Farewell lines & quotes for the yearbook: 90 ideas

At some point every yearbook needs a line: for the cover, for the divider between two chapters, for the last page, for the dedication. And at some point every year group ends up at “the end is only the beginning” — the sentence in roughly every second yearbook.

Here are 90 alternatives, sorted by where they go. But first the criterion that helps more than any list.

The one criterion

A line works when it says something about your year group and not about goodbyes in general. “Time passes quickly” is true and interchangeable. “We were the year that broke the photocopier four times” is concrete and will still be understood in twenty years.

So: take what fits from the list below — and if you can, replace one of them with a sentence only your year group understands. An inside joke on the cover beats a perfect quotation.

For the cover

Short, big enough to set large, understandable without explanation.

And suddenly that was it
We were here
End of the show
Twelve years, one book
Ticked off
Well, that’s that then
Mission accomplished (somehow)
Done. Finally.
Chapter closed
We survived it
This far, and further
Last round
Who would have thought
Everything ends
It was short, it was loud
Next stop: something
Thanks for nothing, thanks for everything
We’re finished, the world isn’t

For the last page

A bit longer, calmer, with an echo.

You never notice it was the last time while it’s happening.
We didn’t choose each other — and it was good anyway.
What stays isn’t the grades.
One day we’ll say “back then” and mean these years.
We’re not leaving because we want to. We’re leaving because it goes on.
Thanks to everyone who made it easier.
We were never perfect. We were there together.
From here in different directions — but with the same story.
The best part of this time wasn’t the lessons, it was the breaks.
We learned more than what was in the books.
If you’re reading this in ten years: it really was like that.
The end. And honestly: that’s fine.

For dividers between chapters

They work best when they fit the chapter that follows.

Before the profiles: “90 people, 90 versions of the same years”
Before the rankings: “The truth, democratically established”
Before the teacher quotes: “From the minutes of the madness”
Before the course reports: “What actually happened”
Before the photo pages: “Evidence”
Before the free pages: “From here on everybody decided for themselves”
Before the acknowledgements: “Without these people, nothing would have worked”
Before the ball section: “And then we celebrated”

Honest and ironic

The tone that ages best — because it doesn’t claim everything was wonderful.

We arrived as children and leave as people who still can’t do a tax return
Twelve years of school, one certificate, zero life plans
We learned integral calculus and don’t know how to hand in our notice
The qualification is here, the clue comes later
Successfully completed: the waiting
We made it — don’t ask how
In the end all that counts is that it’s over
No idea, but confirmed in writing
Ready for the world (according to the certificate)
We weren’t the best year. But the loudest.
Passed. The rest will show itself.
From 6 to 12 points in one term — see, it’s possible
We spent more time in the cafeteria than in the library
The motto was better than the average grade

Classic and serious

If you want it without irony.

Parting is the condition of meeting again
The destination didn’t matter, who walked along did
What we were stays. What we become begins.
Memories are the only luggage that never gets heavy
At the end of every road a new one begins
We’re taking away more than fits in a bag
It was the small days that made the big years
Some roads end so that you remember them
From here on everybody writes their own
Time heals nothing, but it turns things into stories
We were lucky with each other
What counts isn’t how long, it’s with whom

For the dedication

Usually page 2 or 3, often overlooked — and the place where a book shows its character.

For everyone who joined in even though they didn’t have to
For those who put up with us — voluntarily and involuntarily
For our parents, who kept asking for twelve years
For the teachers who did more than their job
For everybody who couldn’t come this far with us
For us. We earned it.
For the year group that built this instead of studying
For everyone who opens these pages again in twenty years

For the “back then” chapters

We used to be small. There is evidence.
From the satchel brigade to the leaving year
It all started with a much too big school bag
Twelve years in pictures nobody would have approved
First we were cute, then puberty arrived

How to recognise a bad line

Four warning signs that hold up almost every time in practice:

It would fit any yearbook in the country. Then it says nothing about you.
It needs an explanation. An inside joke only seven people get works on those seven people’s page — not on the cover.
It’s off a page-a-day calendar. If you’ve seen it on a mug, it was already there.
It’s funny at one person’s expense. On the cover it then stands on 120 shelves — see Collecting teacher quotes, without the trouble.

And a note on sourcing: if you take a quote from a well-known person, put the name with it. A famous quotation without a source looks stolen, because it is.

How to pick the line

Don’t debate it in the chat — that ends with the line the loudest person suggested. Do it like the motto: collect five suggestions and let the year group vote. Five minutes of work, and the line on the cover is then the year group’s line and not the committee’s.

In AbiHive you can create a poll for that and have quotes sorted by likes — then what’s at the top at the end is what’s genuinely popular, not what was posted most often.

More ideas: 100 motto ideas and 100 awards & ranking ideas.