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Inscriptions

Sir Ernest Shackelton

Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton set off on his final expedition in search of the ‘lost’ Antarctic islands in 1921. However, he fell ill on the journey and, upon the boat’s arrival in Georgia in January 1922, he suffered a fatal heart attack. Rather than returning the body to England he was buried, at his wife’s request, in the Grytviken cemetery, South Georgia.

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Inscriptions – Opening Lines

Here lies a beloved (wife mother daughter, etc.)
Here lies a beloved (husband, father, son, etc.)
Here lies a soldier who served his/her country well.
The sun shined brighter because she was here.
Beloved by family, cherished by friends.
The world is a richer place because he once lived.
I lived a good life. Now I’ll have a good rest.
I hate to leave you all behind, but we’ll meet again one day.
Live to the fullest, for life is all too short.
If I could do it all again, I wouldn’t change a thing.
The greatest gift in life is love.
Have faith we’ll meet again.
God called me home to Heaven.
Parted by death, we’ll be reunited in Heaven.
Don’t weep. I’m simply resting in God’s arms.
I soar with the angels and sing with the Heavenly choir.

Inscriptions – Longer Epitaphs & Quotes

Your love will light my way
Our love is love forever.
And the beauty of the soul revealed.
Our brief partings on Earth will appear one day as nothing beside the joy of eternity together.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.
(Gibran)

What we keep in our memory is ours unchanged forever.
To live in the hearts of those we love is not to die.
(Thomas Campbell)

I am I and you are you, whatever we were to each other that we still are.
(Canon Henry Scott-Holland)

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
Good night, and you will dream of me
(Maurice Sendak, My Brother’s Book)
Blessed sleep to which we all return.
No one spread more love in one lifetime.
To unpathed waters, undreamed shores.
(Shakespeare)

Even as the sun goes down,
To end the light of day,
It’s rising on a new horizon,
Somewhere far away.
Life is not forever. Love is.
Where there is great love there are always miracles.
Until the day break,
and the shadows flee away. (Cant. ii:17)
Where He leads me I can safely go. (Millay)
Whither thou goest, I will go. (Ruth i:16)
Today she dances with angels.

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 lampbecause the dawn has come.
(Tagore)

The sun on my face, even on the shortest day.
Be sure, wherever I may roam,
my heart is with your heart at home.
Death is only a shadow across the path to heaven.
Strive not, my soul, for an immortal life,
but make the most of what is possible.
(Pindar)

We come whirling out of nothingness scattering stars like dust.
The stars made a circle and in the middle we dance.
(Rumi)

Sorrows are like tall angels with star crowns in their hair.
(Margery Eldredge Howell)

The life that I have
Is all that I have
And the life that I have
Is yours
The love that I have
Of the life that I have
Is yours and yours and yours.
A sleep I shall have
A rest I shall have
Yet death will be but a pause
For the peace of my years
In the long green grass
Will be yours and yours and yours.
(Leo Marks)

Out beyond ideas
of wrongdoing and right doing,
there is a field.I’ll meet you there.
(Rumi)

Death is not the extinguishing of the light,
but the putting out of the lamp, because Dawn has come.
(Rabindranath Tagore)

Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still.
(from More Fruits of Solitude by William Penn)

Music, when soft voices die, vibrates in the memory.
(Shelley)

How many times do I love thee, dear?
Tell me how many thoughts there be
In the atmosphere
Of a new fall’n year,
Whose white and sable hours appear
The latest flake of Eternity: – So many times do I love thee, dear.
(Kelsall)

You will hear thunder and remember me,
And think: she wanted storms.
The rim Of the sky will be
the colour of hard crimson,
And your heart,
as it was then,
will be on fire.

Deep peace of the quiet Earth to you.
Those we love don’t go away, they walk beside us every day.
Always in our thoughts, forever in our hearts.
Sweet are the memories that never fade.
His life a beautiful memory, his absence a silent grief.
There was grace in her steps, love in every gesture.
She touched everyone with special love and kindness.
Blessed To Us Is The Memory Of Your Unselfish Love
Lost now but loved forever.

Whoever brought me here
will have to take me home.
(Rumi)

For with God nothing shall be impossible.

A star on Earth and a star in heaven.
An angel on Earth and an angel in heaven.

Life is a dream walking, death is going home.

What you seek is seeking you.
(Rumi)

Out beyond ideas
of wrongdoing and right doing,
there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.
(Rumi)

He longest lives, who most to others gives, himself forgetting.
Safe in the arms of Jesus.
Her works were kindness, her deeds were love.
Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.
Death is not the extinguishing of the light,
but the putting out of the lamp,
because Dawn has come.
(Rabindranath Tagore)

Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas;
they live in one another still.
(from More Fruits of Solitude by William Penn)

Music, when soft voices die, vibrates in the memory.
(Shelley)

Love is not changed by death And nothing is lost
And all in the end is harvest.
(Edith Sitwell)

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,
but by the moments that take our breath away.
A life, like any other, completely unlike any other.
(Neil Gaiman)

I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Yet in this heart’s most sacred place,
thou, alone, shall dwell forever
(Moore)

God gives us love. Something to love He lends us.
(Tennyson)

Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.
(Moore)

God is and all is well.
(Whittier)

From my body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity
(Edvard Munch)

The heart of man is restless until he finds rest in Thee.
(St Augustine)

Mutual love, the crown of all our bliss.
(Milton)

Till the master of all good workmen shall set us to work anew
(Kipling)

Peace is thine, and sweet remembrance is ours.
Whither tho goest I will go.
Deep peace of the quiet Earth to you.
Those we love don’t go away, they walk beside us every day.
Always in our thoughts, forever in our hearts.
Sweet are the memories that never fade.
His life a beautiful memory, his absence a silent grief.
There was grace in her steps, love in every gesture.
She touched everyone with special love and kindness.
Blessed To Us Is The Memory Of Your Unselfish Love
Lost now but loved forever.

Whoever brought me here
will have to take me home.
(Rumi)

For with God nothing shall be impossible.
A star on Earth and a star in heaven.
An angel on Earth and an angel in heaven.
Life is a dream walking, death is going home.

Inscriptions – Minimal but Meaningful

Beloved
Dearly beloved
Adored
So loved
Into the sunshine
Dearly loved
Once met, never forgotten
Uncompromisingly unique
Remembered with love
Love you always
With a greater thing to do
Love is enough
Peace perfect peace
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you
Generous of heart, constant of faith
Love you miss you
So loved
In everliving memory of
Love is enough
May his memory be eternal
Always together
Devoted in love
Always loving, always loved
Your love will light my way
Asleep in Jesus
Forever in our hearts
Until we meet again
Rest in Peace
Here lies
Ever loved
Adored
So loved
An inspiration
Loved and remembered
In God’s care
An inspiration to all
She walked in beauty
Together again
Love is waiting
Once met, never forgotten
Remembered with love
Great love lives on
Love is eternal
Love lives on
A free spirit
Precious are the memories of

Inscriptions – The Wise, Famous & Infamous

“The best is yet to come.”
Frank Sinatra

“This is the last of Earth! I am content!”
John Quincy Adams

“A tomb now suffices him for whom the world was not enough”
Alexander the Great

“Well this was fun, let’s do it again sometime.”
Quniaron Bellthing

“That’s all, folks!”
Mel Blanc (the epithaph is the trademark line of cartoon character Porky Pig, whose voice was provided by Blanc for many years)

“I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.”
Winston Churchill

“She did it the hard way”
Bette Davis

“Nothing’s So Sacred As Honor And Nothing’s So Loyal As Love”
Wyatt Earp

“I had a lover’s quarrel with the world”
Robert Frost

“Cast a cold eye On life, on death. Horseman, pass by!

“W. B. Yeats “Hey Ram” (Translated “Oh, God”)
Mahatma Gandhi

“Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty I’m Free At Last.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Workers of all lands unite. The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.”
Karl Marx

“Truth to your own spirit”
Jim Morrison

“Curiosity did not kill this cat.”
Studs Terkel

“I told you so, you damned fools.”
H. G. Wells

“Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare,
To digg the dust encloased heare!
Blest be the man that spares thes stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones.”
William Shakespeare

“A star on earth a star in heaven”Karen Carpenter “She did it the hard way” Bette Davis

“A Gentle Man and a Gentleman” Jack Dempsey

“The Body ofB. Franklin, PrinterLike the Cover of an old BookIts Contents turn outAnd Stript of its Lettering & GuildingLies here. Food for WormsFor, it will as he believedappear once moreIn a new and more elegant Editioncorrected and improvedBy the Author” – Benjamin Franklin

“I had A Lover’s Quarrel With The World” – Robert Lee Frost

“A master of comedyHis genius in the art of humorBrought gladnessTo the world he loved.” – Stan Laurel

“A genius of comedyHis talent brought joy andLaughter to all the world.” – Oliver Hardy

“Even amidst fierce flames the golden lotus can be planted” – Sylvia Plath Hughes

“This Grave contains all that was Mortal of a
Young English Poet Who on his Death Bed
in the Bitterness of his Heartat the Malicious Power of his EnemiesDesired these words to be engraved on his Tomb Stone
“Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water.”
John Keats

“Man must endure his going hence.”
C. S. Lewis

“Gone are the living, but the dead remain,
And not neglected; for a hand unseen,
Scattering its bounty like a summer rain,
Still keeps their graves and their remembrance green!”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“We live to love you more each day”
Jayne Mansfield

“Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime”
Dean Martin

“Workers of all lands unite.The philosophers have onlyinterpreted the world in various ways;the point is to change it.” – Karl Marx

“Quoth the Raven,”Nevermore.”
Edgar Allan Poe

“I never met a man I didn’t like.”
Will Rogers

“Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange”
Percy Bysshe Shelley

“In loving memory from the Family”
Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel

“And alien tears will fill for him
Pity’s long broken urn,For his mourners will be outcast men,And outcasts always mourn.” – Oscar Wilde

“Against you I will fling myself, unvanquished and unyielding, O Death!” Virginia Woolf

“Cast a cold eye
On life, on death
Horseman, pass by!”
William Butler Yeats

“Distinguished actor,
loving husband and father.
Always in our hearts.”
Peter Finch

“Steel True, Blade Straight”
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Inscriptions – And Just for Good Measure!

“John Le Mesurier wishes it to be known that he conked out on November 15th. He sadly misses family and friends.” – Death announcement

“Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” – Mark Twain on learning that his obituary had been published

“Death had to take him sleeping, for if Roosevelt had been awake there would have been a fight.” – A contemporary politician about Theodore Roosevelt’s (1858-1919) death.

“They really are bad shots.” – Charles De Gaulle (1890-1970), French general and statesman. Remark after narrowly escaping death in an assassination attempt.

“There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result.” – Winston Churchill (1874 1965) after a failed assassination attempt.

“I wish my first spoken word was ‘Quote’ so I could make my last word ‘Unquote’.” – Stephen Wright.

“Ask her to wait a moment – I am almost done.” – Mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) when informed that his wife was dying.

“After I’m dead I’d rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one.” Cato the Elder (234 149 BC)”He died in bed.” – Tombstone of renowned gunfighter Doc Holliday (1851-1887).

“I told you I was sick.” – Spike Milligan (1918–2002), British actor.

“I’m in on a plot.” – Alfred Hitchcock (1899 1980), British film director.

“He neither drank, smoked, nor rode a bicycle. Living frugally, saving his money, he died early, surrounded by greedy relatives. It was a great lesson to me.” – John Barrymore (1882-1942) US actor.

“Rodney Fenster looked up the shaft of elevator number four at 1700 N 17th St this morning to see if the elevator was on its way down. It was. Age 31.” – Newsflash.

“I’ve played everything but the harp.” – Lionel Barrymore (1848-1954) US actor, when asked what words he would like engraved on his tombstone.

“Go, stranger, and tell the Lacedaemonians that here we lie, obedient to their commands.” – Leonidas (d. 480 BC) King of Sparta. Epitaph over the tomb in which he and his followers were buried after their defeat at Thermopylae.

“Stranger ! Approach this spot with gravity !John Brown is filling his last cavity.” – Epitaph of a dentist.

“She sleeps alone at last.” – Robert Benchley (1889-1945) US humourist. Suggested epitaph for an actress…

“I don’t want to be immortal through my works. I want to be immortal by not dying.” – Woody Allen

“Once in one’s life, for one mortal moment, one must make a grab for immortality; if not, one has not lived.” – Sylvester Stallone

“I intend to live forever – so far, so good.” – Stephen Wright, US Comedian

AND FINALLY …

“Let me out of here !!!”
“Longest Live Burial World Record Attempt.”
“I thought my doctor said I was heading for a rave.”
“How did it get so dark ?!?”
“Where did everybody go ?”
“Died at the age of 102 at the hands of a justifiably outraged husband.”

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