66 Comforting Grieving Quotes: Finding Strength During Loss

What is Grief?

Grief is the natural, human experience of coping with a loss. Death is a part of life. Losing a loved one can be a hard process to go through. Thus, it can be hard to know what to say to someone who is grieving. How do you comfort that person? What’s the best thing to say to them? This is a complex problem with no clearly defined answer. But, maybe some quotes about loss can help. Here are 70 grieving quotes that might help those who are suffering from a loss.

Quotes About Loss of a Loved One

There is a deep pain that comes with losing someone you love.

“When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure.” – Edward Machado

“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.” – Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

“What we have once enjoyed deeply we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.” – Helen Keller

“Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.” – Richard Puz

“For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity.” – William Penn

“Those we love never truly leave us. They live on in the kindness they showed, the comfort they shared, and the love they brought into our lives.” – Isabel Allende

“There are no goodbyes for us. Wherever you are, you will always be in my heart.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them.” – James O’Barr

“Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality.” – Emily Dickinson

“They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill what never dies.” – William Penn

Inspirational Quotes for Grief Healing

Here’s a list of quotes that will help inspire you to work through the healing process.

“Healing doesn’t mean the damage never existed. It means the damage no longer controls our lives.” – Akshay Dubey

“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

“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

“Grief can be the garden of compassion. If you keep your heart open through everything, your pain can become your greatest ally in your life’s search for love and wisdom.” – Rumi

“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” – Rumi

“No matter how bad your heart is broken, the world doesn’t stop for your grief.” – Faraaz Kazi

“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

“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” – Helen Keller

“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

Short Grief Quotes for Immediate Comfort

Short grief quotes are comforting because they can easily be remembered. Even grief memes have their respective value for this reason.

“Grief is the price we pay for love.” – Queen Elizabeth II

“To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.” – Thomas Campbell

“What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes part of us.” – Helen Keller

“The pain passes, but the beauty remains.” – Pierre Auguste Renoir

“Tears are words the heart can’t express.” – Washington Irving

“Love is stronger than death.” – Thomas Merton

“Grief is itself a medicine.” – William Cowper

“The greater the love, the greater the grief.” – Leonardo da Vinci

“We understand death for the first time when he puts his hand upon one whom we love.” – Madame de Staël

“Sorrow is a fruit. God does not allow it to grow on a branch that is too weak to bear it.” – Victor Hugo

Quotes About Grieving and Love

These quotes about grief and love remind us that the two are eternally connected.

“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

“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

“To have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever.” – J.K. Rowling

“I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.” – J.R.R. Tolkien

“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

“Though lovers be lost, love shall not; And death shall have no dominion.” – Dylan Thomas

“Only in the agony of parting do we look into the depths of love.” – George Eliot

“Love never dies, and spirit knows no loss. Nothing real can be threatened.” – Marianne Williamson

Spiritual Grief Quotes for Finding Peace

Spiritual grief quotes usually relate to finding peace after death, or reuniting with loved ones in heaven.

“God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December.” – J.M. Barrie

“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” – Revelation 21:4

“Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.” – Rabindranath Tagore

“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.” – Richard Bach

“Death is nothing else but going home to God, the bond of love will be unbroken for all eternity.” – Mother Teresa

“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 W. Raymond

“Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.” – Norman Cousins

“When you are born, you cry, and the world rejoices. When you die, you rejoice, and the world cries.” – Rabindranath Tagore

“The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our separate ways, I to die, and you to live. Which of these two is better only God knows.” – Socrates

“For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.” – Kahlil Gibran

Quotes for Supporting Someone Who is Grieving

Here are some comforting words for helping someone through grief.

“Listen for the answer to prayers shows up not with solutions, but with shoulders to cry on, and patient hands to hold, with the kindness of strangers and the wisdom of elders.” – Elizabeth Gilbert

“Never compare your grief to others. Everybody grieves in different ways, and everyone’s losses are just as unique and devastating as the person experiencing them.” – Elizabeth Gilbert

“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 curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.” – Henri Nouwen

“Silent company is often more healing than words of advice.” – Rachel Naomi Remen

“There is no right way to grieve; there is only your way to grieve and that is different for everyone.” – Nathalie Himmelrich

“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

“Sometimes, the best way to help someone is just to be near them.” – Veronica Roth

“When someone is going through a storm, your silent presence is more powerful than a million empty words.” – Thema Davis

“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

“Be patient with the one who grieves. They are living through a nightmare and they need to be allowed to talk about how they feel, even if it’s the same story over and over again.” – Topher Kearby

Quotes About the Grief Journey

These grief journey quotes tell us two things at least: healing is not a linear process, and grief has no time limit. It doesn’t get easier over time, but rather it changes shape.

“Grief changes shape, but it never ends. People have a misconception that you grieve and then you’re done. You never get over it. But you learn to dance with the grief.” – Toni Morrison

“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

“Grief changes us. The pain sculpts us into someone who understands more deeply, hurts more often, appreciates more quickly, cries more easily, hopes more desperately, loves more openly.” – Gwen Flowers

“Time doesn’t heal emotional pain, you need to learn how to let go.” – Roy T. Bennett

“The pain passes, but the beauty remains.” – Pierre Auguste Renoir

“Grief does not change you. It reveals you.” – John Green

“Healing is not linear. It’s more like a maze, with loops and detours and backtracking. The path forward isn’t always obvious, but we keep walking anyway.” – Geneen Roth

“For grief is like a long valley, a winding valley where any bend may reveal a totally new landscape.” – C.S. Lewis

FAQ About Grieving Quotes

What is the Best Quote for Grieving?

While grief is deeply personal, many find particular comfort in “Grief, I’ve learned, is really just love. It’s all the love you want to give, but cannot. All 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.” This quote by Jamie Anderson captures how grief reflects the depth of our love.

How can Quotes Help with Grief?

Grief quotes help us feel less alone in our pain by showing that others have walked similar paths. They can provide words when we struggle to articulate our feelings, offer perspective when we feel lost, and remind us that healing is possible even when it doesn’t feel that way.

What are some Short Quotes for Grief?

Some powerful yet brief quotes include: “Grief is the price we pay for love” (Queen Elizabeth II), “What we have once enjoyed, we can never lose” (Helen Keller), “Only people who avoid love can avoid grief” (C.S. Lewis), “The reality is that you will grieve forever” (Elisabeth Kübler-Ross), and “To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die” (Thomas Campbell).

Is it Normal to Find Comfort in Grief Quotes?

Absolutely. Finding resonance in others’ words about grief is a natural way to process complex emotions. When someone articulates what we’re feeling, it validates our experience and helps us feel less isolated in our pain. Many grief counsellors actually recommend reading grief quotes as a healthy coping strategy.

Conclusion

Hopefully some of these grieving quotes will uplift those going through the healing process.

Losing a loved one is no short battle. Memories will be poignant. A sudden death can hit hard in unexpected ways. Bereavement is a vivid experience full of raw, intense and upsetting emotions.

But, through remembrance, strength and proper self-care, it’s a noble battle worth fighting through.

Grief is the price we pay for having loved, or been loved, so much.

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