Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotations

Just as we often take solace in listening to sad songs on the radio, hearing others express their pain through lyrics and music, sometimes the lyrical phrasing of a famous quotation can be comforting. It reminds us that we are not the only ones to ever feel grief and loss, and it can even make us feel better to realize that everyone, from saints to sinners and kings to paupers, goes through the same thing at some time or another. Here are a number of inspirational quotations that you may want to include in a card, a letter, or even a eulogy, depending on the situation.

On The Passage of Time

“All my possessions for a moment of time.” – Last words of Queen Elizabeth I, 1533-1603

“The bird of time has but a little way to fly – and lo! The bird is on the wing.” – Omar Khayyam, translated from Persian by Edward Fitzgerald

“Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it, you can never get it back.” – Harvard MacKay

“Time is the cruelest teacher; first she gives the test, then teaches the lesson.” – Unknown author

“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” – Mother Teresa

“Time is very slow for those who wait; very fast for those who are scared; very long for those who lament; very short for those who celebrate. But for those who love, time is eternal.” – William Shakespeare

“We live in deeds, not years: In thoughts not breaths; in feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart throbs. He most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, and acts the best.” – David Bailey

On Loss and Grieving

“Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated.” – Lamartine

“Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.” – Irish Saying

“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

“God is closest to those with broken hearts.” – Jewish Saying

“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 author

“If you’re going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill

“Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak whispers the o’er-fraught heart and bids it break.” – William Shakespeare

“Let your tears come. Let them water your soul.” – Eileen Mayhew

“While we are mourning the loss of our friend, others are rejoicing to meet him behind the veil.” – John Taylor

“The scars you can’t see are the hardest to heal.” – Astrid Alauda

“In the night of death, hope sees a star, and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing.” – Robert Ingersoll

“The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears.” – John Vance Cheney

“What soap is for the body, tears are for the soul.” – Jewish Proverb

On Life and Death

“Too weird to live, too rare to die!” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

“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

“Life dies but forever will there be music. Always.” – Nicholas A. McGirr, The Growing Dim Project

“You were born a child of light’s wonderful secret – you return to the beauty you have always been.” – Aberjhani, Visions of a Skylark Dressed in Black

“There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.” – George Santayana

“Death is the destination we all share, no one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be because death is very likely the single best invention of life.” – Steve Jobs

“If you have a warm and caring heart, your loved ones will ensure you never depart. For long after you’ve turned that final page you’ll still be right there on center stage.” – Stanley Victor Paskavich

“Just when the question of how to live had become clearer to him, a new insoluble problem presented itself – Death.” – Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

“Life was such a fragile thing – as delicate and as beautiful as a butterfly, as ephemeral as a sunset. Death is peaceful. Death is quiet, silent. It is calming.” – Akanksha

On Lifetime Achievements

“I long to accomplish a great and noble task; but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.” – Helen Keller

“My most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me.” – Winston Churchill

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Little by little, one travels far.” – J.R.R. Tolkien

“The only achievement I am really proud of is the friends I have made in this community.” – Gary Cooper

“One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.” – Elbert Hubbard

Thoughts on Life

“I avoid looking forward or backward, and try to keep looking upward.” – Charlotte Brontë

“Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.” – Leon J. Suenes

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” – Helen Keller

“After the game, the king and the pawn go into the same box.” – Italian Proverb

“Life isn’t a matter of milestones, but of moments.” – Rose Kennedy

“One life – a little gleam of time between two eternities.” – Thomas Carlyle

“Life is a pure flame, and we live by an invisible sun within us.” – Sir Thomas Brown