George Washington:
(to his aide, Tobias Lear) “I am just going. Have me decently buried and do not let my body be put into a vault in less than two days after I am dead. Do you understand me?”
(Lear to Washington) “Yes, sir.”
(to Lear) “Tis well.”
John Adams:
“Thomas Jefferson still… survives.”
Thomas Jefferson:
(to his doctor) “Is it the Fourth? I resign my spirit to God, my daughter to my country.”
James Madison:
“I always talk better lying down.”
John Quincy Adams:
“This is the end of earth, but I am composed.” (may have said “…but I am content.”)
Andrew Jackson:
“Both white and black… Oh, do not cry. Be good children, and we shall all meet in heaven.”
Martin Van Buren:
“There is but one reliance.”
William Henry Harrison:
“I wish you to understand the true principles of the government. I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more.”
John Tyler:
(to his doctor) “Doctor, I am going.”
(the doctor) “I hope not, Sir.”
(Tyler) “Perhaps, it is best.”
Zachary Taylor:
“I am about to die. I expect the summons very soon. I have tried to discharge my duties faithfully. I regret nothing, but I am sorry that I am about to leave my friends.”
Millard Fillmore:
“The nourishment is palatable.”
James Buchanan:
“O Lord, God Almighty, as Thou wilt.”
Abraham Lincoln:
Unknown, but the last words that the president ever heard were, “Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, you sockdologizing old man trap.”
Ulysses S. Grant:
“Water.”
Rutherford B. Hayes:
(to his son) “I know that I am going where Lucy (his wife) is.”
James A. Garfield:
(to his chief of staff, David G. Swaim) “Swaim, can’t you stop this? Oh, Swaim!”
Grover Cleveland:
“I have tried so hard to do right.”
Benjamin Harrison:
“Are the doctors here? Doctor… my lungs.”
William McKinley:
“It is God’s way. His will, not ours, be done.”
Theodore Roosevelt:
(to his valet, James Amos) “Please put out the light.”
Woodrow Wilson:
“I am a broken piece of machinery. When the machinery is broken… I am ready.”
Warren G. Harding:
(to his wife, after she read him a profile of himself published in the Saturday Evening Post) “That’s good. Go on; read some more.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt:
“I have a terrific headache.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower:
“I’ve always loved my wife. I’ve always loved my children. I’ve always loved my grandchildren. And I have always loved my country.”
John F. Kennedy:
Unknown, but several minutes before he was shot, Mrs. John Connely turned to him and said, “Mr. President, you can’t say Dallas doesn’t love you.” He replied, “That is very obvious.”
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