The busy have no time for tears.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
Sadness flies away on the wings of time.
—Jean de La Fontaine (1621–95) French Poet, Short Story Writer
For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: “It might have been!”
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–92) American Quaker Poet, Abolitionist
Only one-fourth of the sorrow in each man’s life is caused by outside uncontrollable elements, the rest is self-imposed by failing to analyze and act with calmness.
—Holbrook Jackson (1874–1948) British Journalist, Writer, Publisher
The world will never be long without some good reason to hate the unhappy; their real faults are immediately detected, and if those are not sufficient to sink them into infamy, an additional weight of calumny will be super added.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair.
—Chinese Proverb
Sorrow is better than laughter, for by the sadness of the face the heart is made better.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
Melancholy is sadness that has taken on lightness.
—Italo Calvino (1923–85) Italian Novelist, Essayist, Journalist
Sorrow has the fortunate peculiarity that it preys upon itself. It dies of starvation. Since it is essentially an interruption of habits, it can be replaced by new habits. Constituting, as it does, a void, it is soon filled up by a real “horror vacuum.”
—August Strindberg (1849–1912) Swedish Playwright, Novelist, Essayist
Cares are often more difficult to throw off than sorrows; the latter die with time, the former grow.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Humorist
Sadness is always the legacy of the past; regrets are pains of the memory.
—Unknown
Sadness and gladness succeed each other.
—Common Proverb
The essential sadness is to go through life without loving. But it would be almost equally sad to leave this world without ever telling those you loved that you love them.
—Indian Proverb
Sorrows are like thunderclouds – in the distance they look black, over our heads scarcely gray.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Humorist
There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year’s course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word ‘happy’ would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.
—Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) Swiss Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Philosopher
It is foolish to tear one’s hair in grief, as though sorrow would be made less by baldness.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad. Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times; but it is vague, like a breeze among flowers.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
How else but through a broken heart may Lord Christ enter in?
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Sadness is but a wall between two gardens.
—Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-born American Philosopher, Poet, Painter, Theologian, Sculptor
The deeper the sorrow the less the tongue has it.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Sorrow is like a precious treasure, shown only to friends.
—African Proverb
Sadness usually results from one of the following causes either when a man does not succeed, or is ashamed of his success
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Pain and fear and hunger are effects of causes which can be foreseen and known: but sorrow is a debt which someone else makes for us.
—Freya Stark (1893–1993) British Explorer, Writer
To fight aloud is very brave, but gallanter, I know, who charge within the bosom, the Cavalry of Woe.
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet
With no matter what human being, taken individually, I always find reasons for concluding that sorrow and misfortune do not suit him; either because he seems too mediocre for anything so great, or, on the contrary, too precious to be destroyed.
—Simone Weil (1909–1943) French Philosopher, Political Activist
The only one interested in hearing your sad story is . . . you; and even you wish you didn�t have to relive it again!
—Guy Finley
There is something pleasurable in calm remembrance of a past sorrow.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
One cannot be deeply responsive to the world without being saddened very often.
—Erich Fromm (1900–80) German-American Psychoanalyst, Social Philosopher
The only thing worried thoughts have the power to change is what the next thing will be for you to worry over!
—Guy Finley
Sorrow is one of the vibrations that prove the fact of living.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900–44) French Novelist, Aviator
We tell our triumphs to the crowds, but our own hearts are the sole confidants of our sorrows.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
Unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talents and our expectations.
—Edward de Bono (1933–2021) Maltese-British Psychologist, Writer
Oh the gladness of their gladness when they’re glad, And the sadness of their sadness when they’re sad; But the gladness of their gladness, and the sadness of their sadness, Are as nothing to their badness when they’re bad
—J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) Scottish Novelist, Dramatist
Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.
—Theodor Seuss Geisel (‘Dr. Seuss’) (1904–91) American Children’s Books Writer, Writer, Cartoonist, Animator
The past is as powerless to darken the present moment as is a shadow to reach up and drag down the form that casts it.
—Guy Finley
He whose days in wilful woe are worn, the grace of his Creator doth despise, that will not use his gifts for thankless niggardise.
—Edmund Spenser (1552–99) English Poet
Had we never lov’d sae kindly, Had we never lov’d sae blindly, Never met—or never parted—we had never been broken-hearted.
—Robert Burns (1759–96) Scottish Poet, Songwriter
Keep aloof from sadness, says an Icelandic writer, “for sadness is a sickness of the soul.” Life has, indeed, many ills, but the mind that views every object in its most cheering aspect, and every doubtful dispensation as replete with latent good, bears within itself a powerful and perpetual antidote. The gloomy soul aggravates misfortune, while a cheerful smile often dispels those mists that portend a storm.
—Lydia H. Sigourney (1791–1865) American Poetaster, Author
If you deliberately plan on being less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you’ll be unhappy for the rest of your life.
—Abraham Maslow (1908–70) American Psychologist, Academic, Humanist
Nothing is funnier than unhappiness, I grant you that. Yes, yes, it’s the most comical thing in the world.
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989) Irish Novelist, Playwright
There are seeds of self-destruction in all of us that will bear only unhappiness if allowed to grow.
—Dorothea Brande (1893–1948) American Writer, Editor
A sorrow’s crown of sorrow is remembering happier times.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92) British Poet
What is the source of sadness, but feebleness of the mind? What giveth it power but the want of reason? Rouse thyself to the combat, and she quitteth the field before thou strikest.
—Akhenaten (1378BCE–1348BCE) Egyptian Monarch, Religious Leader
The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure is occupaton.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Sweet bird, that shun the noise of folly, most musical, most melancholy!
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
We should feel sorrow, but not sink under its oppression.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
Sorrow is easy to express and so hard to tell.
—Joni Mitchell (b.1943) Canadian Singer, Songwriter
The natural effect of sorrow over the dead is to refine and elevate the mind.
—Washington Irving (1783–1859) American Essayist, Biographer, Historian
Sorrow is tranquility remembered in emotion.
—Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American Humorist, Journalist
The cure for sorrow is to learn something.
—Barbara Sher (1935–2020) American Career Coach