The Last Words of Real Men

The following 10 men looked death in the eye and embraced whatever came next. 

"Now comes the mystery" - Henry Ward, Beecher, clergyman and reformer

"More weight" - Giles Corey ( The 80-year-old Corey was accused of witchcraft during the 1692 Salem trials, but he refused to enter a plea to the court. As punishment, he was laid naked in a pit in a field, and slowly pressed to death over two days. Heavy rocks were gradually placed upon his chest--but he refused to cry out in pain, or enter a plea, and each time he was asked to do so, he simply replied: "More weight." )

"I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis" - Humphrey Bogart, actor

"Dont't give up the ship! Fight her till she sinks!" - Captian James Lawrence, US Naval Officer ( During the War of 1812, Lawrence's ship, the USS Chesapeake engaged in battle with the Royal Navy's HMS Shannon. The captain was mortally wounded with small arms fire, but encouraged his men to keep up the fight. His orders became a popular Naval battle cry. )

"Take a step forward lads - it'll be easier that way." - Robert Erskine Childers, Irish nationalist ( These were Childers' last words to his firing squad before he was executed in 1922 during the Irish Civil War. )

"I am not at least afriad to die" - Charles Darwin, naturalist

"This hath not offended the king" - Thomas More, philosopher ( Thomas More was tried and executed for treason in 1535 because he wouldn't support King Henry VIII's marriage annulment and denied that the king was the head of the Church. Before being beheaded, he said his last words in reference to his beard. He positioned his beard on the executioner's block so that it wouldn't be harmed while he was beheaded. )

"Gentleman, I bid you farewell" - Wallace Hartley, bandmaster on the RMS TItanic

"This is a hell of a way to die" - General George S. Patton ( Patton died in 1945, right before leaving Europe. He was in a car accident en route to a hunting excursion that left him paralyzed from the neck down. He lingered in a hospital in spinal traction for 12 days; twas not the kind of glorious death the lifetime soldier had imagined for himself. )

"Sacrificies must be made!" - Otto Lilienthal, aviation pioneer ( Passionate about the idea of manned flight, Otto Lilienthal was known as the "Glider King" and made over 2,000 flights in glider models he designed himself. In 1896, his glider stalled, and he fell 56 ft, critically fracturing his spine. These were his last words to his brother before he succumbed to the injury. )