Quotes. Thoughts & Excerpts... Life, Death & Living
Bertrand Russell
An individual human existence should be like a river – small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past boulders and over waterfalls.
Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and – in the end – without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being.
The man or woman who, in old age, can see his or her life in this way, will not suffer from the fear of death, since the things they care for will continue.
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William Shakespeare
And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.
Boris Pasternak
However far back you go in your memory, it is always in some external, active manifestation of yourself that you come across your identity – in the work of your hands, in your family, in other people...this is what you are.
This is what your consciousness has breathed and lived on, and enjoyed throughout you life...your immortality, your life in others. And what now? What does it matter to you if, later on, it is called your ‘memory’.
This will be you – the real you – that enters the future and becomes part of it.
Mark Dombeck Ph.D
Extract from a paper on grief and bereavement
Loss is experienced in two very distinct ways: the actual loss of the person we love; and the symbolic loss of the events that they will no longer be able to share with us.
In many ways, we live our lives through our important relationships. Our relationships define us and who we are; they become intimately intertwined into our sense of self (or self-concept) and are thus a
living part of us.
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Jack Kornfield
Writer
Compassion is the heart’s response to sorrow.
We share in the beauty of life and in the ocean of tears.
The sorrow of life is part of each of our heart’s and part of what connects us with one another.
It brings with it tenderness, mercy, and an all-embracing kindness that can touch every being.
Elizabeth Kubler Ross
We have no way of knowing when our time is up.
It's only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth -- and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up -- that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had.'
George Burns
Speaking of this 100 birthday
If you live to be one hundred, you've got it made. Very few people die past that age.
Albert Einstein
When you look at yourself from a universal standpoint,
something inside always reminds us or informs you
that there are bigger and better things to worry about.