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Grief can be all-consuming, and at times it can seem as if there is no way through the pain, but as Queen Elizabeth II famously said, ‘grief is the price we pay for love’. Take comfort from the fact that the grief you may be feeling is because you have loved and been loved, and allow these words to soothe the heart as you learn to live with your loss.
Proving that there is no right or wrong way to grieve, these grief quotes will help you to feel less alone with your loss as you take on board what others have said. Offering short but powerful lessons in love, life, and loss, these words can be a balm to a broken heart as they allow you to see things in a different light.
Whether you are looking for words to soothe your own soul or to bring comfort to a loved one who is struggling, these grief quotes are beautiful and heartfelt, and each one comes from a place of love and experience. Immerse yourself in these quotes and take solace that grief, however painful, is an experience shared by so many.
If you’re struggling with the loss of a loved one, also take a look at these mental health quotes (to help you feel less alone) and these positive life quotes (to put things into perspective).
Grief Quotes
“Grief can be the garden of compassion. If you keep your heart open through everything, your pain can become your greatest ally in your life’s search for love and wisdom.” – Rumi
“It’s so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone.” – John Steinbeck
“Everybody has their burdens, their grief that they carry with them.” – Elizabeth Edwards
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“Never let the salt of your tears be tasteless in grief.” – Munia Khan
“I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death.” – Robert Fulghum
“There is no grief like the grief that does not speak.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Related: Inspirational Quotes About life Struggles
“When the heart grieves over what it has lost, the spirit rejoices over what it has left.” – Sufi Epigram
“There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.” – Washington Irving
“Tears shed for another person are not a sign of weakness. They are a sign of a pure heart.” – José N. Harris
“I do not believe that grief is ever so great that it can not be contained within.” – Judith McNaught
“Her grief still burdened her, and she knew she would bear it the rest of her days.” – Dana Fuller Ross
“Grief, she reminded herself, is almost always for the mourner’s loss.” – Orson Scott Card
“Excess of grief for the dead is madness; for it is an injury to the living, and the dead know it not.” – Xenophon
“Grief is not as heavy as guilt, but it takes more away from you.” – Veronica Roth
“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” – Winnie the Pooh
“A friend who dies, it’s something of you who dies” – Gustave Flaubert
“They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill what never dies.” – WILLIAM PENN
“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” – Dr. Seuss
“I don’t think of all the misery, but of all the beauty that remains” – Anne Frank
“If I can see pain in your eyes then share with me your tears. If I can see joy in your eyes then share with me your smile.” – Santosh Kalwar
“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
“Although it’s natural to forget your power after you lose a loved one, the truth is that after a breakup, divorce, or death, there remains an ability within you to create a new reality.” – Louise Hay and David Kessler
“Wherever a beautiful soul has been, there is a trail of beautiful memories.” – RONALD REAGAN
“Grief can derange even the strongest and most disciplined of minds.” – George R.R. Martin
“There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief.” – Aeschylus
“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
“What we have once enjoyed deeply we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.” – Helen Keller
“Happiness is beneficial for the body, but it is grief that develops the powers of the mind.” – Marcel Proust
“Death ends a life, not a relationship” – Jack Lemmon
“And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone.” – Madeline Miller
“You don’t go around grieving all the time, but the grief is still there and always will be.” – Nigella Lawson
“Grief can’t be shared. Everyone carries it alone; his own burden in his own way.” – Anne Morrow Lindbergh
“Do not brood over your past mistakes and failures as this will only fill your mind with grief, regret and depression. Do not repeat them in the future.” – Swami Sivananda
“Some things in life cannot be fixed. They can only be carried.” – Megan Devine
“You are gone, but thank you for all these soft, sweet things you left behind. In my home, in my head, in my heart.” – NIKITA GILL
“Your grief path is yours alone, and no one else can walk it, and no one else can understand it.” – Terri Irwin
“I wish I had done everything on earth with you.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Never. We never lose our loved ones. They accompany us; they don’t disappear from our lives. We are merely in different rooms.” – Paulo Coelho
“When I saw your strand of hair I knew that grief is love turned into an eternal missing.” – Rosamund Lupton
“The pleasure of remembering had been taken from me, because there was no longer anyone to remember with. It felt like losing your co-rememberer meant losing the memory itself, as if the things we’d done were less real and important than they had been hours before.” – John Green
“Grant but memory to us, and we lose nothing by death.” – John G. Whittier
“Grief is the price we pay for love.” – Queen Elizabeth II
“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…” – Arthur Golden
“Grief teaches the steadiest minds to waver.” – Sophocles
“Loss is nothing else but change, and change is nature’s delight.” – Marcus Aurelius
“There are some griefs so loud they could bring down the sky and there are griefs so still none knows how deep they lie.” – May Sarton
“People come and go from our lives all the time. It’s not our fault that people leave. The Universe is just making room for new people with new lessons.” – Sue Fitzmaurice
“There’s always a last time. If you could remember every last time, you’d never stop grieving.” – Jonathan Tropper
“The loss of a friend is like that of a limb; time may heal the anguish of the wound, but the loss cannot be repaired” – Robert Southey
“A great soul serves everyone all the time. A great soul never dies. It brings us together again and again.” – Maya Angelou
“Only a moment you stayed but what an imprint your footprints have left on our hearts.” – DOROTHY FERGUSON
“To lose a friend is the greatest of all loses” – Syrus
“Everyone can master grief but he has it.” – William Shakespeare
“Grief is so human, and it hits everyone at one point or another, at least, in their lives. If you love, you will grieve, and that’s just given.” – Kay Redfield Jamison
“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
“My mind couldn’t fit itself around the shape of his absence.” – Lia Mills
“Grief is like a wildflower, it can erupt from the ground anywhere it chooses, when it blossoms we must be careful not to step on it. Instead, we need to honor its existence and appreciate that love made it bloom. – ZOË CLARK” – COATES
“Every one of us is losing something precious to us. Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back again. That’s part of what it means to be alive.” – Haruki Murakami
“Some things cannot be fixed; they can only be carried. Grief like yours, love like yours, can only be carried.” – Megan Devine
“Her absence is like the sky, spread over everything.” – C.S. Lewis
“Even when it seems that there is no one else, always remember there’s one person who never ceased to love you – yourself.” – Sanhita Baruah
“Acceptance is not about liking a situation. It is about acknowledging all that has been lost and learning to live with that loss. – Elisabeth Kubler” – Ross and David Kessler
“Love and grief come as a package deal. If you love, you will one day know sorrow.” – David Kessler
“Grief starts to become indulgent, and it doesn’t serve anyone, and it’s painful. But if you transform it into remembrance, then you’re magnifying the person you lost and also giving something of that person to other people, so they can experience something of that person.” – Patti Smith
“Grief reunites you with what you’ve lost. It’s a merging; you go with the loved thing or person that’s going away. You follow it a far as you can go. But finally,the grief goes away and you phase back into the world. Without him.” – Philip K. Dick
“So it’s true, when all is said and done, grief is the price we pay for love.” – E.A. Bucchianeri
“Grief changes shape, but it never ends.” – Keanu Reeves
“In our grief process, we are moving into life from death, without denying the devastation that came before.- Elisabeth Kübler” – Ross
“Come back. Even as a shadow, even as a dream.” – Euripides
“No matter how bad your heart is broken, the world doesn’t stop for your grief.” – Faraaz Kazi
“While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till it be digested, and then amusem*nt will dissipate the remains of it.” – Samuel Johnson
“It’s not life situations but our thoughts are the pilots of grief.” – Durgesh Satpathy
“The only way to end grief was to go through it.” – Holly Black
“Grief wraps around people, takes them to a place they would not go otherwise.” – Patti Callahan Henry
“The comfort of having a friend may be taken away, but not that of having had one.” – Seneca
“It’s possible to go on, no matter how impossible it seems, and that in time, the grief . . . lessens. It may not go away completely, but after a while it’s not so overwhelming.” – Nicholas Sparks
“It takes strength to make your way through grief, to grab hold of life and let it pull you forward.” – Patti Davis
“What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.” – Helen Keller
“We can’t feel the loss of a friend until they are apart from us” – Debolina
“Grief is like the ocean; it comes on waves ebbing and flowing. Sometimes the water is calm, and sometimes it is overwhelming. All we can do is learn to swim.” – Vicki Harrison
“When a close friend unexpectedly leaves us, a piece of our heart is forever broken” – Chris Lumpkin
“There is a point at which even grief feels absurd. And at this point, laughter gushes up to retrieve sanity.” – Alice Walker
“Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.” – Rumi
“Wishing you strength for today and hope for tomorrow.” – Renee O’Neill
“Every life is noted and is cherished, and nothing loved is ever lost or perished.” – MADELEINE L’ENGLE
“The closest bonds we will ever know are bonds of grief. The deepest community one of sorrow.” – Cormac McCarthy
“Life is full of grief, to exactly the degree we allow ourselves to love other people.” – Orson Scott Card
“What they never tell you about grief is that missing someone is the simple part.” – Gail Caldwell
“Grief can be a burden, but also an anchor. You get used to the weight, how it holds you in place.” – Sarah Dessen
“To have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever.” – J.K. Rowling
“The darker the night, the brighter the stars, the deeper the grief, the closer is God!” – Fyodor Dostoevsky
“Life without a friend is like death without a witness” – John Ray
“Men cannot grieve as dogs do. But they grieve for many years.” – Robin Hobb
“It is not the length of the life, but the depth of the life.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“They say time heals all wounds, but that presumes the source of the grief is finite.” – Cassandra Clare
“I don’t move away from grief, rather through it.” – Taya Kyle
“Death is a challenge. It tells us not to waste time. It tells us to tell each other right now that we love each other.” – Leo Buscaglia
“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
“I should know enough about loss to realize that you never really stop missing someone-you just learn to live around the huge gaping hole of their absence.” – Alyson Noel
“Against eternal injustice, man must assert justice, and to protest against the universe of grief, he must create happiness.” – Albert Camus
“…grief had no mercy, time limit, or expiration date.” – Rebecca Yarros
“Grief loves the hollow; all it wants is to hear its own echo.” – Hisham Matar
“There are no goodbyes for us. Wherever you are, you will always be in my heart.” – Mahatma Gandhi
“When grief is deepest, words are fewest.” – Ann Voskamp
“Every deceased friend is a magnet drawing us into another world” – Eliza Cook
“When you lose your parents, the sadness doesn’t go away. It just changes. It hits you sideways sometimes instead of head-on. Like now.” – Jude Watson
“Acknowledgment of grief – well, it makes feeling the grief easier, not harder.” – Elizabeth McCracken
“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 grief that does not speak whispers the o’erfraught heart and bids it break.” – William Shakespeare
“As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.” – Leonardo da Vinci
“Those we love and lose are always connected by heartstrings into infinity” – Terri Guillemets
“If there ever comes a day when we can’t be together, keep me in your heart, I’ll stay there forever.” – Winnie the Pooh
“To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.” – Thomas Campbell
“Envy, after all, comes from wanting something that isn’t yours. But grief comes from losing something you’ve already had.” – Jodi Picoult
“Grief releases love and it also instills a profound sense of connection.” – Jacqueline Novogratz
“Grief is the pain of wanting things to be as they were once, yet knowing that they never will be again.” – Julie Yarbrough
“We need to grieve the ones we have loved and lost in this lifetime — not to sustain our connection to suffering, but to sustain our connection to love.” – J. W.
“I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.” – J.R.R. Tolkien
“We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.” – Kenji Miyazawa
“I decide this is just A Bad Day. We all get them, because grief doesn’t care how many years it’s been.” – Sara Barnard
“[Grief is for the strong, who use it as fuel for burning.]” – Lauren Groff
“Simply touching a difficult memory with some slight willingness to heal begins to soften the holding and tension around it.” – Stephen Levine
“The only cure for grief is action.” – George Henry Lewes
“Ten years, she’s dead, and I still find myself some mornings reaching for the phone to call her. She could no more be gone than gravity or the moon.” – Mary Karr
“Grief does not change you, Hazel. It reveals you.” – John Green
“Grief, no matter where it comes from, can only be resolved by connecting to other people.” – Thomas Horn
“To weep is to make less the depth of grief.” – William Shakespeare
“Grief lasts longer than sympathy, which is one of the tragedies of the grieving.” – Elizabeth McCracken
“Grief and love are conjoined—you don’t get one without the other.” – Jandy Nelson
“Grief is depression in proportion to circ*mstance; depression is grief out of proportion to circ*mstance.” – Andrew Solomon
“Sorrow is so easy to express and yet so hard to tell.” – Joni Mitchell
“Grief takes many forms, including the absence of grief.” – Alison Bechdel
“Grieving doesn’t make you imperfect. It makes you human.” – Sarah Dessen
“Loss can remind us that life itself is a gift.” – Louise Hay and David Kessler
“Grief is just love with no place to go.” – Jamie Anderson
“No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.” – C.S. Lewis
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