„My will is easy to decide,
For there is nothing to divide.
My kin don't need to fuss and moan —
"Moss does not cling to a rolling stone."

My body? — Oh! — If I could choose,
I would to ashes it reduce,
And let the merry breezes blow
My dust to where some flowers grow.

Perhaps some fading flower then
Would come to life and bloom again.
This is my last and final will.
Good luck to all of you. [Joe Hill]“

„Oh, call my brother back to me!
I cannot play alone:
The summer comes with flower and bee,—
Where is my brother gone?“

—  Felicia Hemans, The Child's First Grief

The Child's First Grief (1828).

„Oh, I would while away the hours,
Wanking in the flowers, my heart all full of song,
I'd be gliding all the lilies as I waved about my willie,
If I only had a schlong.“

—  Christopher Moore, livro Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

Fonte: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

„You have made a place in my heart where I thought there was no room for anything else. You have made flowers grow where I cultivated dust and stones. Remember this, on this journey you insist on making. If you die, I will not survive you long.“

—  Robert Jordan, The Shadow Rising

al'Lan Mandragoran to Nynaeve al'Meara
(15 September 1992)
Fonte: The Shadow Rising

„(…): Oh, David, I would trust you with my life! Oh, Jonathan, I would sacrifice my own life for your holy mission! (He almost does): (weeping) David, you must return to me! I need you! I cannot do this thing without you!: Lo, I return!“

—  Cassandra Clare, livro The Shadowhunter's Codex

Fonte: The Shadowhunter's Codex

„I don't know these people and they aren't my flowers.“

—  Richard Brautigan American novelist, poet, and short story writer 1935 - 1984

„T was ever thus from childhood’s hour!
My fondest hopes would not decay:
I never loved a tree or flower
Which was the first to fade away.“

—  Charles Stuart Calverley British poet 1831 - 1884

Disaster; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare:
Oh, ever thus, from childhood’s hour,
I ’ve seen my fondest hopes decay;
I never loved a tree or flower
But ’t was the first to fade away.
- Thomas Moore, The Fire Worshippers, p. 26.

„From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity.“

—  Edvard Munch Norwegian painter and printmaker 1863 - 1944

Quote in Sustainable Landscape Construction: A Guide to Green Building Outdoors (2007) by William Thompson and Kim Sorvig, p. 30
after 1930

„Oh would I were a boy again,
When life seemed formed of sunny years,
And all the heart then knew of pain
Was wept away in transient tears!
When every tale Hope whispered then,
My fancy deemed was only truth.
Oh, would that I could know again,
The happy visions of my youth.“

—  Mark Lemon British magazine editor 1809 - 1870

Oh would I were a Boy again, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

„Nothing in the whole world is of interest to me but my painting and my flowers.“

—  Claude Monet French impressionist painter 1840 - 1926

his remark, shortly after the death of his second wife Alice in 1911; as quoted in: K.E. Sullivan Monet: Discovering Art, Brockhampton press, London (2004), p. 76
1900 - 1920

„I have discovered a goodness and decency in people as exhibited in all the letters, e-mails, flowers, gifts and prayers that have been directed my way. I am overwhelmed and humbled. I offer you my most sincere thanks and my deep and abiding gratitude. If I ever write my memoirs, I have some spellbinding material. How does the Joni Mitchell song go? "Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone"? One thing I've discovered is that I love my job more than I thought I did, and I love my wife even more!“

—  Roger Ebert American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter 1942 - 2013

"Roger writes to readers" Chicago Sun Times (11 October 2006)

„I want to see your tailpipe fading off into the sunset."
Good luck, I thought. My tailpipe was somewhere on Route 1, along with my muffler.“

—  Janet Evanovich, livro One for the Money

Fonte: One for the Money

„A flower may fade before 'tis noon,
And I this day may lose my breath.“

—  Isaac Watts English hymnwriter, theologian and logician 1674 - 1748

Song 13: "The Danger of Delay".
1710s, Divine Songs Attempted in the Easy Language of Children (1715)

„They gave me powers of thought and memory far beyond anything natural evolution would have given me, but that doesn't give them the right to decide the meaning of my life as if I were some dream. I decide the meaning. If my life is a dream then it's my dream, I'm the dreamer.“

—  Orson Scott Card, livro Lovelock

Lovelock (1994)

„If I knew that I could die, I would live. My life, my death, my choice.“

—  Terry Pratchett English author 1948 - 2015

Final lines of his Richard Dimbleby lecture Shaking Hands With Death on euthanasia and assisted suicide, quoted in "Terry Pratchett: my case for a euthanasia tribunal" in The Guardian (2 February 2010) http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/feb/02/terry-pratchett-assisted-suicide-tribunal
General sources
Contexto: I dare say that quite a few people have contemplated death for reasons that much later seemed to them to be quite minor. If we are to live in a world where a socially acceptable "early death" can be allowed, it must be allowed as a result of careful consideration.
Let us consider me as a test case. As I have said, I would like to die peacefully with Thomas Tallis on my iPod before the disease takes me over and I hope that will not be for quite some time to come, because if I knew that I could die at any time I wanted, then suddenly every day would be as precious as a million pounds. If I knew that I could die, I would live. My life, my death, my choice.

„I imbue this place with my essence, every stone and every drop. My visit will do wonders for the flowers."

Aly propped her chin on her hand. "So does manure," she observed.“

—  Tamora Pierce American writer of fantasy novels for children 1954

Fonte: Trickster's Queen

„If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk through my garden forever.“

—  Alfred, Lord Tennyson British poet laureate 1809 - 1892

„So now, whenever I despair, I no longer expect my end, but some bit of luck, some commonplace little miracle which, like a glittering link, will mend again the necklace of my days.“

—  Colette, livro The Vagabond

Fonte: The Vagabond

„I HIDE myself within my flower
That wearing on your breast,
You, unsuspecting, wear me too—
And angels know the rest.

I hide myself within my flower,
That, fading from your vase,
You, unsuspecting, feel for me
Almost a loneliness…“

—  Emily Dickinson, livro The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

Fonte: The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

„mother Ida, many-fountain'd Ida,
Dear mother Ida, harken ere I die.
For now the noonday quiet holds the hill:
The grasshopper is silent in the grass:
The lizard, with his shadow on the stone,
Rests like a shadow, and the winds are dead.
The purple flower droops: the golden bee
Is lily-cradled: I alone awake.
My eyes are full of tears, my heart of love,
My heart is breaking, and my eyes are dim,
And I am all aweary of my life.“

—  Alfred, Lord Tennyson British poet laureate 1809 - 1892

" Oenone http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/britlit/tenn/oenone.html", st. 3 (1832)