19 Quotes About Grief

“Life is full of grief, to exactly the degree we allow ourselves to love other people.”

— Orson Scott Card, “Shadow of the Giant”

“We bereaved are not alone. We belong to the largest company in all the world — the company of those who have known suffering.”

— Helen Keller, “We Bereaved”

“I will not say: Do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.”

— J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Return of the King”

“It takes strength to make your way through grief, to grab hold of life and let it pull you forward.”

— Patti Davis

“No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.”

— C.S. Lewis, “A Grief Observed”

“You care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it.”

— J.K. Rowling, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”

“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”

“Deep grief sometimes is almost like a specific location, a coordinate on a map of time. When you are standing in that forest of sorrow, you cannot imagine that you could ever find your way to a better place. But if someone can assure you that they themselves have stood in that same place, and now have moved on, sometimes this will bring hope.”

— Elizabeth Gilbert, “Eat, Pray, Love”

“Give the sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up the o-er wrought heart and bids it break.”

— William Shakespeare, “Macbeth”

“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.

“Grieving doesn’t make you imperfect. It makes you human.”

– Sarah Dessen, “The Truth About Forever”

“Grief is a most peculiar thing; we’re so helpless in the face of it. It’s like a window that will simply open of its own accord. The room grows cold, and we can do nothing but shiver. But it opens a little less each time, and a little less; and one day we wonder what has become of it.”

— Arthur Golden, “Memoirs of a Geisha”

“There’s a bit of magic in everything, and some loss to even things out.”

— Lou Reed, “Magic And Loss”

“When I think of death, and of late the idea has come with alarming frequency, I seem at peace with the idea that a day will dawn when I will no longer be among those living in this valley of strange humors.”

— Maya Angelou

“Everyone grieves in different ways. For some, it could take longer or shorter. I do know it never disappears. An ember still smolders inside me. Most days, I don’t notice it, but, out of the blue, it’ll flare to life.”

— Maria V. Snyder, “Strom Glass”

“Life has to end. Love doesn’t.”

— Mitch Albom, “The Five People You Meet in Heaven”

“I can accept the idea of my own demise, but I am unable to accept the death of anyone else. I find it impossible to let a friend or relative go into that country to no return. Disbelief becomes my close companion, and anger follows in its wake. I answer the heroic question ‘Death, where is thy sting?’ with ‘It is here in my heart and mind and memories.'”

— Maya Angelou, “When I Think of Death”

“Death ends a life, not a relationship.”

— Mitch Albom, “Tuesdays with Morrie”

“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”