DEATH/DYING/SYMPATHY/GRIEVING
1. A human life is a story told by God. ~Hans Christian Andersen
2. A sorrow shared is a sorrow halved. ~Unknown
3. Are all alive with light. ~Alice Cary, Dying Hymn
4. As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well used brings happy death. ~Leonardo da Vinci
5. As long as I can I will look at this world for both of us. As long as I can I will laugh with the birds, I will sing with the flowers, I will pray to the stars, for both of us. ~Sascha, as posted on motivateus.com
6. Birth is a beginning and death a destination
And life is a journey: From childhood to maturity, and youth to age;
From innocence to awareness, and ignorance to knowing;
From foolishness to discretion, and then perhaps to wisdom.
From weakness to strength or from strength to weakness, and often back again;
From health to sickness, and we pray to health again.
From offense to forgiveness, from loneliness to love
from joy to gratitude, from pain to compassion
from grief to understanding, from fear to faith.
From defeat to defeat to defeat, until looking backwards or ahead
We see that victory lies not at some high point along the way, but in having made the journey
step by step; a sacred pilgrimage.
Birth is a beginning, and death a destination
And life is a journey; A sacred journey to life everlasting. ~Unknown
7. Dawn is born at midnight. ~Carl Jung
8. Death doesn't end a relationship. It only changes it. ~I Never Sang for My Father
9. Death is beautiful when seen to be a law, and not an accident - It is as common as life. ~Henry David Thoreau
10. Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live. ~Norman Cousins
11. Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal. ~From a headstone in Ireland
12. Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal. ~From a headstone in Ireland
13. Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush,
I am the swift up-flinging
of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft star that shines at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there. I did not die. ~Mary Frye
14. Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal. ~Unknown
15. Even at our birth, death does but stand aside a little. And every day he looks towards us and muses somewhat to himself whether that day or the next he will draw nigh. ~Sir Francis Bacon
16. Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely. ~Buddha
17. Every evening I turn my worries over to God. He's going to be up all night anyway. ~Mary C. Crowley
18. Every man ought to be inquisitive through every hour of his great adventure down to the day when he shall no longer cast a shadow in the sun. For if he dies without a question in his heart, what excuse is there for his continunace. ~Frank Moore Colby
19. Farewell My Friend
It was beautiful as long as it lasted, The journey of my life.
I have no regrets whatsoever, save the pain I'll leave behind.
Those dear hearts who love and care, and the strings pulling at the heart and soul
The strong arms that held me up when my own strength let me down.
At every turning of my life I came across good friends, friends who stood by me,
even when the time raced me by.
Farewell, farewell my friends
I smile and bid you goodbye.
No, shed no tears for I need them not
All I need is your smile.
If you feel sad do think of me, for that's what I'll like when you live in the hearts
of those you love, remember then
you never die. ~ Rabindranath Tagore
20. For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity. ~William Penn
21. For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity. ~William Penn
22. For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun? ~Kahlil Gibran
23. Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak whispers the o'er-fraught heart and bids it break. ~William Shakespeare
24. God pours life into death and death into life without a drop being spilled. ~Unknown
25. He spake well who said that graves are the footprints of angels. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
26. He who has gone, so we but cherish his memory, abides with us, more potent, nay, more present than the living man. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery
27. He who has gone, so we but cherish his memory, abides with us, more potent, nay, more present than the living man. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery
28. Hold on to what is good even if it is a handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe even if it is a tree which stands by itself.
Hold on to what you must do even if it is a long way from here.
Hold on to life even when it is easier letting go.
Hold on to my hand even when I have gone away from you. ~Pueblo Blessing
29. I'm Gone now, but I'm still very near.
Death can never separate us.
Each time you feel a gentle breeze,
It's my hand caressing your face.
Each time the wind blows,
It carries my voice whispering your name.
When the wind blows your hair ever so slightly,
Think of it as me pushing a few stray hairs back in place.
When you feel a few raindrops fall on your face,
It's me placing soft kisses.
At night look up in the sky and see the stars shining so brightly.
I'm one of those stars and I'm winking at you and smiling with delight.
For never forget you're the apple of my eye. ~Mary M. Green
30. I find an old photograph and see your smile.
As I feel your presence anew, I am filled with warmth and my heart remembers love.
I read an old card sent many years ago during a time of turmoil and confusion.
The soothing words written then still caress my spirit and bring me peace.
I remember who you used to be the laughter we shared and wonder what you have become.
Where are you now, Where did you go,
When the body is left behind and the spirit is released to fly?
Perhaps you are the morning bird singing joyfully at sunrise,
or the butterfly that dances so carelessly on the breeze
or the rainbow of colors that brightens a stormy sky
or the fingers of afternoon mist delicately reaching over the mountains
or the final few rays of the setting sun lighting up the skies
edging the clouds with a magical glow.
I miss your being but I feel your presence,
In whatever form you choose to take, however you now choose to be.
Your spirit has become for me a guardian angel on high guiding, advising, and watching over me.
I remember you. You are with me
and I am not afraid. ~Kirsti A. Dyer
31. I walked a mile with Pleasure.
She chattered all the way,
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.
I walked a mile with Sorrow,
And ne'er a word said she;
But oh, the things
I learned from her
When Sorrow walked with me! ~Robert Browning
32. If I am to wear this mourning cloak, let it be made of the fabric of love, woven by the fine thread of memory. ~ Molly Fumia
33. If we have been pleased with life, we should not be displeased with death, since it comes from the hand of the same master. ~Michelangelo Buonarroti
34. In one of the stars, I shall be living.
In one of them, I shall be laughing.
And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing when you look at the sky at night. ~The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery
35. In the night of death, hope sees a star, and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing. ~Robert Ingersoll
36. It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live. ~Marcus Aelius Aurelius
37. It is the will of God and Nature that these mortal bodies be laid aside, when the soul is to enter into real life; 'tis rather an embryo state, a preparation for living; a man is not completely born until he be dead: Why then should we grieve that a new child is born among the immortals? ~Benjamin Franklin
38. It's so curious: one can resist tears and 'behave' very well in the hardest hours of grief. But then someone makes you a friendly sign behind a window, or one notices that a flower that was in bud only yesterday has suddenly blossomed, or a letter slips from a drawer... and everything collapses. ~Colette
39. THE LEGACY
When I die, give what is left of me to children.
If you need to cry, cry for your brothers walking beside you.
Put your arms around anyone and give them what you need to give to me.
I want to leave you with something, something better than words or sounds.
Look for me in the people I have known and loved.
And if you cannot live without me, then let me live on in your eyes, your mind and your acts of kindness.
You can love me most by letting hands touch hands and letting go of children that need to be free.
Love does not die, people do.
So when all that is left of me is love...
Give me away. ~Unknown
40. Let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life. ~John Muir
41. Life is a book in volumes three,
The past, the present and the yet to be.
The past we've written and laid away,
The present we're living day by day.
The last and best of volumes three,
Is locked from sight
God keeps the key. ~Kathlene Lease
42. Life is eternal, and love is immortal,
and death is only a horizon;
and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight. ~Rossiter Worthington Raymond
43. Love is missing someone whenever you're apart, but somehow feeling warm inside because you're close in heart. ~Kay Knudsen
44. Man, when he does not grieve, hardly exists. ~Antonio Porchia
45. Miss Me ~ But Let Me Go
When I come to the end of the road
And the sun has set for me
I want no rites in a gloom filled room
Why cry for a soul set free?
Miss me a little but not too long
And not with your head bowed low,
Remember the love that we once shared,
Miss me - but let me go.
For this is a journey we all must take
And each must go alone,
It is all part of the Master's plan
A step on the road to home.
When you are lonely and sick at heart,
Go to the friends you know
And bury your sorrow in doing good deeds,
Miss me - but let me go.~Unknown
46. May looking back in memory help comfort you tomorrow. ~Unknown
47. May the blessings of love be upon you
May its peace abide with you
May its essence illuminate your heart
Now and forever more . ~Sufi Blessing
48. May the glow of God's love light your way, and may the warmth of His embrace give you peace and comfort. ~Unknown
49. My soul is full of whispered song;
My blindness is my sight;
The shadows that I feared so long
Are all alive with light. ~Alice Cary, Dying Hymn
50. No one's death comes to pass without making some impression, and those close to the deceased inherit part of the liberated soul and become richer in their humaneness. ~Robert Oxton Bolt
51. Nothing that was worthy in the past departs; no truth or goodness realized by man ever dies, or can die. ~Thomas Carlyle
52. Oh heart, if one should say to you that the soul perishes like the body, answer that the flower withers, but the seed remains. ~Kahlil Gibran
53. On the darkest night, the stars shine most brightly. ~Unknown
54. Our death is not an end if we can live on in our children and the younger generation. For they are us, our bodies are only wilted leaves on the tree of life.~Albert Einstein
55. People do not die for us immediately, but remain bathed in a sort of aura of life which bears no relation to true immortality but through which they continue to occupy our thoughts in the same way as when they were alive. It is as though they were traveling abroad. ~Marcel Proust
56. People living deeply have no fear of death.~Anaiïs Nin, Diary, 1967
57. Perhaps they are not the stars, but rather openings in Heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy. ~Author Unknown
58. Perhaps they are not the stars, but rather openings in Heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy. ~Unknown
59. Photographs are precious memories . . . the visual evidence of place and time and relationships . . . ritual talismans for the treasure chest of the heart. ~Robert Fulghum
60. Remembering is an act of resurrection, each repetition a vital layer of mourning, in memory of those we are sure to meet again. ~Nancy Cobb
61. She was no longer wrestling with the grief, but could sit down with it as a lasting companion and make it a sharer in her thoughts.~George Eliot
62. Some people come into our lives and quickly leave, while some stay awhile leaving footprints on our hearts and we are never the same. ~Unknown
63. Sometimes there are no words...only love.~Unknown
64. Sorrow makes us all children again - destroys all differences of intellect. The wisest know nothing. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
65. Sympathy is two hearts tugging at one load. ~Unknown
66. The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity. ~Seneca
67. The death of someone we know always reminds us that we are still alive - perhaps for some purpose which we ought to re-examine. ~Mignon McLaughlin
68. The deep pain that is felt at the death of every friendly soul arises from the feeling that there is in every individual something which is inexpressible, peculiar to him alone, and is, therefore, absolutely and irretrievably lost. ~Arthur Schopenhauer
69. The light of the stars that were extinguished ages ago still reaches us. So is it with great men who died centuries ago, but still reach us with the radiations of their personality. ~Kahlil Gibran
70. The question is not whether we will die, but how we will live. ~Joan Borysenko
71. The thinker dies, but his thoughts are beyond the reach of destruction. Men are mortal; but ideas are immortal. ~Richard Adams
72. There are things that we don't want to happen but have to accept, things we don't want to know but have to learn, and people we can't live without but have to let go. ~Unknown
73. There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than 10,000 tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love. ~Washington Irving Quotes
74. There is no despair so absolute as that which comes with the first moments of our first great sorrow, when we have not yet known what it is to have suffered and be healed, to have despaired and recovered hope. ~George Eliot
75. Those who are worn out and crushed by this mourning, let your hearts consider this:
this is the path that has existed from the time of creation and will exist forever.
Many have drunk from it and many will yet drink.
As was the first meal, so shall be the last.
May the master of comfort comfort you.
Blessed are those who comforts the mourners. ~Jewish Blessing of the Mourners
76. To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die. ~Thomas Campbell
77. To Those I Love
If I should ever leave you whom I love
To go along the Silent Way, grieve not, nor speak of me with tears, but laugh and talk of me as if I were beside you there.
(I'd come-- I'd come, could I but find a way!
But would not tears and grief be barriers?)
And when you hear a song or see a bird I loved, please do not let the thought of me be sad... for I am loving you just as I always have...
You were so good to me!
There are so many things I wanted still to do-- so many things to say to you...
Remember that I did not fear... It was
Just leaving you that was so hard to face...
We cannot see beyond... But this I know:
I loved you so-- 'twas heaven here with you! ~Isla Paschal Richardson
78. Togetherness
Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped to the next room.
Whatever we were to each other, we still are.
Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the same easy way you always have.
Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me.
Pray for me.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is absolute, unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of your mind
because I am out of your sight?
I am but waiting for you, for an interval.
Someone very near, just around the corner.
All is well. Nothing is past.
Nothing has been lost.
One brief moment and all will be
as it was before... only better!
Infinitely happier. We will be one
Together, Forever.
79. Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality. ~Emily Dickinson
80. We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey. ~Kenji Miyazawa
81. We understand death for the first time when he puts his hand upon one whom we love. ~Madame de Stael
82. Weep not for me now that I have passed.
Remember the laughter, the affection, the joy not just the recent tears.
Cherish the memories, our hopes and dreams. Hold fast to the love that we shared.
Be happy with the time we spent together and being anew.
For I am not really gone, I am closer than ever before.
As the morning sun rises and throughout the busy day...I am with you.
Until the setting sun disappears on the horizon and we watch the day turn into night...I am here.
You may feel a faint breeze stir round your head, while you slumber as I gently kiss your forehead, Good night.
The stars that shine so brightly in my heavenly sky help me watch over you and keep you from harm.
I am the wind in the trees and the song of a bird.
I am moonbeams in a midnight sky and a glorious rainbow after the storm.
I am morning dew and freshly-fallen snow.
I am a butterfly flying overhead and a puppy happily at play.
I am a smile on a stranger's face, a gentle touch, a warm embrace.
Listen to the wind for my message of love.
Watch the sun rise and set in the sky with me.
Feel my essence encircle you with warm memories.
Open your heart to know...I am not gone.
Reach deep into your soul...You will find me.
I am here. Have no fear.
I am with you... always. ~Unknown
83. What is Dying?
Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other, that we still are.
Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no difference in your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without affect, without the trace of a shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same that it ever was.
There is absolutely unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner.
All is well. ~ Henry Scott Holland
What the heart has once known, it shall never forget. ~Unknown
84. What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal. ~Albert Pike
85. What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others. ~Pericles
86. When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure. ~Unknown
87. When the heart grieves over what it has lost, the spirit rejoices over what it has left. ~Sufi epigram
88. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight. ~Kahlil Gibran
89. When you feel Lonely
When a person you love passes away
Look to the night sky on a clear day.
The star that to you, appears to be bright,
Will be your loved one,
Looking upon you during the night.
The lights of heaven are what shows through
As your loved one watches all that you do.
When you feel lonely for the one that you love,
Look to the Heavens in the night sky above. ~Unknown
90. While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die. ~Leonardo Da Vinci
91. While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die. ~Leonardo da Vinci
92. While we are mourning the loss of our friend, others are rejoicing to meet him behind the veil. ~John Taylor
93. Without friends the world is but a wilderness....There is no man that imparteth his joys to his friends, but he joyeth the more; and no man that imparteth griefs to his friends, but he grieveth the less. ~Francis Bacon
94. You can shed tears that she is gone, or you can smile because she has lived.
You can close your eyes and pray that she'll come back, or you can open your eyes and see all she's left.
Your heart can be empty because you can't see her, or you can be full of the love you shared.
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday, or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.
You can remember her only that she is gone, or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.
You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back. Or you can do what she'd want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on. ~David Harkins
95. You will embark on a fair sea,
and at times there will be fair weather, but not always.
You will meet storms and overcome them.
You will take it in turns to steer your boat through fair weather and foul. Never lose courage.
Safe harbour awaits you...in the end. ~Daphne Du Maurer
96. You would know the secret of death?.
But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?
The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.
If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.
For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.
In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;
And like the seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.
Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.
Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour.
Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king?
Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?
For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?
And what is it to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?
Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance. ~Kahlil Gibran, from The Prophet
97. Your Loved One lives In Your Heart
Many tender memories soften your grief,
May fond recollection bring you relief,
And may you find comfort and peace in the thought
Of the joy that knowing your loved one brought...
For time and space can never divide
Or keep your loved one from your side
When memory paints in colors true
The happy hours that belonged to you. ~ Helen Steiner Rice