Literary Birthday – 8 July – Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was born 8 July 1926, and died 24 August 2004.

10 Quotes

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. The opinion which other people have of you is their problem, not yours.
  4. 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 façade designed to conform to external definitions of who and what we are.
  5. We make progress in society only if we stop cursing and complaining about its shortcomings and have the courage to do something about them.
  6. 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.
  7. Dying is something we human beings do continuously, not just at the end of our physical lives on this earth.
  8. 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 compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.
  9. My patients taught me not how to die, but how to live.
  10. When I die I’m going to dance first in all the galaxies…I’m going to play and dance and sing.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was a Swiss American psychiatrist, a pioneer in near-death studies, and the author of the groundbreaking book On Death and Dying, where she first discussed her theory of the five stages of grief.

by Amanda Patterson

Please click here for our Literary Birthday Calendar

Posted on: 8th July 2013
(5,405 views)