120 Quotes on Grief and Loss to Start Afresh

(Last Updated On: April 10, 2021)

Quotes on grief and loss is a great way of consolation. The loss of someone we love can be an excruciating experience, even when we expect it to happen, and even if this is a universal part of our human existence.

I’ve heard so many people saying “well, she was 80, what did you expect?” But it doesn’t really matter how old they are, does it? We want our dear ones to live forever with quotes on grief and loss.

And the pain of their passing away is even greater when they go too soon because then we have to live with both grief and shock as stated in many quotes on grief and loss.

Grief allows us to gradually accept the loss of someone. In time, we’ll realize that they are no longer physically present, but they will always be alive in our hearts filled with quotes on grief and loss.

Letting all the good memories stay with you forever is all that matters and all that will ultimately bring you peace on the basis of quotes on grief and loss.

So cry if you must, but learn to carry on by remembering them with a smile on your face when you have quotes on grief and loss.

That’s what they would’ve wanted and that’s how you’ll want to be remembered as well. Honor them by thinking of all the happy moments you’ve shared together in the form of quotes on grief and loss.

Quotes on grief and loss

I don’t think of all the misery, but of all the beauty that remains. ANNE FRANK
What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, For all that we love deeply becomes a part of us. HELEN KELLER
Grief can be a garden of compassion. If you keep your heart open through everything, your pain can become the greatest ally in your life’s search for love and wisdom. RUMI
The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not ‘get over’ the loss of a loved one; you’ll learn to live with it. You will heal and you will rebuild yourself around the loss you have suffered. You will be whole again but you will never be the same. Nor should you be the same nor would you want to. ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS
Against eternal injustice, man must assert justice, and to protest against the universe of grief, he must create happiness. ALBERT CAMUS
It is as if the intensity of grief fused the distance between you and the dead. Or perhaps, in reality, part of one dies. Like Orpheus, one tries to follow the dead at the beginning of their journey. But one cannot, like Orpheus, go all the way, and after a long journey, one comes back. If one is lucky, one is reborn. ANNE MORROW LINDBERGH
All you need is one safe anchor to keep you grounded when the rest of your life spins out of control. KATIE KACVINSKY
God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December. J.M. BARRIE
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
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
It takes strength to make your way through grief, to grab hold of life and let it pull you forward. PATTI DAVIS
This is not goodbye, my darling, this is a thank you. Thank you for coming into my life and giving me joy. 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

Quotes on grief and loss

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
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 (more Paulo Coleho quotes)
I know in my head that she has gone. The only difference is that I am getting used to the pain. It’s like discovering a great hole in the ground. To begin with, you forget it’s there and keep falling in. After a while, it’s still there, but you learn to walk around it. RACHEL JOYCE
Life seems sometimes like nothing more than a series of losses, from beginning to end. That’s the given. How you respond to those losses, what you make of what’s left, that’s the part you have to make up as you go. KATHARINE WEBER
“The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not ‘get over’ the loss of a loved one; you will learn to live with it. You will heal and you will rebuild yourself around the loss you have suffered. You will be whole again but you will never be the same. Nor should you be the same nor would you want to.” — Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
“Dear lovely Death
That taketh all things under wing—
Never to kill—
Only to change
Into some other thing
This suffering flesh,
To make it either more or less,
But not again the same—
Dear lovely Death,
Change is thy other name.”
—Langston Hughes
No one is immune to grief. There are those amongst us today who have grieved deeply in the past, and there are those who are grieving deeply now and sadly. All of us will grieve at some time in the future. Lorraine Kember
However, what if we knew that death brings the possibility for acquiring a true life. You probably would not grief, but will joyfully and cheerfully say goodbye to those who gained something more than just life on Earth. Sunday Adelaja
“What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes part of us.” — Helen Keller
“God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December.” — J.M. Barrie
Recognize that grief looks different at different ages. A very young child will not understand the permanency permanency of death and will expect Grandpa to be alive again in a day or two. Victoria Ryan
I cannot hold you near me, except within my heart,
But one day I will join you, and all grief will depart.
Till then I’ll tread on bravely, I know I’m not alone;
And when my work is finished my Lord will call me home.Greta Zwaan
What I know about the unique grief of grandparents is this: You grieve doubly. You grieve for the loss of your grandchild, and you grieve for your child whose child has died. Alan D. Wolfelt
See Also
The Right Words to Comfort Someone Grieving | LoveToKnow
Grief manifests in the realm of the soul, and although you may not be aware of it, you already have established mindsets regarding loss and grief. Devra Davis
There is no cure for grief which time does not lessen and soften. Cicero

Quotes on grief and loss

A mother feels her children’s pain and understands their grief in a way that no one else in the world is able. Familius
Every one can master a grief but he that has it. Shakespeare
You must allow yourself to grieve your loss. What does that mean? To us, it means allowing yourself to feel those emotions, no matter how intense they may be S. Quinn
Grief is about a broken heart, not a broken brain. All efforts to heal the heart with the head fail because the head is the wrong tool for the job. John W. James, The Grief Recovery Handbook
The angels are always near to those who are grieving, to whisper to them that their loved ones are safe in the hand of God. Elias Freeman
Grief that is dismissed, suppressed, or silenced harms individuals, families, and communities. Dr. Jeffrey B. Rubin
Those who are dying and those who care about them often have valuable gifts to offer one another. When someone you love is dying you may not see gifts, but only grief, pain, and loss. However, a dying person offers enlightening information and comfort, and in return those close at hand can help bring that person peace and recognition of life’s meaning. Maggie Callanan; Patricia Kelley
So don’t lose heart if you grieve. Every healthy human being grieves in their own way and at their own time. Michael Dunsmore
He that conceals his grief finds no remedy for it. Turkish Proverb
The world is not full of grief and despair as we view on TV most of the time. There is good in this world that supercedes evil. Byron Pulsifer
Grief and loss happen to everyone. We’ve all felt misunderstood during times of great pain. We’ve also stood by, helpless, in the face of other people’s pain. We’ve all fumbled for words, knowing no words can ever make things right. Megan Devine
“To weep is to make less the depth of grief.” — William Shakespeare
“Life is full of grief, to exactly the degree we allow ourselves to love other people.” — Orson Scott Card
“Now there is one thing I can tell you: You will enjoy certain pleasures you would not fathom now. When you still had your mother you often thought of the days when you would have her no longer. Now you will often think of days past when you had her. When you are used to this horrible thing that they will forever be cast into the past, then you will gently feel her revive, returning to take her place, her entire place, beside you. At the present time, this is not yet possible. Let yourself be inert, wait till the incomprehensible power … that has broken you restores you a little, I say a little, for henceforth you will always keep something broken about you. Tell yourself this, too, for it is a kind of pleasure to know that you will never love less, that you will never be consoled, that you will constantly remember more and more.” — Marcel Proust
“Accepting death doesn’t mean you won’t be devastated when someone you love dies. It means you will be able to focus on your grief, unburdened by bigger existential questions like, ‘Why do people die?’ and ‘Why is this happening to me?’ Death isn’t happening to you. Death is happening to us all.” — Caitlin Doughty
“To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.” — Thomas Campbell
Grief is not a condition to be cured but a natural part of life. Spirit does not know loss; it knows that every story begins and every story ends, yet love is eternal. Louise L. Hay and David Kessler
Ask anyone who has lost someone close to them how their life changed after they lost their loved one, and they will tell you that the before and after their grief was so drastically different that they truly felt that they grew from the experience. Valerie Orr
Grieving is a process that does not completely end; it evolves and becomes integrated into your life. … Grieving is a normal part of life, and the more we express our grief and not try to hide from it, the easier it becomes to manage. Stephanie Jose LMHC LCAT

Quotes on grief and loss

Our friend is hurting, in pain, and traveling along the road of despair and grief. But old friend, never feel that we will not gladly walk with you through these difficult times. Byron Pulsifer
While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irriates. You must wait till it be digested, and then amusem*nt will dissapte the remains of it. Samuel Johnson
One of the most important things we can do for people who are grieving is to give them a safe place in which to experience and express their pain J. Nelson
ne joy scatters a hundred griefs. Chinese Proverb
Scientific studies say, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross being the proponent, that there are five stages of grief, namely: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. Marita Kinney
There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music. George Eliot
Most people move though grief at their own unique pace and many eventually find a peaceful acceptance. This does not mean that this terrible loss is “OK”, but rather that one is no longer battling reality and has come to a place of acceptance of what is. M. Barns
Happiness is to feel that one’s soul is good; there is no other, in truth, and this kind of happiness may exist even in sorrow, so that there are griefs perfable to every joy, and such as would be preferred by all those who have felt them. Joseph Joubert
As much as it hurts, suppressing how you feel is like putting a lid on a pressure cooker and turning off the steam valve, eventually it will blow. By expressing your emotions, you start the healing process M. Hunter
Grief will happen in five stages. It all begins with denial; closely followed by anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. However, each human being has a different way of processing death into their minds, hearts, and souls. Dorothea Jackson
When it comes to grieving many times, people cut their grieving time short because they believe that it is time to “move on.” The truth is, however, that there is no set time for grieving, and you should allow yourself all the time you need to grieve your loss. Bernice Gibson
Grief is a completely natural response to loss. It is the enduring emotions one feels when something or somebody that was loved is taken away. A C Aseh
One blessing in times of grief and loss is that we can often help another person by sharing our experiences. Betsy Duffey; Laurie Myers, The Lord is Their Shepherd
Through grief, we can experience an alchemical transformation that cannot be contrived, hastened, or imparted by others. Joanne Cacciatore, Bearing the Unbearable
There will always be a time for hurts to heal and sadnesses to pass, for we are as the seasons with our autumns, winters, springs and summers too. Johm McLeod
His great compassion, endless love, will bring my soul relief,
In time my broken heart will heal, God will remove my grief.
For now He gently holds my hand, He guides me through each day. Greta Zwaan
Why does someone else’s grief make us so uneasy? We feel helpless in the face of profound loss. Death is as final as you get. Florence Isaacs
The road through grief is a rocky one. Traveling along it requires courage, patience, wisdom, and hope. Candy Lightner
The road through grief is a rocky one. Traveling along it requires courage, patience, wisdom, and hope. Candy Lightner
In between moments of shock and unreality, grievers often experience extreme waves of emotion and even physical pain as they adapt to the loss. Courtney Armstrong
One of the basic needs for all humanity is to be comforted in times of personal sorrow or difficulty. Richard Daly

Quotes on grief and loss

Grief is the antithesis of this belief: it eschews avoidance and requires endurance, and forces us to accept that there are some things in this world that simply cannot be fixed. Julia Samuel
The great masters in every walk of life know the importance of breathing; they use it to prepare and recover and to get through difficult moments and critical situations. Dan Brule
The heart of the Father grieves over His people who have not loved what He loves. They do not love Him nor what He loves because they do not know Him. Derek Townsend
I am lucky, and now grateful, that my close friends and relatives hung in there with me, as I know I was not always easy to be with. ‘ I said a lot of “yes-buts” in response to the suggestions of others and often secretly decided they just could not relate to my grief. The most useful support I received was help with concrete tasks, receiving invitations for dinner or coffee – whether or not I accepted – and when someone simply accompanied me on a walk or went to a movie with me. Eileen L Cooley Ph.D.
We can heal from our devastation . . . Eleora Han, PhD
Although grief is painful, we can experience it as a positive, life-changing journey. We can heal from our devastation, shock, fear, and despair, and return to life again, only this time more fiercely, vulnerably, and wholeheartedly – more connected to the love that surrounds us. Eleora Han, PhD
How do we learn to have the courage to grieve? Some of us learn courage spontaneously, when we must act in order to survive. Most of us learn the courage to face new challenges in the process of living, experiencing and surviving our struggles over and over again. Judy Tatelbaum
Loss is painful. It crushes hearts, steals dreams, and destroys relationships. Grief can be terribly lonely. Those who are grieving need us. They need you. Gary Roe, Please Be Patient, I’m Grieving
I believe the answer to our existential questions lies in developing habits that enhance grief resilience – the ability to move through unwelcome change and achieve a sense of wellness and peace. Ruth E. Field
“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
“Life is tragic simply because the Earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time. Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies, flags, nations, in order to deny the fact of death, the only fact we have. It seems to me that one ought to rejoice in the fact of death–ought to decide, indeed, to earn one’s death by confronting with passion the conundrum of life. One is responsible for life: It is the small beacon in that terrifying darkness from which we come and to which we shall return.” — James Baldwin
“We were promised sufferings. They were part of the program. We were even told, ‘Blessed are they that mourn,’ and I accept it. I’ve got nothing that I hadn’t bargained for. Of course it is different when the thing happens to oneself, not to others, and in reality, not imagination.” — C.S. Lewis
“There are no happy endings, endings are the saddest part. So just give me a happy middle and a very happy start.” — Shel Silverstein
“Sometimes, only one person is missing, and the whole world seems depopulated.” — Alphonse de Lamartine
“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
“A great soul serves everyone all the time. A great soul never dies. It brings us together again and again.” — Maya Angelou
“To spare oneself from grief at all cost can be achieved only at the price of total detachment, which excludes the ability to experience happiness.” — Erich Fromm

Quotes on grief and loss

Bereavement is hard and if you’ve never experienced it before, it can be unexpectedly devastating and bewildering. For me it was as though I had stepped outside of my world, couldn’t gain perspective, or see the way back in. Theresa Jackson
We believe true sympathy hugs its arms around the griever, consistently letting them know that they remain in your thoughts long after the flowers have faded. Michelle Pommells
Unfortunately, grief does not have a set schedule. There are no deadlines for the resolution of loss. Instead, the grieving process consists of three broad and overlapping phases: Retreating, Working Through, and Resolving Carol Staudacher
Support helps people through the process of grief. Lois F. Akner
“When flowers wilt, when the sun sets, when a person’s life ends, even in our deep sadness we learn the wisdom to understand and accept life and learn the humility to forgive others and ourselves.” Haemin Sunim
Grief stays with people forever, but the sensation—the triggers—that come with a waft of perfume, a song on the radio or even a Mother’s Day flower can pull people back into the grief space until they resurface ready to face the world again. Leigh Van Der Horst
I believe no matter how much pain we’re in, there is something inside of us stronger than the pain.
While the journey will be different for each of us, it’s important to understand grief is a passage to be actively navigated. Grief is not a lifetime sentence; it’s a hard road to be traveled. It’s not something to suffer; it’s something to move through. Sarah M. Nannen
When we love deeply, we mourn deeply; extraordinary grief is an expression of extraordinary love. Grief and love mirror each other; one is not possible without the other. Joanne Cacciatore
Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy you must have somebody to divide it with. Mark Twain
God pursues you in the prison of your grief. He is tenaciously reaching out to you at this very moment. At every turn, in darkness and in light, while you’re occupied with other things or wrestling with your grief as you lie awake at night, God pursues you with His steadfast love and His strengthening faithfulness. Michael W Newman
“The pain passes, but the beauty remains.” — Henri Mattise
“And when your sorrow is comforted (time soothes all sorrows) you will be content that you have known me. You will always be my friend. You will want to laugh with me. And you will sometimes open your window, so, for that pleasure … And your friends will be properly astonished to see you laughing as you look up at the sky! Then you will say to them, ‘Yes, the stars always make me laugh!’ And they will think you are crazy. It will be a very shabby trick that I shall have played on you…” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
“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
“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
“There is a point at which even grief feels absurd. And at this point, laughter gushes up to retrieve sanity.” — Alice Walker
“Grief, no matter how you try to cater to its wail, has a way of fading away.” — V.C. Andrews
“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
“Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up the o-er wrought heart and bids it break.” — William Shakespeare
“I will not say: Do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien
“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
“People speak to me about my son — ‘I’m so sorry for you’ — but no one says, ‘I loved him so much.’ I was busy in grief, which I don’t expect to stop. Suddenly realizing that the last thing my son would want was for me to be very self-involved and narcissistic and self-stroking. It stopped me from writing. Which doesn’t mean you stop feeling the absence. It was being willing to think about it in a way that was not self-serving.” — Toni Morrison
“So it’s true, when all is said and done, grief is the price we pay for love.” — E.A. Bucchianeri
“Life seems sometimes like nothing more than a series of losses, from beginning to end. That’s the given. How you respond to those losses, what you make of what’s left, that’s the part you have to make up as you go.” — Katharine Weber

Quotes on grief and loss

While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till it is digested, and then amusem*nt will dissipate the remains of it. SAMUEL JOHNSON
Grief can destroy you or focus you. You can decide a relationship was all for nothing if it had to end in death, and you alone. DEAN KOONTZ
We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey. KENJI MIYAZAWA
Happiness is beneficial for the body, but it is grief that develops the powers of the mind. MARCEL PROUST
The darker the night, the brighter the stars,/ The deeper the grief, the closer is God! FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY
Loss is nothing else but change, and change is nature’s delight. MARCUS AURELIUS
To have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever. J.K. ROWLING
Some things in life cannot be fixed. They can only be carried. MEGAN DEVINE
Tears shed for another person are not a sign of weakness. They are a sign of a pure heart. JOSÉ N. HARRIS
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
The pain passes, but the beauty remains. PIERRE AUGUSTE RENOIR
My mom has experienced a lot of loss in her life and she told me at one point, there is an empowerment that comes with grief—at some point you find it. It’s very hard but you will find it, and I think at a certain point you can choose to sort of fall from this or you can choose to rise. And that’s what I’m just trying to do my best for him because I know that that’s what he would have. LEA MICHELE
And when great souls die, after a period peace blooms, slowly and always irregularly. Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration. Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to us. They existed. We can be. Be and be better. For they existed. MAYA ANGELOU

120 Quotes on Grief and Loss to Start Afresh - Quotes Muse (2024)

Quotes on grief and loss

Quotes on grief and loss

Quotes on grief and loss

Quotes on grief and loss

Quotes on grief and loss

Quotes on grief and loss

Quotes on grief and loss

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