quotations about grief
The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves.
SOPHOCLES
Oedipus Rex
To weep is to make less the depth of grief.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
King Henry VI, Part III
They say time heals all wounds, but that presumes the source of the grief is finite.
CASSANDRA CLARE
Clockwork Prince
I will instruct my sorrows to be proud: For grief is proud, and makes his owner stoop.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
King John
People talk as if grief were just a feeling -- as if it weren't the continually renewed shock of setting out again and again on familiar roads and being brought up short by the grim frontier post that now blocks them.
C. S. LEWIS
letter to Sir Henry Willink, December 3, 1959
My grief was like a mountain that hid all of heaven from me.
MACRINA WIEDERKEHR
The Song of the Seed
The darker the night, the brighter the stars,
The deeper the grief, the closer is God.
FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY
Crime and Punishment
When you spun away in the whirlwind
my grief followed you
a whimpering spaniel
you were gone your absence
was absolute & my grief sat
on my kitchen table
a vase of bloody roses
my grief sprang from my breastbone
a young birch swaying & scabrous
my grief was a dull pot
at the back of the stove.
SANDRA M. GILBERT
"Grief: A History", Aftermath
But grief is also a tonic. It is a healing elixir, made of tears that lubricate the heart.
ELIZABETH LESSER
Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow
But what was there to say? Only that there were tears. Only that Quietness and Emptiness fitted together like stacked spoons. Only that there was a snuffling in the hollows at the base of a lovely throat. Only that a hard honey-colored shoulder had a semicircle of teethmarks on it. Only that they held each other close, long after it was over. Only that what they shared that night was not happiness, but hideous grief.
ARUNDHATI ROY
The God of Small Things
Grief is a healthy emotion, and it's healthy to embrace it. By accepting loss, we clarify our values and the meaning of our lives.
DEAN KOONTZ
Forever Odd
Grief is a most peculiar thing; we're so helpless in the face of it. It's like a window that will simply open of its own accord. The room grows cold, and we can do nothing but shiver. But it opens a little less each time, and a little less; and one day we wonder what has become of it.
ARTHUR GOLDEN
Memoirs of a Geisha
Grief is natural; the absence of all feeling is undesirable, but moderation in grief should be observed, as in the face of all good or evil.
PLUTARCH
"Consolatio Ad Uxorem"
Grief tears his heart, and drives him to and fro,
In all the raging impotence of woe.
HOMER
The Iliad
Small leisure have the poor for grief.
JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER
"The Witch's Daughter"
Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up the o-er wrought heart and bids it break.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Macbeth
Grief is real because loss is real. Each grief has its own imprint, as distinctive and as unique as the person we lost. The pain of loss is so intense, so heartbreaking, because in loving we deeply connect with another human being, and grief is the reflection of the connection that has been lost. We think we want to avoid the grief, but really it is the pain of the loss we want to avoid. Grief is the healing process that ultimately brings us comfort in our pain.
ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS
On Grief and Grieving
Time ebbs, but Grief abides--
Grim flotsam of Life's tides.
NELLIE SEELYA EVANS
"On the Shore"
Let grief distract the sufferer's breast,
And night obscure his way;
They hasten him to endless rest,
And everlasting day.
EMILY BRONTE
A Day Dream
The tears I feel today
I'll wait to shed tomorrow.
Though I'll not sleep this night
Nor find surcease from sorrow.
My eyes must keep their sight:
I dare not be tear-blinded.
I must be free to talk
Not choked with grief, clear-minded.
My mouth cannot betray
The anguish that I know.
Yes, I'll keep my tears til later:
But my grief will never go.
ANNE MCCAFFREY
Dragonsinger