Saying goodbye to someone for the last time will always be sad but that doesn’t mean they didn’t live a full life, which is why we have gathered all the best celebration of life quotes for you to share. And if you’re looking for short celebration of life captions, we also have you covered.
Now go ahead and browse through to find your favorite.
Celebration of Life Quotes and Captions
“There is something about losing a mother that is permanent and inexpressible—a wound that will never quite heal.” —SUSAN WIGGS
Today, we are thankful for the time we had with this amazing person.
“Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.” – Khalil Gibran
“How can the dead be truly dead when they still live in the souls of those who are left behind?” —CARSON MCCULLERS
We honor this beautiful life and take comfort in knowing we will meet again someday. —W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM
“Because I could not stop for Death – He kindly stopped for me – The Carriage held but just Ourselves – And Immortality.” – Emily Dickinson
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover.” – Mark Twain
“Remembering is an act of resurrection, each repetition a vital layer of mourning, in memory of those we are sure to meet again.” —NANCY COBB
“Every life is noted and is cherished, and nothing loved is ever lost or perished.” —MADELEINE L’ENGLE
“Life is stressful, dear. That’s why they say ‘rest in peace.” —DAVID MAZZUCCHELLI
Life is a gift, love is a gift, and when both are bestowed, you have a life well lived.
“To die completely, a person must not only forget but be forgotten, and he who is not forgotten is not dead. —SAMUEL BUTLER
“The gladdest moment in human life, me thinks, is a departure into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Burton
“Grief is in two parts. The first is loss. The second is the remaking of life.” — Anne Roiphe
Her philosophy on life was: be patient, support those you love, and celebrate all of their successes.
Good deeds go hand in hand with a life well lived.
“A great soul serves everyone all the time. A great soul never dies. It brings us together again and again.” —MAYA ANGELOU
“Love as powerful as your mother’s for you leaves its own mark. To have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever.” —J.K. ROWLING
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” – Mae West
“People living deeply have no fear of death.” —ANAIS NIN
“Wherever a beautiful soul has been, there is a trail of beautiful memories.” —RONALD REAGAN
“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” – John Lennon
“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined.” – Henry David Thoreau
Today, we are celebrating the life of a person who symbolizes what it is to love.
He put family first in all he did.
A life well lived extends a helping hand to those in need, and today we are celebrating one of the most helpful people we have ever known.
“Grief can be a burden, but also an anchor. You get used to the weight, how it holds you in place.” — Sarah Dessen
She called us her little explorers and sent us out into the world to discover it for ourselves.
“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 Worthington Raymond
We shared this time on the planet together, and I’m so grateful for her friendship.
“All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” —ABRAHAM LINCOLN
“Sometimes, when one person is absent, the whole world seems depopulated.” —ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE
She taught me unconditional love.
“If you ever lose someone dear to you, never say the words they’re gone. They’ll come back.” —PRINCE
“While we are mourning the loss of our friend, others are rejoicing to meet him behind the veil.” – John Taylor
He understood that to live life meant taking risks, but the rewards were worth it.
“The connections we make in the course of life—maybe that’s what heaven is. —FRED ROGERS
A life well lived leaves others enriched and grateful.
“The comfort of having a friend may be taken away but not that of having had one.”—SENECA
It’s so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone.” —JOHN STEINBECK
“The idea is to die young as late as possible.” —ASHLEY MONTAGU
“Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome.” —ISAAC ASIMOV
May we have gratitude for this life well lived.
“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk in my own garden forever.” —ALFRED JENNYON
“No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.” — C.S. Lewis
“The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” – Steve Jobs
How lucky we are to know we have such a wonderful person waiting for us with God.
He knew who he was and lived each day true to his values.
“The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams.” – Oprah Winfrey
Her philosophy was to live life as you see fit, but make sure you don’t hurt anyone or rob anyone of their rights in the process.
“The only cure for grief is to grieve.” — Earl Grollman
“Grief, no matter how you try to cater to its wail, has a way of fading away.” — V.C. Andrews
“They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill what never dies.” —WILLIAM PENN
We are celebrating the life of someone who embraced the excitement life had to offer.
“What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes part of us.” – Helen Keller
“Perhaps they are not the 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
“You are gone, but thank you for all these soft, sweet things you left behind. In my home, in my head, in my heart.” —NIKITA GILL
He taught me to respect the opinions of others. He said I didn’t have to agree with them, but I should honor their right to have them, otherwise how could I expect them to respect mine?
She didn’t sit on the sidelines. Instead, she got into the game of life.
“If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them.” —JAMES O’BARR
“Lives are like rivers: eventually they go where they must. Not where we want them to.” —RICHARD RUSSO
“Those we love never truly leave us. There are things that death cannot touch.” —JACK THORNE
“Only a moment you stayed but what an imprint your footprints have left on our hearts.” —DOROTHY FERGUSON
“Life is for the living. Death is for the dead. Let life be like music. And death a note unsaid.” —LANGSTON HUGHES
“Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet.” – Sarah Louise Delany
“A great soul serves everyone all the time. A great soul never dies. It brings us together again and again.” – Maya Angelou
“Life is a song—sing it. Life is a game—play it. Life is a challenge—meet it. Life is a dream—realise it. Life is a sacrifice—offer it. Life is love—enjoy it.” —Sai Baba
His greatest legacy was teaching me to enjoy life!
“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.” — Kahlil Gibran
A life well lived marks everyone around it with love. Remember these marks as you celebrate the life.
“The boundaries between life and death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where one ends and where the other begins?” —EDGAR ALLAN POE
He taught me the joy of friendship, and that’s something worth celebrating.
“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Grief is the price we pay for love.” — Queen Elizabeth II
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” — Helen Keller
“Death is nature’s way of saying, ‘Your table is ready.” —ROBIN WILLIAMS
No greater statement can be made than that her life was one that was well lived.
“Life is a journey, not a destination.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Say not in grief that she is no more, but say in thankfulness that she was. A death is not the extinguishing of a light but the putting out of the lamp because the dawn has come.” —RABINDRANATH TAGORE
“Love is how you stay alive, even after you are gone.” – Mitch Albom
She showed us love every day by the way she nurtured and cared for us.
“Grief is the price we pay for loving someone.” — Dr. Colin Murray Parkes
“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.” – Richard Bach
“Those we love and lose are always connected by heartstrings into infinity.” —TERRI GUILLEMETS
Today, we celebrate a person who was curious about life and explored every opportunity.
He was fearless and instilled hope in all he met.
“Like a bird singing in the rain, let grateful memories survive in time of sorrow.” —ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
All you have to do is look around you to find beauty in life.
“I have found that if you love life, life will love you back.” – Arthur Rubinstein
“To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.” – THOMAS CAMPBELL
“In the garden of memory, in the palace of dreams…that is where you and I shall meet.” – Alice Through the Looking Glass
“Grief changes shape, but it never ends.” — Keanu Reeves
Love is the most important life lesson you can learn.
“As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well-used brings happy death.” —LEONARDO DA VINCI
“The song is ended, but the melody lingers on.” – Irving Berlin
“Grief is the agony of an instant; the indulgence of grief the blunder of a life.” — Benjamin Disraeli
“Say not in grief that he is no more but live in thankfulness that he was.” —HEBREW PROVERB
He advised me to always have a pencil handy, so I could use one end to erase the things I didn’t like about myself and the other end to add the qualities I wanted to have.
“Grieving doesn’t make you imperfect. It makes you human.” — Sarah Dessen
“Live each day as if your life had just begun.” – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
“Grief is the price we pay for love.” —QUEEN ELIZABETH
“How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” —A.A. Milne
“She made broken look beautiful and strong look invincible. She walked with the universe on her shoulders and made it look like a pair of wings.” —ARIANA DANCU
She taught me many things over the course of my life, but the main lesson she taught me was to fight for the things I believe in.
“There is no grief like the grief that does not speak.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“Grief does not change you, Hazel. It reveals you.” — John Green
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.” – Helen Keller
She loved life, and life loved her too.
She lived a life of love. She was generous with her time and knowledge.
It’s not how much time we had together, but how much we made of the time we were lucky enough to share.
“The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero
“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.” – Anonymous
“Say not in grief ‘he is no more’ but in thankfulness that he was.” – Hebrew Proverb
“Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality.” – Emily Dickinson
“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” – Dr. Seuss
“Every man’s life is a fairy tale written by God’s fingers.” – Hans Christian Andersen
She raised us to be independent but to depend on family when we needed backup.
“To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.” – Thomas Campbell
Life is meant to be lived, so get out and live it.
“Dying is a very dull, dreary affair. And my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it.”
“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” —ABRAHAM LINCOLN
A life well lived is an example of gratitude, service, and kindness to all who get to share it.
“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
“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” – George Bernard Shaw
“No one is actually dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away.” —TERRY PRATCHETT
Today, we gather to celebrate a life and a friendship that we will treasure forever.
She explored all of life’s options and never left a stone unturned.
“When a great man dies, for years the light he leaves behind him lies on the paths of men.” —HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
He was the person we all turned to when we saw something beautiful. His was a life full of appreciation and joy.
“There are no goodbyes for us. Wherever you are, you will always be in my heart.” – Mahatma Gandhi
Evidence of a life well lived is found in those who love you. The legacy of love is all the proof that’s needed.
“If there ever comes a day when we can’t be together, keep me in your heart, I’ll stay there forever.”—A.A. MILNE
“I am ready to meet my maker. Whether my maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.” —WINSTON CHURCHILL
“What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes part of us.” — Helen Keller
“Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends leave footprints in your heart.” —ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
“There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power.” — Washington Irving
“A person’s true wealth is the good he or she does in the world.” —NAZR MOHAMMED
She knew how to have fun and enjoy life, but she also knew how to be there for the people who loved her. We have all been very lucky.
Retrospection is what creates fond memories.
“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” – Helen Keller
He was a man of few words, but they were always kind ones.
“Death ends a life, not a relationship.” – Mitch Albom
What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments but what is woven into the lives of others.” —THUCYDIDES
A life well lived is one filled with joy and love.
“Grief is the garden of compassion.” — Rumi
A life well lived is a tribute to all.
“Tears shed for another person are not a sign of weakness. They are a sign of a pure heart.” — José N. Harris
“Through hard work, perseverance, and faith in God, you can live your dreams.” – Ben Carson
So that is it for our list of Celebration of Life Quotes and Captions. We hope you found the perfect one for you!
For more great ideas, check out our other lists of Condolence Messages, Short Condolence Quotes and Daily Encouragement Quotes.
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About the Author
Laynni Deir
I am Laynni Deir, writer and editor of Purely Lists. There are times when you are looking for inspiration or aren’t sure what to say and I am committed to providing lists of the best quotes, sayings, messages, puns or captions for any occasion. Whether you are looking for a positive quote, a message for a card, a fun saying for a letter board or caption for your next post or story, you will find the perfect option here.
The goal of Purely Lists is to provide a comprehensive and diverse set of lists to cover every situation from holidays and celebrations to uplifting quotes and general motivation. Whether you are looking for something deep and profound, funny and foolish or positive and encouraging, we strive to offer easy, fast and accessible options.