How to Integrate a Quotation into a Eulogy

Quotations in eulogies can be a really nice touch, particularly in the beginning or end of your speech. When used in the beginning of the tribute, a quotation can set up the main meaning of your entire speech, a mission statement if you will.

When used in the ending, a carefully chosen quotation is a great chance to leave your audience with one lasting thought that will linger in their minds. It is important to point out that wherever you choose to place your quotation, if you have one at all, it needs to be seamlessly added. You want to move as smoothly as possible from your own thoughts to the thoughts of an author and vice versa. Arbitrarily plopping a quotation within your eulogy without any thought to strategic placement will do nothing to aid the goal of your speech. If anything, if will confuse the audience and take way from what otherwise might have been a well written speech. Listed below are some tips on how to properly integrate a quotation into your eulogy.

1. Decide on the placement of the quotation. While multiple quotations are certainly fine, for the purposes of this article, we will focus on just one. If you want more than one, just follow the same advice again. As far as quotation placement goes, do you want to begin your speech with a saying or end it with one? You can use them in the middle of your speech as well. It is your choice.
2. Figure out the message that you want to get across. Using a famous person’s words is not enough. It needs to be there for a reason.
3. Select a quotation. Listed at the bottom of this article are some sayings that you may use; however, these are just a few options for you to consider when writing your eulogy. The options listed below are just suggestions. If they do not fit the person that you are eulogizing or the message of your tribute, then either don’t use one or find a different quotation. If you want to put a much more personal spin on using quotations, try using something from your deceased loved one’s life. Did they have a favorite book or a favorite author? If you don’t know, ask someone who would know. If you find out that they had a favorite book and if you have the time, read it. Is there a passage or phrase that stands out or is nicely suited for your speech? If there is, then use that. No time to read through the entire book? Try an internet search. For example, if your grandfather’s favorite book was To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, then try typing into a Google search, “quotations from to kill a mockingbird”. This technique should work well with any well known book. Even if it is not so well known, try and see what happens. Along the same lines, if your grandfather’s favorite author was Mark Twain, try googling “Mark Twain quotations”. The results should give you a vast selection.
4. Incorporate the chosen quotation into the eulogy. Remember: do not haphazardly place a quotation in the middle of your speech. If you use one, which they certainly are a nice touch, it needs to be carefully placed for a purpose. When integrating your quotation, you need to introduce the quotation by naming the author and/or book. If you leave the introduction out, then the audience will not be aware of where the words are coming from and you will not be giving the author the credit that they deserve. Here is an example of a properly used quotation:

 My father was a man who never let a day go by where he did not seize it to its fullest. Just as the German poet Bertolt Brecht once wrote, “Do not fear death so much, but rather the inadequate life”. I am proud to say of the many things that a person could say about my dad’s life, “inadequate” is most certainly not one of them.

Great Quotations for Eulogies

Below are some great quotations that might work for your eulogy. These most certainly are not the only ones that would work and if you do not find one listed below that works for your speech, please do not settle. There are many websites and books with thousands of quotations. They are typically organized by theme and therefore pretty easy to navigate.

Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way… you become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions. -Aristotle

The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions. -Confucius

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.-Abraham Lincoln

Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.-William Shakespeare

In spite of illness, in spite even of the archenemy sorrow, one can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways.-Edith Wharton

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.-Herm Albright

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind.-William James

Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.-Anne Frank

Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.-Eleanor Roosevelt

Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish.-Ovid

Courage is the price that Life exacts for granting peace.-Amelia Earhart

Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality of those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change.-Ernest Hemingway

Courage is being scared to death – but saddling up anyway.-John Wayne

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.-Mark Twain

Death is more universal than life; everyone dies but not everyone lives.-A. Sachs

Do not fear death so much, but rather the inadequate life.-Bertolt Brecht

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.-Anatole France

Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.-Edgar Allan Poe

You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, “Why not?”- George Bernard Shaw

The aim of life is self-development. To realize one’s nature perfectly – that is what each of us is here for.-Oscar Wilde

The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions.-Alfred Lord Tennyson

Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one’s values.-Ayn Rand

All I can say about life is, Oh God, enjoy it!-Bob Newhart

Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.-Helen Keller