Quotations

Death, Parting & Sorrow

Anonymous

You can shed tears that she is gone
or you can smile because she has lived
[She is gone, chosen as preface for the order of service for the funeral of Elizabeth the Queen Mother, April 9 2002]

Old men go to death; but death comes to young men [Proverb]

Six feet of earth make all men equal [Proverb]


Samuel Butler, 1835-1902, English writer

To himself everyone is an immortal; he may know that he is going to die,
but he can never know that he is dead. [Ibid]


Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-82, American writer

Goodbye, proud world! I'm going home;
Thou art not my friend, and i'm not thine. [Poems: Goodbye 1847]


A[lfred] E[dward] Housman, 1895-1936, English poet & scholar

The man that runs away
Lives to die another day [Ibid: The day of battle]


Octavio Paz, Mexican poet

We are condemmed
to kill time:
Thus we die
bit by bit [cuento de los Jardines 1968]


William Shakespeare 1564-1616, English dramatist

A man can die but once [King Henry IV, part II 3 1597-8]

If i must die
I will encounter darkness as bride,
And hug it in mine arms. [Ibid]

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end. [Ibid 60]

He that dies pays all debts [The Tempest 3 1611-12]


Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792-1822, English poet

How wonderful is Death,
Death and his brother Sleep. [Queen Mab 1813]

First our pleasures die - and then
Our hopes, and then our fears - and when
These are dead, the debts is due. [Prometheus Unbound 1818-19]

Peace is in the grave.
The grave hides all things beautiful and good:
I am God and cannot find it there. [Ibid]

Death is the veil which those who live call life:
They sleep, and it is lifted. [Ibid]

Some say that gleams of a remoter world
Visit the soul in sleep, - that death is slumber. [Mont Blanc]

The flower that smile today
Tomorrow dies. [Mutability]


Sophocies, c.496-c.406bc, Greek poet

Daeth is not the greatest of ills; it is worse to want to die, and may not be able to. [Electra c.450bc]


Stanislaus {Leszcynski], 1677-1766, King of Poland

He who fears death dies everytime he thinks of it. [Oeuvres du philosophe bienfaisant 1760]


William Wordsworth, 1770-1850, English poet

There is
One great society alone on earth;
The noble Living and the noble Dead. [The Prelude 1799-1805]


William Butler Yeats, 1865-1939, Irish poet

A drunkard is a dead man
And all dead men are drunk [A Drunken Man's Praise of Sobrety 1938]


Edward Young, 1683-1765, English churchman and poet

Death but entombs the body; life the soul [Night III; Night Thoughts]

Unconditional Love

I love you as you are, as you seek to find your own special way to relate to the world. I honor your choices to learn in the way you feel is right for you.
I know it is important that you are the person you want to be, and not someone that I or others think you should be. I realize that I cannot know what is best for you, although perhaps sometimes I think I do. I have not been where you have been, viewing life from the angle you have. I do not know what you have chosen to learn, how you have chosen to learn it, with whom or in what time period. I have not walked through life looking through your eyes, so how can I know what you need?
I allow you to be in the world without a thought or word of judgment from me about the deeds you undertake. I see no error in the things you say and do. In this place where I am, I see that there are many ways to perceive and experience the different facets of our world. I allow, without reservation, the choices you make in each moment. I make no judgment of this, for if I would deny your right to your evolution, then I would deny that right for myself and others.
To those who would choose a way I cannot walk, while I may not add my power and my energy to this way, I will never deny you the gift of love that God has bestowed within me for all creation. As I love you, so I shall be loved. As I sow, so shall I reap.
I allow you the universal right of free will to walk your own path, creating steps or to sit awhile if that is what is right for you. I will make no judgment that these steps are large or small, nor light or heavy, or that they lead up or down, for this is just my viewpoint. I may see you do nothing and judge it to be unworthy, and yet it may be that you bring great healing as you stand blessed by the light of God. I cannot always see the higher picture of divine order.
For it is the inalienable right of all life to choose their own evolution, and with great love I acknowledge your right to determine your future. In humility, I bow to the realization that the way I see as best for me does not have to mean it is also right for you. I know that you are led as I am, following the inner excitement to know your own path.
I know that the many races, religions, customs, nationalities and beliefs within our world bring us great riches, and allow us the benefit and teachings of such diverseness. I know we each learn in our own unique way in order to bring that love and wisdom back to the Whole. I know that if there was only one way to do something, there would need be only one person....
I will not only love you if you behave in a way I think you should or believe in those things I believe in. I understand you are truly my brother or sister, though you may have been born in a different place and believe in another God than I.
The love I feel is for all God's world. I know that every living thing is a part of God, and I feel a love deep within for every person, animal, tree and flower, every bird, river and ocean, and for all the creatures in all the world.
I live my life in loving service, being the best me I can, becoming wiser in the perfection of Divine Truth, becoming happier in the joy of UNCONDITIONAL LOVE.

Channeled by Sandy Stevenson, England

Maybe

Maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people before we meet the right one so that when we finally meet the right person, we will know how to be grateful for that gift.

When the door of happiness closes, another opens, but often time we look so long at the closed door that we don’t see the one, which has been opened for us.

The best kind of friend is the one that you can sit on a porch and swing with, never say a word, and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you’ve ever had.

It’s true that we don’t know what we have until we’ve lost it, but it’s also true that we don’t know what we’ve been missing until it arrives.

Giving someone all that your love is no assurance that they’ll love you back!! Don’t expect love in return; just wait for it to grow in their heart, but if it doesn’t, be content it grew in yours.

It only takes a minute to get a crush on someone, an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone, but it takes a lifetime to forget someone.

Don’t go for looks, they can deceive. Don’t go for wealth; even that fades away. Go for someone who makes you smile, because it only takes a smile to make a dark day seem bright.

Find the one who makes your heart smile.

There are moments in life when you miss someone so much that you just want to pick them from your dreams and hug them for real!

Dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go; be what you want to be, because you only have one life and chance to do all the things you want to do.

May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trial to make you strong, enough sorrow to make you human and enough hope to make you happy.

Always put yourself in other’s shoes. If you feel that it hurts, it probably hurts the other person, too.

The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything that comes along their way.

Happiness lies for those who cry, those who hurt, those who have searched, and those who have tried, for only they can appreciate the importance of people who have touched their lives.

Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a tear.

The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past, you can’t go on well in life until you forget your past failures and heartaches.

When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling.

Live your life so that when you die, you are the one who is smiling and everyone around is crying.