Funerals Quotes

“Carve your name on hearts, not tombstones. A legacy is etched into the minds of others and the stories they share about you.”
― Shannon Alder

“When someone you love dies, you are given the gift of "second chances". Their eulogy is a reminder that the living can turn their lives around at any point. You’re not bound by the past; that is who you used to be. You’re reminded that your feelings are not who you are, but how you felt at that moment. Your bad choices defined you yesterday, but they are not who you are today. Your future doesn’t have to travel the same path with the same people. You can start over. You don’t have to apologize to people that won’t listen. You don’t have to justify your feelings or actions, during a difficult time in your life. You don’t have to put up with people that are insecure and want you to fail. All you have to do is walk forward with a positive outlook, and trust that God has a plan that is greater than the sorrow you left behind. The people of quality that were meant to be in your life won’t need you to explain the beauty of your heart. They already understand what being human is----a roller coaster ride of emotions during rainstorms and sunshine, sprinkled with moments when you can almost reach the stars.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“I went on spouting bullshit Encouragements as Gus's parents, arm in arm, hugged each other and nodded at every word. Funerals, I had decided, are for the living.”
― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

“Funerals...are for the living.”
― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

“A premature death does not only rob one of the countless instances where one would have experienced pleasure, it also saves one from the innumerable instances where one would have experienced pain.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Nostalgia has a way of blocking the reality of the past.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“All death reminds us that nothing is promised, only that life was worth it.”
― Shannon Alder, 300 Questions to Ask Your Parents Before It's Too Late

“Everyone was eating, talking softly, glancing at me, hugging me, eating. It was as if someone had turned the volume down. Everything looked normal, but the sound was muted. Death did this, set all this weirdness in motion, made people appear out of nowhere carrying casseroles, saying 'I'm sorry' over and over, death muffled their voices.”
― Joan Abelove, Saying It Out Loud

“Perhaps because it seems so appropriate, I don't notice the rain. It falls in sheets, a blanket of silvery thread rushing to the hard almost-winter ground. Still, I stand without moving at the side of the coffin.”
― Michelle Zink, Prophecy of the Sisters

“Death is a personal matter, arousing sorrow, despair, fervor, or dry-hearted philosophy. Funerals, on the other hand, are social functions. Imagine going to a funeral without first polishing the automobile. Imagine standing at a graveside not dressed in your best dark suit and your best black shoes, polished delightfully. Imagine sending flowers to a funeral with no attached card to prove you had done the correct thing. In no social institution is the codified ritual of behavior more rigid than in funerals. Imagine the indignation if the minister altered his sermon or experimented with facial expression. Consider the shock if, at the funeral parlors, any chairs were used but those little folding yellow torture chairs with the hard seats. No, dying, a man may be loved, hated, mourned, missed; but once dead he becomes the chief ornament of a complicated and formal social celebration.”
― John Steinbeck, Tortilla Flat

“Elaborate burial customs are a sure sign of decadence.”
― J.G. Ballard, The Complete Short Stories

“Funerals are for the living. If we have not done for the dead while they were yet in flesh, it is too late; let the matter pass at the grave. Day by day we should live for those who are to die; and live so that we may die for those who are to live. Funerals are for the living.”
― Roelif Coe Brinkerhoff

“We do have funerals for the living," Jill said. "They're called birthday parties.”
― Andrew Shaffer, Hope Never Dies

“Sensei says funerals are not really for the dead. They are for those left behind. "The dead are long gone by the time a funeral is held," he told us. "Who would wait when the doors of Heaven are open? Only the living would be foolish enough to still hang around on earth.”
― Sandy Fussell, Shaolin Tiger

“It's not what I'd want for at my funeral. When I die, I just want them to plant me somewhere warm. And then when the pretty women walk over my grave I would grab their ankles, like in that movie.”
― Neil Gaiman, American Gods

“A sea of red lights, and I slow down. My job now is to gather everyone together and tell them we have to let her go. I won't tell anyone over the phone, because I didn't like hearing the news from the doctor that way. I have maybe a week to handle the arrangements, as the doctor said, but the arrangements are overwhelming. How do I learn how to run a family? How do I say goodbye to someone I love so much that I've forgotten just how much I love her?”
― Kaui Hart Hemmings, The Descendants

“Funerals aren't scheduled.”
― Benjamin J. Carey, Barefoot in November

“I never saw a dollar bill cry at anyone's funeral.”
― J. Lincoln Fenn

“Attending a funeral would leave the average person insane, if they truly believed that sooner or later they are also going to die.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Republicans know well that a change of rhetorical pace is necessary. But efforts by their leaders to damp down the bellicosity of newly elected Tea Party types is running into the fact that the Tea Partiers have only the high volume setting on their amplifiers, just like Palin. They're like a couple having a fight at a funeral; politely sotto voce, then suddenly bursting out fortissimo with their plaints and accusations.”
― Alexander Cockburn

“فكرة مين الي هيحضر مناقشة رسالتك قريبة اوي من مين الي هيحضر جنازتك...اونلي ذا ونز هو كير :)..الفرق بس ان مافيش في التانية جاتوه و ساليزون :)”
― Eman Farouk

“When I was young,’ said Sybil, ‘women didn’t go to funerals, for some reason or other it wasn’t customary. Perhaps one can see why. Women nearly always outlive men, and I suppose it may have been a kind of subconscious jealousy — the men wouldn’t want to have the women standing there in the cemetery, triumphant at having outlived them.”
― Barbara Pym, A Glass of Blessings

“You have a very rough way of expressing your tastes," said Mrs. Murray with a shiver, as they got into her carriage. "Do you know, I never could understand the humor of joking about funerals."

"That surprises me," said Mr. Dudley. "A good funeral needs a joke. If mine is not more amusing than my friends', I would rather not go to it.”
― Henry Adams, Esther

“Do you know, I never could understand the humor of joking about funerals.

That surprises me, said Mr. Dudley. A good funeral needs a joke. If mine is not more amusing than my friends', I would rather not go to it.”
― Henry Adams, Esther

“The people come and go, drifting in and out, shaking hands, drinking and eating and looking at the dead man, saying what a lovely corpse he is, and doesn’t he look happy now that his end has come, and who was it that laid him out? They talk of the forecast and the moisture content of corn, of milk quotas and the next general election.”
― Claire Keegan, Foster

“Everyone remembers the first time they saw a dead body. As a child, David recalled his first encounter: his grandfather lying still, lifeless, and unproductive in his coffin. He carried this image with him for the rest of his life, always aware that time is finite and that one must use it wisely.”
― David L. Wadley

“It's now known, the Forgotten feeds into Nidus's rivers and sea. And so too will Anemone's spirit. With these lanterns, we all become stars born of fire, swathed in earth, and carried by the wind. Let our light shine over her waters, now and forevermore known as the Anemone Sea.”
― A.J. Lexa, Lines Between Stars

“Funerals, I had decided, are for the living.”
― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

“I always find funerals kind of pointless. I mean, maybe it’s because of the job, you know? Like, the whole idea of funerals is to say goodbye, but we know it isn’t goodbye, that there’s something else, even if we don’t know exactly what.”
― Maxie Dara, A Grim Reaper's Guide to Catching a Killer

“Many think that a funeral, is a fortuitous event, without any rules. That's not true. A funeral is a high-society event par excellence. You must never forget that at a funeral you are appearing on stage. You must patiently wait for the relatives to disperse. Once you are sure that all the guests are seated...
only at that point, may you offer your condolences to the family. In this way, everyone will see you. You take the mourner's hands, and rest yours on their arms. You whisper something to them, a comforting phrase, said with authority. For example: "ln the days to come,
when you feel the void, I want you to know that you can always count on me." The public will ask...

"What's Jep Gambardella saying?" You're allowed to retire to a corner by yourself, as if contemplating your sorrow. However, another matter must be approached with shrewdness. The chosen place needs
to be isolated but clearly visible to the public. Besides, a performance is good when it is devoid of any superfluity. So, the fundamental rule: one must never cry at a funeral. You must never steal the show from the family's sorrow. That is forbidden. Because it is immoral.”
― Jep Gambardella - Paolo Sorrentino's, The Great Beauty