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Tough Times: Quotes to Manage Grief

Reviewed by Aaron Horn, LMFT · October 28, 2020 ·

One of the most challenging things to go through is the loss of a loved one. Quotes can offer condensed, powerful pieces of knowledge. They are easy to remember, they flow, they provide comfort, understanding, and in some cases, even motivation or inspiration. Quotes about loss come in many different forms. Whether you're looking for inspiration, comfort for grief,or love or quotes to help explain what you're going through, there's something on this list for you. Here are some quotes about grief for the hard days.

Quotes To Help You Remember

Here are some grief and loss quotes that can provide comfort as you think about and remember your loved one.

"When someone you love becomes a memory, that memory becomes a treasure." - Author Unknown

"Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality." - Emily Dickinson

"There are no goodbyes for us. Wherever you are, you will always be in my heart." - Mahatma Gandhi

"He that lacks time to mourn, lacks time to mend." - Sir Henry Taylor

"Something still exists as long as there's someone around to remember it." - Jodi Picoult

"Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up the o’er wrought heart and bids it break." - William Shakespeare

"Never compare your grief. You, and only you, walk your path." - Nathalie Himmelrich

Popular Grief And Loss Quotes

Here are some popular grief and loss quotes. While you may have heard some of these before, the words ring true and serve as comfort for many.

"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

"Grief lasts longer than sympathy, which is one of the tragedies of the grieving." - Elizabeth McCracken

"No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear." - C.S. Lewis

"What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes part of us." - Helen Keller

"Memory is a way of holding on to the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose." - The Wonder Years

"There is no grief like the grief that does not speak." - Henry Wordsworth

"'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." - Alfred Lord Tennyson

Grieving Quotes To Help You Find The Words

It's hard to put grief into words, especially when you're in the thick of it. That's one of the ways that grief quotes help people. Here are some quotes to use to explain feelings of grief:

"There is a sacredness in tears. They are not a mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition and of unspeakable love." - Washington Irving

"No one feels another's grief, no one understands another's joy. People imagine that they can reach one another. In reality, they only pass each other by." - Franz Schubert

"Tears have always been easier to shed than explain." - Marty Rubin

"No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning. I keep on swallowing." - C.S. Lewis

"Grief wraps around people takes them to a place they would not go otherwise."- Patti Callahan Henry

"People keep asking me how I'm doing, and I'm not always sure how to answer that. It depends on the day. It depends on the minute. Right this moment, I'm okay. Yesterday, not so good. Tomorrow, we'll see." - Elizabeth Gilbert

"There are times when explanations, no matter how reasonable, just don't seem to help." - Fred Rogers

Grief Love Quotes

Grieving the loss of a significant other is difficult, and it comes with unique challenges. Here are some grief love quotes.

"Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world, which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime, and falling in at night. I miss you like hell." - Edna St. Vincent Millay

"Darkness may hide the trees and the flowers from the eyes but it cannot hide love from the soul." - Rumi

"This is not goodbye, my darling, this is a thank you. Thank you for coming into my life and giving me joy." - Nicholas Sparks

"It's an honor to be in grief. It's an honor to feel that much, to have loved that much."- Elizabeth Gilbert

"You will lose someone you can't live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn't seal back up. And you come through. It's like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly - that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp." - Anne Lamott

"Death ends a life, not a relationship." - Mitch Albom

"The sad part is that I will probably end up loving you without you for much longer than I loved you when I knew you. Some people might find that strange. But the truth of it is that the amount of love you feel for someone and the impact they have on you as a person, is in no way relative to the amount of time you have known them." - Ranata Suzuki

"You'll get over it…" It's the clichés that cause the trouble. To lose someone you love is to alter your life forever. You don't get over it because 'it" is the person you loved. The pain stops, there are new people, but the gap never closes. How could it? The particularness of someone who mattered enough to grieve over is not made anodyne by death. This hole in my heart is in the shape of you, and no-one else can fit it. Why would I want them to?" - Jeanette Winterson

"Grief is tremendous, but love is bigger. You are grieving because you loved truly." - Cheryl Strayed

"Grief is the price we pay for love." - Queen Elizabeth II

Inspirational Quotes For Grief

Here are some quotes to turn to for inspiration while grieving.

"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​

"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

"Courage is being afraid and going on the journey anyhow." - John Wayn

"Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of overcoming it." - Helen Keller

"You will survive and you will find purpose in the chaos. Moving on doesn't mean letting go." - Mary VanHaute

"Truly, it is in the darkness that one finds the light, so when we are in sorrow, then this light is nearest of all to us." - Meister Eckhart

"I know for certain that we never lose the people we love, even to death. They continue to participate in every act, thought, and decision we make. Their love leaves an indelible imprint in our memories." - Leo Buscaglia

"We run from grief because loss scares us, yet our hearts reach toward grief because the broken parts want to mend." - Brené Brown

"Grief is in two parts. The first is loss. The second is the remaking of life." - Anne Roiphe

"It is not length of life, but depth of life." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"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 the life you pictured, but here you are. You can still make something beautiful. Grieve. Breathe. Begin again." - Thema Bryant-Davis

"We can endure much more than we think we can; all human experience testifies to that. All we need to do is learn not to be afraid of pain. Grit your teeth and let it hurt. Don't deny it, don't be overwhelmed by it. It will not last forever. One day, the pain will be gone and you will still be there." - Harold Kushner

"Embrace your grief. For there, your soul will grow." - Carl Jung

Take The Complicated Grief Test

Complicated grief lasts longer and is more severe than the average presentations of grief. It's not uncommon however, with 7% of bereaved individuals experiencing complicated grief. If you're experiencing complicated grief, there's hope. If you align with the symptoms of complicated grief, you may consider seeing a medical or mental health professional. While the Mind Diagnostics complicated grief test isn't a replacement for a diagnosis of complicated grief, Prolonged Grief Disorder, or Persistent Complex Bereavement Disorder, it can give you insight into what you may be experiencing.

Click here to take the Mind Diagnostics complicated grief test.

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Find out if you have Complicated Grief

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Mental health conditions are real, common, and treatable. If you or someone you know thinks you are suffering from complicated grief then take this quick online test or click to learn more about the condition.

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