A part of life and the hardest when it’s someone dear, these death quotes can provide you solace in your time of grieving. If you know someone that is after the recent loss of a loved one, share these insightful quotes about death to help them in their time of suffering.
Death is one of the most difficult things that any of us will have to deal with in our lives.
It is personal, unique, and very different from person to person.
Often times, people will judge the way someone else grieves because it is not the same as the way that they would personally mourn.
Some folks even go as far as to assume that someone is NOT anguished (by their definition), because they do not show it in a way that fits into this individual’s view of what grief should look like.
Here are some thoughts and quotes about death, as well as the unique view we each take of it.
Also check out our collection of quotes about miscarriages, these grief quotes on celebrating the life of someone who passed away, and ways to leverage death’s motivation.
Inspirational Death Quotes About Mourning
1. “Guilt is perhaps the most painful companion to death.”- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
2. “You will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news.
They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly — that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.” – Anne Lamott
3. “There is something you must always remember. you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”- Winnie the Pooh
4. “If I can see pain in your eyes, then share with me your tears. If I can see joy in your eyes, then share with me your smile.” – Santosh Kalwar
5. “Deep grief sometimes is almost like a specific location, a coordinate on a map of time. When you are standing in that forest of sorrow, you cannot imagine that you could ever find your way to a better place.
But if someone can assure you that they themselves have stood in that same place, and now have moved on, sometimes this will bring hope.” – Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love
6. “And we wept that one so lovely should have a life so brief.” – William Cullen Bryant
7. “There is an hour, a minute – you will remember it forever – when you know instinctively on the basis of the most inconsequential evidence, that something is wrong.
You don’t know – can’t know – that it is the first of a series of “wrongful” events that will culminate in the utter devastation of your life as you have known it.”- Joyce Carol Oates, A Widow’s Story
8. “When a friend of Abigail and John Adams was killed at Bunker Hill, Abigail’s response was to write a letter to her husband and include these words, ‘My bursting heart must find vent at my pen.’” – David McCullough
9. “A feeling of pleasure or solace can be so hard to find when you are in the depths of your grief. Sometimes it’s the little things that help get you through the day.
You may think your comforts sound ridiculous to others, but there is nothing ridiculous about finding one little thing to help you feel good in the midst of pain and sorrow!” – Elizabeth Berrien, Creative Grieving: A Hip Chick’s Path from Loss to Hope
Also check out suicide quotes to inspire prevention.
Beautiful Yet Profound Sayings and Quotes about Death
10. “When your fear touches someone’s pain, it becomes pity. When your love touches someone’s pain, it becomes compassion.” – Stephen Levine
11. “Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary.
The people we trust with that important talk can help us know that we are not alone.”- Fred Rogers
12. “The reality is that we don’t forget, move on, and have closure. But rather we honor, we remember, and incorporate our deceased children and siblings into our lives in a new way. In fact, keeping memories of your loved one alive in your mind and heart is an important part of your healing journey.” – Harriet Schiff, author of The Bereaved Parent
13. “What we have once enjoyed deeply we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.” – Helen Keller
14. “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
15. “Three things in human life are important: The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.” – Henry James
16. “We can endure much more than we think we can; all human experience testifies to that. All we need to do is learn not to be afraid of pain. Grit your teeth and let it hurt. Don’t deny it, don’t be overwhelmed by it. It will not last forever. One day, the pain will be gone and you will still be there.” – Harold Kushner, When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough
17. “Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heals them.” – Leo Tolstoy
18. “Honest listening is one of the best medicines we can offer the dying and the bereaved.” – Jean Cameron (dying of cancer)
Helpful Quotes About Death of A Loved One
19. “When he died, all things soft and beautiful and bright would be buried with him.” ― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles
20. “But she wasn’t around, and that’s the thing when your parents die, you feel like instead of going into every fight with backup, you are going into every fight alone.” ― Mitch Albom, For One More Day
21. “Sadly enough, the most painful goodbyes are the ones that are left unsaid and never explained.”
― Jonathan Harnisch, Freak
22. “The death of a beloved is an amputation.” — C. S. Lewis
23. “For as long as the world spins and the earth is green with new wood, she will lie in this box and not in my arms. “— Lurlene McDaniel
24. “If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them.” —James O’Barr
25. “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
26. “Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality.” – Emily Dickinson
27. “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
28. “What is lovely never dies, but passes into other loveliness.” – Thomas Bailey
Don’t forget to also read these tombstone quotes for living a good life.
More Uplifting Death Quotes
29. “You give yourself permission to grieve by recognizing the need for grieving. Grieving is the natural way of working through the loss of a love. Grieving is not weakness nor absence of faith. Grieving is as natural as crying when you are hurt, sleeping when you are tired or sneezing when your nose itches. It is nature’s way of healing a broken heart.” – Doug Manning
30. “For some moments in life there are no words.”- David Seltzer, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971 film adaptation)
30. “Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.” – Norman Cousins
31. “One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it’s worth watching.” – Unknown
32. “Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live.” – Henry van Dyke
33. “It is as natural to die as it is to be born.” – Francis Bacon
34. “All men think that all men are mortal but themselves.” – Edward Young
35. “To fear death is to misunderstand life.” – Unknown
Comforting quotes about death
36. “Why should I fear death? If I am, death is not. If death is, I am not. Why should I fear that which cannot exist when I do?”—Epicurus
37. “If life must not be taken too seriously, then so neither must death”—Samuel Butler
38. “Death can come at any age, but the pride of life fools a person into thinking that day is far away.” – John Buttrick
39. “None of us knows the day of our death. However, if we knew that death is actually our acquisition, we would remove the fear of death from our lives.” – Sunday Adelaja
40. “It is the secret of the world that all things subsist and do not die, but retire a little from sight and afterwards return again.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson
41. “Death is but a door, time is but a window. I’ll be back!”—Ghostbusters II
42. “Death is nature’s way of saying, ‘Your table is ready.’”— Robin Williams
43. “Men fear death, as if unquestionably the greatest evil, and yet no man knows that it may not be the greatest good.” – William Mitford
44. “I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.”— Mark Twain
45. “The truth I have been seeking — this truth is Death. Yet Death is also a seeker. Forever seeking me. So — we have met at last. And I am prepared. I am at peace.”— Bruce Lee
You might also like these rest in peace quotes to help you grieve.
Quotes about death of a friend
46. “We go to the grave of a friend saying, “A man is dead,” but angels throng about him saying, “A man is born.” – Henry Ward Beecher
47. “The death of a friend is equivalent to the loss of a limb.” – German Proverb
48. “Those we love never truly leave us, Harry. There are things that death cannot touch.” ― Jack Thorne
49. “But fate ordains that dearest friends must part.” – Edward Young
50. “This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look sad.” – William Shakespeare
51. “Even the best of friends cannot attend each other’s funeral.” – Kehlog Albran
52. “You cannot stop loving your friend because he’s dead, especially if he was better than anyone alive, you know?”-Jerome Salinger
53. “When our friends are alive, we see the good qualities they lack; dead, we remember only those they possessed.” – Jean Antoine Petit-Senn
Inspirational quotes about death
54. “If you ever lose someone dear to you, never say the words they’re gone. They’ll come back.” ― Prince
55. “How can the dead be truly dead when they still live in the souls of those who are left behind?”—Carson McCullers
56. “Death is a challenge. It tells us not to waste time. It tells us to tell each other right now that we love each other.” Leo Buscaglia
57. “We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.”— Chuck Palahniuk
58. “I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.”— Winston Churchill
59. “Death is something inevitable. When a man has done what he considers to be his duty to his people and his country, he can rest in peace.”— Nelson Mandela
60. “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”— Steve Jobs
Quotes about death to bring you calm
61. “No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they’d die for.” – Martin Luther King Jr
62. “I’m not afraid of death because I don’t believe in it. It’s just getting out of one car, and into another.” – John Lennon
63. “A fact of life we all die. But the positive impact you have on others will be a living legacy.” – Catherine Pulsifer
64. “I want to be thoroughly used up when I die for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake.” – George Bernard Shaw
65. “No one here gets out alive.” – Jim Morrison
66. “Death is an ending. Death is a closing. Death is idle words in the ebb and flow of life.”- Elizabeth Edwards
67. “To live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die.” – Thomas Campbell
68. “Life asked death, ‘Why do people love me but hate you?’ Death responded, ‘Because you are a beautiful lie and I am a painful truth.”—Author unknown
69. “I would rather die a meaningful death than to live a meaningless life.” –Corazon Aquino
70. “I am not afraid of death, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” – Woody Allen
Death quotes to calm you
71. “While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.” – Leonardo da Vinci
72. “Death is not the end of life; it is the beginning of an eternal journey.” – Debasish Mridha
73. “Not only is death inevitable; death is necessary for us to inherit the new life we are to enjoy in Christ.” – Max Lucado
74. “Death is nothing else but going home to God, the bond of love will be unbroken for all eternity.” – Mother Teresa
75. “To die will be an awfully big adventure.” – Peter Pan
76. “Death is only the end if you assume the story is about you”—Welcome to Night Vale
77. “The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and the other begins?”—Edgar Allan Poe
78. “Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.” –Napoleon Bonaparte
79. “Life is for the living. Death is for the dead. Let life be like music. And death a note unsaid.” – Langston Hughes
80. “Good men must die, but death cannot kill their names.” – Proverb
Profound death quotes for loved ones
81. “The idea is to die young as late as possible.” – Ashley Montagu
82. “Life is like a very short visit to a toy shop between birth and death.” – Desmond Morris
83. “It is nothing to die. It is frightful not to live.” – Victor Hugo
84. “The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity.” – Seneca
85. “As soon as you’ll realize that it was a gift, you’ll be free.” – Maxime Lagacé
86. “Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive – the risk to be alive and express what we really are.” – Miguel Angel Ruiz
87. “There is only one god and his name is Death, and there is only one thing we say to Death: ‘Not today’.” – Syrio Forel
89. “After your death, you will be what you were before your birth.” – Arthur Schopenhauer
90. “Death ends a life, not a relationship.” – Mitch Albom
Quotes about death to make you strong
91. “Life is too short when you think of the length of death.”― Sean Mangan
92. “Death, so called, is a thing which makes men weep, And yet a third of life is passed in sleep.”― Lord George Gordon Byron
93. “We are born in one day. We die in one day. We can change in one day. And we can fall in love in one day. Anything can happen in just one day.”― Gayle Forman
94. “The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our separate ways, I to die, and you to live. Which of these two is better only God knows.”
― Socrates
95. “She had been given a wonderful gift: life. Sometimes it was cruelly taken away too soon, but it’s what you did with it that counted, not how long it lasted.”― Cecelia Ahern
96. “You were born a child of light’s wonderful secret— you return to the beauty you have always been.”― Aberjhani
97. “It never gets easier, missing you. And sometimes I wonder if it ever will.”― Heather Brewer
98. “The dead could only speak through the mouths of those left behind, and through the signs they left scattered behind them.”― Robert Galbraith
99. “Last words are always harder to remember when no one knows that someone’s about to die.”― John Green
100. “Death is unstoppable. One must face it as a fact of life.”― D. Aswini
101. “Everybody know death is inevitably coming , but it never fails to catch everybody by surprise everytime one is going.”― Hlovate
102. “It’s not contagious, you know. Death is as natural as life. It’s part of the deal we made.”― Mitch Albom
103. “It’s all God’s will: you can die in your sleep, and God can spare you in battle.”― Leo Tolstoy
104. “Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.”― Epicurus
105. “When the time comes to die, make sure that all you have to do is die!”― Jim Elliot
Death quotes that will change the way you think about it
106. “I don’t think kids have a problem with death. It’s us older ones who are nearer to it, that start being frightened.” – Helena Bonham Carter
107. “One day we were born, one day we shall die, the same day, the same second.”― Samuel Beckett
108. “Death at times seems like a dark tunnel to be traveled, and the future seems bleak.” – Mother Angelica
109. “I think about death sometimes. Analytically, of course.”― Lynne Truss
110. “Dealing with death is there forever, really, you know, because we all have to face it.” – Pierce Brosnan
111. “Life is short, death is forever.”― Marsha Qualey
112. “Less base the fear of death than fear of life.” – Edward Young
113. “I am not afraid of death, which after all can’t be far away. What does frighten me, though, is the halfway stage.”― Rosie Thomas
114. “We have a limit, a very discouraging, humiliating limit: death.” – Umberto Eco
115. “[death]…the abyss from where no traveler is permitted to return.”
― George Washington
More quotes about death and coping
116. “Part of the bargain of being alive is that one takes a chance at dying a premature or painful death, be it from violence, accident, or disease.” – Steven Pinker
117. “Whenever a soul leaves the body a void is felt across the world..”
― Anonymous
118. “Death has always had a prominent place in my mind. There are times when I think somebody might kill me.” – Dennis Rodman (see more Dennis Rodman quotes)
119. “Death is only a small interruption.”― Anita Brookner
120. “Life is the desert, life the solitude, death joins us to the great majority.” – Edward Young
121. “We are all created by desire and we all die because of desire.”
― Santosh Kalwar
122. “Death is the mother of Beauty; hence from her, alone, shall come fulfillment to our dreams and our desires.” – Wallace Stevens
123. “The dead and not-yet dead, we are company all together.”
― Rosie Thomas
124. “Life is a great sunrise. I do not see why death should not be an even greater one.” – Vladimir Nabokov
125. “Would that death were like this. Would that one would sleep and sleep and sleep forever.”― Anne Rice
Eye-opening death quotes
126. “Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them.” – George Eliot
127. “Death helps us to see what is worth trusting and loving and what is a waste of time.” – J. Neville Ward
128. “Death is just nature’s way of telling you to slow down.” – Dick Sharples
129. “The question is not whether we will die, but how we will live.” – Dr Joan Borysenko
130. “It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.” – Samuel Johnson
131. “Every man dies – Not every man really lives.” – William Ross Wallace
132. “Many people die at twenty five and aren’t buried until they are seventy five.” – Benjamin Franklin
133. “Forgive yourself before you die. Then forgive others.”– Morrie Schwartz
134. “All that live must die, passing through nature to eternity.” – William Shakespeare
135. “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”– Mark Twain
Death quotes to bring you calm
136. “Finally there is nothing here for death to take away.”― Charles Bukowski
137. “No more let life divide what death can join together.”― Percy Bysshe Shelley
138. “Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.”― John Donne
139. “There are always two deaths, the real one and the one people know about.”― Jean Rhys
140. “Things change after you die, though, I guess because dying is the loneliest thing you can do.”― Lauren Oliver
141. “Desire is half of life; indifference is half of death.” ― Kahlil Gibran
142. “There is one who remembers the way to your door: Life you may evade, but Death you shall not.”― T.S. Eliot
143. “The only certainty life contains is death.”― Patricia Briggs
144. “What will survive of us is love.” ― Philip Larkin
145. “We took such care of tomorrow, but died on the way there.”― Warsan Shire
Death quotes to calm you down
146. “To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.” ― J.K. Rowling
147. “That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.” ― Emily Dickinson
148. “You mustn’t be afraid of death. You’re a deathless soul you can’t be kept in a dark grave you’re filled with God’s glow.” – Rumi
149. “Life is hard. Then you die. Then they throw dirt in your face. Then the worms eat you. Be grateful it happens in that order.” – David Gerrold
150. “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” ― Robert Frost
151. “It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it’s called Life.” ― Terry Pratchett
152. “I’ve told my children that when I die, to release balloons in the sky to celebrate that I graduated. For me, death is a graduation.” – Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
153. “Death is not extinguishing the light. It is putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.” – Rabindranath Tagore
154. “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” – Mae West
155. “Lives are like rivers: Eventually they go where they must. Not where we want them to.” – Richard Russo
More death quotes and sayings
156. “Thinking and talking about death need not be morbid; they may be quite the opposite. Ignorance and fear of death overshadow life, while knowing and accepting death erases this shadow.” – Lily Pincus
157. “As soon as you’ll realize it was a gift, you’ll be free.” – Maxime Lagacé
158. “I think of death as some delightful journey that I shall take when all my tasks are done.” – Ella Wheeler Wilcox
159. “Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets.” – Arthur Miller
160. “The actuality of death and the experience of grief sinks in at different times for everyone.” – Valerie Orr
161. “Do not fear death so much but rather the inadequate life.” – Bertolt Brech
162. “Many of us think about death when considering our legacy, which is why so many wait to consider what we leave behind, or we are just passive in the process.” – Dr. Rachel Talton
163. “Death never takes the wise man by surprise, he is always ready to go.” – Jean de La Fontaine
164. “Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things.” – Arthur Schopenhauer
165. “Death is like a mirror in which the true meaning of life is reflected.” – Sogyal Rinpoche
What do you think about these quotes about death?
Something we should all remember is that each and everyone of us grieves in a different way.
Each one of us has a different memory and relationship with the person who has passed away.
While some grieve openly, (others keep it to themselves) and put on a stoic face.
The important lesson to learn is that death and grief are very unique and individual processes. What is right for us may not fit another.
Hopefully, these quotes about death will help you embrace and grieve as you need to, and let others do the same.
What do you think about these death quotes? Do you have any other inspirational quotes to add? Let us know in the comment section below.
