Funeral Readings

Let me glide noiselessly forth;
With the key of softness
unlock the locks - with a whisper
Set open the doors, O soul!
-Walt Whitman

PIPPIN: "I didn't think it would end this way."

GANDALF: "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."

PIPPIN: "What? Gandalf? See what?"

GANDALF: "White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise."

PIPPIN: "Well, that isn't so bad."

GANDALF: "No. No, it isn't.”

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centred;Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway.

-Mother Theresa

We are here to add to the sum of human goodness.
To prove the thing exists.
And however futile each individual act of courage or generosity, self-sacrifice, or grace -
it still proves the thing exists.
Each act adds to the fund.
- -Josephine Hart

Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees. - Ernest Hemingway

I was ever a fighter, so -
one fight more,
the best and the last!
Robert Browning

Death, when we come to consider it closely, is the true goal of our existence. I have formed during the last few years such close relations with this best and truest friend of mankind, that his image is not only no longer terrifying to me, but is indeed very soothing and consoling!

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

We get no choice.
If we love, we grieve.
Thomas Lynch

Fear no more the heat o' the sun,
Nor the furious winter's rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages.

- William Shakespeare

'Say not in grief 'he is no more' but live in thankfulness that he was'
Hebrew proverb

'Yesterday is a memory, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift, which is why it is called the present'

'What the caterpillar perceives is the end, to the butterfly is just the beginning'

'Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well'
Buddist saying

For additional quotations

A Selection of Funeral Readings