Here is some brilliant Elisabeth Kubler Ross quotes that are sure to inspire you and make you love the life that you live. Elisabeth Kubler Ross is one of the most popular psychiatrists who developed the theory for the five stages of grief. The Kubler-Ross model is one that most psychiatrists use and find relevant even today.
She was born on 8 July 1926 in Zurich, Switzerland. She was one of the leading scientists in the near-death studies foundation. Her book ‘On death and dying was published in 1969 and was a best-seller. In 2007, she was inducted in the list of the National Women’s Hall of Fame. She was also named one of the ‘100 most important thinkers’ of the 20th century by Time magazine.
She worked in the Manhattan State Hospital and was adamant about reducing the number of medications that were administered to schizophrenic patients. She also founded ‘Shanti Nilaya’, the home of peace, in 1977 which was meant to be a healing center for the families of deceased and for patients who were near death.
She passed away at the age of 78 on 24 August 2004 in the United States. Her work for near-death studies remains a pivotal foundation for other psychiatrists to follow even after her death.
Elisabeth Kubler Ross Quotes on Death
Elisabeth Kubler Ross believed that when we begin to understand that our time here on Earth is limited, we will finally begin to live each day as if it were our last. There is no knowing when our time is up. Here are some Elisabeth Kubler Ross Quotes on Death that let us understand the importance of the here and now and work towards building a legacy that we can leave behind.
1. 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. 
2. Death is staring too long into the burning sun and the relief of entering a cool, darkroom.
3. I’ve told my children that when I die, to release balloons in the sky to celebrate that I graduated. For me, death is a graduation.
4. Those who have the strength and the love to sit with a dying patient in the silence that goes beyond words will know that this moment is neither frightening nor painful, but a peaceful cessation of the functioning of the body.
5. It is not the end of the physical body that should worry us. Rather, our concern must be to live while we’re alive – to release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade designed to conform to external definitions of who and what we are.
6. Lots of my dying patients say they grow in bounds and leaps, and finish all the unfinished business. But assisting a suicide is cheating them of these lessons, like taking a student out of school before final exams. That’s not love, it’s projecting your own unfinished business.
7. 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, understand, laugh, and to be able to grow.
8. It is important to feel the anger without judging it, without attempting to find meaning in it. It may take many forms: anger at the health-care system, at life, at your loved one for leaving. Life is unfair. Death is unfair. Anger is a natural reaction to the unfairness of loss.
9. Death is a graduation. When we’re taught all the things we came to teach, learned all the things we came to learn, then we’re allowed to graduate.
10. Death is not painful. It is the most beautiful experience you will have.
11. Watching a peaceful death of a human being reminds us of a falling star; one of a million lights in a vast sky that flares up for a brief moment only to disappear into the endless night forever.
12. Old age is not synonymous with being ‘glad to die.
13. There is not much sense in suffering, since drugs can be given for pain, itching, and other discomforts. The belief has long died that suffering here on earth will be rewarded in heaven. Suffering has lost its meaning.
14. Guilt is perhaps the most painful companion of death.
15. It is difficult to accept death in this society because it is unfamiliar. In spite of the fact that it happens all the time, we never see it.
16. Death is the final stage of growth in this life. There is no total death. Only the body dies. The self or the spirit, or whatever you may wish to label it, is eternal. You may interpret this in any way that makes you comfortable.
17. My patients taught me not how to die, but how to live.
18. Dying is something we human beings do continuously, not just at the end of our physical lives on this earth.
19. Death is the great transition.
20. Dying nowadays is more gruesome in many ways, namely, more lonely, mechanical, and dehumanized; at times it is even difficult to determine technically when the time of death has occurred.
21. Death is simply a shedding of the physical body, like the butterfly coming out of a cocoon. . . . It’s like putting away your winter coat when spring comes.
22. Death is but a transition from this life to another existence where there is no more pain and anguish. All the bitterness and disagreements will vanish, and the only thing that lives forever is love.
23. We bring a deeper commitment to our happiness when we fully understand, that our time left is limited and we really need to make it count.
24. Dying is nothing to fear. It can be the most wonderful experience of your life. It all depends on how you’ve lived.
25. When you learn your lessons, the pain goes away.
Read: Tennessee Williams Quotes About Love
Elisabeth Kubler Ross Love Quotes
One of the most important human emotions is knowing that we are capable of loving someone unconditionally and being loved for the person that we are. All we need is love and for someone to accept us for who we are. Here are some beautiful Elisabeth Kubler Ross Love Quotes that make us fall in love with the concept of falling in love.
1. If we make our goal to live a life of compassion and unconditional love, then the world will indeed become a garden where all kinds of flowers can bloom and grow.
2. There is no mistaking love. You feel it in your heart. It is the common fiber of life, the flame that heats our soul, energizes our spirit, and supplies passion to our lives.
3. The ultimate lesson all of us have to learn is unconditional love, which includes not only others but ourselves as well.
4. I say to people who care for people who are dying, if you really love that person and want to help them, be with them when their end comes close. Sit with them – you don’t even have to talk. You don’t have to do anything but really be there with them.
5. I think modern medicine has become like a prophet offering a life free of pain. It is nonsense. The only thing I know that truly heals people is unconditional love.
6. There are dreams of love, life, and adventure in all of us. But we are also sadly filled with reasons why we shouldn’t try. These reasons seem to protect us, but in truth they imprison us. They hold life at a distance. Life will be over sooner than we think. If we have bikes to ride and people to love, now is the time.
7. There is within each one of us a potential for goodness beyond our imagining; for giving which seeks no reward; for listening without judgment; for loving unconditionally.
8. Real love doesn’t die. It’s the physical body that dies. Genuine, authentic love has no expectations whatsoever; it doesn’t even need the physical presence of a person. … Even when he is dead and buried that part of you that loves the person will always live.
9. To love means not to impose your own powers on your fellow man but offer him your help. And if he refuses it, to be proud that he can do it on his own strength.
10. Love is really the only thing we can possess, keep with us, and take with us.
11. There are only two emotions: love and fear. All positive emotions come from love, all negative emotions from fear. From love flows happiness, contentment, peace, and joy. From fear comes anger, hate, anxiety and guilt. It’s true that there are only two primary emotions, love and fear. But it’s more accurate to say that there is only love or fear, for we cannot feel these two emotions together, at exactly the same time. They’re opposites. If we’re in fear, we are not in a place of love. When we’re in a place of love, we cannot be in a place of fear.
12. The world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles…only by a spiritual journey…by which we arrive at the ground at our feet, and learn to be at home. The ultimate lesson all of us have to learn is unconditional love, which includes not only others but ourselves as well.
13. Whether you know it or not, one of the most important relationships in your life is with your Soul. Will you be kind and loving to your Soul, or will you be harsh and difficult? Many of us unknowingly damage our Souls with our negative attitudes and actions or by simple neglect. By making the relationship with your Soul an important part of your life, however, by honoring it in your daily routine, you give your life greater meaning and substance. Use your experiences-all of them-as opportunities to nourish your Soul!
Check: Bob Marley Quotes
Elisabeth Kubler Ross Quotes on Grieving
1. Grief will happen either as an open healing wound or a closed festering wound, either honestly or dishonestly, either appropriately or inappropriately. But emotions will be expressed.
2. Think of a lifeless forest in which a small plant pushes its head upward, out of the ruin. In our grief process, we are moving into life from death, without denying the devastation that came before.
3. Grief is real because loss is real. Each grief has its own imprint, as distinctive and as unique as the person we lost. The pain of loss is so intense, so heartbreaking, because in loving we deeply connect with another human being, and grief is the reflection of the connection that has been lost. We think we want to avoid the grief, but really it is the pain of the loss we want to avoid. Grief is the healing process that ultimately brings us comfort in our pain.
4. The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not “get over” the loss of a loved one; you will learn to live with it. You will heal and you will rebuild yourself around the loss you have suffered. You will be whole again but you will never be the same. Nor should you be the same nor would you want to.
5. Denial helps us to pace our feelings of grief. There is a grace in denial. It is nature’s way of letting in only as much as we can handle.
6. Mourning can go on for years and years. It doesn’t end after a year, that’s a false fantasy. It usually ends when people realize that they can live again, that they can concentrate their energies on their lives as a whole, and not on their hurt, and guilt and pain.
7. If you truly want to grow as a person and learn, you should realize that the universe has enrolled you in the graduate program of life, called loss.
8. The five stages – denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance – are a part of the framework that makes up our learning to live with the one we lost. They are tools to help us frame and identify what we may be feeling. But they are not stops on some linear timeline in grief.
9. Grief is not just a series of events, stages, or timelines. Our society places enormous pressure on us to get over loss, to get through grief. But how long do you grieve for a husband of fifty years, a teenager killed in a car accident, a four-year-old child: a year? Five years? Forever? The loss happens in time, in fact in a moment, but its aftermath lasts a lifetime.
Elisabeth Kubler Ross Quotes About Life
The life that we have is truly miraculous. Add to that the certainty that we are all going to die one day, and it becomes that much more precious. Here are some beautiful Elisabeth Kubler Ross Quotes About Life that explain how one’s birth and death are natural, but the moments in between are miracles.
1. The opinion which other people have of you is their problem, not yours.
2. 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.
3. As far as service goes, it can take the form of a million things. To do service, you don’t have to be a doctor working in the slums for free, or become a social worker. Your position in life and what you do doesn’t matter as much as how you do what you do.
4. You may not get what you want, but God always gives you what you need.
5. Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself, and know that everything in life has purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from.
6. We cannot find peace if we are afraid of the windstorms of life.
7. Our only purpose in life is growth.
8. Negativity can only feed on negativity.
9. I only believe in what I see and hear with my own eyes and ears.
10. I’m not okay, you’re not okay, and that’s okay.
11. Consciously or not, we are all on a quest for answers, trying to learn the lessons of life. We grapple with fear and guilt. We search for meaning, love, and power. We try to understand fear, loss, and time. We seek to discover who we are and how we can become truly happy.
12. When you learn your lessons, the pain goes away.
13. 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.
14. Should you shield the canyons from the windstorms you would never see the true beauty of their carvings.
15. The only incontrovertible fact of my work is the importance of life.
16. You are not a powerless speck of dust drifting around in the wind…we are, each of us, like beautiful snowflakes-unique, and born for a specific reason and purpose.
17. Live, so you do not have to look back and say: ‘God, how I have wasted my life.
18. I believe every person has a guardian spirit or angel. They assist us in the transition between life and death and they also help us pick our parents before we are born.
19. When life puts you through a tumbler, it’s your choice whether you come out polished or crushed.
20. We think sometimes we’re only drawn to the good, but we’re actually drawn to the authentic. We like people who are real more than those who hide their true selves under layers of artificial niceties.
Elisabeth Kubler Ross Beautiful Quotes
What makes people beautiful is their strength; their ability to stand up and face each day by defeating all their odds and revering in their capabilities makes them worthy. Here are some fantastic Elisabeth Kubler Ross Beautiful Quotes on what makes one beautiful and what consists of beauty.
1. Mankind’s greatest gift is that we have free choice.
2. If people would get in touch with their spirits, they would be able to heal, emotionally and physically.
3. 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.
4. When you spend your life doing what you love to do, you are nourishing your Soul. It matters not what you do, only that you love whatever you happen to do.
5. Memories are the only real gifts we can leave our children.
6. 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.
7. Free choice is the greatest gift God gives to his children.
8. We are living in a time of uncertainty, anxiety, fear, and despair. It is essential that you become aware of the light, power, and strength within each of you, and that you learn to use those inner resources in service of your own and others’ growth.
9. I was educated in line with the basic premise: work work work. You are only a valuable human being if you work. This is utterly wrong. Half working, half dancing – that is the right mixture. I myself have danced and played too little.
10. I am an artist because the knot is so powerful I just can not, nor want to be, anything else or do anything else.
11. If we could see that everything, even tragedy, is a gift in diguise, we would then find the best way to nourish the soul.
12. I didn’t fully realize it at the time, but the goal of my life was profoundly molded by this experience – to help produce, in the next generation, more Mother Teresas and less Hitlers.
13. I look for mystery and try to decipher it while knowing it is an impossible task. I look for memory, where Mystery lies.
14. 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.
15. We need to teach the next generation of children from day one that they are responsible for their lives.
16. It is my conviction that it is the intuitive, spiritual aspects of us humans-the inner voice-that gives us the ‘knowing,’ the peace, and the direction to go through the windstorms of life, not shattered but whole, joining in love and understanding.
17. If you are ready for mystical experiences, you have them.
18. You have to temper the iron. Every hardship is an opportunity that you are given, an opportunity to grow. To grow is the sole purpose of existence on this planet Earth. 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.
19. All events are blessings given to us to learn from.
20. We all have to go through the tumbler a few times before we can emerge as a crystal.
21. We make progress in society only if we stop cursing and complaining about its shortcomings and have the courage to do something about them.
22. I think that as you evolve spiritually, automatically your body tells you what is acceptable for your body and what is not.
23. 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.