Quotes and verses for an obituary
A line under the name, at the end of the obituary or on the back of a memorial card. Every quote here is in the public domain, and we checked each one against a reliable copy of the original, so the words and the name under them are right.
Scripture is from the King James Version, the Douay-Rheims Bible and the 1917 Jewish Publication Society translation, with the Dhammapada in Max Müller’s translation and the Quran in J. M. Rodwell’s. Pick one and it appears in your obituary with its attribution, or write your own in the writer.
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Sunset and evening star, And one clear call for me! And may there be no moaning of the bar, When I put out to sea,
Alfred Tennyson, Crossing the Bar · Poems and prose · source Sunset and evening star, And one clear call for me! And may there be no moaning of the bar, When I put out to sea, But such a tide as moving seems asleep, Too full for sound and foam, When that which drew from out the boundless deep Turns again home. Twilight and evening bell, And after that the dark! And may there be no sadness of farewell, When I embark; For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place The flood may bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I have crost the bar.
Alfred Tennyson, Crossing the Bar · Poems and prose · source Twilight and evening bell, And after that the dark! And may there be no sadness of farewell, When I embark.
Alfred Tennyson, Crossing the Bar · Poems and prose · source ’Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all.
Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam A. H. H., XXVII · Poems and prose · source So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18 · Poems and prose · source But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st, Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st, So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18 · Poems and prose · source Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince, And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
William Shakespeare, Hamlet · Poems and prose · source He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again.
William Shakespeare, Hamlet · Poems and prose · source Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night, And pay no worship to the garish sun.
William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet · Poems and prose · source Fear no more the heat o’ th’ sun, Nor the furious winter’s rages; Thou thy worldly task hast done, Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages. Golden lads and girls all must, As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
William Shakespeare, Cymbeline · Poems and prose · source Give sorrow words. The grief that does not speak Whispers the o’er-fraught heart, and bids it break.
William Shakespeare, Macbeth · Poems and prose · source His life was gentle, and the elements So mix’d in him that Nature might stand up And say to all the world, “This was a man!”
William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar · Poems and prose · source We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.
William Shakespeare, The Tempest · Poems and prose · source Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves And Immortality.
Emily Dickinson, The Chariot · Poems and prose · source Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all,
Emily Dickinson, Hope · Poems and prose · source The bustle in a house The morning after death Is solemnest of industries Enacted upon earth, -- The sweeping up the heart, And putting love away We shall not want to use again Until eternity.
Emily Dickinson · Poems and prose · source If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain; If I can ease one life the aching, Or cool one pain, Or help one fainting robin Unto his nest again, I shall not live in vain.
Emily Dickinson · Poems and prose · source I never spoke with God, Nor visited in heaven; Yet certain am I of the spot As if the chart were given.
Emily Dickinson · Poems and prose · source Parting is all we know of heaven, And all we need of hell.
Emily Dickinson, Parting · Poems and prose · source All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses, And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.
Walt Whitman, Song of Myself · Poems and prose · source I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.
Walt Whitman, Song of Myself · Poems and prose · source Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.
Henry David Thoreau, Walden · Poems and prose · source If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
Henry David Thoreau, Walden · Poems and prose · source I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
Henry David Thoreau, Walden · Poems and prose · source For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, On Death · Poems and prose · source For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, On Death · Poems and prose · source 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, The Prophet, On Death · Poems and prose · source 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, The Prophet, On Joy and Sorrow · Poems and prose · source Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room.
Henry Scott Holland, The King of Terrors (1910) · Poems and prose · source Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still. Call me by the old familiar name. Speak of me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference into your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
Henry Scott Holland, The King of Terrors (1910) · Poems and prose · source I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just round the corner. All is well.
Henry Scott Holland, The King of Terrors (1910) · Poems and prose · source Under the wide and starry sky, Dig the grave and let me lie. Glad did I live and gladly die, And I laid me down with a will. This be the verse you grave for me: Here he lies where he longed to be; Home is the sailor, home from sea, And the hunter home from the hill.
Robert Louis Stevenson, Requiem · Poems and prose · source Home is the sailor, home from sea, And the hunter home from the hill.
Robert Louis Stevenson, Requiem · Poems and prose · source Remember me when I am gone away, Gone far away into the silent land; When you can no more hold me by the hand, Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Christina Rossetti, Remember · Poems and prose · source Better by far you should forget and smile Than that you should remember and be sad.
Christina Rossetti, Remember · Poems and prose · source One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally, And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.
John Donne, Holy Sonnets, X · Poems and prose · source No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.
John Donne, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation XVII · Poems and prose · source Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, A Psalm of Life · Poems and prose · source There is no Death! What seems so is transition; This life of mortal breath Is but a suburb of the life elysian, Whose portal we call Death.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Resignation · Poems and prose · source Time is Too Slow for those who Wait, Too Swift for those who Fear, Too Long for those who Grieve, Too Short for those who Rejoice; But for those who Love, Time is not.
Henry van Dyke, Katrina's Sun-Dial · Poems and prose · source Hours fly, Flowers die: New days, New ways: Pass by! Love stays.
Henry van Dyke, Katrina's Sun-Dial · Poems and prose · source I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese, XLIII · Poems and prose · source A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: Its loveliness increases; it will never Pass into nothingness.
John Keats, Endymion · Poems and prose · source Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep! He hath awakened from the dream of life.
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Adonais · Poems and prose · source He has outsoared the shadow of our night.
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Adonais · Poems and prose · source Though nothing can bring back the hour Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower; We will grieve not, rather find Strength in what remains behind.
William Wordsworth, Ode: Intimations of Immortality · Poems and prose · source Nature's first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf's a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.
Robert Frost, Nothing Gold Can Stay (1923) · Poems and prose · source The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
Psalm 23:1, King James Version · Christian (KJV) · source Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Psalm 23:4, King James Version · Christian (KJV) · source Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
Psalm 23:6, King James Version · Christian (KJV) · source God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Psalm 46:1, King James Version · Christian (KJV) · source So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Psalm 90:12, King James Version · Christian (KJV) · source I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
Psalm 121:1, King James Version · Christian (KJV) · source The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.
Psalm 121:8, King James Version · Christian (KJV) · source Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
Psalm 30:5, King James Version · Christian (KJV) · source Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.
Psalm 116:15, King James Version · Christian (KJV) · source I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.
John 11:25, King James Version · Christian (KJV) · source Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
John 14:1–2, King James Version · Christian (KJV) · source Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
John 14:27, King James Version · Christian (KJV) · source To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.
Ecclesiastes 3:1–2, King James Version · Christian (KJV) · source Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
Ecclesiastes 12:7, King James Version · Christian (KJV) · source And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
Revelation 21:4, King James Version · Christian (KJV) · source For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38–39, King James Version · Christian (KJV) · source For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.
Romans 14:8, King James Version · Christian (KJV) · source I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.
2 Timothy 4:7, King James Version · Christian (KJV) · source Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Matthew 5:4, King James Version · Christian (KJV) · source And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
1 Corinthians 13:13, King James Version · Christian (KJV) · source O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
1 Corinthians 15:55, King James Version · Christian (KJV) · source But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Isaiah 40:31, King James Version · Christian (KJV) · source We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
2 Corinthians 5:8, King James Version · Christian (KJV) · source He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
Psalm 147:3, King James Version · Christian (KJV) · source Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her. Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.
Proverbs 31:28–29, King James Version · Christian (KJV) · source Eternal rest give unto them, O Lord. And let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.
Traditional prayer, Eternal Rest (For the Faithful Departed) · Catholic · source Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Traditional prayer, Hail Mary · Catholic · source But the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and the torment of death shall not touch them.
Wisdom 3:1, Douay-Rheims Bible · Catholic · source But the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and the torment of death shall not touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure was taken for misery: And their going away from us, for utter destruction: but they are in peace.
Wisdom 3:1–3, Douay-Rheims Bible · Catholic · source It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.
2 Machabees 12:46, Douay-Rheims Bible · Catholic · source Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. From henceforth now, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours. For their works follow them.
Apocalypse 14:13, Douay-Rheims Bible · Catholic · source For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day I shall rise out of the earth.
Job 19:25, Douay-Rheims Bible · Catholic · source I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, although he be dead, shall live.
John 11:25, Douay-Rheims Bible · Catholic · source For though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they have comforted me.
Psalm 22:4, Douay-Rheims Bible · Catholic · source In my Father's house there are many mansions. If not, I would have told you: because I go to prepare a place for you.
John 14:2, Douay-Rheims Bible · Catholic · source The memory of the righteous shall be for a blessing.
Proverbs 10:7, JPS 1917 translation · Jewish · source Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.
Psalm 23:4, JPS 1917 translation · Jewish · source I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains: From whence shall my help come? My help cometh from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.
Psalm 121:1–2, JPS 1917 translation · Jewish · source So teach us to number our days, That we may get us a heart of wisdom.
Psalm 90:12, JPS 1917 translation · Jewish · source Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy cometh in the morning.
Psalm 30:6, JPS 1917 translation · Jewish · source And the dust returneth to the earth as it was, and the spirit returneth unto God who gave it.
Ecclesiastes 12:7, JPS 1917 translation · Jewish · source He will swallow up death for ever; And the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces.
Isaiah 25:8, JPS 1917 translation · Jewish · source He entereth into peace, They rest in their beds, Each one that walketh in his uprightness.
Isaiah 57:2, JPS 1917 translation · Jewish · source Her children rise up, and call her blessed; Her husband also, and he praiseth her: ’Many daughters have done valiantly, But thou excellest them all.’
Proverbs 31:28–29, JPS 1917 translation · Jewish · source The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD.
Job 1:21, JPS 1917 translation · Jewish · source Magnified and sanctified be his great name in the world which he hath created according to his will.
Mourner's Kaddish, Singer's translation, The Standard Prayer Book · Jewish · source He who maketh peace in his high places, may he make peace for us and for all Israel; and say ye, Amen.
Mourner's Kaddish, Singer's translation, The Standard Prayer Book · Jewish · source The scent of flowers does not travel against the wind, nor (that of) sandal-wood, or of Tagara and Mallika flowers; but the odour of good people travels even against the wind; a good man pervades every place.
The Dhammapada, verse 54, Max Müller translation (1881) · Buddhist · source In like manner his good works receive him who has done good, and has gone from this world to the other; as kinsmen receive a friend on his return.
The Dhammapada, verse 220, Max Müller translation (1881) · Buddhist · source Kinsmen, friends, and lovers salute a man who has been long away, and returns safe from afar. In like manner his good works receive him who has done good, and has gone from this world to the other; as kinsmen receive a friend on his return.
The Dhammapada, verses 219–220, Max Müller translation (1881) · Buddhist · source For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time: hatred ceases by love, this is an old rule.
The Dhammapada, verse 5, Max Müller translation (1881) · Buddhist · source If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.
The Dhammapada, verse 2, Max Müller translation (1881) · Buddhist · source Let a man overcome anger by love, let him overcome evil by good; let him overcome the greedy by liberality, the liar by truth!
The Dhammapada, verse 223, Max Müller translation (1881) · Buddhist · source Verily we are God's, and to Him shall we return.
Quran 2:156, Rodwell translation (1861) · Muslim · source Oh, thou soul which art at rest, Return to thy Lord, pleased, and pleasing him: Enter thou among my servants, And enter thou my Paradise.
Quran 89:27–30, Rodwell translation (1861) · Muslim · source Then verily along with trouble cometh ease. Verily along with trouble cometh ease.
Quran 94:5–6, Rodwell translation (1861) · Muslim · source Every soul shall taste of death. Then to us shall ye return.
Quran 29:57, Rodwell translation (1861) · Muslim · source To live in hearts we leave behind, Is not to die.
Thomas Campbell, Hallowed Ground · Nondenominational · source I cannot say, and I will not say That he is dead. He is just away!
James Whitcomb Riley, Away · Nondenominational · source I cannot say, and I will not say That he is dead. He is just away! With a cheery smile, and a wave of the hand He has wandered into an unknown land, And left us dreaming how very fair It needs must be, since he lingers there.
James Whitcomb Riley, Away · Nondenominational · source The memory of your dear father, instead of an agony, will yet be a sad, sweet feeling in your heart, of a purer and holier sort than you have known before.
Abraham Lincoln, Letter to Fanny McCullough, 1862 · Nondenominational · source You cannot now realize that you will ever feel better. Is not this so? And yet it is a mistake. You are sure to be happy again.
Abraham Lincoln, Letter to Fanny McCullough, 1862 · Nondenominational · source Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, IV.17 (George Long translation) · Nondenominational · source The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Friendship · Nondenominational · source Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.
Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson · Nondenominational · source
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