FAMOUS LAST WORDS
The last words of a dying person are sometimes a matter for argument among scholars. Incoherence, the chance presence or absence of witnesses, and family sentiment can all interfere with an accurate record. The sayings quoted below are widely accepted by historians:
Ludvig Van Beethoven, German composer who suffered progressive impairement of hearing for the last 29 years of his life, died in 1827: "I shall hear in Heaven."
General George Armstrong Custer, With the US 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Big Horn: "We've got them!"
Leonardo da Vinci, Italian artist and inventor, died in 1519: "I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have."
Douglas Fairbanks Senior, American film star died in 1939: "I've never felt better."
Henry Fox, Lord Holland, British politician; died in 1774: "If Mr Selwyn (a rival politician) calls again, show him up. If I am alive I shall be delighted to see him, and if I am dead he would like to see me."
Ned Kelly, Australian outlaw and gang-leader, who was hanged in 1880: "Such is life."
Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester and English Protestant reformer, burnt at the stake with the Bishop of Rochester, Nicholas Ridley, on the orders of the Catholic Queen Mary: "Be of good comfort, Mr Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England as I trust shall never be put out."
Niccolo Machiavelli, Florentine diplomat and political philosopher; died in 1527: "I desire to go to Hell and not to Heaven. In the former place I shall enjoy the company of popes, kings and princes, while in the latter are only beggars, monks and apostles."
Karl Marx, German philosopher who died in 1883, to his housekeeper after she asked if he had a last message for the world: "Go on, get out! Last words are for fools who haven't said enough."
William Somerset Maugham, British author; died in 1965: "Dying is a very dull, dreary affair. And my advice to you is to have nothing to do with it."
Sir Thomas More, English Catholic statesman who was beheaded in 1535 on the orders of Henry VIII: "See me safe up (on to the scaffold), for my coming down, let me shift for myself."
Sir Isaac Newton, British scientist; died in 1727: "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 in now and then finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."
Lawrence Oates, British explorer, walked to his death in 1912 in an attempt to save his starving companions during Scott's expedition to the South Pole: "I am just going outside and I may be some time."
Cecil Rhodes, South African tycoon and statesman; died in 1902: "So little done, so much to do."
General John Sedgwick, Union commander in the American Civil War, shot at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in 1864 while looking over the parapet at the enemy lines: "They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist........"
Horatio Nelson, Lord Nelson, British admiral; died at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. His last words were not 'Kiss me, Hardy', as is often supposed, but: "Now I am satisfied. Thank God, I have done my duty."

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