Treasured Memories: 50 Inspirational Quotes on Loss

"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

"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

"And once the storm is over you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won’t be the same person who walked in."

- Haruki Murakami

"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."

- Hillary Stanton Zunin

"So it’s true, when all is said and done, grief is the price we pay for love."

- E.A. Bucchianeri

"Our grief is as individual as our lives."

- Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

"We must know the pain of loss; because if we never knew it, we would have no compassion for others, and we would become monsters of self-regard, creatures of unalloyed self-interest. The terrible pain of loss teaches humility to our prideful kind, has the power to soften uncaring hearts, to make a better person of a good one."

- Dean Koontz 'The Darkest Evening Of The Year'

"In times of grief and sorrow I will hold you and rock you and take your grief and make it my own. When you cry I cry and when you hurt I hurt. And together we will try to hold back the floods of tears and despair and make it through the potholed street of life."

- Nicholas Sparks 'The Notebook'

"There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues."

- Washington Irving

"The melody that the loved one played upon the piano of your life will never be played quite that way again, but we must not close the keyboard and allow the instrument to gather dust. We must seek out other artists of the spirit, new friends who gradually will help us to find the road to life again, who will walk the road with us."

- Joshua Loth Liebman

"Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak whispers the o'er-fraught heart and bids it break."

- William Shakespeare

"Anyone who has lost something they thought was theirs forever finally comes to realize that nothing really belongs to them."

- Paulo Coelho

"Grief is not a disorder, a disease or a sign of weakness. It is an emotional, physical and spiritual necessity, the price you pay for love. The only cure for grief is to grieve."

- Earl Grollman

"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

"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."

- John Irving

"A great soul serves everyone all the time. A great soul never dies. It brings us together again and again."

- Maya Angelou

"Now there is no suffering. Now there is no more pain. Peace and comfort have taken their places. Peace and comfort will heal your heart."

- Renee Daniels

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart."

- Helen Keller

"Now there is no more pain. Your loved one is safe and well in a place where peace is endless."

- Kat Stano

"I'm gone now, but I'm still very near, death can never separate us. Each time you feel a gentle breeze, it's my hand caressing your face. Each time the wind blows, it carries my voice whispering your name. When the wind blows your hair ever so slightly, think of it as me pushing a few stray hairs back in place. When you feel a few raindrops fall on your face, it's me placing soft kisses. At night look up in the sky and see the stars shining so brightly. I'm one of those stars and I'm winking at you and smiling with delight. For never forget, you're the apple of my eye."

- Mary M Green

"Grief is the price we pay for love."

- Queen Elizabeth II

"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

"The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen."

- Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

"Dear Lord, please bless all those in pain. Comfort those who grieve. Show them how your tender care will never fail. And bless their hearts with peace."

- Linda Elrod

"In our longest, hardest hours, that’s when God’s love touches us most—when it holds us, comforts us, and prepares us to move through dark and into steadfast light."

- Courtney Taylor

"Without you in my arms, I feel an emptiness in my soul. I find myself searching the crowds for your face - I know it's an impossibility, but I cannot help myself."

- Nicholas Sparks 'Message In A Bottle'

"Grief is never something you get over. You don’t wake up one morning and say, “I’ve conquered that: now I’m moving on.” It’s something that walks beside you every day."

- Terri Erwin

"I don't know why they call it heartbreak. It feels like every part of my body is broken too."

- Chloe Woodward

"The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing … not healing, not curing… that is a friend who cares."

- Henri Nouwen

"Grief is not a disorder, a disease, or a sign of weakness. It is an emotional, spiritual and physical necessity, the price you pay for love."

- Earl Grollman

"I still miss those I loved who are no longer with me but I find I am grateful for having loved them. The gratitude has finally conquered the loss."

- Rita Mae Brown

"It’s possible to go on, no matter how impossible it seems, and that in time, the grief … lessens."

- Nicholas Sparks

"Take Christmas as a sign that when this sorrow has passed, faith will yet survive, joy will come alive, life and love will last."

- Bill Gray

"Grief changes shape, but it never ends."

- Keanu Reeves

"In times of such tragedy and sorrow, there are no words or answers. Just love. So much love."

- Suzanne Berry

"There’s no such thing as “moving on.” We go forward, trying to find our footing, figuring out how to live—how to love—after such loss."

- Amy Trowbridge-Yates

"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."

- John Irving

"Though sorrow comes to every heart that dares to let love in, it’s that same love that carries us until we meet again."

- Suzanne Berry

"No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear."

- C.S. Lewis

"The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain."

- Kahlil Gibran

"Without you in my arms, I feel an emptiness in my soul. I find myself searching the crowds for your face—I know it’s an impossibility, but I cannot help myself."

- Nicholas Sparks

"Do not apologize for crying. Without this emotion, we are only robots."

- Elizabeth Gilbert

"Moving on, as a concept, is for stupid people. Because any sensible person knows grief is a long-term project. I refuse to rush. Let no man slow, speed, or fix."

- Max Porter

"In its deepest sense, grief is a burning of the heart, an intense heat that gives us solace and release."

- bell hooks

"Grief is itself a medicine."

- William Cowper

"Grief knits two hearts in closer bonds than happiness ever can; and common sufferings are far stronger links than common joys."

- Alphonse de Lamartine

"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

"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

"Those we’ve lost are borne up on wings of love that carry them gently into the light."

- Ellen Brenneman

"Amid the season’s hustle and bustle, a warm, quiet place is reserved in our hearts for remembering the ones we’re missing."

- Suzanne Berry

"The love that surrounds us—the love that was here before us and will be here after us—will hold us up."

- Dan Taylor

"May you find that your loved one is still there in the glows and touches of the season. As the beauty of the holidays begins to surround you, I hope that even in the moments of grief, your heart shines with all the things that remind you of your loved one."

- Kat Stano

"Peace, after a long journey. Love, after a great loss."

- Kat Stano

"Sometimes, only one person is missing, and the whole world seems depopulated."

- Alphonse de Lamartine

"I have learned now that while those who speak about one’s miseries usually hurt, those who keep silence hurt more."

- C.S. Lewis

"Your grief path is yours alone, and no one else can walk it, and no one else can understand it."

- Terri Irwin

"We do not have to rely on memories to recapture the spirit of those we have loved and lost – they live within our souls in some perfect sanctuary which even death cannot destroy."

- Nan Witcomb

"Given a choice between grief and nothing, I'd choose grief."

- William Faulkner

"Only time and tears take away grief; that is what they are for."

- Terry Pratchett

"Let all the Christmas bells that ring give voice to our remembering: A loved one lived among us here and will be sadly missed this year."

- Jim Howard

"Grief can be a burden, but also an anchor. You get used to the weight, how it holds you in place."

- Sarah Dessen

"Life is full of grief, to exactly the degree we allow ourselves to love other people."

- Orson Scott Card

"The weird, weird thing about devastating loss is that life actually goes on. When you're faced with a tragedy, a loss so huge that you have no idea how you can live through it, somehow, the world keeps turning, the seconds keep ticking."

- James Patterson

"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

"You don't go around grieving all the time, but the grief is still there and always will be."

- Nigella Lawson

"The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living."

- Marcus Tullius Cicero

"Grief can't be shared. Everyone carries it alone; his own burden in his own way."

- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"If you've got to my age, you've probably had your heart broken many times. So it's not that difficult to unpack a bit of grief from some little corner of your heart and cry over it."

- Emma Thompson

"The melody that the loved one played upon the piano of your life will never be played quite that way again, but we must not close the keyboard and allow the instrument to gather dust."

- Joshua Loth Liebman

"We get no choice. If we love, we grieve."

- Thomas Lynch

"There are three needs of the griever: To find the words for the loss, to say the words aloud and to know that the words have been heard."

- Victoria Alexander

"What soap is for the body, tears are for the soul."

- Jewish proverb

"Dying is nothing to fear. It can be the most wonderful experience of your life. It all depends on how you've lived."

- Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened."

- Dr. Seuss

"It's so curious: one can resist tears and 'behave' very well in the hardest hours of grief. But then someone makes you a friendly sign behind a window, or one notices that a flower that was in bud only yesterday has suddenly blossomed, or a letter slips from a drawer... and everything collapses."

- Colette

"These days grief seems like walking on a frozen river; most of the time he feels safe enough, but there is always that danger he will plunge through."

- David Nicholls 'One Day'

"The grave itself is but a covered bridge, Leading from light to light, through a brief darkness!"

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 'The Golden Legend'

"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

"Honest listening is one of the best medicines we can offer the dying and the bereaved."

- Jean Cameron

"People touch our lives if only for a moment, And yet we're not the same from that moment on, The time is not important, The moment is forever."

- Fern Bork

"Life is not the way it is supposed to be. It is the way it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference."

- Virginia Satir

"Some people come in your life as blessings. Some come in your life as lessons."

- Mother Teresa

"Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touches some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you’re there."

- Ray Bradbury

"If there ever comes a day where we can’t be together, keep me in your heart. I’ll stay there forever."

- A.A. Milne

"Simply touching a difficult memory with some slight willingness to heal begins to soften the holding and tension around it."

- Stephen Levine

"Your memory feels like home to me. So whenever my mind wanders, it always finds its way back to you."

- Ranata Suzuki

"When I saw your strand of hair I knew that grief is love turned into an eternal missing."

- Rosamund Lupton

"Absence is a house so vast that inside you will pass through its walls and hang pictures on the air."

- Pablo Neruda

"Look closely and you will see almost everyone carrying bags of cement on their shoulders. That’s why it takes courage to get out of bed in the morning and climb into the day."

- Edward Hirsch

"Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable, can be more manageable."

- Fred Rogers

"We all want to do something to mitigate the pain of loss or to turn grief into something positive, to find a silver lining in the clouds. But I believe there is real value in just standing there, being still, being sad."

- John Green

"We think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again."

- Pema Chodron

"The angels are singing welcome, and the ancestors are shouting joy that a beautiful soul has come home to perfect peace and love."

- Melvina Young

"For every tearful good-bye in this world, there’s a welcome “hello” in a new one."

- Renee Daniels

"They are forever at peace in the presence of the Father and joined in joy with the ancestors."

- Melvina Young

"Beyond the sadness, hope waits with outstretched arms. Beyond the parting, heaven waits with open doors."

- Renee Daniels

"In the beauty of memories left behind, in the lives touched and changed, in the gifts of wisdom shared…those we love live on, always."

- Ellen Brenneman

"A long, hard path has turned toward gentle rest and sweet release."

- Ginnie Job

"We honor the struggle…and claim the peace that was found."

- Ginnie Job

"May the clear midnight skies and the quiet snowfall of the season give you peace—knowing that your loved one has found a place among nature’s eternal beauty."

- Suzanne Berry

"I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil."

- J.R.R. Tolkien

"When we lose someone in a way we can’t imagine, love pulls us closer together."

- Kat Stano

"What they never tell you about grief is that missing someone is the simple part."

- Gail Caldwell

"You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest that it leaves your arms too full to embrace the present."

- Jan Gildwell

"Cradled by the light of the moon, surrounded by the stars, our loved ones find their place among the heavens."

- Kat Stano

"Though they’re gone, they still live on in every happy holiday memory."

- Sara Quenzer

"So when you need her touch and loving gaze, gone but not forgotten is the perfect phrase. Smiling from a star that she makes glow, trust she’s always there watching as you grow. Find her in the place where the lost things go."

- Mary Poppins Returns

"One more day, one more time, one more sunset, maybe I’d be satisfied. But then again I know what it would do, leave me wishing still, for one more day with you."

- Diamond Rio

"What a blessing to call up beautiful memories whenever we need them. What a blessing to feel close to our loved ones each time we remember."

- Alarie Tennille

"I’ll be seeing you in all the old familiar places that this heart of mine embraces all day through."

- Billie Holiday

"It’s the ones who touch our lives in the biggest way who show us that it’s possible to laugh and cry at the same time."

- Keely Chace

"Like flowers pressed between the pages of a book, beautiful memories are ours to keep."

- Melvina Young

"It is always too soon to say good-bye. Even though there is relief at the end of great suffering, that does not dim the sorrow we feel."

- Jeannie Hund

"The song is ended, but the melody lingers on."

- Irving Berlin

"Grief is what I feel when someone passes away, Grief is what I feel when I am concerned, Grief is what I feel when I have done wrong, Grief is what I feel when some accident happens, Grief is something that all people have gone through."

- Brandi Reissig

"That song is sweetest, bravest, best, Which plucks the thistle-barb of care From a despondent brother's breast, And plants a sprig of heart's-ease there."

- Andrew Downing 'The Sweetest Song'

"Forgiveness is healing ... especially forgiving yourself."

- Alyson Noel 'Evermore'

"In my dream, I was drowning my sorrows But my sorrows they'd learned to swim."

- U2 'Until The End Of The World'

"A life with love will have some thorns, but a life without love will have no roses."

- Anonymous

"Say not in grief 'he is no more' but live in thankfulness that he was."

- Hebrew proverb

"There’s a new star shining down on us this Christmas."

- Caroline Cattrell

"If a sunset can shine with such glory, then what must heaven be?"

- Cheryl Hawkinson

"Perhaps they are not stars in the sky, but rather openings where our loved ones shine down to let us know they are happy."

- Eskimo legend

"The music still plays in our hearts even after the song has faded away."

- Kevin Dilmore

"We need never be afraid of our tears."

- Charles Dickens

"I will welcome happiness for it enlarges my heart; Yet I will endure sadness for it opens my soul. I will acknowledge rewards for they are my due; Yet I will welcome obstacles for they are my challenge."

- Og Mandino

"A long good-bye is, in many ways, the hardest good-bye of all."

- Linda Staten

"Those things that hurt instruct."

- Benjamin Franklin

"Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment."

- Buddhist quote

"Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die, so let us all be thankful."

- Buddhist quote

"Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well."

- Buddhist saying

"Of all Sad Words of Tongue or Pen, the Saddest are these, "It Might Have Been.""

- George Ade 'More Fables'

"Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change our world."

- Buddhist quote

"A ton of regret never makes an ounce of difference."

- Grenville Kleiser 'Dictionary Of Proverbs'

"Time heals old pain, while it creates new ones."

- Proverb

"May all beings everywhere, Seen and unseen, Dwelling far off or nearby, Being or waiting to become, May all be filled with lasting joy."

- Buddhist quote

"The bird is gone, and in what meadow does it now sing?"

- Philip K. Dick

"Sometimes all you can do is lie in bed and hope to fall asleep before you fall apart."

- William C. Hannan

"Guilt is perhaps the most painful companion to death."

- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

"Grief, I've learned, is just love. It's all the love you want to give but cannot."

- Anonymous

"Tears are the silent language of grief."

- Voltaire

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

"No farewell words were spoken, no time to say goodbye, you were gone before we knew it, and only God knows why."

"When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure."

"Although it's difficult today to see beyond the sorrow, may looking back in memory help comfort you tomorrow."

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference."

"We've shared our lives these many years. You've held my hand; you've held my heart. So many blessings, so few tears - yet for a moment, we must part."

"A beautiful colourful rainbow could not exist if it were not for the rain of a grey day - it was born from the very droplets of it."

"If tears could build a stairway, and memories a lane, I'd walk right up to heaven and bring you home again."

"The fact that something has happened to a million other people diminishes neither grief nor joy."

"No matter how long it's been, there are times when it suddenly becomes harder to breathe."

"Grief is the last act of love we can give to those we loved. Where there is deep grief, there was great love."