Some people believe that when someone dies it isn’t the end of their story. They believe in reincarnation.
That persons soul moves on to a new life, a new body, maybe even back into the same family. For a lot of grieving people it brings comfort to believe in the idea of reincarnation.
Maybe you’ve lost someone and you find yourself wondering if they’ll come back in some form. Or maybe you’re writing to a friend whose faith teaches rebirth and you want some words that fit what they believe.
So below we have quotes about reincarnation from sacred texts, poets and writers as well as original quotes you can use and messages for a sympathy card. There’s a section on pets too as so many of us hope our animals find their way back to us.
If you want something less specific our quotes about losing a loved one and death quotes have a wider range for more types of death.
Famous Quotes About Reincarnation
These are some of the best known quotes about the soul returning. They come from very different times and places which can be comforting in itself. People have been hoping for the same thing for thousands of years.
- “It is not more surprising to be born twice than once; everything in nature is resurrection.” Voltaire
- “I died as a mineral and became a plant, I died as a plant and rose to animal, I died as an animal and I was Man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?” Rumi, from the Masnavi
- “Everything changes, nothing perishes.” Ovid, Metamorphoses
- “A little while, a moment of rest upon the wind, and another woman shall bear me.” Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
- “Forget not that I shall come back to you.” Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
- “This body is not me. I am not limited by this body. I am life without boundaries. I have never been born, and I have never died.” Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear
- “And as to you Life I reckon you are the leavings of many deaths, / (No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before.)” Walt Whitman, Song of Myself
- “All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses, / And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.” Walt Whitman, Song of Myself
- “The smallest sprout shows there is really no death.” Walt Whitman, Song of Myself
- “Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting.” William Wordsworth, Ode: Intimations of Immortality
- “I have been here before, / But when or how I cannot tell.” Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Sudden Light
Quotes About Reincarnation From Writers and Thinkers
A few well known people spoke openly about believing they had lived before. They gens to be more personal and less poetic.
- “I could well imagine that I might have lived in former centuries and there encountered questions I was not yet able to answer; that I had been born again because I had not fulfilled the task given to me.” Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections
- “Genius is experience. Some seem to think that it is a gift or talent, but it is the fruit of long experience in many lives.” Henry Ford, in a 1928 newspaper interview
- “But the Work shall not be wholly lost: For it will, as he believ’d, appear once more, In a new & more perfect Edition, Corrected and amended By the Author.” Benjamin Franklin, the epitaph he wrote for himself
Franklin wrote that epitaph as a young printer comparing his body to the worn cover of an old book. It’s a lovely one to share for anyone who worked with words or loved reading. Our quotes for headstone epitaphs have more like it.
Short Original Quotes About Reincarnation
These you can use them in a caption, a card or on a memorial stone without worrying about credit. Some are only a few words long.
- Not goodbye. See you in the next life
- Same soul, new story
- Until we find each other again
- Your soul has somewhere new to be
- I’ll know you when I see you
- One life ended. Another is waiting
- Gone from this life, never from my heart
- The body rests. The soul travels on
- We’ve met before and we’ll meet again
- Born again, somewhere beautiful
- Every ending is a beginning somewhere
- See you in another lifetime
- A new life for an old soul
- Love doesn’t end. It just changes address
Original Quotes About Meeting Again in Another Life
Many people who believe in rebirth also believe that souls who love each other keep finding their way back together. These longer quotes reflect that hope.
- I don’t know what you’ll look like next time, but I think I’ll recognize the way you laugh
- Maybe we’ve done this before. Maybe that’s why loving you came so easily
- Some souls travel together, life after life. I hope you’re waiting for me in the next one
- Your body was only the house you lived in this time. You’ve moved on, and someday I’ll find your new front door
- If you come back as a stranger, I hope we still end up friends
- I’ll keep watching for you in the eyes of every new baby, every kind stranger and every old dog who seems to know me
- This life was one chapter. I’m grateful I got to share it with you
- I like to think you chose us. And I like to think you’ll choose us again
- When a soul like yours leaves, the world doesn’t lose it. It just has to wait a while to see it again
- Whatever you are now, I hope it’s somewhere full of light and someone is loving you the way we did
- Death closed one door for you. I believe you’ve already walked through another
- We were never meant for just one lifetime
Quotes About Reincarnation in Nature
Not everyone thinks of reincarnation as a soul in a new body. For some it’s more about the way nothing in nature is truly lost. These suit a celebration of life, a scattering of ashes or a tree planting.
- The leaf falls, the soil keeps it and in spring it comes back green
- Nothing in nature disappears. It only becomes something else
- You’re in the rain now, and the river and the roots of every tree
- Like the seasons, you’ll come around again
- Every flower that grows here grows a little bit from you
- The moon goes dark and comes back full. I’m counting on you to do the same
- Ashes to earth, earth to blossom, blossom to seed. Round and round, forever
- When I see the first bloom in spring, I’ll think of you coming home
If you’re planning a memorial outdoors, our celebration of life quotes have lots more that fit a gathering that’s more focused on nature.
Reincarnation Quotes for Pets
So many pet owners swear their new puppy or kitten has the same look in its eyes as the one they lost. Whether or not you believe it the hope can be a comfort. These original quotes are for dogs, cats and any animal that was family.
- Come back to me someday. I’ll leave the door open
- I’ll know you by the way you look at me
- Run free, sweet soul, and find your way home again
- Maybe you’ll come back with four paws. Maybe with wings. Either way, I’ll be watching for you
- Some souls are too good for just one lifetime. Yours was one of them
- If you choose me again, I’ll say yes every time
- Every time a stray finds its way to my porch, I’ll wonder if it’s you
- Your collar is hanging by the door, waiting for whatever shape you come back in
- You taught me how to love. I’ll recognize that love when it finds me again
- Not a goodbye, just a “see you soon, buddy”
SEE MORE: Pet Loss Poems
Sympathy Messages for Someone Who Believes in Reincarnation
If you’re writing to someone whose faith includes rebirth it helps to reflect that belief. Don’t use phrases like “in heaven” or “with God” unless you know they fit. When in doubt keep it simple and focus on the person and their soul.
- Thinking of you and sending love as _____’s soul moves on to whatever comes next
- I’m so sorry for your loss. May _____’s soul find peace and a beautiful new beginning
- _____ touched so many lives in this one. I have no doubt they’ll do the same in the next
- Wishing you comfort as you say goodbye to _____ for now
- May the love you shared carry _____ gently on to the next life
- Holding you close in my thoughts. _____’s light was too bright to ever go out
- I know your faith tells you this isn’t the end. I hope that brings you some peace in the hard days ahead
- Sending love to you and your family. May _____’s soul rest and rise again in peace
- What a gift it was to share a lifetime with _____. I’m so sorry for your loss
- I hope you feel _____ close by, and I hope one day you find each other again
Dear ______,
I was so sorry to hear about _____. I know how much your beliefs mean to you and I hope there’s some comfort in knowing this isn’t the end of their story.
I’ll always remember how kind _____ was to everyone. Whatever life they go on to, I think the world will be lucky to have them back.
Please let me know if there’s anything I can do, even if it’s just bringing over dinner or sitting with you for a while.
With love,
________
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Dear ______,
There aren’t really words for losing someone you love. I just wanted you to know I’m thinking of you.
I know you believe _____’s soul has gone on to something new. I hope it’s a life full of the same warmth they gave to everyone here. And I hope, someday, you find each other again.
Sending all my love,
________
For more general wording, our sympathy card messages have plenty of options that work across faiths.
Bhagavad Gita Quotes About Rebirth
In Hinduism the soul (atman) is eternal and moves from one body to the next. The Bhagavad Gita is one of the texts most often read when someone dies.
These verses are from the translation by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, though you’ll see slightly different wording in other translations.
- “As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.” Bhagavad Gita 2.22
- “For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.” Bhagavad Gita 2.20
- “As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.” Bhagavad Gita 2.13
- “For one who has taken his birth, death is certain; and for one who is dead, birth is certain.” Bhagavad Gita 2.27
Poems About Reincarnation and the Soul Returning
These poems and excerpts work well read at a memorial or written inside a card. For more choices take a look at our non-religious funeral poems.
A Creed (excerpt)
I hold that when a person dies
His soul returns again to earth;
Arrayed in some new flesh-disguise
Another mother gives him birth.
With sturdier limbs and brighter brain
The old soul takes the roads again.
By John Masefield
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Sudden Light (excerpt)
I have been here before,
But when or how I cannot tell:
I know the grass beyond the door,
The sweet keen smell,
The sighing sound, the lights around the shore.
By Dante Gabriel Rossetti
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Ode: Intimations of Immortality (excerpt)
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home.
By William Wordsworth
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Song of Myself (excerpt from section 6)
What do you think has become of the young and old men?
And what do you think has become of the women and children?
They are alive and well somewhere,
The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,
And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it,
And ceas’d the moment life appear’d.
By Walt Whitman
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Resignation (excerpt)
There is no Death! What seems so is transition;
This life of mortal breath
Is but a suburb of the life elysian,
Whose portal we call Death.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
SEE MORE: Poems About Grief
Tips for Using Reincarnation Quotes
- Only share a reincarnation quote with someone if you know it fits their beliefs. For a mixed group like a funeral program a nature quote is often the safer choice
- Buddhists usually speak of “rebirth” rather than “reincarnation” as many Buddhist teachings don’t describe a fixed soul. If you’re unsure “rebirth” or “next life” is a good middle ground
- Credit the author when you share an attributed quote and check the wording against a trusted source if it’s going into print or onto a headstone
- Translations of the Bhagavad Gita, Rumi and Ovid vary a lot. If the family has a translation they use, go with that one
- Original quotes work well on social media, memorial jewelry and pet urns as you don’t have to worry about credit
- A short line put in a card means more with a personal memory added underneath
I hope one of these quotes helped you find the words, be it for yourself or for someone you care about. And if you’re grieving right now take your time with it.