Quotes to Help with Grief

Over the years, like most people, I've lost quite a few people I've loved. When bereavement strikes it can be incredibly hard to cope with and grief is something we may have to deal with for many years.

I've found many passages from books and quotes from authors to be of comfort to me when I feel upset so I decide to gather my favourites together to share with you.

"For it might end, you know,' said Alice to herself, `in my going out altogether, like a candle. I wonder what I should be like then?' And she tried to fancy what the flame of a candle is like after the candle is blown out, for she could not remember ever having seen such a thing."

~Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland.

"We are such stuff as dreams are made on and our little life is rounded with sleep."

~William Shakespeare

"To die, to sleepTo sleep, perchance to dream."

~William Shakespeare, Hamlet.

"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.

"While we are mourning the loss of our friend, others are rejoicing to meet him behind the veil." ~John Taylor.

"Life is eternal, and love is immortal,and death is only a horizon;and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight."

~Rossiter Worthington Raymond.

"There are places in the heart that do not yet exist; suffering has to enter in for them to come to be.”

~Leon Bloy.

"If our friendship depends on things like space and time, then when we finally overcome space and time, we've destroyed our own brotherhood! But overcome space, and all we have left is Here. Overcome time, and all we have left is Now. And in the middle of Here and Now, don't you think that we might see each other once or twice?"

~Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

“Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.” 

~Dr. Seuss.

“I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death.” 

~Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“I will not say, do not weep, for not all tears are an evil.” 

~J.R.R. Tolkien

“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, Dear John

“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

“to love life, to love it even

when you have no stomach for it

and everything you've held dear

crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,

your throat filled with the silt of it.

When grief sits with you, its tropical heat

thickening the air, heavy as water

more fit for gills than lungs;

when grief weights you like your own flesh

only more of it, an obesity of grief,

you think, How can a body withstand this?

Then you hold life like a face

between your palms, a plain face,

no charming smile, no violet eyes,

and you say, yes, I will take you

I will love you, again.” 

~Ellen Bass

“To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.” 

~J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

“Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all those who live without love.” 

~ J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

“Things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end, if not always in the way we expect.” 

~J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Do you have any favourite quotes that help you deal with grief?