Talk:Epitaphs

"What you are we were"
"What you are we were and what we are you will become" Is it just me, or does that seem strikingly familiar to something in a graveyard in one of Mario Puzo's books? --LuciferBlack 19:27, 25 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Werner Heisenberg
I've seen Heisenberg's tombstone and it just says his name, the word "Physiker" (German for physicist) and dates of birth and death. The rest of his families names are on the stone too. But the epitaph that's quoted here is just a joke. There is a picture of the tombstone on Wikipedia if someone wants to confirm this.

Edgar Allen Poe
[] seems to contradict the epitaph listed for Poe. I don't how reliable that source is, though.--128.143.167.76 20:16, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

So far as I can see, Poe's epitaph is simply: 'Quoth the Raven, Nevermore' [note the omission of 'fly']. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.18.184.212 (talk • contribs) 23:33, 6 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Agreed. Have edited 87.194.252.72 23:51, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Spike milligan
As I understand it, the reason that his epitaph is in Irish/gaelic is that he's buried in a churchyard, and so, as the local church authorities can control what is written on gravestones, his family xcouldn't just have whatever they wanted put on it. The local authorities objected to "I told you I was ill" as too flippant for a gravestone, so the final copromise was to put the same words up in gaelic.

[]

I just couldn't think of a good way to word it 81.102.41.34 21:00, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)

From "Gene Ragnon"
(deleted)

Correction:

The name in this epitaph is erroneously spelled "Gene Ragnon."

The correct spelling for the name of this U.S. Marine is Rene Gagnon.

(added there by anon, 65.74.255.245)

John Laird McCaffery
According to snopes.com, the Montreal Mirror reported that it was John's ex-wife and mistress that came in together to order the headstone. Should this be noted in the article?

Cleanup
I tagged this article for cleanup for several reasons: In short, this article needs some attention from experienced Wikiquotians in order to develop some guidelines that address the special requirements for this topic without making it too hard for editors to add or modify entries. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 13:53, 28 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Many of the entries don't follow the guidelines at the top.
 * The guidelines don't explicitly describe how one should source the epitaphs. (Sourcing is an essential part of Wikiquote entries.)
 * It is unclear how the epitaphs themselves should be formatted (capitalization, multiple lines, etc.).
 * Formatting multiline epitaphs (necessary for some lengthy ones) presents challenges to following any format guidelines, demonstrated by the wide variations currently shown here.

Lack of sources; arbitrary deletions
As I suggested above, there is very little sourcing for any of these attributed epitaphs, making them hard to verify. On top of all the other problems that these epitaph entries have, it makes it much easier just to delete problem entries than to fix them. (I've just deleted the entry from Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes on this basis, as someone included the entire lyrics of the song "Waterfalls" as her epitaph, and without a source to back this up, I thought it best to delete such a likely copyright violation.)

Please note that editors are encourage to removed unsourced material from Wikimedia project articles, per Wikipedia policy. Like everything else on the smaller Wikiquote project, we haven't paid much attention to this general policy, but in order to tame the unwieldy nature of this epitaph article, I plan to delete any entry that looks suspiciously inaccurate, unlikely, or in any other way causing problems, unless it has a cited reliable source (web, print, or audiovisual) that may be used to verify it. I don't plan to wade through the article to pare it down fully, but anything that gets attention called to it (like new edits) may get axed if it isn't sourced. I'm hoping this will motivate editors to cite their sources when editing. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 03:20, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

Winston Churchill
Are these epitaphs supposed to be real grave inscriptions? If so the Winston Churchill example (and I'm sure many others) are not. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.219.25.147 (talk • contribs) 12:24, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Gandhi
How could M. K. Gandhi have a tombstone? He was cremated and his ashes spread over a river. --Marshall19 67.180.56.14 07:50, 2 March 2007 (UTC) Its not so much a Grave stone as it is a memorial, but there is a mahtama gandhi memorial at Raj Ghat on the banks of the river Yamuna (apparantly the place he was cremated)

William Churchill's epitaph
So far as I can see, Churchill's gravestone does not say anything about meeting his maker; it simply states his name and dates, along with those of his wife, Clementine. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.18.184.212 (talk • contribs) 23:28, 6 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Confirmed at Find-a-Grave. Arakunem 20:20, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

Shakespeare
I had edited his epitaph on Jan 22 to accurately reflect the Old English spelling he used. Prior it had been listed as we would speak it today. My edit was recently reverted back to the Modernized english. Just wondering which form is preferable, so as not to get in a pointless edit war. I do think that if the Modern English is preferred, that the quotation marks should be removed. Arakunem 20:12, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
 * I would think that it would be good to show both - I would first list the Old English version, as you had it. Then in a sub-bullet, I would show the Modern English version, much as we do for quotes in a foreign language, where we first list it in the foreign language, then list a translation beneath it. ~ UDScott 20:17, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

Clean Up
I cleaned up a little of the problems. I hope I helped. Bigroger27509 13:51, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

Robert Emmett
I have deleted Robert Emmett. The quoted text, the final paragraph of his speech from the dock at sentencing, is not his epitaph - rather it is his declaration that no man should write his epitaph until his nation takes its rightful place among the nations of the world. In fact, Emmett has no epitaph, as his burial place is unknown. He was hung, beheaded, and buried secretly so as to discourage those who might rally to his grave and cause. Irish Melkite 05:47, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

John Brown
Is there a source for this? I distinctly remember this from the graveyard in King's Quest IV! Double sharp (talk) 14:07, 13 February 2014 (UTC)


 * Apparently it is an old American dentist's epitaph, quoted as far back as 1902 . ~ DanielTom (talk) 16:06, 13 February 2014 (UTC)


 * Cool. Added cite; feel free to clean it up (it's probably not conforming to some standard...) Double sharp (talk) 14:46, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Unsourced: As many epitaphs are not written by the person who is being honoured, the format shall be as follows:

 * The following authoritive text didn't look right... it was up top before the quotes, but is not sourced and is not on the wikipedia page, so it's been moved here.

2BKleer (talk) 21:38, 12 September 2020 (UTC)


 * As many epitaphs are not written by the person who is being honoured, the format shall be as follows:
 * Honouree (author) - Year of birth - Year of Death
 * Text of Epitaph
 * Citation to a published source
 * More explanation text