Remembrance Quotes for Memorial Services and Funerals

During a time of loss, finding the right words isn’t always easy. In this comprehensive guide to funeral and remembrance quotes, we provide a variety of quotes to read at funerals, memorial services, scattering events, tree burials, and other important events honoring a loved one who passed. You can even have a favorite quote engraved on an urn or keepsake of your choice.

Remembrance Quotes By Relationship / Type

Parent | Grandparent | Child | Wife/Husband | Sibling | Friend | Cousin | Mentor | Colleague | Neighbor | General/Dealing With Grief | Finding Hope | Preserving Memory | Poems | Pets | Memories Quotes

Why Are Remembrance Quotes?

Words are powerful. Quotes are a way to express feelings when you can’t seem to form the words. They can provide inspiration for a eulogy and help begin the healing process. They’re not necessarily meant to cheer you up, but to acknowledge the truth of your pain and allow you to feel. When you feel, you can heal.

Quotes contain the wisdom of others’ experiences. In a way, our predecessors support us through trials in our own lives. And that’s one purpose of history - no matter what we endure, we know someone endured it first.

Remembrance quotes are a way to honor the memory of a person who has passed. They remind you why the person was loved. In that way, a quote breeds empathy in the people who hear it, bringing them together in communion because of their shared grief.

Browse through these 80+ remembrance quotes to find your favorite. You might even find your loved one’s favorite too.

Memorial & Funeral Quotes for a Parent (Mom or Dad)

• “A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest.” ~Irish Proverb

• “My Father didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.” ~Clarence Budington Kelland

• “A mother gives you a life, a mother-in-law gives you her life.” ~Amit Kalantri

Memory Quotes for Son / Daughter (Child)

• “Those we have held in our arms for a little while, we hold in our hearts forever.” ~Khalil Gibran

Memory Quotes for Sibling (Brother or Sister)

• “In this life we will never truly be apart, for we grew to the same beat of our Mother’s heart.” ~Daphne Fandrich

Remembrance Quotes for the Loss of a Grandparent

• “The greatest love story is not Romeo and Juliet who died together, but Grandma and Grandpa who grew old together.” ~Unknown

• “Grandmas hold our tiny hands for just a little while, but our hearts forever.” ~Unknown

• “Those who love deeply never grow old; they may die of old age, but they die young.” ~Sir Arthur Wing Pinero 

Quotes to Remember a Cousin

• “Cousins are friends that will love you forever.” ~Constance Richards

Memory Quotes for Husband / Wife (Significant Other)

• “Love is eternal - the aspect may change, but not the essence.” ~Vincent Van Gogh

• “How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” ~Winnie the Pooh

• “And they all said, ‘I’m sorry for your loss,’ as if you were someone who could ever be taken from me.” ~Robert Brault

• “I found that I missed him the more he was absent from my life, and the more I missed him, the more I loved him.” ~Donna Lynn Hope

• “I’ll remember you. When I’ve forgotten all the rest. You to me were true. You to me were the best.” ~Bob Dylan

• “And ever has it been known that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.” ~Khalil Gibran

• “Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while.” ~The Princess Bride

• “In all the world, there is no heart for me like yours. In all the world, there is no love for you like mine.” ~Maya Angelou

Remembrance Quotes for Loss of a Friend

• “He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much.” ~Bessie Anderson Stanley

• “It’s hard to turn the page when you know someone won’t be in the next chapter, but the story must go on.” ~Thomas Wilder

• “Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt

• “Friends come into our lives and friends leave our lives. But friends never leave our hearts. And best friends always get to stay in the best places in our hearts.” ~John M. Simmons, The Marvelous Journey Home

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

• “I’ll remember you. When I’ve forgotten all the rest. You to me were true. You to me were the best.” ~Bob Dylan

Remembrance Quotes to Remember a Mentor

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

• “The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example.” ~Benjamin Disraeli

• “A person’s true wealth is the good he or she does in the world.” ~Mohammed

• “What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” ~Thucydides

• “A great soul serves everyone all the time. A great soul never dies. It brings us together again and again.” ~Maya Angelou

• “The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” ~Nelson Henderson

• “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” ~Abraham Lincoln

• “Death is more universal than life; everyone dies but not everyone lives.” ~Alan Sachs

Remembrance Quotes to Remember a Colleague

• “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” ~Winston Churchill

• “Chance made us colleagues. Fun and laughter made us friends.” ~Unknown

Quotes to Remember a Neighbor

• “We make our friends; we make our enemies; but God makes our next door neighbor.” ~Gilbert K. Chesterton

• “Heaven will not disappoint kind-hearted persons.” ~Chinese Proverb

Remembrance Quotes to Remember a Pet

• “Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.” ~Roger Caras

• “A home without a cat - and a well fed, well petted and properly revered cat - may be a home, perhaps, but how can it prove title?” ~Mark Twain

• “Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened.” ~Anatole France

Quotes for Dealing with Grief

• “There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.” ~Washington Irving

• “Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.”  ~Irish Headstone

• “I miss you even more than I could have believed; and I was prepared to miss you a good deal.” ~Vita Sackville-West

• “Where there is sorrow, there is holy ground.” ~Oscar Wilde

• “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.” ~Matthew 5:4

• “Grief is just love with no place to go.” ~Jamie Anderson

• “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.” ~Psalm 126:5

• “Do not fear difficulty. Hard ground makes stronger roots.” ~Ventari, Guild Wars 2

Quotes for Finding Hope

• “What we have once enjoyed deeply we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.”  ~Helen Keller

• “Those we love never truly leave us. There are things that death cannot touch.” ~Jack Thorne

• “There are no goodbyes for us. Wherever you are, you will always be in my heart.” ~Gandhi

• “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 W. Raymond

• “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” ~Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss)

• “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?” ~Percy Bysshe Shelley

• “Death is nothing else but going home to God, the bond of love will be unbroken for all eternity.” ~Mother Teresa

• “Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there's a difference for me, you know. Because in that other room I shall be able to see.” ~Helen Keller

• “Perhaps they are not 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

• “For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity.” ~William Penn

• “How glorious is life after death! No more will you have to lug about this old baggage of bones, with all its troubles. You will be free in the astral heaven, unhindered by physical limitations.” ~Paramahansa Yogananda

• “Life is a dream walking. Death is going home.” ~Chinese Proverb

• “I’m not afraid of death because I don’t believe in it. It’s just getting out of one car and into another.” ~John Lennon

• “The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity.” ~Seneca

• “Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still.” ~William Penn

• “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” ~Albert Einstein

• “Seeing death as the end of life is like seeing the horizon as the end of the ocean.” ~David Searls

• “I have only slipped away into the next room, I am I and you are you. Whatever we were to each other, that we still are. Call me by my familiar name. Speak to me in the easy way which you always used … Play, smile, think of me … All is well.” ~Henry Scott Holland

• “We only part to meet again. Change, as ye list, ye winds; my heart shall be the faithful compass that still points to thee.” ~John Gay

• “Death - the last sleep? No, it is the final awakening.” ~Sir Walter Scott

• “Wherever you are, I am there also.” ~Beethoven

Quotes for Preserving Memory

• “Beauty exists not in what is seen and remembered, but in what is felt and never forgotten.” ~Johnathan Jena

• “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched… they must be felt with the heart.” ~Helen Keller

• “One lives in the hope of becoming a memory.” ~Antonio Porchia

• “When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure.” ~Unknown

• “I know for certain that we never lose the people we love, even to death. They continue to participate in every act, thought, and decision we make. Their love leaves an indelible imprint in our memories. We find comfort in knowing that our lives have been enriched by having shared their love.” ~Leo Buscaglia

• “The living owe it to those who no longer can speak to tell their story for them.” ~Czesław Miłosz

• “We are all stories in the end, remembered by the adventures we had, the achievements we made and the people we loved. So make sure your story is a good one.” ~Nishan Panwar

• “And when we have remembered everything, we grow afraid of what we may forget. A face, a voice, a smile? A birthday? An anniversary? No need to fear forgetting, because the heart remembers always.” ~Sascha Wagner

• “You are remembered for the rules you break.” ~Douglas MacArthur

Remembrance Poems

“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.” ~Unknown

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.” ~Laurence Binyon

“I learned from the shadow of a tree,
that to and fro did sway against a wall:
our shadow-selves, our influence, may fall
where we ourselves can never be.” ~Anna E. Hamilton

“May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.” ~Irish Blessing

“There's a very special garden
Where the trees of memory grow
Nurtured by the kindness
And concern that good friends show.
The roots are cherished memories of good times in the past.
The branches tender promises that souls endure and last.
It's a place of peace and beauty
Where bright new hopes can start
It's memory's lovely garden that soothes the hurting heart” ~Unknown

“‘Tis a fearful thing to love what death can touch.
A fearful thing to love, to hope, to dream, to be –
To be, and oh, to lose.
A thing for fools, this, and a holy thing,
A holy thing to love.
For your life has lived in me,
Your laugh once lifted me,
Your word was gift to me.
To remember this brings painful joy.
‘Tis a human thing, love, a holy thing,
To love what death has touched.” ~Yehudah Halevi

Memories Quotes

• “We do not remember days, we remember moments.” ~Cesare Pavese

• “Sometimes you will never know the value of something until it becomes a memory.” ~Dr. Seuss

• “Time and space may separate us, but not the thoughts and memories that bind us.” ~Ed Parker

• “Life isn't a matter of milestones, but of moments” ~Rose Kennedy

• “Memory... is the diary that we all carry about with us.” ~Oscar Wilde

• “It's surprising how much memory is built around things unnoticed at the time” ~Barbara Kingsolver

• “Anything that triggers good memories can't be all bad.” ~Adam West

• “You shouldn't wait for other people to make special things happen. You have to create your own memories.” ~Heidi Klum

• “Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others.” ~Rosa Parks

• “Take care of all your memories. For you cannot relive them." ~Bob Dylan

Engrave Your Favorite Remembrance Quote or Poem on an Urn

Which quote was your favorite? Let us know. We can engrave any quote on your chosen urn to preserve the message alongside the precious memory of your loved one. Browse through our selection and learn more about the types of urns we offer. With our urns, you can bury, plant, scatter ashes, and more. Alternatively, order a memorial stone with your favorite quote.