We always have the inclination to fear the unknown, the unfamiliar, the unseen; we avoid pain and grief. It must be the reason why death terrifies us. It’s hard to imagine life without the people we love, or the thought of us and the chapter of our lives ending, never to return. But we do return, one way or another, in ways we just don’t know yet. The idea of traversing a road we have not yet walked on before may frighten us, but aren’t adventures made of things that are yet to unravel?
Nurses aren’t unfamiliar with death but it doesn’t make it any easier; to experience loss is to experience grief. Perhaps one of the comforts we can have lies in the universal awakening that death is not the end. For some, it’s merely a diversion for a greater path. For others, it’s a beautiful repose free of pain and difficulties. In the end, we perceive death and loss differently, but to envision our loved ones and patients happier and at peace helps us move forward and honor the eternal lives they left behind.
For that reason, we have compiled profoundly inspirational quotes and sayings on death to help you deal with grief and longing.
As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death. – Leonardo DaVinci
Nurses are there when the last breath is taken and nurses are there when the first breath is taken. Although it is more enjoyable to celebrate the birth, it is just as important to comfort in death. – Christine Bell
Death – the last voyage, the longest and the best. – Thomas Wolfe
When the heart weeps for what it has lost, the soul laughs for what it has found. – Sufi Aphorism
I think of death as some delightful journey that I shall take when all my tasks are done. – Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Have no regrets. The elderly usually don’t have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets.
Perhaps they are not 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.
Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there’s a difference for me, you know. Because in the other room, I shall be able to see. – Helen Keller
He who has gone, so we but cherish his memory, abides with us, more potent, nay, more present than the living man. – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Die happily and look forward to taking up a new and better form. Like the sun, only when you set in the west can you rise in the east. – Rumi
When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life in a manner so that when you die the world cries and you rejoice. – Native American Proverb
The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time. – Mark Twain
It’s strange that they fear death. Life hurts a lot more than death. At the point of death, the pain is over. – Jim Morrison
Death came with friendly care; The opening bud to heaven conveyed, And bade it blossom there. – Samuel Taylor
Seeing death as the end of life is like seeing the horizon as the end of the ocean. – David Searls
Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows. – Pope Paul VI
How can the dead be truly dead when they still live in the souls of those who are left behind? – Carson McCullers
Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it. – Haruki Murakami
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!”. – Hunter S. Thompson
Tell your friend that in his death, a part of you dies and goes with him. Wherever he goes, you also go. He will not be alone. – Jiddu Krishnamurti
Death is not the end of life; it is the beginning of an eternal journey. – Debasish Mridha
Death is nothing else but going home to God, the bond of love will be unbroken for all eternity. – Mother Teresa
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
To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure. – J.K. Rowling
End? No, the journey doesn’t end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it. – J.R.R. Tolkien
Death never takes the wise man by surprise, he is always ready to go. – Jean de La Fontaine
For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun? And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance. – Kahlil Gibran
It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live. – Marcus Aurelius
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. It is life’s change agent, it clears out the old to make way for the new. – Steve Jobs
Death is peaceful, life is harder. – Stephenie Meyer, Twilight
Unable are the Loved to die, for love is immortality. – Emily Dickinson
Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come. – Rabindranath Tagore
There is love in holding and there is love in letting go. – Elizabeth Berg
Death, they say, acquits us of all obligations. – Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
Death is nature’s way of saying, ‘Your table is ready’. – Robin Williams
To die will be an awfully big adventure. – J.M. Barrie
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 Lamot
There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind. – C.S. Lewis
Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one’s head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no to-morrow. To forget time, to forget life, to be at peace. – Oscar Wilde
Let life be beautiful like summer flowers and death like autumn leaves. – Rabindranath Tagore
Birth and death are the most singular events we experience – and the contemplation of death, as of birth, should be a thing of beauty, not ignobility. – Jacob K. Javits
When someone we love dies, we get so busy mourning what died that we ignore what didn’t. – Ram Das
The connections we make in the course of a life – maybe that’s what heaven is. – Fred Roger
A dying man needs to die, as a sleepy man needs to sleep, and there comes a time when it is wrong, as well as useless, to resist. – Stewart Alsop
How people die remains in the memory of those who live on. – Dame Cicely Saunders
