely admit this to you, but they tend to be terrified of living forever. They were born and raised with the understanding that their lives would end. They've achieved everything they wanted to achieve, all the ills that plagued them.
And now boredom is their only enemy. And they get up in the morning and fight it every day of their eternal lives. Recreation and play sustain them. Football sustains them. And if you find yourself in a football game that's such a gargantuan task, that seems undefeatable, that will claim eons of your time and your passion?
I think that makes you one of the lucky ones."
And now boredom is their only enemy. And they get up in the morning and fight it every day of their eternal lives. Recreation and play sustain them. Football sustains them. And if you find yourself in a football game that's such a gargantuan task, that seems undefeatable, that will claim eons of your time and your passion?
I think that makes you one of the lucky ones."
— Ten, 17776
"I think, if viewed by one of the many Emily clones in World of Tomorrow, the Simpsons would seem to have done it: they have achieved eternal life, they forever have purpose, they will continue their line until the end of time, and nothing can stop them. They were the Simpsons, they are the Simpsons and will be the Simpsons. And having achieved this, they get... they get what, exactly? Constant reminders of the ways they've changed, and constant reminders of the ways they cannot."
"Haven't you ever wanted to live forever? It sounds appealing as just a general idea, because the mind immediately sees itself going on as it has, cheating the system and getting an All-You-Can-Sentiently-Experience Buffet in the form that it's comfortable with. The body is bad with time this way because getting old still comes as a shock to it somehow, even though you've always known it was coming. The body is poor at anticipating fundamental change, habitual and automatic to the end. Eternal life is, when you think about it, a complexly frightening prospect. What happens when mind and body fall out of synch? When the body becomes a prison from which there is no escape, not even in death?"
"When a moment in our life feels worthwile, I think it's because we're putting our soul into that moment. But I think that the human mind is designed to enjoy things only for so long because we can only live for so long, so much as we might like something, we always have to put it down to enjoy something else.
Maybe becoming timeless would lead to a fantastic few decades, but after a bit, I think everything would start to feel kind of bland. I think even passion has an expiration date. It's a passion of a lifetime. And I think that's because we also do things to leave a mark. Leave a bit of our soul behind after we pass. Think we've only got so much soul to live, and when we live too much, we run out of soul."
Maybe becoming timeless would lead to a fantastic few decades, but after a bit, I think everything would start to feel kind of bland. I think even passion has an expiration date. It's a passion of a lifetime. And I think that's because we also do things to leave a mark. Leave a bit of our soul behind after we pass. Think we've only got so much soul to live, and when we live too much, we run out of soul."
— Goblin Tyrant of French Baguette Intelligence, in the episode "Are A.Is sentient? - What is Supersapience?"
Western Animation
"They don't know what it's like to liiive... fooor... eeever... aaand fooorget who they even are..."
Ignignokt: But we can offer you this: Cash our check and you will get immortal.
Err: Never-ending life...
Carl: Nahh. Sometimes I kinda wanna die.
Err: Never-ending life...
Carl: Nahh. Sometimes I kinda wanna die.
— Aqua Teen Hunger Force, "Remooned"
"You want to live like this? Abandoned, alone, a prisoner in a world you can see but never touch? Old and infirm as you are, I'd trade a thousand of my frozen years for your worst day."
— Mr Freeze, Batman: The Animated Series, "Deep Freeze"
"Take a good look, doctor. I've been like this for nearly fifty years and I haven't aged one day. I have become what many men have dreamed of: an immortal. And yet, there hasn't been a day, an hour, a minute, I haven't thought about death. It obsesses me. Even now."
— Freeze a few decades later, Batman Beyond, "Meltdown"
Demona: You know the rules. Killing me will gain you nothing but your own death.
Macbeth: After this long a lifetime, I have no fear of that. And no desire to live in the kind of world you're creating.
Macbeth: After this long a lifetime, I have no fear of that. And no desire to live in the kind of world you're creating.
Hudson: Listen to me, Xanatos. What you seek demands a heavy price. I've been alive for over eleven hundred years. Most of my clan is dead and dust, and I am a stranger in a strange land. Demona and Macbeth are immortal; has it brought them happiness?
Xanatos: Save your breath, Hudson. Death and old age have their price as well. And it's too expensive for me.
Xanatos: Save your breath, Hudson. Death and old age have their price as well. And it's too expensive for me.
"Why did you make me do this?! You're fighting so you can watch everyone around you die! Think, Mark! You'll outlast every fragile, insignificant being on this planet. You'll live to see this world crumble to dust and blow away! Everyone and EVERYTHING you know will be gone! What will you have after 500 years?!"
—Nolan Grayson/Omni-Man, Invincible
Kyle: Alright, dude. Let's just say you're not crazy and it's true. What's the big deal? I mean, I think it'll be pretty cool not to die...
Mysterion: PRETTY COOL?! Do you know what it feels like to be stabbed? To be shot? Decapitated?! Torn apart?! Burned?! Run over?! It's not pretty cool, Kyle. IT FUCKING HURTS. And it won't go away and no one will believe me! Remember this time! JUST TRY TO FUCKING REMEMBER!! [shoots himself in front of his friends]
Mysterion: PRETTY COOL?! Do you know what it feels like to be stabbed? To be shot? Decapitated?! Torn apart?! Burned?! Run over?! It's not pretty cool, Kyle. IT FUCKING HURTS. And it won't go away and no one will believe me! Remember this time! JUST TRY TO FUCKING REMEMBER!! [shoots himself in front of his friends]
Real Life
"In a way, both Cocoon pictures consider the same dilemma that the angels struggled with in Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire: Is it better to live forever as a spirit who can feel nothing, or for a finite time as a creature who can breathe and hurt and die? My answer would be: Take me to the silver city and I'll think it over for a few thousand years."
"The grass is gone, the plants are gone, the animals are gone, everything became a dirge. You can still see them all, but to me everything have become a dirge. I'm standing before the great macrocosm, just waiting for my time. And all I've been doing is waiting for the sweetness of death, which will definitely come for me."
— Mbah Gotho, the (alleged) oldest man alive
"Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon."
— Susan Ertz, novelist.
