32 Quotes & Sayings By Elisabeth Kublerross

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross was born in Budapest, Hungary to a family of physicians. After the death of her father, she and her mother were forced to leave Hungary and find refuge in Switzerland. As a child, Kubler-Ross suffered from serious psychological and emotional problems and was hospitalized for depression. She later studied medicine at the University of Geneva and received a medical degree in 1940 Read more

Her work with terminally ill patients led her to study psychoanalysis, which she found to be helpful for herself as well as others.

1
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. Elisabeth KublerRoss
2
I believe we are solely responsible for our choices and we have to accept the consequences of every deed word and thought throughout our lifetime. Elisabeth KublerRoss
3
There are no mistakes no coincidences. All events are blessings given to us to learn from. Elisabeth KublerRoss
4
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. Elisabeth KublerRoss
5
Mankind's greatest gift... is that we have free choice. Elisabeth KublerRoss
6
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. Elisabeth KublerRoss
7
We need to teach the next generation of children from day one that they are responsible for their lives. Elisabeth KublerRoss
8
Learn to get in touch with silence within yourself and know that everything in life has a purpose. Elisabeth KublerRoss
9
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. Elisabeth KublerRoss
10
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. Elisabeth KublerRoss
11
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. Elisabeth KublerRoss
12
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. Elisabeth KublerRoss
13
I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is no death the way we understood it. The body dies, but not the soul. Elisabeth KublerRoss
14
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. Elisabeth KublerRoss
15
Those who learned to know death, rather than to fear and fight it, become our teachers about life. Elisabeth KublerRoss
16
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. Elisabeth KublerRoss
17
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. Elisabeth KublerRoss
18
For years, I have been stalked by a bad reputation. Actually, I have been pursued by people who have regarded me as the 'Death and Dying' Lady. They believe that having spent more than three decades in research into death and life after death qualifies me as an expert on the subject. I think they miss the point. Elisabeth KublerRoss
19
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. Elisabeth KublerRoss
20
Learning lessons is a little like reaching maturity. You're not suddenly more happy, wealthy, or powerful, but you understand the world around you better, and you're at peace with yourself. Learning life's lessons is not about making your life perfect, but about seeing life as it was meant to be. Elisabeth KublerRoss
21
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. Elisabeth KublerRoss
22
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. Elisabeth KublerRoss
23
Live, so you do not have to look back and say: 'God, how I have wasted my life.' Elisabeth KublerRoss
24
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. Elisabeth KublerRoss
25
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. Elisabeth KublerRoss
26
When I came to this country in 1958, to be a dying patient in a medical hospital was a nightmare. You were put in the last room, furthest away from the nurses' station. You were full of pain, but they wouldn't give you morphine. Nobody told you that you were full of cancer and that it was understandable that you had pain and needed medication. Elisabeth KublerRoss
27
I was destined to work with dying patients. I had no choice when I encountered my first AIDS patient. I felt called to travel some 250, 000 miles each year to hold workshops that helped people cope with the most painful aspects of life, death and the transition between the two. Elisabeth KublerRoss
28
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. Elisabeth KublerRoss
29
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. Elisabeth KublerRoss
30
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. Elisabeth KublerRoss
31
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. Elisabeth KublerRoss