GRIEF QUOTES II

quotations about grief

It's better to keep grief inside. Grief inside works like bees or ants, building curious and perfect structures, complicating you. Grief outside means you want something from someone, and chances are good you won't get it.

HILARY THAYER HAMANN

Anthropology of an American Girl


Grief is like the wake behind a boat. It starts out as a huge wave that follows close behind you and is big enough to swamp and drown you if you suddenly stop moving forward. But if you do keep moving, the big wake will eventually dissipate. And after a long time, the waters of your life get calm again, and that is when the memories of those who have left begin to shine as bright and as enduring as the stars above.

JIMMY BUFFETT

A Salty Piece of Land


Oh, what grief not to have
grief, and to spend your life
on the colorless grass
of the undecided path!

FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA

"Crossroads"

Tags: Federico Garcia Lorca


Joys as winged dreams fly fast,
Why should sadness longer last?
Grief is but a wound to woe;
Gentlest fair, mourn, mourn no moe.

JOHN FLETCHER

The Queen of Corinth

Tags: John Fletcher


Receding from grief, it seems necessary to retrace the same steps that brought us there.

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

Tender Is the Night

Tags: F. Scott Fitzgerald


Grief never mended no broken bones.

CHARLES DICKENS

Sketches by Boz

Tags: Charles Dickens


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.

JODI PICOULT

My Sister's Keeper


Patch grief with proverbs; make misfortune drunk
With candle-wafters; bring him yet to me,
And I of him will gather patience.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Much Ado About Nothing

Tags: William Shakespeare


She was a genius of sadness, immersing herself in it, separating its numerous strands, appreciating its subtle nuances. She was a prism through which sadness could be divided into its infinite spectrum.

JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER

Everything Is Illuminated


Excess of grief for the deceased is madness; for it is an injury to the living, and the dead know it not.

XENOPHON

attributed, Day's Collacon

Tags: Xenophon


Grief teaches the steadiest minds to waver.

SOPHOCLES

Antigone

Tags: Sophocles


We were promised sufferings. They were part of the program. We were even told, 'Blessed are they that mourn,' and I accept it. I've got nothing that I hadn't bargained for. Of course it is different when the thing happens to oneself, not to others, and in reality, not imagination.

C. S. LEWIS

A Grief Observed

Tags: C. S. Lewis


Ye, O ye
Shall grieve, and ye shall grieve, and ye shall grieve.
Your Life shall bend and o'er his shuttle toil,
A weaver weaving at the loom of grief.

SIDNEY LANIER

"The Jacquerie: A Fragment"


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

J. R. R. TOLKIEN

The Return of the King

Tags: J. R. R. Tolkien


Grief and guilt. A powerful combination. Guilt like a liquid, a thin liquor, seeping everywhere, informing everything, saturating the whole--corrosive, like seawater, scented with the rich stench of ordure and corruption, and carrying with it hard, abrasive shards of grief.

SIMON MAWER

The Gospel of Judas

Tags: Simon Mawer


To me, and to the state of my great grief,
Let kings assemble; for my grief's so great
That no supporter but the huge firm earth
Can hold it up: here I and sorrow sit;
Here is my throne, bid kings come bow to it.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

King John

Tags: William Shakespeare


Whatever sorrow thy young heart have found,
Open it well, this ever-sacred wound
Dealt by dark angels--give thy soul relief.
Naught makes us nobler than a noble grief.

EMMA LAZARUS

"Muse"

Tags: Emma Lazarus


For wherein is life sweet to him who suffers grief?

AESCHYLUS

fragment, Hoplon Krisis

Tags: Aeschylus


Love is an engraved invitation to grief.

SUNSHINE O'DONNELL

Open Me


All the joys of earth will not assuage our thirst for happiness, while a single grief suffices to shroud life in a sombre veil, and smite it with nothingness at all points.

MADAME SWETCHINE

"Airelles,", The Writings of Madame Swetchine

Tags: Madame Swetchine