Famous Eulogies

12/12/2004

Just as memories of the lives of the departed stay with us, so do the words of those who remember them. Here are selections from some memorable eulogies.

Madonna for Gianni Versace (1997): "I'm going to miss you, Gianni. We're all going to miss you. But I've got a pocketful of memories in my Versace jeans, and they're not going anywhere."

James Woods for Bette Davis (1989): "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy eternity."

President Ronald Reagan for the Challenger astronauts (1986): "Sometimes, when we reach for the stars, we fall short. But we must pick ourselves up again and press on despite the pain."

Mark Antony for Julius Caesar in Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar (Act 3, scene 2): "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him."

Cher for Sonny Bono (1998): "Some people were under the misconception that Sonny was a short man, but he was heads and tails taller than anyone else. He could see above the tallest people. He had a vision of the future and just how he was going to build it."

Earl Charles Spencer for Princess Diana (1997): "I stand before you today the representative of a family in grief, in a country in mourning before a world in shock."

Chief Justice Earl Warren for President John F. Kennedy (1963): "And now that he is relieved of the almost superhuman burdens we imposed on him, may he rest in peace."