Funeral Verses & Written ContentReadings and Quotes for Funerals

Sometimes, it can be hard to find the right words. A well chosen reading or quotation is a beautiful way to convey feelings and to remind us of the shared experience of grief.

  • Kahlil Gibran
When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence,
as the …

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  • Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“Some are bound to die young.  By dying young a person stays young in people’s memory.  If he burns brightly before he dies, his brightness …

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  • Edgar Albert Guest
I will lend you, for a little time, A child of mine, He said. For you to love the while he lives, And mourn for when he’s dead. It …

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  • Ray Bradbury
Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall …

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  • Henry Scott Holland
Death is nothing at all.
It does not count.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
Nothing has happened.
Everything remains exactly as …

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  • King James Bible
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And …

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  • Abraham Lincoln
In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and, to the young, it comes with bitterest agony, because it takes them unawares. The …

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  • William Shakespeare
Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I have yet heard,
It …

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  • Revised English Bible
Where can I escape from your spirit, where flee from your presence? If I climb up to heaven, you are there; if I make my …

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  • Revised English Bible
‘Set your troubled hearts at rest. Trust in God always; trust also in me. There are many dwelling-places in my Father’s house; if it were …

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  • Revised English Bible
If I lift up my eyes to the hills, where shall I find help? My help comes only from the LORD, maker of heaven and …

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  • Anonymous
One night a man had a dream.  He dreamt that he was walking along a beach with the Lord.  Across the sky flashed the scenes …

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  • Revised English Bible
For everything its season, and for every activity under heaven its time: a time to be born and a time to die;
a time to plant …

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  • Robert Frost
“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”

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  • Kahlil Gibran
Then a woman said, Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow.
And he answered:
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from …

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  • Revised English Bible
No wonder we do not lose heart! Though our outward humanity is in decay, yet day by day we are inwardly renewed. Our troubles are …

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  • Margery Williams
“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, …

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  • William Shakespeare
Our revels are now ended: these our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like …

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  • Revised English Bible
Listen, I will unfold a mystery: we shall not all die, but we shall all be changed, in a flash, in the twinkling of an …

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  • Revised English Bible
Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, in order that everyone who has …

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  • William Wordsworth
And when the stream that overflows has passed, a consciousness remains upon the silent shore of memory; images and precious thoughts that shall not be …

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  • A A Milne
If ever there is tomorrow when we’re not together… there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you …

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  • Colonel Robert G Ingersoll
Before the sublime mystery of life and spirit, the mystery of infinite space and endless time, we stand in reverent awe…This much we know: we …

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  • Seneca
The comfort of having a friend may be taken away, but not that of having had one.

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  • Revised English Bible
The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to announce good news to the …

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  • Mary Lee Hall
If I should die and leave you here awhile, be not like others, sore undone, who keep long vigils by the silent dust, and weep. For my sake, …

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  • Anonymous
A butterfly lights beside us like a sunbeam and for a brief moment its glory and beauty belong to the world.  But then it flies …

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  • Revised English Bible
I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had vanished, and there was no longer any …

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  • Revised English Bible
Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never …

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  • Dr Seuss
Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.

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  • Revised English Bible
I may speak in tongues of men or of angels, but if I have no love, I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. …

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  • Anonymous
I did not die young.  I lived my span of life within your body and within your love.  There are many that have lived long …

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  • David Gerrold
“Life is hard. Then you die. Then they throw dirt in your face. Then the worms eat you. Be grateful it happens in that order.”  

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  • Revised English Bible
The LORD is my shepherd; I lack for nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me to water where I may …

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  • Revised English Bible
Then what can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or hardship? Can persecution, hunger, nakedness, danger or sword? …throughout it all, overwhelming …

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  • Revised English Bible
I have run the great race, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. And now there awaits me the garland of righteousness …

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  • Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
“I’ve told my children that when I die, to release balloons in the sky to celebrate that I graduated. For me, death is a graduation.”  

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  • Thomas Campbell
“To live in the hearts of those we leave behind is not to die.”

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  • J K Rowling
“To the well organised mind, death is but the next great adventure.”

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  • Debi Gliori
“Does love wear out” said Small, “does it break or bend? Can you fix it, stick it, does it mend?” “Oh help,” said Large “I’m not …

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  • Adam Lindsay
One day at a time; this is enough.  Do not look back and grieve over the past, for it is gone; and do not be …

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  • Revised English Bible
On this mountain the LORD of hosts will prepare a banquet of rich fare for all the peoples, a banquet of wines well matured, richest …

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  • E B White
You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what’s …

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  • Kahlil Gibran
You would know the secret of death.
But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?
The owl whose …

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  • Mae West
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

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  • Unknown
I took up a handful of grain and let it slip flowing through my fingers, and I said to myself; this is what it is …

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  • Woody Allen
“I’m not afraid of death; I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”

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  • Rudyard Kipling
“Love like ours never dies.”

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  • Bruce Colville
“Nothing you love is lost. Not really. Things, people—they always go away, sooner or later. You can’t hold them, any more than you can hold …

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  • Revised English Bible
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ He called a child, set him …

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  • Henry Van dyke
I am standing upon the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white sails
to the morning breeze and
starts for the blue ocean. She …

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  • Revised English Bible
They brought children for him to touch. The disciples rebuked them, but when Jesus saw it he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the …

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  • William Shakespeare
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits, and their entrances;
And one man in his …

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  • John Bunyan
I see myself now at the end of my journey; my toilsome days are ended.  I am going now to see that head that was …

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  • Revised English Bible
We wish you not to remain in ignorance, friends, about those who sleep in death; you should not grieve like the rest of mankind, who …

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  • Antoine de Saint-Exupery
“People have stars, but they aren’t the same. For travellers, the stars are guides. For other people, they’re nothing but tiny lights. And for still …

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  • Marilyn Monroe
“Give a girl the right shoes and she can conquer the world.”

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