Selected Quotes

May be used only with full credit & written permission from the Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Foundation at info@ekrfoundation.org . Written permission is not required for academic and school purposes.

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 compassions, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.

And after your death, when most of you for the first time realize what life here is all about, you will begin to see that your life here is almost nothing but the sum total of every choice you have made during every moment of your life.  Your thoughts, which you are responsible for, are as real as your deeds.  You will begin to realize that every word and every deed affects your life and has also touched thousands of lives.

We run after values that, at death, become zero.  At the end of your life, nobody asks you how many degrees you have, or how many mansions you built, or how many Rolls Royces you could afford.  That’s what dying patients teach you.

Dying is nothing to fear.  It can be the most wonderful experience of your life.  It all depends on how you have lived.

If you live each day of your life right, then you have nothing to fear …

Throughout life, we get clues that remind us of the direction we are supposed to be headed … if you stay focused, then you learn your lessons.

There is no joy without hardship.  If not for death, would we appreciate life?  If not for hate, would we know the ultimate goal is love? … At these moments you can either hold on to negativity and look for blame, or you can choose to heal and keep on loving.

When you learn your lessons, the pain goes away.

When we have passed the tests we are sent to Earth to learn, we are allowed to graduate.  We are allowed to shed our body, which imprisons our souls …

We make progress in society only if we stop cursing and complaining about its shortcomings and have the courage to do something about them.

Those who learned to know death, rather than to fear and fight it, become our teachers about life.

Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose....

You will not grow if you sit in a beautiful flower garden, but you will grow if you are sick, if you are in pain, if you experience losses, and if you do not put your head in the sand, but take the pain as a gift to you with a very, very specific purpose.

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, we will then begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had.

Death is simply a shedding of the physical body like the butterfly shedding its cocoon.  It is a transition to a higher state of consciousness where you continue to perceive, to understand, to laugh,  and to be able to grow.

For those who seek to understand it, death is a highly creative force. The highest spiritual values of life can originate from the thought and study of death.

I believe that we are solely responsible for our choices, and we have to accept the consequences of every deed, word, and thought throughout our lifetime.

People are like stained-glass windows.  They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.

Guilt is perhaps the most painful companion of death.

There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from.

The ultimate lesson all of us have to learn is unconditional love, which includes not only others but ourselves as well.

We need to teach the next generation of children from day one that they are responsible for their lives. Mankind's greatest gift, also its greatest curse, is that we have free choice. We can make our choices built from love or from fear.

Should you shield the canyons from the windstorms, you would never see the beauty of their carvings.

Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose.

There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden or even your bathtub.