It isn’t enough for your heart to break because everybody’s heart is broken now.
—Allen Ginsberg (1926–97) American Poet, Activist
A sorrow’s crown of sorrow is remembering happier times.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92) British Poet
One cannot be deeply responsive to the world without being saddened very often.
—Erich Fromm (1900–80) German-American Psychoanalyst, Social Philosopher
Excessive sorrow laughs. Excessive joy weeps.
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker
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
Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.
—Theodor Seuss Geisel (‘Dr. Seuss’) (1904–91) American Children’s Writer, Cartoonist, Animator
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
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
Unhappiness lies in that gap between our talents and our expectations.
—Sebastian Horsley (1962–2010) English Painter, Author
Ah, this beautiful world! Indeed, I know not what to think of it. Sometimes it is all gladness and sunshine, and heaven itself lies not far off; and then it suddenly changes and is dark and sorrowful, and the clouds shut out the day. In the lives of the saddest of us there are bright days when we feel as if we could take the great world in our arms. Then come the gloomy hours, when all without and within is dismal, cold, and dark. Believe me, every heart has its secret sorrows, which the world knows not; and oftentimes we call a man cold when he is only sad.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
The word “happiness” would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.
—Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) Swiss Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Philosopher
Sorrows cannot all be explained away in a life truly lived, grief and loss accumulate like possessions.
—Stefan Kanfer (1933–2018) American Journalist, Critic, Author, Editor
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
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
Smile
Smile, even if it is a sad smile,
Because sadder than a sad smile
Is the sadness of not knowing how to smile.
—Unknown
The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year,
Of wailing winds and naked woods and meadows brown and sere.
Heaped in the hollows of the grove, the autumn leaves lie dead;
They rustle to the eddying gust, and to the rabbit.
—William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) American Romantic Poet, Journalist, Editor
We should feel sorrow, but not sink under its oppression.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
Since my earliest childhood a barb of sorrow has lodged in my heart. As long as it stays I am ironic—if it is pulled out I shall die.
—Soren Kierkegaard (1813–55) Danish Philosopher, Theologian
Sadness is always the legacy of the past; regrets are pains of the memory.
—Unknown
The only thing grief as taught me is to know how shallow it is.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Tears are words the heart can’t express.
—Unknown
Cares are often more difficult to throw off than sorrows; the latter die with time, the former grow.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Philosopher
It is very sad for a man to make himself servant to a single thing; his manhood all taken out of him by the hydraulic pressure of excessive business.
—Theodore Parker (1810–60) American Unitarian Minister, Abolitionist
Grief should be the instructor of the wise: sorrow is knowledge; they who know the most must mourn the deepest o’er the fatal truth,—the tree of knowledge is not that of life.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
Sorrow is tranquility remembered in emotion.
—Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American Humorist, Journalist
Melancholy, indeed, should be diverted by every means but drinking.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
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
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
Weep no more, nor sigh, nor groan,
Sorrow calls no time that ‘s gone;
Violets plucked, the sweetest rain
Makes not fresh nor grow again.
—John Fletcher (1579–1625) English Playwright
There is no worse sorrow than remembering happiness in the day of sorrow.
—Alfred de Musset (1810–57) French Dramatist, Poet, Novelist
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