Elisabeth Kübler-Ross on the impetus to improve

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross' Headstone
Image credit: Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Foundation

Both birth and death involve great changes and adjustment, often inconveniences and pain, but also joy, reunion, and a new beginning. If it were not for our inner knowledge that we are on this earth plane for a relatively short time, then why should we strive for perfection, for love and peace, if it were not for the desire to leave this place a little bit better, a little bit more human than when we entered it?

We make progress in our society only if we stop cursing and complaining about its shortcomings and have the courage to do something about them. It is painful to admit our own fears, sense of guilt and shame, inadequacy, and low self-esteem; however, it is the brave one who admits these, the strong one who will fight his own negativity, and the trusting and faithful one who will see the light at the end of the tunnel.
— Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in her Introduction to Living with Death and Dying: How to communicate with the terminally ill, p. ix.