These inspiring memorial quotes are so touching.
Losing a loved one before you were ready to say goodbye is a heartbreaking experience. It can leave you feeling lost, alone, and overwhelmed with grief.
But even in the darkest of times, there is comfort to be found in words that honor and remember those we have lost.
You’ve likely seen memorial quotes without realizing it.
Those words on a tombstone or a plaque at a funeral, that evoke emotions of sadness or longing, but also remind us of the impact that person had on the lives of their loved ones.
But memorial quotes can be so much more than just words on a stone or in a program. They can offer wisdom, comfort, and inspiration to help us navigate through the pain of loss.
In this section, we’ll explore some truly inspiring memorial quotes that celebrate the lives of those who have passed and offer solace to those left behind.
85 Inspiring Memorial Quotes To Honor Loved Ones
As you find the perfect message for your loved ones memorial plaque or funeral service, I hope you feel a sweet spirit of peace and comfort.
The following quotes can be used to remember and honor your loved ones:
“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln
“Our legacy is really the lives we touch, the inspiration we give, altering someone’s plan – if even for a moment – and getting them to think, cry, laugh, argue. More than anything, we are remembered for our smiles; the ones we share with our closest and dearest, and the ones we bestow on a total stranger, who needed it right then, and God put you there to deliver.” – Carrie Hamilton
The risk of love is loss, and the price of loss is grief – But the pain of grief is only a shadow when compared with the pain of never risking love.” – Hillary Stanton Zunin
“Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends leave footprints in your heart.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“The great sorrow of life comes because of the love given in this life.”
“We painfully grieve because we deeply love.”
“You’re gone, but not forgotten. You were loved by so many and will be missed.”
“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.”
“I love you every day. And now I will miss you every day.” – Mitch Alb
Traditional Memorial Quotes
As you lay your family member in their final resting place and conclude their memorial service, it is important to remember and honor them in a meaningful way. Traditional words of comfort have been used for centuries to pay tribute to the departed to those left behind.
These short memorial quotes can be included in a eulogy or written on a headstone:
“May your soul rest well.”
“Always loved, never forgotten.”
“The only thing we take with us when we leave this world is the love we have shared.”
“As long as I live, you will be remembered and missed.”
“A life that touches others goes on forever.”
“There are special people in our lives who never leave us, even after they are gone.” – D. Morgan
“The best and most beautiful thing in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart.” – Helen Keller
“Some people come in your life as blessings. Some come in your life as lessons.” – Mother Teresa
“A heart of gold stopped beating
Working hands at rest
God broke our hearts to prove to us
He only takes the best
Leaves and flowers may wither
The golden sun may set
But the hearts that loved you dearly
Are the ones that won’t forget.”
Famous Memorial Quotes
“When he shall die take him and cut him out in little stars, and he will make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun.” – William Shakespeare
“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” – Dr. Seuss
“I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.” – Mark Twain
“I am ready to meet my maker. Whether my maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.” – Winston Churchill
“No one ever told me that grief felt so much like fear.” – C.S Lewis
“The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example.” – Benjamin Disraeli
“Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality.” – Emily Dickinson
Memorial Quotes For Remembering Parents and Grandparents
“There are no goodbyes for us. Wherever you are, you will always be in my heart.” – Mahatma Gandhi
“All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” – Abraham Lincoln
“To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.” – Thomas Campbell
“To her, the name of father was another name for love.” – Fanny Fern
“Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal. (From an Irish headstone)” – Richard Puz, The Carolinian
“We do not have to rely on memories to recapture the spirit of those we have loved and lost – they live within our souls in some perfect sanctuary which even death cannot destroy.” – Nan Witcomb
“The length of life is measured by love, not by years.”
“You’re a better person with a soulful heart.”
Patriotic Quotes For Our Veterans
Our service men and women deserve our highest appreciation for their sacrifice and dedication to our country.
Whether you’re looking for positive messages over Memorial Day weekend or are mourning the death of a friend, here are some quotes to honor the bravery of our military members:
“Our veterans accepted the responsibility to defend America and uphold our values when duty called.” – Bill Shuster
“Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul.” – Michel de Montaigne
“There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness but of power. They speak more eloquently than 10,000 tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief and unspeakable love.” – Washington Irving
“The patriot who feels himself in the service of God, who acknowledges Him in all his ways, has the promise of Almighty direction, and will find His Word in his greatest darkness.” – Francis Scott Key
“God requires men of courage and valor. Here lies such a man.”
“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” – Winston Churchill
“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.” – Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
“We must dare to be great; and we must realize that greatness is the fruit of toil and sacrifice and high courage… For us is the life of action, of strenuous performance of duty; let us live in the harness, striving mightily; let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out.” – Teddy Roosevelt
“America will not now, nor in the future, yield that for which so many of these men died. I do not know the dignity of their birth, but I do know the glory of their death. They died that mortal ideals might not perish.” – General Douglas MacArthur
“The willingness of America’s veterans to sacrifice for our country has earned them our lasting gratitude.” – Jeff Miller
“For love of country they accepted death, and thus resolved all doubts, and made immortal their patriotism and their virtue.” – James A. Garfield
“I have long believed that sacrifice is the pinnacle of patriotism.” – Bob Riley
“A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” – Joseph Campbell
The patriot’s blood is the seed of Freedom’s tree.” – Thomas Campbell
“We must be prepared to make heroic sacrifices for the cause of peace that we make ungrudgingly for the cause of war. There is no task that is more important or closer to my heart.” – Albert Einstein
“I can imagine a no more rewarding career. And any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worth while, I think can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction: ‘I served in the United States Navy.'” – President John F. Kennedy
Religious Memorial Quotes
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 6:23
“May you rest in the arms of Jesus.”
“Heaven takes the best flowers for their garden. You were God’s greatest pick.”
“Say not in grief that he is no more but live in thankfulness that he was.” – Hebrew Proverb
“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come. Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 8:38-39
“You’ll find Jesus everywhere, but especially in the hearts of those who serve.”
“Heaven is a place where angels are serving God, and one day we will be there with them.”
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.” – John 14:1
“God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” – 1 John 5:11
“The promise of heaven is not that we will be with God forever, but that He will be with us forever.”
“He who has gone, so we but cherish his memory, abides with us more potent, nay, more present than the living man.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
“God saw you getting tired and a cure was not to be, so He put His arms around you and whispered ‘come with me.’ With tearful eyes we watched you slowly fade away. Although we loved you dearly, we could not make you stay.”
“In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” – John 14:2
“God will wipe away every tear from our eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” – Revelation 21:4
Memorial Quotes For Careers or Special Interests
“There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.” – Albert Einstein
“Good friends find their own way to do things…like painting memories that last a lifetime.”
“Life is like riding a bicycle.”
“Trains, planes, and automobiles. They all make for a life well traveled.”
“Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it rest.”
“Life is like a camera. Focus on the good times, develop from the negatives and if things don’t work out, take another shot.”
“There’s a time limit on life and shutter speeds with cameras.”
“Life is like a book, some chapters are sad, some happy and some exciting. But if you never turn the page, you will never know what the next chapter holds.”
“When life gives you lemons, trade them for whisky.” (or your best friend’s favorite drink)
“There’s no place like home…unless it’s in front of a camera lens.” (or on a stage, in the recording studio, etc.)
“Life is like a puzzle, all the pieces come together to make something beautiful.”
“The only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
Memorial Quotes For Couples
“To the world you may be one person; but to one person you may be the world.” – Dr. Seuss
“Love is how often you stay alive, even after you are gone.” – Mitch Albom
“When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.” – Kahlil Gibran
“I’ll remember you. When I’ve forgotten all the rest. You to me were true. You to me were the best.” – Bob Dylan
“Grief is the price we pay for love.” – Queen Elizabeth II
“A life with love will have some thorns, but a life without love will have no roses.” – Anonymous
“Together forever.”
Inspiring Memorial Quotes To Put in Sympathy Cards
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart.” – Helen Keller
“If ever there is a tomorrow when we’re not together, there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart, I’ll always be with you.” – Winnie The Pooh
“There are three needs of the griever: To find the words for the loss, to say the words aloud and to know that the words have been heard.” – Victoria Alexander
I really am sorry for the loss of your beloved family member. This is a difficult time for you and your family, and I hope that these words of comfort can bring even a little bit of solace during this trying period.
When we lose someone we love, it feels like a piece of us is missing. We may never be able to fill that void completely, but we can honor their memory by cherishing the time we had with them and sharing stories and memories with others.
As you find the memory quotes which reflect the very best of your loved one and what they meant to you, remember that their love will continue to live on in your heart and the hearts of those who knew them.
It’s never easy to say goodbye, but it’s important to remember that grief is a sign of how much we loved and were loved. And though our dear ones may no longer be with us physically, their presence will always be felt in your heart.
You’re in my prayers.
Micah Klug is a wife, homeschooling mother to five children, and author. She teaches time-tested solutions to help parents remember what matters most in life, including strengthening their home, faith, and family relationships. To learn how a child who grew up in an authoritarian home is now creating an environment of peace and joy in her own home visit this page. If you want to contact Micah, send her an email here or email [email protected].
