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 Here are some powerful quotes by Sallie Tisdale on death, mostly drawn from her book Advice for Future Corpses (And Those Who Love Them):

“Our ideals about a so-called good death are constricting. Death is not something at which we succeed or fail, something to achieve. Life and death are not possessions.”  

“Grief is not a disease to be cured. Grief is a wound… The injury will heal in time leaving a scar but the tissue is never quite the same. One moves forward changed.”  

“Acceptance is found only by wholly inhabiting our denial… We start with the fact that we are afraid.”  

“We share a grand social agreement about mortality. We choose not to notice, if we can.”  

“When I thought about death in those years, I didn’t quite believe in it.”  

“The presence of death can be joyful.”  

A few themes run through Tisdale’s writing:

• Death isn’t a failure — it’s part of being alive.
• Fear is the beginning of understanding, not something to bypass.
• Grief changes us permanently, but that change is part of love.
• Talking plainly about death makes life feel sharper and more honest.

If you want, I can also pull together her  most comforting quotes about dying or her  more philosophical/Buddhist reflections on mortality.