page_title: List of last words
section_title: 18th century
hierarchical_section_title: List of last words / Chronological list of last words / 18th century
context_page_description: Last words or final words are a person's final articulated words, stated prior to death or as death approaches. Last words may not necessarily be written down or accurately recorded, and they may not be quoted accurately for a variety of reasons.
  Famous last words include literal utterings such as the sayings of Jesus on the cross, "Et tu, Brute?" from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, and the ironic sense of words said before a disaster, such as:
  "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance!" General John Sedgwick at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House immediately before being killed by enemy fire.
  "Let all brave Prussians follow me!" Field Marshal Kurt Christoph Graf von Schwerin at the Battle of Prague, immediately before being hit in the head by a cannonball.
  "What do you think I'm gonna do? Blow my brains out?" Terry Kath of the band Chicago, just before putting a pistol to his temple and pulling the trigger.
context_section_description: "I am about to—or I am going to—die; either expression is correct."
  ("Je vais ou je vas mourir, l'un et l'autre se dit ou se disent.")
  — Dominique Bouhours, French priest and grammarian (27 May 1702)
  "I am leaving, but the State shall always remain."
  ("Je m'en vais, mais l'État demeurera toujours.")
  — Louis XIV, king of France (1 September 1715)
  "Don't be afraid."
  ("Var intet rädd.")
  — Charles XII, king of Sweden (11 December [O.S. 30 November] 1718), assuring his troops about his own safety minutes before being killed in battle
  "See in what peace a Christian can die."
  — Joseph Addison, English writer and politician (17 June 1719), to his stepson, Edward Rich, 7th Earl of Warwick
  "I don’t know what I may seem to the world. But as to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore and diverting myself now and then in finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than the ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."
  — Isaac Newton, English physicist (31 March [O.S. 20 March] 1727)
  "Is this dying? Is this all? Is this what I feared when I prayed against a hard death? Oh, I can bear this! I can bear this!"
  — Cotton Mather, New England Puritan minister and author (13 February 1728)
  "No, not quite naked. I shall have my uniform on."
  — Frederick William I of Prussia, King in Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg (31 May 1740), in response to priest or family members quoting Job 1:21
  "Oh Lord! Forgive the errata!"
  — Andrew Bradford, American newspaper printer and publisher (24 November 1742)
  "Go, one of you, to Colonel Burton; tell him to march Webb's regiment down to Charles River, to cut off their retreat from the bridge. Now, God be praised, I will die in peace!"
  — James Wolfe, British Army general (13 September 1759), mortally wounded at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, on learning that the French forces were fleeing
  "It has all been most interesting."
  — Mary Wortley Montagu, English traveler (21 August 1762)
  "Wait a second."
  — Madame de Pompadour, chief mistress of Louis XV of France (15 April 1764), applying rouge to her cheeks before her death
  "Give Dayrolles a chair."
  — Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, British statesman and diplomat (24 March 1773), asking a servant to seat his godson, Solomon Dayrolles
  "I am very ill. Send for Zimmermann. In fact, I think I'll die today."
  — Ludwig Christoph Heinrich Hölty, German poet (1 September 1776)
  "My friend, the artery ceases to beat."
  — Albrecht von Haller, Swiss anatomist and physiologist (12 December 1777)
  "Now is not the time for making new enemies."
  — Voltaire, French writer (30 May 1778), when asked by a priest to renounce Satan before his death
  "Take me to the boats."
  — James Cook, British explorer and Royal Navy captain (14 February 1779), after being mortally wounded by a native Hawaiian
  "No, but comfortable enough to die."
  — Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary and Croatia (29 November 1780), when her son said, "Your Majesty cannot be comfortable like that"
  "I die."
  — Leonhard Euler, Swiss mathematician and scientist (18 September 1783)
  "I am tired of ruling over slaves."
  ("Ich bin es müde, über Sklaven zu herrschen.")
  — Frederick the Great, king of Prussia (17 August 1786)
  "We are all going to Heaven, and van Dyke is of the company."
  — Thomas Gainsborough, English painter (2 August 1788)
  "Waiting, are they? Well—let 'em wait."
  — Ethan Allen, American patriot and militia general (12 February 1789), to a doctor who had told him the angels were waiting for him
  "A dying man can do nothing easy."
  — Benjamin Franklin, American statesman and scientist (17 April 1790), complaining about difficulty to assume a more comfortable position on his deathbed
  "I believe we shall adjourn this meeting to another place."
  — Adam Smith, Scottish economist (17 July 1790)
  "The taste of death is upon my lips... I feel something, that is not of this earth."
  — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer (5 December 1791)
  "I feel sleepy, a short time of rest would do me good."
  ("Jag känner mig sömnig, ett kort ögonbl
caption: Charles XII of Sweden, his body here pictured on its journey to Stockholm, was shot dead while inspecting his army's trenches.
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