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Grief Quotes

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Grief Quotes

“The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous.”

Men Way Want Facts Grief Virtuous

Author:Niccolo Machiavelli

“Grief is like a moving river, so that's what I mean by it's always changing. It's a strange thing to say because I'm at heart an optimistic person, but I would say in some ways it just gets worse. It's just that the more time that passes, the more you miss someone.”

Way Heart Mean Persons Moving Grief Missing Strange Rivers Optimistic More Time Bereavement Missing Someone Strange Things Optimistic Person

Author:Michelle Williams

“I'm sorry," Laila says, marveling at how every Afghan story is marked by death and loss and unimaginable grief. And yet, she sees, people find a way to survive, to go on.”

People Way Stories Loss Grief Goes On Sorry I'm Sorry Unimaginable Afghan Death And Loss Marveling

Book:A Thousand Splendid Suns

Source: A Thousand Splendid Suns

“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.”

Source: A Prayer for Owen Meany: A Novel

“A shade of sorrow passed over Taliesin's face. 'There are those,' he said gently, 'who must first learn loss, despair, and grief. Of all paths to wisdom, this is the cruelest and longest. Are you one who must follow such a way? This even I cannot know. If you are, take heart nonetheless. Those who reach the end do more than gain wisdom. As rough wool becomes cloth, and crude clay a vessel, so do they change and fashion wisdom for others, and what they give back is greater than what they won.”

Ifs Knows Way Giving Firsts Heart Said Ends Faces Loss Grief Path Greater Fashion Sorrow Despair Gains Rough Shade Clay Giving Back Vessel Crude Wool

Book:The High King: The Chronicles of Prydain

Source: The High King: The Chronicles of Prydain

“To those who see the magical surface of things, you are invisible.' Good grief. Will you still be able to see me?' He met her eyes in a way that made her shiver pleasantly. 'I see you in a great many ways. It would be hard to blind me in all of them.”

Way Made Stills Hard Would Be Eye Able Grief Mets Blind Surface Invisible Her Eyes Shiver

Author:Emma Bull

“Every widow wakes one morning, perhaps after years of pure and unwavering grieving, to realize she slept a good night's sleep, and will be able to eat breakfast, and doesn't hear her husband's ghost all the time, but only some of the time. Her grief is replaced with a useful sadness. Every parent who loses a child finds a way to laugh again. The timbre begins to fade. The edge dulls. The hurt lessens. Every love is carved from loss. Mine was. Yours is. Your great-great-great-grandchildren's will be. But we learn to live in that love.”

“He didn't know of course. Not really. And yet that was what he said, and I was soothed to hear it. For I knew what he meant. We all have our sorrows, and although the exact delineaments, weight, and dimensions of grief are different for everyone, the color of grief is common to us all. "I know," he said, because he was human, and therefore, in a way, he did.”

Knows Way Humans Said Different Courses Common Grief Color Sorrow Weight Dimensions

Book:The Thirteenth Tale

Source: The Thirteenth Tale

“There should be a statute of limitation on grief. A rulebook that says it is all right to wake up crying, but only for a month. That after 42 days you will no longer turn with your heart racing, certain you have heard her call out your name. That there will be no fine imposed if you feel the need to clean out her desk; take down her artwork from the refrigerator; turn over a school portrait as you pass - if only because it cuts you fresh again to see it. That it's okay to measure the time she has been gone, the way we once measured her birthdays.”

“Don't cling to things, because everything is impermanent... But detachment doesn't mean you don't let the experience penetrate you. On the contrary, you let it penetrate you fully. That's how you are able to leave it...You're afraid of the pain, you're afraid of the grief... But by throwing yourself into these emotions, by allowing yourself to dive in, all the way, over your head even, you experience them fully and completely.You know what pain is. You know what love is. "All right. I have experienced that emotion. I recognize that emotion. Now I need to detach from that emotion for a moment.”

Knows Way Needs Mean Moments Able Pain Love Is Grief Emotion Contrary Allowing Throwing Penetrate Detachment

Author:Mitch Albom

“Somewhere out in the darkness, a phoenix was singing in a way Harry had never heard before: a stricken lament of terrible beauty. And Harry felt, as he had felt about phoenix song before, that the music was inside him, not without: It was his own grief turned magically to song.”

Way Song Felt Grief Darkness Heard Terrible Singing Phoenix Lament

Author:J. K. Rowling

“But you can’t get to any of these truths by sitting in a field smiling beatifically, avoiding your anger and damage and grief. Your anger and damage and grief are the way to the truth. We don’t have much truth to express unless we have gone into those rooms and closets and woods and abysses that we were told not go in to. When we have gone in and looked around for a long while, just breathing and finally taking it in – then we will be able to speak in our own voice and to stay in the present moment. And that moment is home.”

Way Long Moments Home Able Speak Voice Rooms Grief Gone Fields Sitting Woods Breathing Damage Present Moment That Moment Avoiding Closets Abyss

Author:Anne Lamott

“If you hold back on the emotions--if you don't allow yourself to go all the way through them--you can never get to being detached, you're too busy being afraid. You're afraid of the pain, you're afraid of the grief. You're afraid of the vulnerability that loving entails. But by throwing yourself into these emotions, by allowing yourself to dive in, all the way, over your heard even, you experience them fully and completely.”

Ifs Way Pain Grief Emotion Heard Busy Vulnerability Allowing Throwing Too Busy Detached Being Afraid

Author:Mitch Albom

“It's like when someone dies, the initial stages of grief seem to be the worst. But in some ways, it's sadder as time goes by and you consider how much they've missed in your life. In the world.”

World Way Seems Dies Grief Worst Stage Initials Borrowed Time Goes By Stages Of Grief When Someone Dies

Book:Borrowed & Blue: Something Borrowed, Something Blue

Source: Borrowed & Blue: Something Borrowed, Something Blue

“Karma is the beginning of knowledge. Next is patience. Patience is very important. The strong are the patient ones, Anjin-san. patience means holding back your inclination to the seven emotions: hate, adoration, joy, anxiety, anger, grief, fear. If you don't give way to the seven, you're patient, then you'll soon understand all manner of things and be in harmony with Eternity.”

Ifs Way Giving Mean Important Joy Hate Next Strong Grief Emotion Anxiety Eternity Harmony Seven Patient Karma Inclination Adoration Holding Back Shoguns

Book:SHOGUN

Source: SHOGUN

“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.”

People Way Life Inspirational Persons Happens Beautiful Happiness Suffering Found Understanding Loss Grief Compassion Known Beauty Struggle Meditation Self Love Empathy Concern Overcoming Adversity Depth Defeat Appreciation This Life Grieving Most Powerful Grief And Loss Sensitivity Gentleness Inner Beauty Break Up Good Person True Beauty Our Words Beauty Of Life Beautiful People Grief And Healing Being Beautiful Beautiful You Griefing Always Be Happy You Are Beautiful Day To Day Life Losing A Loved One Loss Of A Loved One Grief Loss Cancer Patients Your Beautiful Happenstance Grief And Death Those Grieving Grieving A Death Grief Comfort Cancer Courage Grief Healing Help With Grief Life Appreciation Inspirational Beauty People With Depression Grief And Hope Grieving And Healing Comfort The Grieving Depression Inspirational Grieving Loss Appreciation In Relationships People With Cancer Amazing Beautiful Healing From Loss Recovering From Grief Grieving A Loss Grieving And Loss Deep Grief I Am Beautiful

Author:Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

“It was like that. Sometimes I'd go for a period—days or weeks—without feeling the full sweep of my loss, and then as unexpected as a thunderclap, the realization would rip the protective coating from my senses. Maybe that's the way it is with trick knees and aging griefs. Totally pain free one moment and absorbingly painful the next.”

Way Sometimes Moments Feelings Pain Next Loss Grief Week Periods Aging Painful Senses Tricks Realization Knees Unexpected Rip Protective

Book:Morning is a long time coming

Source: Morning is a long time coming

“...you have to learn where your pain is. You have to burrow down and find the wound, and if the burden of it is too terrible to shoulder, you have to shout it out; you have to shout for help... And then finally, the way through grief is grieving.”

Ifs Way Helping Pain Grief Terrible Down And Burden Wounds Shoulders Grieving Bereavement

Book:The Book of Ruth

Source: The Book of Ruth

“Zach walked away, but I stood there for a long time, wondering if I should go to my mother; if I should go to my friends; but instead I slipped into the corridors I hadn't used in months, pushed my way through cobwebs and darkness, trying to walk away from the tears that burned hot down my cheeks, because maybe I didn't want to admit weakness; maybe I wanted to wallow in my solitude and grief. Or maybe crying is like everything else we do—it's best if you don't get caught.”

Ifs Way Want Should Trying Long Wanted Used Mother Walks Grief Wonder Darkness Cry Tears Months Solitude Long Time Weakness My Friends Hot Caught My Way Cheeks Burned Corridors Cobwebs

Author:Ally Carter

“And then she moved from shock to grief the way she might enter another room.”

Way Might Rooms Grief Moved Shock

Book:The Pilot's Wife

Source: The Pilot's Wife

“Maybe that's what you got when you stood over your grief, facing it finally. A sense of its depths, its area, the distance across, and the way over or around it, whichever you chose in the end.”

Way Ends Grief Areas Distance Depth

Book:The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

“Everyone grieves in different ways. For some, it could take longer or shorter. I do know it never disappears. An ember still smolders inside me. Most days, I don’t notice it, but, out of the blue, it’ll flare to life.”

Knows Way Stills Different Grief Sorrow Blue Disappear Different Ways Grieving Bereavement Flare Embers

Book:Storm Glass

Source: Storm Glass

“You can't have real pain without real love. You can't feel grief and loss and hurt without real love. Love is the only way you can ever be really hurt deep down.”

Way Feels Real Pain Hurt Loss Love Is Grief Love You Grief And Loss Real Love Deep Down Real Pain

Book:August Magic

Source: August Magic

“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”

“You cannot die of grief, though it feels as if you can. A heart does not actually break, though sometimes your chest aches as if it is breaking. Grief dims with time. It is the way of things. There comes a day when you smile again, and you feel like a traitor. How dare I feel happy. How dare I be glad in a world where my father is no more. And then you cry fresh tears, because you do not miss him as much as you once did, and giving up your grief is another kind of death.”

Ifs World Way Giving Feels Heart Kind Doe Sometimes Dies Father Grief Break Missing Cry Tears Giving Up Dare Glad Chests Can Not Ache Traitor

Author:Laurell K. Hamilton

“She couldn’t read his expression. As he started toward her, she recalled the way he’d seemed to glide through the sand the first time she’d ever seen him; she remembered their kiss on the boat dock the night of his sister’s wedding. And she heard again the words she’d said to him on the day they’d said good-bye. She was besieged by a storm of conflicting emotions—desire, regret, longing, fear, grief, love. There was so much to say, yet what could they really begin to say in this awkward setting and with so much time already passed?”

Way Firsts Said Desire Night Grief Emotion Heard Expression Regret Kissing First Time Longing Storm Setting Boat Settings Remembered Sand Awkward Bye Good Bye Docks Conflicting Emotions

Author:Nicholas Sparks

“I've learned a thing or two from Barrons: Power is sexy. It shapes my spine, infuses my beckoning hand. I have not been devastated by Barrons' death. The alchemy of grief has forged a new metal. I have been transformed. There's only one way I can make his death okay. Undo it.”

Way Has Beens I Can Two Hands Grief Shapes Okay Sexy One Way I've Learned Metals Transformed Alchemy Spine Devastated Forged Beckoning

Book:Shadowfever: Fever Series

Source: Shadowfever: Fever Series

“Happy Fuller: Somehow you always love in a special way the one who gives you the most grief.”

Way Giving Grief Special

Author:Nora Roberts

“Come, my child," I said, trying to lead her away. "Wish good-bye to the poor hare, and come and look for blackberries." "Good-bye, poor hare!" Sylvie obediently repeated, looking over her shoulder at it as we turned away. And then, all in a moment, her self-command gave way. Pulling her hand out of mine, she ran back to where the dead hare was lying, and flung herself down at its side in such an agony of grief as I could hardly have believed possible in so young a child. "Oh, my darling, my darling!" she moaned, over and over again. "And God meant your life to be so beautiful!”

Source: Sylvie and Bruno

“The upside to grief is it takes away your appetite. When people say you look good they really mean it. Nature's thoughtful that way.”

People Way Looks Mean Grief Thoughtful Appetite Really Mean

Author:Barbara Park

“He'd lived long enough to know that everyone handled grief in different ways, and little by little, they all seemed to accept their new lives.”

Knows Way Littles Long Different Enough Grief Accepting Different Ways New Life

Author:Nicholas Sparks

“I am sorry," I whispered. "I am sorry for all of the ways that I failed you. I am sorry that I was not there to save you, or to die alongside you. I am sorry that I have kept you with me for so long, trapped in my heart, bound in sorrow and remorse. I forgive you too. I forgive you for leaving me, and I forgive you for returning. I forgive you your anger, and your grief. Let this be an end to it.”

Way Heart Long Ends Dies Grief My Heart Sorrow Forgiving Sorry Bounds Leaving Trapped Remorse Leaving Me I Am Sorry Am Sorry I Forgive You

Book:The John Connolly Collection #2: The White Road, The Black Angel, and The Unquiet

Source: The John Connolly Collection #2: The White Road, The Black Angel, and The Unquiet

“I knew it wasn't fair, I knew it was wrong, but I couldn't help it. And after a while, the anger I felt just sort of became part of me, like it was the only way I knew how to handle the grief. I didn't like who I'd become, but I was stuck in this horrible cycle of questions and blame.”

Way Helping Felt Grief Fairs Blame Stuck Handle Horrible Cycles

Author:Nicholas Sparks

“The way I pictured it, all this grief would be like a winter night when you're standing outside. You'll warm up once you get used to the cold. Except after you've been out there for awhile, you feel the warmth draining out of you and you realize the opposite is happening; you're getting colder and colder, as the body heat you brought outside with you seeps out of your skin. Instead of getting used to it, you get weaker the longer you endure it.”

Way Feels Body Would Be Used Night Realizing Grief Cold Happenings Standing Skins Opposites Endure Winter Warm Heat Warmth Draining Winter Night Body Heat

Author:Rob Sheffield

“That's one of the things Yardem used to tell me that actually made sense. He said that you don't go through grief like it was a chore to be done. You can't push and get finished quicker. The best you can do is change the way you always do, and the time comes when you aren't the same person who was in pain.”

Way Persons Made Said Done Pain Used Can Do Grief Finished Chores

Author:Daniel Abraham

“Grief is like sinking, like being buried. I am in water the tawny color of kicked-up dirt. Every breath is full of choking. There is nothing to hold on to, no sides, no way to claw myself up. There is nothing to do but let go. Let go. Feel the weight all around you, feel the squeezing of your lungs, the slow, low pressure. Let yourself go deeper. There is nothing but bottom. There is nothing but the taste of metal, and the echoes of old things, and days that look like darkness.”

Way Feels Looks Sides Water Grief Darkness Color Taste Letting Go Lows Weight Pressure Breaths Bottom Deeper Buried Metals Echoes Dirt Lungs Choke Sinking Claws Old Things Squeezing

Author:Lauren Oliver

“Time doesn’t, as advertised, heal all wounds. Although the wrenching immediacy of grief eventually passed, the settled sorrow that replaced it might in its own way be even more intense.”

Way Might Grief Sorrow Wounds Heal Intense Replaced Immediacy

Author:Dean Koontz

“Patience means restraining yourself. There are seven emotions, Joy, anger, anxiety, adoration, grief, fear, and hate. If a man doesn't give way to these, he's patient. I'm not as strong as I might be but I'm patient.”

Ifs Men Way Giving Mean Might Joy Hate Strong Grief Emotion Anxiety Seven Patient Adoration Restraining

Book:SHOGUN

Source: SHOGUN

“You can only afford to be generous if you actually have some money in the bank to give. In the same way, if your only source of love and meaning is your spouse, then anytime he or she fails you, it will not just cause grief but a psychological cataclysm. If, however, you know something of the work of the Spirit in your life, you have enough love "in the bank" to be generous to your spouse even when you are not getting much affection or kindness at the moment.”

Ifs Knows Way Giving Enough Moments Spirit Causes Grief Marriage Kindness Failing Source Holy Affection Psychological Generous Holy Spirit Spouse Enough Love

Author:Timothy Keller

“And overpowered by memory Both men gave way to grief. Priam wept freely For man - killing Hector, throbbing, crouching Before Achilles' feet as Achilles wept himself, Now for his father, now for Patroclus once again And their sobbing rose and fell throughout the house.”

Men Way Father House Memories Grief Feet Rose Killing Achilles Sobbing Iliad Patroclus Hector Priam

Author:Homer

“As for me: I loyally remained right where I was, remembering the very first I had ever seen the boy and then just now, the very last time-and all the times in between. The deep aching grief I knew I would feel would come soon enough, but at that moment mostly what I felt was peace, secure in the knowledge that by living my life the way I had, everything had come down to this moment. I had fulfilled my purpose.”

Way Feels Firsts Enough Moments Lasts Remember Purpose Felt Grief Boys Secure That Moment Fulfilled Last Time Living My Life Soon Enough

Author:W. Bruce Cameron

“You will find the way, daughter of the forest. Through grief and pain, through many trials, through betrayal and loss, your feet will walk a straight path.”

Way Pain Loss Walks Grief Path Feet Daughter Betrayal Trials Forests Straight Path

Book:Daughter of the Forest: Book One of the Sevenwaters Trilogy

Source: Daughter of the Forest: Book One of the Sevenwaters Trilogy

“Grief makes you feel alone, but you're not. I know you don't believe in-in religion-the same way I do, but you can believe you're surrounded by people who love you, can't you?”

People Knows Way Feels Believe Grief Love You Don't Believe

Book:Cassandra Clare: The Mortal Instruments Series (5 books): City of Bones; City of Ashes; City of Glass; City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls

Source: Cassandra Clare: The Mortal Instruments Series (5 books): City of Bones; City of Ashes; City of Glass; City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls

“It's different when the person you love dies. There's an awful finality to death. But it is final. The end. And there's the funeral, family gatherings, grieving, all of those necessary rituals. And they help, believe me. When the object of your love just disappears, there's no way to deal with the grief and pain.”

Source: Of love and life: three novels selected and condensed by Reader's Digest

“Behind all art is an element of desire...Love of life, of existence, love of another human being, love of human beings is in some way behind all art — even the most angry, even the darkest, even the most grief-stricken, and even the most embittered art has that element somewhere behind it. Because how could you be so despairing, so embittered, if you had not had something you loved that you lost?”

Ifs Way Humans Art Desire Lost Human Beings Grief Behinds Existence Elements Art Is Angry Love Life Desire Love

Author:Adrienne Rich

“When remedies are past, the griefs are ended By seeing the worst, which late on hopes depended. To mourn a mischief that is past and gone Is the next way to draw new mischief on. What cannot be preserved when fortune takes, Patience her injury a mockery makes. The robb'd that smiles steals something for the thief; He robs himself that spends a bootless grief.”

Way Past Next Grief Gone Seeing Worst Late Draws Fortune Stealing Injury Thieves Remedy Mourn Mischief Mockery

Author:William Shakespeare

“And I know you've spent a lifetime trying to protect me from the staggering pain of grief that comes from losing the things and the people and the places you allowed yourself to care about--but guess what, Jennika--that's no way to live. As much as it hurts to lose something you love, there's much greater joy in getting to experience it for as long as it lasts.”

People Knows Way Trying Long Care Pain Lasts Joy Loses Hurt Grief Greater Protect Losing Lifetime It Hurts Way To Live Staggering Something You Love

Book:Fated

Source: Fated

“When a daughter loses a mother, the intervals between grief responses lengthen over time, but her longing never disappears. It always hovers at the edge of her awareness, prepared to surface at any time, in any place, in the least expected ways.”

Way Mother Loses Grief Awareness Daughter Longing Prepared Response Edges Surface Disappear Expected Intervals

Book:Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss, 20th Anniversary Edition

Source: Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss, 20th Anniversary Edition

“I was angry with him before. I’m not really sure why. Maybe I was just angry that the world had become such a complicated place, that I have never known even a fraction of the truth about it. Or that I allowed myself to grieve for someone who was never really gone, the same way I grieved for my mother all the years I thought she was dead. Tricking someone into grief is one of the cruelest tricks a person can play, and it’s been played on me twice.”

World Way Years Persons Play Mother Grief Known Gone Angry Complicated Tricks Grieving Fractions

Author:Veronica Roth

“There's no way around grief and loss: you can dodge all you want, but sooner or later you just have to go into it, through it, and, hopefully, come out the other side. The world you find there will never be the same as the world you left.”

World Way Want Death Left Sides Loss Grief Hopefully Grief And Loss Sooner Or Later Dodge

Author:Johnny Cash