When you’ve lost someone important to you, it can be hard to find just the right thing to say or share. Which is why we have put together a list of the best celebration of life quotes to help you find the right sentiment. And if you’re looking for uplifting celebration of life quotes, we also have you covered.
Now go ahead and browse through to find your favorite.
Short Celebration of Life Quotes
“Love is how you stay alive, even after you are gone.” – Mitch Albom
“No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.” — C.S. Lewis
“Grief is the agony of an instant; the indulgence of grief the blunder of a life.” — Benjamin Disraeli
“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” – John Lennon
“Death ends a life, not a relationship.” – Mitch Albom
“Grief is the garden of compassion.” — Rumi
“Grief changes shape, but it never ends.” — Keanu Reeves
“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” – Dr. Seuss
“Say not in grief ‘he is no more’ but in thankfulness that he was.” – Hebrew Proverb
“Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality.” – Emily Dickinson
“To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.” – Thomas Campbell
“Grief does not change you, Hazel. It reveals you.” — John Green
“Grief is the price we pay for love.” — Queen Elizabeth II
“The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero
“Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.” – Khalil Gibran
“Live each day as if your life had just begun.” – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” – Helen Keller
“Grieving doesn’t make you imperfect. It makes you human.” — Sarah Dessen
“The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” – Steve Jobs
“Every man’s life is a fairy tale written by God’s fingers.” – Hans Christian Andersen
“There is no grief like the grief that does not speak.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams.” – Oprah Winfrey
“Grief, no matter how you try to cater to its wail, has a way of fading away.” — V.C. Andrews
“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.” — Kahlil Gibran
“Grief is the price we pay for loving someone.” — Dr. Colin Murray Parkes
“Life is a journey, not a destination.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The only cure for grief is to grieve.” — Earl Grollman
“Grief is in two parts. The first is loss. The second is the remaking of life.” — Anne Roiphe
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” – Mae West
“The song is ended, but the melody lingers on.” – Irving Berlin
Uplifting Celebration of Life Quotes
“While we are mourning the loss of our friend, others are rejoicing to meet him behind the veil.” – John Taylor
“The gladdest moment in human life, me thinks, is a departure into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Burton
“There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power.” — Washington Irving
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” — Helen Keller
“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“People living deeply have no fear of death.” —ANAIS NIN
“As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well-used brings happy death.” —LEONARDO DA VINCI
“Only a moment you stayed but what an imprint your footprints have left on our hearts.” —DOROTHY FERGUSON
“Life is a song—sing it. Life is a game—play it. Life is a challenge—meet it. Life is a dream—realise it. Life is a sacrifice—offer it. Life is love—enjoy it.” —Sai Baba
“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” – George Bernard Shaw
“A great soul serves everyone all the time. A great soul never dies. It brings us together again and again.” —MAYA ANGELOU
“Sometimes, when one person is absent, the whole world seems depopulated.” —ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE
“Death is nature’s way of saying, ‘Your table is ready.” —ROBIN WILLIAMS
“A person’s true wealth is the good he or she does in the world.” —NAZR MOHAMMED
“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” —ABRAHAM LINCOLN
“They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill what never dies.” —WILLIAM PENN
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover.” – Mark Twain
“Love as powerful as your mother’s for you leaves its own mark. To have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever.” —J.K. ROWLING
“Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends leave footprints in your heart.” —ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
“The connections we make in the course of life—maybe that’s what heaven is. —FRED ROGERS
It’s so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone.” —JOHN STEINBECK
—W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM
“Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome.” —ISAAC ASIMOV
“Through hard work, perseverance, and faith in God, you can live your dreams.” – Ben Carson
“There are no goodbyes for us. Wherever you are, you will always be in my heart.” – Mahatma Gandhi
“Perhaps they are not the 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.” – Eskimo Proverb
“If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them.” —JAMES O’BARR
“Life is for the living. Death is for the dead. Let life be like music. And death a note unsaid.” —LANGSTON HUGHES
“How can the dead be truly dead when they still live in the souls of those who are left behind?” —CARSON MCCULLERS
“Lives are like rivers: eventually they go where they must. Not where we want them to.” —RICHARD RUSSO
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.” – Helen Keller
“Life is eternal, and love is immortal, and death is only a horizon; and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.” – Rossiter Worthington Raymond
“What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes part of us.” – Helen Keller
“Grief can be a burden, but also an anchor. You get used to the weight, how it holds you in place.” — Sarah Dessen
“To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.” – THOMAS CAMPBELL
“No one is actually dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away.” —TERRY PRATCHETT
“Grief is the price we pay for love.” —QUEEN ELIZABETH
“Tears shed for another person are not a sign of weakness. They are a sign of a pure heart.” — José N. Harris
“I have found that if you love life, life will love you back.” – Arthur Rubinstein
“Every life is noted and is cherished, and nothing loved is ever lost or perished.” —MADELEINE L’ENGLE
“Like a bird singing in the rain, let grateful memories survive in time of sorrow.” —ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
“The idea is to die young as late as possible.” —ASHLEY MONTAGU
“A great soul serves everyone all the time. A great soul never dies. It brings us together again and again.” – Maya Angelou
“Those we love and lose are always connected by heartstrings into infinity.” —TERRI GUILLEMETS
“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.” – Richard Bach
“I am ready to meet my maker. Whether my maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.” —WINSTON CHURCHILL
“Those we love don’t go away, they walk beside us every day…unseen, unheard, but always near; still loved, still missed and very dear.” – Anonymous
“She made broken look beautiful and strong look invincible. She walked with the universe on her shoulders and made it look like a pair of wings.” —ARIANA DANCU
“How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” —A.A. Milne
“The comfort of having a friend may be taken away but not that of having had one.”—SENECA
“To die completely, a person must not only forget but be forgotten, and he who is not forgotten is not dead. —SAMUEL BUTLER
“If you ever lose someone dear to you, never say the words they’re gone. They’ll come back.” —PRINCE
“Dying is a very dull, dreary affair. And my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it.”
“Because I could not stop for Death – He kindly stopped for me – The Carriage held but just Ourselves – And Immortality.” – Emily Dickinson
“Say not in grief that he is no more but live in thankfulness that he was.” —HEBREW PROVERB
“What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes part of us.” — Helen Keller
“Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet.” – Sarah Louise Delany
What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments but what is woven into the lives of others.” —THUCYDIDES
“All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” —ABRAHAM LINCOLN
“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk in my own garden forever.” —ALFRED JENNYON
“You are gone, but thank you for all these soft, sweet things you left behind. In my home, in my head, in my heart.” —NIKITA GILL
“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined.” – Henry David Thoreau
“When a great man dies, for years the light he leaves behind him lies on the paths of men.” —HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
“In the garden of memory, in the palace of dreams…that is where you and I shall meet.” – Alice Through the Looking Glass
“I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.” —Mark Twain
“Those we love never truly leave us. There are things that death cannot touch.” —JACK THORNE
“If there ever comes a day when we can’t be together, keep me in your heart, I’ll stay there forever.”—A.A. MILNE
“Life is stressful, dear. That’s why they say ‘rest in peace.” —DAVID MAZZUCCHELLI
“Remembering is an act of resurrection, each repetition a vital layer of mourning, in memory of those we are sure to meet again.” —NANCY COBB
“There is something about losing a mother that is permanent and inexpressible—a wound that will never quite heal.” —SUSAN WIGGS
“Wherever a beautiful soul has been, there is a trail of beautiful memories.” —RONALD REAGAN
“The boundaries between life and death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where one ends and where the other begins?” —EDGAR ALLAN POE
“Say not in grief that she is no more, but say in thankfulness that she was. A death is not the extinguishing of a light but the putting out of the lamp because the dawn has come.” —RABINDRANATH TAGORE
If you like these, you might also want to check out our other lists of Condolence Quotes, Condolence Messages, Condolence Messages for Coworkers, Deep Sad Quotes and Saying Goodbye Quotes.
What to Say at a Celebration of Life
How lucky we are to know we have such a wonderful person waiting for us with God.
He was the person we all turned to when we saw something beautiful. His was a life full of appreciation and joy.
Life is a gift, love is a gift, and when both are bestowed, you have a life well lived.
We are celebrating the life of someone who embraced the excitement life had to offer.
She called us her little explorers and sent us out into the world to discover it for ourselves.
She taught me unconditional love.
Today, we gather to celebrate a life and a friendship that we will treasure forever.
She explored all of life’s options and never left a stone unturned.
He taught me the joy of friendship, and that’s something worth celebrating.
It’s not how much time we had together, but how much we made of the time we were lucky enough to share.
A life well lived marks everyone around it with love. Remember these marks as you celebrate the life.
A life well lived extends a helping hand to those in need, and today we are celebrating one of the most helpful people we have ever known.
He understood that to live life meant taking risks, but the rewards were worth it.
Today, we celebrate a person who was curious about life and explored every opportunity.
All you have to do is look around you to find beauty in life.
Retrospection is what creates fond memories.
Her philosophy was to live life as you see fit, but make sure you don’t hurt anyone or rob anyone of their rights in the process.
He knew who he was and lived each day true to his values.
She knew how to have fun and enjoy life, but she also knew how to be there for the people who loved her. We have all been very lucky.
She didn’t sit on the sidelines. Instead, she got into the game of life.
Today, we are celebrating the life of a person who symbolizes what it is to love.
A life well lived leaves others enriched and grateful.
He put family first in all he did.
He was fearless and instilled hope in all he met.
His greatest legacy was teaching me to enjoy life!
She loved life, and life loved her too.
We honor this beautiful life and take comfort in knowing we will meet again someday.
A life well lived is one filled with joy and love.
She taught me many things over the course of my life, but the main lesson she taught me was to fight for the things I believe in.
No greater statement can be made than that her life was one that was well lived.
Life is meant to be lived, so get out and live it.
May we have gratitude for this life well lived.
Love is the most important life lesson you can learn.
She showed us love every day by the way she nurtured and cared for us.
He advised me to always have a pencil handy, so I could use one end to erase the things I didn’t like about myself and the other end to add the qualities I wanted to have.
A life well lived is an example of gratitude, service, and kindness to all who get to share it.
Today, we are thankful for the time we had with this amazing person.
She lived a life of love. She was generous with her time and knowledge.
Good deeds go hand in hand with a life well lived.
A life well lived is a tribute to all.
We shared this time on the planet together, and I’m so grateful for her friendship.
She raised us to be independent but to depend on family when we needed backup.
He was a man of few words, but they were always kind ones.
Her philosophy on life was: be patient, support those you love, and celebrate all of their successes.
Evidence of a life well lived is found in those who love you. The legacy of love is all the proof that’s needed.
So that is it for our list of Celebration of Life Quotes and Sayings. We hope you found the perfect one!
About the Author
Laynni Locke
I am Laynni Locke, a Canadian writer, reader and traveller with a passion for sharing life’s moments on social media. Keeping friends and family in the loop of our lives though photos and videos has become an essential activity for most.
And it doesn’t matter if you are travelling, celebrating a special occasion or just appreciating day-to-day life, when you take that perfect photo you are going to need the perfect caption or quote before you share it. Which is why we started Routinely Shares, providing comprehensive lists of quotes and captions to cover every occasion, adventure or loved one.
With extensive experience as a travel writer, social media specialist and grant writer, I have made it my mission to curate the best and easiest to use lists for your next post.