It’s normal to feel a range of emotions after losing a loved one, including grief, sadness, and anger. These grief quotes may help you express your feelings and cope with your loss. Remember that you are not alone in your journey through grief, and there is light at the end of the tunnel. Lean on your friends and family for support as you work through your grief.
Grief Quotes
1.”We do not have to rely on memories to recapture the spirit of those we have loved and lost – they live within our souls in some perfect sanctuary which even death cannot destroy.”
Nan Witcomb
Nancy “Nan” Witcomb is best known around the world for her simple poems published over 3 decades as “The Thoughts of Nanushka”. In her home town of Adelaide, South Australia, she is also known as a broadcaster and raconteur and has made appearances on national television.
2.”I thought I could describe a state; make a map of sorrow. Sorrow, however, turns out to be not a state but a process.”
C.S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis was a British writer and lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University and Cambridge University. Lewis wrote more than 30 books which have been translated into more than 30 languages and have sold millions of copies. He is best known for his works of fiction, especially The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Space Trilogy, and for his non-fiction Christian apologetics, such as Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain.
3.”In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all. Perfect relief is not possible, except with time. You cannot now realize that you will ever feel better.
And yet it is a mistake. You are sure to be happy again. To know this, which is certainly true, will make you some less miserable now. I have had experience enough to know what I say, and you need only to believe it to feel better at once.”
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln (/ˈlɪŋkən/; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation through the American Civil War, the country’s greatest moral, cultural, constitutional, and political crisis. He succeeded in preserving the Union, abolishing slavery, bolstering the federal government, and modernizing the U.S. economy.
4.”Parting is inevitably painful, even for a short time. It’s like an amputation. I feel a limb is being torn off, without which I shall be unable to function. And yet, once it is done. Life rushes back into the void, richer, more vivid and fuller than before.”
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Anne Spencer Morrow Lindbergh (June 22, 1906 – February 7, 2001) was an American author and aviator. She was the wife of decorated pioneer aviator Charles Lindbergh, with whom she made many exploratory flights.
5. “For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity.”
William Penn
William Penn (14 October 1644 – 30 July 1718) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful treaties with the Lenape Native Americans. Under his direction, the city of Philadelphia was planned and developed. Philadelphia was planned out to be grid-like with its streets and be very easy to navigate, unlike London where Penn was from. The streets are named with numbers and tree names. He chose to use the names of trees for the cross streets[1] because Pennsylvania means “Penn’s Woods”.
6. “Grief, I now understand, is a sort of madness, in the same way, that falling in love is madness.”
Clover Stroud
Clover Stroud is a writer and journalist writing for the Daily Mail, Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph and Conde Nast Traveller among others. She lives in Oxfordshire with her husband and five children. Her first book, The Wild Other, was shortlisted for The Wainwright Prize.
7. “When those you love die, the best you can do is honor their spirit for as long as you live. You make a commitment that you’re going to take whatever lesson that person or animal was trying to teach you, and you make it true in your own life. It’s a positive way to keep their spirit alive in the world by keeping it alive in yourself.”
Patrick Swayze
Patrick Wayne Swayze was an American actor, dancer, singer, and songwriter.
Swayze received three nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Lead Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical; this was for his roles in the romance film Dirty Dancing (1987), the thriller film Ghost (1990) and the road comedy film To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995). He was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1997.
Swayze wrote and recorded the popular song “She’s Like the Wind” and was posthumously awarded the Rolex Dance Award in 2012. In 2009, Swayze died of cancer at the age of 57.
8. “Though lovers be lost, love shall not; And death shall have no dominion.” Dylan Thomas
Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953)[1] was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems “Do not go gentle into that good night” and “And death shall have no dominion”; the “play for voices” Under Milk Wood; and stories and radio broadcasts such as A Child’s Christmas in Wales and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog.
9. “Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heals them.”
Leo Tolstoy
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. He received nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature every year from 1902 to 1906 and for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, 1902, and 1909. That he never won is a major controversy.
Born to an aristocratic Russian family in 1828, Tolstoy is best known for the novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1878), often cited as pinnacles of realist fiction. He first achieved literary acclaim in his twenties with his semi-autobiographical trilogy, Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth (1852–1856), and Sevastopol Sketches (1855), based upon his experiences in the Crimean War. His fiction includes dozens of short stories and several novellas such as The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886), Family Happiness (1859), “After The Ball” (1911) and Hadji Murad (1912). He also wrote plays and numerous philosophical essays.
10. “When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure.”
Author unknown
11. “If tears could build a stairway, and memories a lane, I’d walk right up to Heaven and bring you home again.
Author unknown
12. “Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?”
Terry Pratchett
Sir Terence David John Pratchett OBE (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English humorist, satirist, and author of fantasy novels, especially comical works.[1] He is best known for his Discworld series of 41 novels.
13. “Although it’s difficult today to see beyond the sorrow, may looking back in memory help comfort you tomorrow.”
Author unknown
14. “There are no happy endings. Endings are the saddest part, so just give me a happy middle and a very happy start.”
Shel Silverstein, Every Thing On It
Sheldon Allan Silverstein was an American writer, poet, cartoonist, songwriter and playwright. He was best known for his cartoons, songs, and children’s books. He styled himself as Uncle Shelby in some works. His books have been translated into more than 30 languages and have sold more than 20 million copies.
15. “Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart and you’ll never walk alone.”
Rodgers and Hammerstein, Carousel
Rodgers and Hammerstein refers to the duo of composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and lyricist-dramatist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960), who together were an influential, innovative and successful American musical theatre writing team. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s, initiating what is considered the “golden age” of musical theatre.
16. “All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on.”
Havelock Ellis
Henry Havelock Ellis was an English physician, eugenicist, writer, progressive intellectual and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He is credited with introducing the notions of narcissism and autoeroticism, later adopted by psychoanalysis.
17. “Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built of a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touches some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you’re there.”
Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
Ray Douglas Bradbury was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and realistic fiction.
18. “Grief is itself a medicine.”
William Cowper
William Cowper was an English poet and hymnodist. One of the most popular poets of his time, Cowper changed the direction of 18th-century nature poetry by writing of everyday life and scenes of the English countryside. In many ways, he was one of the forerunners of Romantic poetry.
19.“The whole world can become the enemy when you lose what you love.”
Kristina McMorris, Bridge of Scarlett Leaves
Kristina McMorris is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling American author of five novels and two novellas.
20. “Memory is a way of holding on to the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose.”
from The Wonder Years
21. “I’ll be seeing you
In all the old familiar places
That this heart of mine embraces
All day through.”
Billie Holiday, I’ll Be Seeing You
Eleanora Fagan, known professionally as Billie Holiday, was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed “Lady Day” by her friend and music partner Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop singing.
22.”The risk of love is loss, and the price of loss is grief – But the pain of grief is only a shadow when compared with the pain of never risking love.”
Hilary Stanton Zunin
Hilary Stanton Zunin conducts workshops on issues of loss and grief. A former English teacher and crisis coordinator, she and her husband, Leonard Zunin, MD, organized a multi-faceted mental health recovery program following the tragic collapse of a water slide in Northern California. She serves as a consultant for personal, professional, and community crises such as hostage takings, suicides, and natural disasters.
23. “You gave me a forever within the numbered days…”
John Green, The Fault In Our Stars
John Michael Green is an American author and YouTube content creator. He won the 2006 Printz Award for his debut novel, Looking for Alaska, and his fourth solo novel, The Fault in Our Stars, debuted at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list in January 2012.
24. “You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair.”
Old Chinese proverb
25. “Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.”
From a headstone in Ireland
26. “No one ever told me that grief felt so much like fear.”
C.S Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis was a British writer and lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University and Cambridge University. Lewis wrote more than 30 books which have been translated into more than 30 languages and have sold millions of copies. He is best known for his works of fiction, especially The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Space Trilogy, and for his non-fiction Christian apologetics, such as Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain.
27. “I would always look for clues to her in books and poems, I realized. I would always search for the echoes of the lost person, the scraps of words and breath, the silken ties that say, ‘Look: She existed.’”
Meghan O’Rourke, Story’s End
Meghan O’Rourke is an American nonfiction writer, poet and critic.
28. “Grief is not a disorder, a disease or a sign of weakness. It is an emotional, physical and spiritual necessity, the price you pay for love. The only cure for grief is to grieve.”
Earl Grollman
Earl A. Grollman is an internationally recognised Rabbi and bereavement counsellor. Among his numerous awards he has received the Distinguished Human Service Award from Yeshiva University.
29. “Ain’t no shame in holding on to grief… as long as you make room for other things too.”
“Bubbles,” The Wire
Reginald “Bubbles” Cousins is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Andre Royo.
30. “The holiest of holidays are those kept by ourselves in silence and apart: The secret anniversaries of the heart.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include “Paul Revere’s Ride”, The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He was the first American to translate Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy and was one of the Fireside Poets from New England.
31. “When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the American civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968.
32. “The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.”
Khalil Gibran
Gibran Khalil Gibran, usually referred to in English as Kahlil Gibran, was a Lebanese-American writer, poet and visual artist, also considered a philosopher although he himself rejected the title.
33. “Nothing that grieves us can be called little; by the external laws of proportion a child’s loss of a doll and a king’s loss of a crown are events of the same size.”
Mark Twain, ‘Which Was The Dream?’
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was lauded as the “greatest humorist the United States has produced,” and William Faulkner called him “the father of American literature”.
34. “It takes strength to make your way through grief, to grab hold of life and let it pull you forward.”
Patti Davis
Patricia Ann Davis is an American actress and author. She is the daughter of U.S. president Ronald Reagan and his second wife, Nancy Reagan.
35. “The healing power of even the most microscopic exchange with someone who knows in a flash precisely what you’re talking about because she experienced that thing too cannot be overestimated.”
Cheryl Strayed
Cheryl Strayed is an American writer and podcast host. She has written four books: the novel Torch and the nonfiction books Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, Tiny Beautiful Things and Brave Enough.
36. “There’s a bit of magic in everything, and some loss to even things out.”
Lou Reed, ‘Magic And Loss’
Lewis Allan Reed was an American musician, singer, songwriter and poet. He was the guitarist, singer and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades.
37. “There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.”
Washington Irving
Washington Irving was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, both of which appear in his collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.
38. “There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief.”
Aeschylus
Aeschylus was an ancient Greek author of Greek tragedy, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academics’ knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek tragedy is largely based on inferences made from reading his surviving plays.
39. “Tears are the silent language of grief.”
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet, known by his nom de plume Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher famous for his wit, his criticism of Christianity—especially the Roman Catholic Church—as well as his advocacy of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and separation of church and state.
40. “Happiness is beneficial for the body, but it is grief that develops the powers of the mind.”
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel À la recherche du temps perdu, published in seven parts between 1913 and 1927. He is considered by critics and writers to be one of the most influential authors of the 20th century.
- “There is no grief like the grief that does not speak.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include “Paul Revere’s Ride”, The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He was the first American to translate Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy and was one of the Fireside Poets from New England.
42. “Grief can’t be shared. Everyone carries it alone; his own burden in his own way.”
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Anne Spencer Morrow Lindbergh was an American author and aviator. She was the wife of decorated pioneer aviator Charles Lindbergh, with whom she made many exploratory flights. Following the kidnap and murder of their eldest child, they lived in Europe, where Charles was impressed by Germany’s new air power.
43. “Grief is the price we pay for love.”
Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II is Queen of the United Kingdom and 15 other Commonwealth realms. Elizabeth was born in Mayfair, London, as the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York. Her father ascended the throne on the abdication of his brother King Edward VIII in 1936, from which time she was the heir presumptive.
44. “Given a choice between grief and nothing, I’d choose grief.”
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer and Nobel Prize laureate from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner wrote novels, short stories, screenplays, poetry, essays, and a play.
45. “Grief changes shape, but it never ends.”
Keanu Reeves
Keanu Charles Reeves is a Canadian actor. Born in Beirut and raised in Toronto, Reeves began acting in theatre productions and in television films before making his feature film debut in Youngblood.
46. “If you’ve got to my age, you’ve probably had your heart broken many times. So, it’s not that difficult to unpack a bit of grief from some little corner of your heart and cry over it.”
Emma Thompson
Dame Emma Thompson DBE is a British actress, screenwriter, producer, activist, author, and comedian.
47. “You don’t go around grieving all the time, but the grief is still there and always will be.”
Nigella Lawson
Nigella Lucy Lawson is an English food writer and television cook. She is the daughter of Nigel Lawson, Lord Lawson of Blaby, a former Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Vanessa Lawson, whose family owned the J. Lyons and Co. food and catering business. She attended Godolphin and Latymer School, London.
48″Grief is like a moving river, it’s always changing. I would say in some ways it just gets worse. It’s just that the more time that passes, the more you miss someone.”
Michelle Williams
Michelle Ingrid Williams is an American actress. Known for her roles in small-scale independent productions with dark or tragic themes, Williams is the recipient of several accolades, including two Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and nominations for four Academy Awards, three British Academy Film Awards, and a Tony Award.
49. “Grief knits two hearts in closer bonds than happiness ever can; and common sufferings are far stronger links than common joys.”
Alphonse de Lamartine
Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine, Knight of Pratz was a French author, poet, and statesman who was instrumental in the foundation of the Second Republic and the continuation of the Tricolore as the flag of France.
50. “The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.”
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher and Academic Skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the establishment of the Roman Empire.
51. “Let no one weep for me, or celebrate my funeral with mourning; for I still live, as I pass to and from through the mouths of men.”
Quintus Ennius
Quintus Ennius was a writer and poet who lived during the Roman Republic. He is often considered the father of Roman poetry.
52. “Tears are sometimes an inappropriate response to death. When a life has been lived completely honestly, completely successfully, or just completely, the correct response to death’s perfect punctuation mark is a smile.”
Julie Burchill
Julie Burchill is an English writer. Beginning as a staff writer at the New Musical Express at the age of 17, she has since contributed to newspapers such as The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Times and The Guardian.
53. “You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest that it leaves your arms too full to embrace the present.”
Jan Glidewell
54. “As long as I can I will look at this world for both of us. As long as I can I will laugh with the birds, I will sing with the flowers, I will pray to the stars, for both of us.”
Sascha
55. “When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.”
Kahlil Gibran
Gibran Khalil Gibran, usually referred to in English as Kahlil Gibran, was a Lebanese-American writer, poet and visual artist, also considered a philosopher although he himself rejected the title.
56. “There should be a statute of limitation on grief. A rule book that says it is all right to wake up crying, but only for a month. That after 42 days you will no longer turn with your heart racing, certain you have heard her call out your name. That there will be no fine imposed if you feel the need to clean out her desk; take down her artwork from the refrigerator; turn over a school portrait as you pass – if only because it cuts you fresh again to see it. That it’s okay to measure the time she has been gone, the way we once measured her birthdays.”
Jodi Picoult
Jodi Lynn Picoult is an American writer. Picoult has published 26 novels, accompanying short stories, and has also written several issues of Wonder Woman. Approximately 40 million copies of her books are in print worldwide, translated into 34 languages.
57. “Grieving is a necessary passage and a difficult transition to finally letting go of sorrow – it is not a permanent rest stop.”
Dodinsky
Dodinsky is the author of the NY Times bestselling book, “In the Garden of Thoughts.” His intent was simply to share his reflections about life in order to help heal the wounds inflicted by life’s troubles.
58. “Tears have a wisdom all their own. They come when a person has relaxed enough to let go and to work through his sorrow. They are the natural bleeding of an emotional wound, carrying the poison out of the system. Here lies the road to recovery.”
Alexander Magoun
59. “When someone you love dies, and you’re not expecting it, you don’t lose her all at once; you lose her in pieces over a long time – the way the mail stops coming, and her scent fades from the pillows and even from the clothes in her closet and drawers. Gradually, you accumulate the parts of her that are gone. Just when the day comes – when there’s a particular missing part that overwhelms you with the feeling that she’s gone, forever – there comes another day, and another specifically missing part.”
John Irving
John Winslow Irving is an American-Canadian novelist and screenwriter. Irving achieved critical and popular acclaim after the international success of The World According to Garp in 1978. Many of Irving’s novels, including The Cider House Rules, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and A Widow for One Year, have been bestsellers.
60. “Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak whispers the o’er-fraught heart and bids it break.”
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s greatest dramatist. He is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon”.
61. “No farewell words were spoken, no time to say goodbye, you were gone before we knew it, and only God knows why.”
Author unknown
62. “I’m gone now, but I’m still very near, death can never separate us. Each time you feel a gentle breeze, it’s my hand caressing your face. Each time the wind blows, it carries my voice whispering your name. When the wind blows your hair ever so slightly, think of it as me pushing a few stray hairs back in place. When you feel a few raindrops fall on your face, it’s me placing soft kisses. At night look up in the sky and see the stars shining so brightly. I’m one of those stars and I’m winking at you and smiling with delight. For never forget, you’re the apple of my eye.”
Mary M Green
63. “There are three needs of the griever: To find the words for the loss, to say the words aloud and to know that the words have been heard.”
Victoria Alexander
Victoria Alexander is an American author of historical romance novels. She has been nominated for the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award four times, winning once, for A Visit From Sir Nicholas. Alexander has also won a Romantic Times Career Achievement Award.
64. “You will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly – that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.”
Anne Lamott
Anne Lamott is an American novelist and non-fiction writer. She is also a progressive political activist, public speaker, and writing teacher. Lamott is based in Marin County, California. Her nonfiction works are largely autobiographical.
65. “Tears water our growth.”
William Shakespeare
66. “Why does it take a minute to say hello and forever to say goodbye?”
Author unknown
67. “What soap is for the body, tears are for the soul.”
Jewish proverb
68. “Perhaps they are not stars in the sky, but rather openings where our loved ones shine down to let us know they are happy.”
Eskimo legend
69. “When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure.”
Author unknown
70. “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.”
Author unknown
71. “Dying is nothing to fear. It can be the most wonderful experience of your life. It all depends on how you’ve lived.”
Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was a Swiss-American psychiatrist, a pioneer in near-death studies, and author of the internationally best-selling book, On Death and Dying, where she first discussed her theory of the five stages of grief, also known as the “Kübler-Ross model”.
72. “The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.”
Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
73. “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.”
Dr. Seuss
Theodor Seuss Geisel was an American children’s author, political cartoonist, illustrator, poet, animator, and filmmaker. He is known for his work writing and illustrating more than 60 books under the pen name Dr. Seuss
74. “Although it’s difficult today to see beyond the sorrow, may looking back in memory help comfort you tomorrow.”
Author unknown
75. “It’s the circle of life, and it moves us all,
through despair and hope,
through faith and love,
’till we find our place,
on the path unwinding.’’
From “The Lion King”
76. “We’ve shared our lives these many years. You’ve held my hand; you’ve held my heart. So many blessings, so few tears – yet for a moment, we must part.”
Author unkown
77. “A beautiful colourful rainbow could not exist if it were not for the rain of a grey day – it was born from the very droplets of it.”
Author unkown
78. “In times of grief and sorrow I will hold you and rock you and take your grief and make it my own. When you cry I cry and when you hurt I hurt. And together we will try to hold back the floods of tears and despair and make it through the potholed street of life.”
Nicholas Sparks ‘The Notebook’
79. “Without you in my arms, I feel an emptiness in my soul. I find myself searching the crowds for your face – I know it’s an impossibility, but I cannot help myself.”
Nicholas Sparks ‘Message In A Bottle’
80. “It’s so curious: one can resist tears and ‘behave’ very well in the hardest hours of grief. But then someone makes you a friendly sign behind a window, or one notices that a flower that was in bud only yesterday has suddenly blossomed, or a letter slips from a drawer… and everything collapses.”
Colette
Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, known mononymously as Colette, was a French author and woman of letters. She was also known as a mime, actress, and journalist. Colette is best remembered for her 1944 novella Gigi, which was the basis for the 1958 film and the 1973 stage production of the same name.
81. “Time heals old pain, while it creates new ones.”
Proverb
82. “These days grief seems like walking on a frozen river; most of the time he feels safe enough, but there is always that danger he will plunge through.”
David Nicholls ‘One Day’
83. “A life with love will have some thorns, but a life without love will have no roses.”
Anonymous
84. “Love is like standing in wet cement, the longer you stay the harder to leave and you can never leave without leaving your marks behind.”
Author unknown
85. “I don’t know why they call it heartbreak. It feels like every part of my body is broken too.”
Chloe Woodward
86. “The grave itself is but a covered bridge, Leading from light to light, through a brief darkness!”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ‘The Golden Legend’
87. “In my dream, I was drowning my sorrows but my sorrows they’d learned to swim”
U2 ‘Until The End Of The World
88. “Every heart has its secret sorrows which the world knows not, and oftentimes we call a man cold, when he is only sad.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include “Paul Revere’s Ride”, The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He was the first American to translate Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy and was one of the Fireside Poets from New England.
89. “Forgiveness is healing … especially forgiving yourself.”
Alyson Noel ‘Evermore’
Evermore is a fantasy novel by Alyson Noël released in 2009. It is the first novel in the Immortals series. Evermore was an immediate bestseller and, as of October 11, 2009, had spent 34 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list for children’s books.
90. “Of all Sad Words of Tongue or Pen, the Saddest are these, “It Might Have Been.”
George Ade ‘More Fables’
George Ade was an American writer, syndicated newspaper columnist, and playwright who gained national notoriety at the turn of the 20th century with his “Stories of the Streets and of the Town”, a column that used street language and slang to describe daily life in Chicago, and a column of his fables in slang, which were humorous stories that featured vernacular speech and the liberal use of capitalization in his characters’ dialog.
91. “A ton of regret never makes an ounce of difference.”
Grenville Kleiser ‘Dictionary Of Proverbs’
Grenville Kleiser was a North American author. He was the author of a long list of inspirational books and guides to oratorical success and personal development. Kleiser also worked as an instructor in Public Speaking at Yale Divinity School, Yale University. Kleiser was born in 1868 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
92. “I still miss those I loved who are no longer with me but I find I am grateful for having loved them. The gratitude has finally conquered the loss.”
Rita Mae Brown
Rita Mae Brown is an American feminist writer, best known for her coming-of-age autobiographical novel, Rubyfruit Jungle. Brown was active in a number of civil rights campaigns, but tended to feud with their leaders over the marginalising of lesbians within the feminist groups.
93. “Grief is what I feel when someone passes away, Grief is what I feel when I am concerned, Grief is what I feel when I have done wrong, Grief is what I feel when some accident happens, Grief is something that all people have gone through.”
Brandi Reissig
94. “Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die, so let us all be thankful.”
Buddhist quote
95. “Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change our world.”
Buddhist quote
96. “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.”
Buddhist quote
97. “May all beings everywhere, Seen and unseen, Dwelling far off or nearby, Being or waiting to become, May all be filled with lasting joy.”
Buddhist quote
98. “Honest listening is one of the best medicines we can offer the dying and the bereaved.”
Jean Cameron
Jean Cameron of Glendessary was a member of the Scottish gentry and a Jacobite. She may have been briefly involved in the Jacobite rising of 1745, during which the Stuart heir Charles Edward attempted to reclaim the British throne for his father.
As “Jenny Cameron”, she became well-known after a number of sensationalised accounts of her life and deeds during the rising were published. The majority were almost entirely fictional and some were intended as anti-Stuart propaganda.
99. “People touch our lives if only for a moment, and yet we’re not the same from that moment on, The time is not important, The moment is forever.”
Fern Bork
100. “Our grief is as individual as our lives.”
Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
101. “We must know the pain of loss; because if we never knew it, we would have no compassion for others, and we would become monsters of self-regard, creatures of unalloyed self-interest. The terrible pain of loss teaches humility to our prideful kind, has the power to soften uncaring hearts, to make a better person of a good one.”
Dean Koontz ‘The Darkest Evening Of The Year’
Dean Ray Koontz is an American author. His novels are billed as suspense thrillers, but frequently incorporate elements of horror, fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and satire.
102. “People touch our lives if only for a moment, And yet we’re not the same from that moment on, The time is not important, The moment is forever.”
Fern Bork
103. “We get no choice. If we love, we grieve.”
Thomas Lynch
Thomas Lynch is an American poet, essayist, and undertaker.
104. “Say not in grief ‘he is no more’ but live in thankfulness that he was.”
Hebrew proverb
105. “Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.”
Buddhist saying
106. “We need never be afraid of our tears.”
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens FRSA was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world’s best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.
107. “Life is not the way it is supposed to be. It is the way it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference.”
Virginia Satir
Virginia Satir was an influential American author and psychotherapist, recognized for her approach to family therapy. Her pioneering work in the field of family reconstruction therapy honored her with the title “Mother of Family Therapy”.
108. “The melody that the loved one played upon the piano of your life will never be played quite that way again, but we must not close the keyboard and allow the instrument to gather dust. We must seek out other artists of the spirit, new friends who gradually will help us to find the road to life again, who will walk the road with us.”
Joshua Loth Liebman
Joshua Loth Liebman was an American Reform rabbi and best-selling author, best known for the book Peace of Mind, which spent more than a year at #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list. Born in Hamilton, Ohio, Liebman graduated from the University of Cincinnati when he was 19 years old.
109. “Those things that hurt instruct.”
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin FRS FRSA FRSE was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A polymath, he was a leading writer, printer, political philosopher, politician, Freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, humorist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat.
110. “I will welcome happiness for it enlarges my heart; Yet I will endure sadness for it opens my soul. I will acknowledge rewards for they are my due; Yet I will welcome obstacles for they are my challenge.”
Og Mandino
Augustine “Og” Mandino II was an American author. He wrote the bestselling book The Greatest Salesman in the World. His books have sold over 50 million copies and have been translated into over 25 languages.
111. “Some people come in your life as blessings. Some come in your life as lessons.”
Mother Teresa
Mother Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu, honored in the Catholic Church as Saint Teresa of Calcutta, was an Albanian-Indian Roman Catholic nun and missionary. She was born in Skopje, then part of the Kosovo Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire.
112. “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.”
Helen Keller
Helen Adams Keller was an American author, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer. Born in West Tuscumbia, Alabama, she lost her sight and hearing after a bout of illness at the age of nineteen months.
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