Quotes for Loved Ones - 111 Quotes With Authors and 24 Messages

Introduction – The True Meaning Behind Quotes for Loved Ones
111 Quotes for Loved Ones, With Author and Source
24 Messages for Partners, Family and Friends
Conclusion – Quotes for Loved Ones Have Eternal Value

Introduction – The True Meaning Behind Quotes for Loved Ones

Imagine scribbling a quick note to your partner during a tough day, and those few words light up their world. That’s the magic of quotes for loved ones – simple phrases that capture love, gratitude, and connection in ways everyday words often can’t.

These aren’t just random sayings. They’re bridges between hearts, especially when emotions run deep but time or distance gets in the way. Whether it’s a romantic quote for your spouse, an inspirational message for a friend, or family love quotes for a sibling, the right words heal, uplift, and strengthen bonds.

In this post, we share 111 quotes for loved ones, each with its author and source, plus 24 message ideas for partners, family and friends. Ready to find the perfect heartfelt message? Let’s dive in – explore more quotes below to spark your own expressions.

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111 Quotes for Loved Ones, With Author and Source

Below are 111 quotations about love, family, friendship and remembrance, followed by 24 message ideas. Each quotation includes its author or scriptural reference and a linked source. Translations and speakers are identified where relevant. Choose words that suit your relationship and the recipient’s beliefs.

Love quotes for a partner

“Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up”
— 1 Corinthians 13:4, American Standard Version (1901)
“But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.”
— 1 Corinthians 13:13, American Standard Version (1901)
“Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it”
— Song of Solomon 8:7, King James Bible (1611)
“Love is not love / Which alters when it alteration finds, / Or bends with the remover to remove.”
— William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116 (1609)
“My bounty is as boundless as the sea, / My love as deep. The more I give to thee, / The more I have, for both are infinite.”
— William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2 (Juliet) (c. 1595)
“The course of true love never did run smooth.”
— William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1 (Lysander) (c. 1595)
“Doubt thou the stars are fire, / Doubt that the sun doth move, / Doubt truth to be a liar, / But never doubt I love.”
— William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2 (Hamlet’s letter to Ophelia) (c. 1600)
“So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”
— William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18 (1609)
“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”
— Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese, Sonnet 43 (1850)
“I love thee with the breath, / Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose, / I shall but love thee better after death.”
— Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese, Sonnet 43 (1850)
“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”
— Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, Chapter 9 (Catherine) (1847)
“You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope.”
— Jane Austen, Persuasion, Chapter 23 (Captain Wentworth’s letter) (1817)
“You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”
— Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 34 (Mr Darcy) (1813)
“If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.”
— Jane Austen, Emma, Chapter 49 (Mr Knightley) (1815)
“The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves—say rather, loved in spite of ourselves.”
— Victor Hugo, Les Misérables, Fantine, Book 5, Chapter 4 (translated by Charles E. Wilbour) (1862)
“All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love.”
— Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, Book 12, Chapter 16, Prince Andrew (translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude) (1869)
“O my Luve is like a red, red rose / That’s newly sprung in June”
— Robert Burns, A Red, Red Rose (1794)
“And I will luve thee still, my dear, / Till a’ the seas gang dry”
— Robert Burns, A Red, Red Rose (1794)
“She walks in beauty, like the night / Of cloudless climes and starry skies”
— Lord Byron, She Walks in Beauty (1815)
“And the sunlight clasps the earth, / And the moonbeams kiss the sea: / What is all this sweet work worth / If thou kiss not me?”
— Percy Bysshe Shelley, Love’s Philosophy (1819)
“If ever two were one, then surely we. / If ever man were loved by wife, then thee.”
— Anne Bradstreet, To My Dear and Loving Husband (1678)
“That Love is all there is, / Is all we know of Love”
— Emily Dickinson, The Single Hound (1914)
“What greater thing is there for two human souls, than to feel that they are joined for life—to strengthen each other in all labour, to rest on each other in all sorrow”
— George Eliot, Adam Bede, Chapter 54 (1859)
“There is no remedy for love but to love more.”
— Henry David Thoreau, Journal, 25 July 1839 (1839)
“Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.”
— Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, “On Love”, Almustafa speaking (1923)
“Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; / For love is sufficient unto love.”
— Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, “On Love”, Almustafa speaking (1923)
“And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.”
— Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, “On Love”, Almustafa speaking (1923)
“Let there be spaces in your togetherness”
— Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, “On Marriage”, Almustafa speaking (1923)
“Give me my Romeo, and when I shall die, / Take him and cut him out in little stars, / And he will make the face of heaven so fine / That all the world will be in love with night”
— William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 2 (Juliet) (c. 1595)
“I do love nothing in the world so well as you. Is not that strange?”
— William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act 4, Scene 1 (Benedick) (c. 1599)
“Parting is such sweet sorrow / That I shall say ‘Good night’ till it be morrow.”
— William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2 (Juliet) (c. 1595)
“For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings / That then I scorn to change my state with kings.”
— William Shakespeare, Sonnet 29 (1609)
“But we loved with a love that was more than love— / I and my Annabel Lee…”
— Edgar Allan Poe, Annabel Lee (1849)
“Say I’m growing old, but add, / Jenny kiss’d me.”
— Leigh Hunt, “Jenny Kiss’d Me” (1838)
“Love seeketh not itself to please, / Nor for itself hath any care, / But for another gives its ease, / And builds a Heaven in Hell’s despair.”
— William Blake, The Clod & the Pebble, Songs of Experience, the Clod speaking (1794)
“Grow old along with me! / The best is yet to be”
— Robert Browning, Rabbi Ben Ezra, Rabbi Ben Ezra speaking (1864)
“Drink to me only with thine eyes, / And I will pledge with mine”
— Ben Jonson, Song: To Celia (1616)
“Talk not of wasted affection, affection never was wasted”
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline, Part II, Father Felician speaking (1847)
“You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.”
— Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, “On Marriage”, Almustafa speaking (1923)
“There are all kinds of love in the world, but never the same love twice.”
— F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Sensible Thing” (1924)
“Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight?”
— Christopher Marlowe, Hero and Leander (1598)
“If music be the food of love, play on.”
— William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 1 (Orsino) (c. 1601)
“Come live with me and be my love.”
— Christopher Marlowe, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love (1599)
“I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.”
— Song of Solomon 6:3, King James Bible (1611)
“Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death.”
— Song of Solomon 8:6, King James Bible (1611)
“Two souls with but a single thought, / Two hearts that beat as one.”
— Friedrich Halm (translated by Maria Lovell), Ingomar the Barbarian, Act II, Parthenia, reciting a song (1851)
“Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind; / And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”
— William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1 (Helena) (c. 1595)
“Journeys end in lovers meeting.”
— William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3 (Feste’s song) (c. 1601)

Quotes about family

“…for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God”
— Ruth 1:16, King James Bible, Ruth speaking to Naomi (1611)
“…I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship.”
— Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, Part 2, Chapter 44 (Amy) (1869)
“I do think that families are the most beautiful things in all the world!”
— Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, Part 2, Chapter 47 (Jo) (1869)
“Honour thy father and thy mother.”
— Exodus 20:12, King James Bible (1611)
“Children’s children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers.”
— Proverbs 17:6, King James Bible (1611)
“Where we love is home, / Home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts”
— Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Homesick in Heaven, First Spirit speaking (1872)

Quotes about friendship

“A single soul dwelling in two bodies.”
— Aristotle, as reported by Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book V, §20 (translated by R. D. Hicks) (1925 translation)
“…the only way to have a friend is to be one”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays: First Series, “Friendship” (1841)
“A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays: First Series, “Friendship” (1841)
“And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.”
— Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, “On Friendship”, Almustafa speaking (1923)
“Your friend is your needs answered.”
— Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, “On Friendship”, Almustafa speaking (1923)
“Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and dividing of our grief.”
— Joseph Addison, paraphrasing Cicero, The Spectator, No. 68 (18 May 1711)
“…a friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays: First Series, “Friendship” (1841)
“What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult to each other?”
— George Eliot, Middlemarch, Chapter 72 (Dorothea) (1872)
“So long as we love we serve; so long as we are loved by others, I would almost say that we are indispensable; and no man is useless while he has a friend.”
— Robert Louis Stevenson, Lay Morals, Chapter IV (1911)
“But if the while I think on thee, dear friend, / All losses are restored and sorrows end.”
— William Shakespeare, Sonnet 30 (1609)
“Friendship is a sheltering tree”
— Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Youth and Age (1834)
“Grief can take care of itself; but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with.”
— Mark Twain, Following the Equator, Chapter XLVIII (Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar) (1897)
“A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”
— Proverbs 17:17, King James Bible (1611)
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
— John 15:13, King James Bible (1611)
“Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man’s friend by hearty counsel.”
— Proverbs 27:9, King James Bible (1611)
“Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, / Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel.”
— William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3 (Polonius) (c. 1600)

Quotes for remembering someone you love

“’Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all.”
— Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam A.H.H., Canto 27 (1850)
“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.”
— Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, “On Joy and Sorrow”, Almustafa speaking (1923)
“Let life be beautiful like summer flowers and death like autumn leaves.”
— Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds, No. 82 (1916)
“What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. A sunset, a mountain bathed in moonlight, the ocean in calm and in storm—we see these, love their beauty, hold the vision to our hearts. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.”
— Helen Keller, We Bereaved (1929)
“To live in hearts we leave behind / Is not to die.”
— Thomas Campbell, Hallowed Ground (1825)
“Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room.”
— Henry Scott Holland, “The King of Terrors,” sermon at St Paul’s Cathedral, imagining a message from a deceased loved one (1910)
“Better by far you should forget and smile / Than that you should remember and be sad.”
— Christina Rossetti, Remember (1862)
“Remember me when I am gone away, / Gone far away into the silent land…”
— Christina Rossetti, Remember (1862)
“Give sorrow words. The grief that does not speak / Whispers the o’erfraught heart and bids it break.”
— William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3 (Malcolm) (c. 1606)
“Thou know’st ’tis common; all that lives must die, / Passing through nature to eternity.”
— William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2 (Queen Gertrude) (c. 1600)
“One short sleep past, we wake eternally, / And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.”
— John Donne, Holy Sonnet X (“Death, be not proud”) (1633)
“…any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind”
— John Donne, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation XVII (1624)
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die…”
— Ecclesiastes 3:1-2, King James Bible (1611)
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”
— Psalm 23:4, King James Bible (1611)
“Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.”
— Matthew 5:4, King James Bible (1611)
“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”
— Revelation 21:4, King James Bible (1611)
“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
— John 14:27, King James Bible (1611)
“He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.”
— Psalm 147:3, King James Bible (1611)
“You can not now realize that you will ever feel better. Is not this so? And yet it is a mistake. You are sure to be happy again.”
— Abraham Lincoln, letter to Fanny McCullough, 23 December 1862 (1862)
“Let us see to it that the recollection of those whom we have lost becomes a pleasant memory to us.”
— Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 63 (translated by Richard M. Gummere) (translation 1917)
“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, The Prophet, “On Joy and Sorrow”, Almustafa speaking (1923)
“No, the love which survives the tomb is one of the noblest attributes of the soul.”
— Washington Irving, The Sketch Book, “Rural Funerals” (1819–20)
“The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse to be divorced.”
— Washington Irving, The Sketch Book, “Rural Funerals” (1819–20)
“Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.”
— Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, Chapter 19, Pip narrating (1861)
“Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them.”
— George Eliot, Adam Bede, Chapter 10 (1859)
“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.”
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Resignation (1849)
“They that love beyond the World, cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill, what never dies.”
— William Penn, More Fruits of Solitude, “Union of Friends” (1702)
“Death is but Crossing the World, as Friends do the Seas; They live in one another still.”
— William Penn, More Fruits of Solitude, “Union of Friends” (1702)
“There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.”
— Thornton Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, the Abbess’s closing reflection (1927)
“…love is the only thing that we can carry with us when we go, and it makes the end so easy.”
— Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, Part 2, Chapter 40 (Beth) (1869)
“Joy & Woe are woven fine, / A Clothing for the soul divine”
— William Blake, Auguries of Innocence, Pickering Manuscript
“We will grieve not, rather find / Strength in what remains behind”
— William Wordsworth, Ode: Intimations of Immortality (1807)
“And ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.”
— Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, “The Coming of the Ship”, the priests and priestesses speaking to Almustafa (1923)
“Sunset and evening star, / And one clear call for me!”
— Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Crossing the Bar (1889)
“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”
— Psalm 30:5, King James Bible (1611)
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
— Matthew 11:28, King James Bible (1611)
“Grief is itself a med’cine…”
— William Cowper, Charity (1782)
“What is lovely never dies, / But passes into other loveliness”
— Thomas Bailey Aldrich, A Shadow of the Night, a holy man speaking in the narrator’s dream (1895)
“For the life of the dead is set in the memory of the living.”
— Marcus Tullius Cicero, Philippics IX.10 (translated by W. C. A. Ker) (43 BC)
“Every parting gives a foretaste of death; every coming together again a foretaste of the resurrection.”
— Arthur Schopenhauer, “Psychological Observations,” Studies in Pessimism (translated by T. Bailey Saunders from Parerga and Paralipomena)
“I cannot say, and I will not say / That he is dead.—He is just away!”
— James Whitcomb Riley, Away (1887)

24 Messages for Partners, Family and Friends

Words have power, especially when tailored to the people who matter most. Mix and match for birthdays, anniversaries, or just because.

Below are message ideas for partners, family and friends. Personalize the wording to reflect your relationship and what you want to say.

For family

Thank you for loving me before I knew how to say thank you.
Mom, everything good in me started with you.
Dad, your quiet strength taught me more than any words.
I’m grateful we grew up side by side.
You’ll always be my first best friend.
Grandma, your kitchen was where I learned what love feels like.
Our family isn’t perfect, but it’s mine, and I love it.
No matter how far apart we live, you’re always close to my heart.

For friends

Thank you for showing up, every single time.
You’re the friend I can call about anything, and I don’t take that for granted.
Years go by, and you still feel like home.
I’m lucky that life put you on my path.
Thank you for laughing with me, and for sitting with me when there was nothing to laugh about.
However busy life gets, you matter to me.

For someone you miss

I carry you with me in everything I do.
Missing you is part of loving you, and I’ll never stop.

How to make a message your own

Add their name and one detail only the two of you share.
Mention a specific memory: a trip, a meal, a phrase they always used.
Keep it short and say it in your own voice; honest words matter more than perfect ones.

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Conclusion – Quotes for Loved Ones Have Eternal Value

In a world of fleeting texts and emojis, a few heartfelt words still stand out. A short message can say what is hard to say at length.

Pick one today, make it your own, and share it with someone you love. Share them with your friends, loved ones and others!

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Quotes for Loved Ones – 111 Quotes With Authors and 24 Messages

Table Of Contents

Introduction – The True Meaning Behind Quotes for Loved Ones