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Poets and writers have always found words for what the rest of us struggle to say. Shakespeare urged us to “give sorrow words”; Gibran wrote that we weep for what has been our delight; Tagore saw death as the lamp put out because the dawn has come.
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These lines are often read at memorial services and written in condolence cards, because they hold sorrow and love together so gracefully.
Some much-shared quotes are misattributed online. Where the original source is uncertain, we say so.
If a line here moves you, consider reading the whole poem or book it comes from — many are freely available because they are now in the public domain.
Grief is the price we pay for love.
— Queen Elizabeth IIWhat we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.
— Helen KellerAlthough the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.
— Helen KellerKeep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.
— Helen KellerWhen 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 ProphetYour joy is your sorrow unmasked.
— Kahlil Gibran, The ProphetThe deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
— Kahlil Gibran, The ProphetAnd ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.
— Kahlil Gibran, The ProphetFor what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?
— Kahlil Gibran, The ProphetThere is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power.
— Washington IrvingNo one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.
— C. S. Lewis, A Grief ObservedGive sorrow words; the grief that does not speak whispers the o'er-fraught heart and bids it break.
— William Shakespeare, MacbethEveryone can master a grief but he that has it.
— William Shakespeare, Much Ado About NothingWhat's gone and what's past help should be past grief.
— William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
— Alfred, Lord TennysonThough much is taken, much abides.
— Alfred, Lord Tennyson, UlyssesTo strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
— Alfred, Lord Tennyson, UlyssesHope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul.
— Emily DickinsonUnable are the Loved to die, for Love is Immortality.
— Emily DickinsonThere is a land of the living and a land of the dead, and the bridge is love.
— Thornton Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis ReyDeath is nothing at all. I have only slipped away into the next room.
— Henry Scott HollandDo not stand at my grave and weep; I am not there. I do not sleep.
— Mary Elizabeth FryeHe that lacks time to mourn, lacks time to mend.
— Sir Henry TaylorInto each life some rain must fall.
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Rainy DayThere is no grief like the grief that does not speak.
— Henry Wadsworth LongfellowNo man is an island, entire of itself.
— John DonneIn three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.
— Robert FrostWe will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind.
— William WordsworthBetter by far you should forget and smile than that you should remember and be sad.
— Christina Rossetti, RememberTo live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.
— Thomas CampbellOur dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them.
— George Eliot, Adam BedeHave courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace.
— Attributed to Victor HugoDeath is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.
— Attributed to Rabindranath TagoreFaith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.
— Rabindranath TagoreLet life be beautiful like summer flowers and death like autumn leaves.
— Rabindranath Tagore, Stray BirdsClouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add colour to my sunset sky.
— Rabindranath Tagore, Stray BirdsDon't grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.
— Attributed to RumiThe wound is the place where the light enters you.
— Attributed to RumiKeep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you.
— Attributed to Walt WhitmanThink of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.
— Anne FrankOnly when it is dark enough can you see the stars.
— Martin Luther King Jr.You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.
— Eleanor RooseveltYou may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.
— Maya AngelouOnly people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow.
— Attributed to Leo TolstoyIn everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being.
— Albert SchweitzerNo feeling is final.
— After Rainer Maria RilkeAdopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.
— Ralph Waldo EmersonWith the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.
— Ralph Waldo EmersonWhat lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
— Henry S. HaskinsLive in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit.
— Henry David ThoreauA thing of beauty is a joy for ever.
— John KeatsGrief, I've learned, is really just love. It's all the love you want to give, but cannot.
— Jamie AndersonNo one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.
— Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend
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