The Best Quotes on Grief, Death & Dying

Are you looking for inspirational or reflective quotes on grief, death and dying? Using these quotes on your end of life services or death doula website can gently set the tone and help visitors feel more at ease with a difficult topic. It creates a moment of pause, inviting people to slow down and connect more deeply with your message.

You'll find lovely spaces to include inspirational quotes on each of my end of life doula website templates.

I hope you find some new favorite quotes here, ranging from thoughtful to funny and everything in between.

Sarah-Juliusson

Here are five ways end-of-life professionals can use quotes about grief, death, and dying:

SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS
hare quotes paired with a short reflection, photo, or gentle question to spark conversation.

CLIENT RESOURCES
Include quotes in handouts, workbooks, or follow-up emails to comfort and validate clients.

WORKSHOPS OR SUPPORT GROUPS
Use quotes as conversation starters or journaling prompts.

WEBSITE COPY
Add meaningful quotes to an About page, blog post, or resource page to convey values and compassion.

MEMORIAL SERVICES
Incorporate quotes into ceremonies, programs, or keepsakes to help honor loved ones.

"When I left my body, I did not go away. That portal of light was not a portal to elsewhere, but a portal to here. I am more here than I ever was before. I am more with you than I ever could have imagined."

- Andrea Gibson, Poet

"We understand death only after it has placed its hands on someone we love."

- Anne Louise Germaine de Staël

"Let us talk of death, unbosom all freely.
Think of the times you stood at the side of the dying,
Think of the time when your own body will be dying,
Have you supposed it beautiful to be born? I tell you it is just as beautiful to die;
Do you enjoy what life confers? you shall enjoy what death confers;
Has life much purport? Ah, death has the greatest purport."

- Walt Whitman, Poet

“When I realized the storm was inevitable, I made it my medicine.”

- Andrea Gibson, Poet

“Grief is the midwife of your capacity to be immensely grateful for being born.”

- Stephen Jenkinson, Author

“Our grief is as individual as our lives.”

- Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Author

“Dying is easy; it’s living that scares me to death.”

- Annie Lennox, musician

“It’s only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth – and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up – that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had.”

- Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Author

“The reality is that you will grieve forever... Grief is not a sign of weakness, nor a lack of faith. It is the price of love.”

- Dr. Alan Wolfeltn, Grief Counselor, Author

“Dying is nothing to fear. It can be the most wonderful experience of your life. It all depends on how you’ve lived.”

- Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Author

"Grief is like a moving river, it's always changing."

- Michelle Williams, ACTRESS

“To live in this world you must be able to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.” -

- Mary Oliver, Blackwater Woods

"Today is a very good day to die.
Every living thing is in harmony with me.
Every voice sings a chorus within me.
All beauty has come to rest in my eyes.
All bad thoughts have departed from me.
Today is a very good day to die.
My land is peaceful around me.
My fields have been turned for the last time.
My house is filled with laughter.
My children have come home.
Yes, today is a very good day to die."

- Nancy Wood, Poet

"Every falling leaf is a tiny kite with a string to small to see, held by the part of me in charge of making beauty out of grief."

- Andrea Gibson, Poet

"My next great adventure, aged 90, is going to be dying. There’s either nothing or something. If there’s nothing there’s nothing, that’s it. If there’s something I can’t think of a greater adventure than finding out what it is."

- Jane Goodall

“We’re all just walking each other home.”

- Ram Dass, Writer

"To die is different from what anyone supposed, and luckier.
Nothing can happen more beautiful than death,
The beautiful touch of death, soothing and benumbing a few moments, for reasons -
Soon or late the certain grace,
To set thee free and bear thee home."

- Walt Whitman, Poet

“To die will be an awfully big adventure."

- J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

“Every tattoo is temporary, because we’re all slowly dying.”

- Unknown

“You will not ‘get over’ the loss of a loved one. You’ll learn to live with it.”

- Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Author

"Grief is not a disorder, a disease, or a sign of weakness. It is an emotional, physical, and spiritual necessity, the price you pay for love. The only cure for grief is to grieve."

- Earl Grollmant, Rabbi & Author

"The only thing in this life we have control over is where we put our attention."

- Andrea Gibson, Poet

“You will not ‘get over’ the loss of a loved one. You’ll learn to live with it.”

- Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Author

“Life is not promised. We are not promised tomorrow. We are not promised eternity. What we are promised is now. Let us not squander it.”

- Bell Hooks, Author

"Why did no one tell us that to die is to be reincarnated in those we love while they are still alive?"

- Andrea Gibson, Poet

“Grief is not a feeling it is a capacity. It is not something that disables you, we are not on the receiving end of grief we are on the practising end of grief.”

- Stephen Jenkinson, Author

"Some bright morning when this life is over, I'll fly away."

- Allison Krauss and Gillian Welch, Musicians

"There are many ways to die in bed, but the best way is not alone."

- George Burns, Comic

“You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair.”

- Old Chinese proverb

“Watching a peaceful death of a human being reminds us of a falling star; one of a million lights in a vast sky that flares up for a brief moment only to disappear into the endless night forever.”

- Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Author

“Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome.”

- Isaac Asimov, Author

“Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in”

- Leonard Cohen, Musician

“Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it.”

- Haruki Murakami, Author

"The trouble with quotes about death is that 99.9% of them are made by people who are still alive."

- JOSHUA BURNS