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There is no right or wrong way to grieve. It is not uncommon to experience both emotional and physical reactions to the loss. Although grief can make you feel vulnerable, it’s essential to know that you are not alone, and it is normal to feel intense sadness after a death.
Author C.S. Lewis once wrote, “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. At other times it feels like being mildly drunk, or concussed. There is a sort of invisible blanket between the world and me. I find it hard to take in what anyone says. Or perhaps, hard to want to take it in. It is so uninteresting. Yet I want the others to be about me. I dread the moments when the house is empty. If only they would talk to one another and not to me.”
If you have experienced a loss, you may be able to relate. It’s all a normal part of grief. Grief is a natural response to any significant loss or change in life circumstances and can leave you feeling overwhelmed. Learning to identify symptoms of grief and how to cope with it effectively is an integral part of achieving well-being following a loss. Read on for quotes that can help you feel like you’re not alone if you’re grieving or figuring out what to say to a friend.
Inspirational Quotes About Grief
There are many resources for quotes about grief, and many people feel they offer a glimmer of hope and comfort. Some inspirational grief quotes that may be helpful include the following:
“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” -I Corinthians 13:7-8
“When the heart weeps for what it has lost, the soul laughs for what it has found.” - An old Sufi aphorism
“We are healed of a suffering only by experiencing it to the full.” -Marcel Proust
“What is there to do when people die, people so dear and rare, but bring them back by remembering.” -May Sarton
Grief Quotes: As Seen Through the Eyes of Others
Grief is a powerful force that can shake even the strongest person. The confusion, chaos, and inner turmoil that result can sweep you away from productivity and plans. Family and friends may find it hard to relate to the feelings you experience in a place of grief.
"The risk of love is loss, and the price of loss is grief--but the pain of grief is only a shadow when compared with the pain of never risking love." -Hilary Stanton Zunin
"I'll be OK… just not today.” - Anonymous
"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
"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, Evermore
"Grief I've learned is just love. It's all the love you want to give but cannot. All of that unspent love gathers up in the corners of your eyes, the lump in your throat, and in that hollow part of your chest. Grief is just love with no place to go." - Anonymous
"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
"There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the 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
"Guilt is perhaps the most painful companion to death." - Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
"Those who have suffered understand suffering and therefore extend their hand." - Patti Smith
"There are no happy endings.
Endings are the saddest part,
So just give me a happy middle
And a very happy start."
- Shel Silverstein, A Light in the Attic
"Sometimes, only one person is missing, and the whole world seems depopulated." - Alphonse de Lamartine, Méditations Poétiques
"The darker the night, the brighter the stars,
The deeper the grief, the closer is God!"
- Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
"It's the kind of heartache you can feel in your bones." - Anonymous
"Happiness is beneficial for the body, but it is grief that develops the powers of the mind." - Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time
"I think I'll miss you forever, like the stars miss the sun in the morning skies." - Anonymous
Grief Quotes from Famous People
Prominent authors, heads of state, famous personalities, and regular people are all susceptible to personal grief. The sentiments of love lost, mortality, and brokenness are motifs that grace the pages of storybooks and religious tomes alike.
"Grief is the price we pay for love." - Queen Elizabeth II
"To weep is to make less the depth of grief." - William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part II, Act II
"While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till it be digested, and then amusement will dissipate the remains of it." - Samuel Johnson
"Tears are the silent language of grief." - Voltaire
"How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard." - Winnie the Pooh
"Believe me, every heart has its secret sorrows, which the world knows not, and oftentimes we call a man cold, when he is only sad." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Hyperion
"There is no grief like the grief that does not speak." - Henry Wordsworth
"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
Advice from Grief Quotes
Sometimes our source of light comes from unexpected places in times of loneliness and darkness. If you are in a season of grief, witnessing the experiences of other people's journeys - even in written form - can be helpful. Although you must chart your own recovery course from grief, you can find solace in these inspiring quotes and words from great thinkers who have felt the way you feel now.
"Don't grieve. Anything you lose comes around in another form." - Rumi
"Grief is the last act of love we can give to those we loved. Where there is deep grief, there was great love." - Anonymous
"No matter how long it's been, there are times when it suddenly becomes harder to breathe." - Anonymous
"When someone you love dies, and you're not expecting it, you don't lose her all at once; you lose her in pieces over a long time--the way the mail stops coming, and her scent fades from the pillows and even from the clothes in her closet and drawers. Gradually, you accumulate the parts of her that are gone. Just when the day comes--when there's a particular missing part that overwhelms you with the feeling that she's gone, forever--there comes another day, and another specifically missing part." - John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany
"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
"We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey." - Kenji Miyazawa
"The pain passes, but the beauty remains." - Pierre Auguste Renoir
"It is perfectly okay to admit you're not okay." - Anonymous
"Grief never ends… But it changes.
It's a passage, not a place to stay.
Grief is not a sign of weakness, nor a lack of faith…
It is the price of love."
- Anonymous
"That's all it takes. The smallest reminder and in an instant, it feels like your stomach has fallen thirty stories and crashed into the steel roof of a truck. Loss is cruel like that, the days you think you're finally past it are the days it will punish you most." - Beau Taplin, The Punishment
"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." - Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and John Kessler
"A feeling of pleasure or solace can be so hard to find when you are in the depths of your grief. Sometimes it's the little things that help get you through the day. You may think your comforts sound ridiculous to others, but there is nothing ridiculous about finding one little thing to help you feel good in the midst of pain and sorrow!" - Elizabeth Berrien, Creative Grieving: A Hip Chick's Path from Loss to Hope
"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
Grief Quotes from the Bible
Religion may provide a valuable source of comfort and guidance when grieving. You can find great poetic literature in the Bible and other religious books.
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." - Jesus in Matthew 5:4
"Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope." - Romans 5:3-4
"What we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory He will reveal to us later." - Romans 8:18
"He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, there will no longer be any mourning, crying, or pain, for the old order of things have passed away." - Revelation 21:4
Seeking Help
Grief can be very overwhelming and haunt every waking hour and can progress into other mental health issues, like depression and PTSD. If you need help coping with your grief or are experiencing symptoms you want to address, talking to a licensed therapist can help.
Online therapy has many benefits for people who are grieving or who are coping with symptoms of depression or PTSD as a result of their grief. Greif can fluctuate, and it may be so overwhelming that you might not want to get out of bed. With online therapy, you can talk to a counselor from the comfort of your home, and some people report that talking to a therapist from behind a screen makes it easier for them to share.
Research shows that online therapy is effective, too. In fact, one review found that it may be even more effective than in-person counseling. If you’re having trouble managing the symptoms of your grief and it’s starting to affect your ability to function, contact a BetterHelp therapist to learn more about online counseling.
Counselor Reviews
"She has helped me work on my grief and self-esteem more than anything or anyone. Her words and advice help me every single day. I still have a long way to go but I already feel better and I couldn't have done it without Carissa."
"Sarah is a kind person that listens intently, focuses on issues, and then helps find successful strategies to deal with those issues. Never once did I feel that she was judging me or talking down to me. She was easy for me to open up too, she was professional, and she took me seriously. Together we discussed issues of loss and grief from the passing of my father, which had become more than I could handle alone. She not only validated my feelings of loss, but she also helped me find ways to mitigate those feelings, break them down into their roots and causes then address those. Coping with grief and loss is hard work, but Sarah helped me find the tools I needed within myself to do that hard work and ultimately find success. I am a stronger person now. I am happy and confident. I may not know what is around the next corner, but I know that whatever it is, I can handle it."
Takeaway
Everyone experiences grief differently, and reading quotes about grief can help you feel less alone. But sometimes, you might need more than an inspirational quote. If you’re having trouble managing your grief or if you think you’re experiecing signs of grief-related depression or PTSD, contact a BetterHelp counselor for support.