Time heals old pain, while it creates new ones.
—Hebrew Proverb
The end of an ox is beef, and the end of a lie is grief.
—African Proverb
The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves.
—Sophocles (495–405 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
I loathe a friend whose gratitude grows old, a friend who takes his friend’s prosperity but will not voyage with him in his grief
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
We feel at first as if some opportunities of kindness and sympathy were lost, but learn afterward that any pure grief is ample recompense for all. That is, if we are faithful;—for a spent grief is but sympathy with the soul that disposes events, and is as natural as the resin of Arabian trees.—Only nature has a right to grieve perpetually, for she only is innocent. Soon the ice will melt, and the blackbirds sing along the river which he frequented, as pleasantly as ever. The same everlasting serenity will appear in this face of God, and we will not be sorrowful, if he is not.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief.
—Aeschylus (525–456 BCE) Greek Playwright
Grief hallows hearts even while it ages heads.
—Gamaliel Bailey (1807–59) American Journalist
Where grief is fresh, any attempt to divert it only irritates.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
There is no grief like the grief that does not speak.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
Consider how much more you often suffer from your anger and grief, than from those very things for which you are angry and grieved.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
What we call mourning for our dead is perhaps not so much grief at not being able to call them back; as it is grief at not being able to want to do so
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955) German Novelist, Short Story Writer, Social Critic, Philanthropist, Essayist
Some grief shows much of love; but much of grief shows still some want of wit.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Give sorrow words. The grief that does not speak whispers the o’er-fraught heart, and bids it break.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Tears are the silent language of grief.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
Our trials, our sorrows, and our grieves develop us…
—Orison Swett Marden (1850–1924) American New Thought Writer, Physician, Entrepreneur
I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge—that myth is more potent than history. I believe that dreams are more powerful than facts—That hope always triumphs over experience—That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death.
—Robert Fulghum (b.1937) American Unitarian Universalist Author, Essayist, Clergyman
If, as I can’t help suspecting, the dead also feel the pains of separation (and this may be one of their purgatorial sufferings), then for both lovers, and for all pairs of lovers without exception, bereavement is a universal and integral part of our experience of love.
—C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) Irish-born British Academic, Author, Literary Scholar
We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
Nothing becomes so offensive so quickly as grief. When fresh it finds someone to console it, but when it becomes chronic, it is ridiculed, and rightly.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Tell me, how can I live without my Husband any longer? This is my first awakening thought each morning, and as I watch the waves of the turbulent lake under our windows I sometimes feel I should like to go under them.
—Mary Todd Lincoln (1818–82) American First lady
Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead; excessive grief the enemy of the living.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
They tell me, Lucy, thou art dead, that all of thee we loved and cherished has with thy summer roses perished; and left, as its young beauty fled, an ashen memory in its stead.
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–92) American Quaker Poet, Abolitionist
I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief…. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
—Wendell Berry (b.1934) American Poet, Novelist, Environmentalist
If a man be gloomy let him keep to himself. Nor one has a right to go croaking about society, or, what is worse, looking as if he stifled grief.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Grief is a species of idleness.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
All things grow with time—except grief.
—Hebrew Proverb
No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.
—C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) Irish-born British Academic, Author, Literary Scholar
Grief is the price we pay for love
—Queen Elizabeth II (b.1926) Queen of United Kingdom
What’s gone and what’s past help should be past grief.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
He that conceals his grief finds no remedy for it
—Turkish Proverb