Social sorrow loses half its pain.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Sorrow is to the soul what the worm is to wood
—Turkish Proverb
A sorrow’s crown of sorrow is remembering happier times.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92) British Poet
Sorrows are like thunderclouds – in the distance they look black, over our heads scarcely gray.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Humorist
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
I haven’t a clue about the biology or the psychology involved when a person dissolves into tears, but it is quite fascinating to note what turns them on. There are wives who can cascade over a late husband or a burned dinner, and equally pour tears of joy over a new bonnet or a renovated bathroom…. A while ago I took a ship back from Europe. Amid the tumbling confetti … I found myself misty-eyed watching a young lady waving a tearful farewell to her boyfriend on the dock. I couldn’t figure out if I was crying at her plight, or in delight that he wasn’t coming along with us.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
She would have made a splendid wife, for crying only made her eyes more bright and tender.
—O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) (1862–1910) American Writer of Short Stories
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
Sorrow is brief but joy is endless
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.
—Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-born American Philosopher, Poet, Painter, Theologian, Sculptor
A man who is master of himself can end a sorrow as easily as he can invent a pleasure. I don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Sorrow is mere rust of the soul; activity will cleanse and brighten it.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
He that hath so many and great causes of joy, and yet is in love with sorrow and peevishness, deserves to starve in the midst of plenty, and to want comfort, while he is encircled with blessings.
—Jeremy Taylor
One can never be the judge of another’s grief. That which is a sorrow to one, to another is joy. Let us not dispute with any one concerning the reality of his sufferings; it is with sorrows as with countries—each man has his own.
—Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand (1768–1848) French Writer, Academician, Statesman
The sorrows of a noble soul are as May frosts, which precede the milder seasons; but the sorrows of a hardened, lost soul, are as the autumn frosts, which foretell but the coming of winter.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Humorist
Some say that happiness is not good for mortals, and they ought to be answered that sorrow is not fit for immortals and is utterly useless to any one; a blight never does good to a tree, and if a blight kill not a tree but it still bear fruit, let none say that the fruit was in consequence of the blight.
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker
Life, with all its sorrows, cares, perplexities and heartbreaks, is more interesting than bovine placidity, hence more desirable. The more interesting it is, the happier it is.
—William Lyon Phelps (1865–1943) American Author, Critic, Scholar
I shall not let a sorrow die until I find the heart of it, nor let a wordless joy go by until it talks to me a bit.
—Sara Teasdale (1884–1933) American Poet
The natural effect of sorrow over the dead is to refine and elevate the mind.
—Washington Irving (1783–1859) American Essayist, Biographer, Historian
Excessive sorrow laughs. Excessive joy weeps.
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker
The excursion is the same when you go looking for your sorrow as when you go looking for your joy.
—Eudora Welty (1909–2001) American Short Story Writer, Novelist
We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
All sorrows are bearable, if there is bread.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
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
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
They who increase knowledge, increase sorrow
—Common Proverb
Joys impregnate. Sorrows bring forth.
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker
Nine times out of ten it is over the Bridge of Sighs that we pass the narrow gulf from youth to manhood. That interval is usually marked by an ill placed or disappointed affection. We recover and we find ourselves a new being. The intellect has become hardened by the fire through which it has passed. The mind profits by the wrecks of every passion, and we may measure our road to wisdom by the sorrows we have undergone.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
The sorrows and disasters of Europe always brought fortune to America.
—Stephen Leacock (1869–1944) Canadian Political Scientist, Humorist
Sorrow is a fruit. God does not make it grow on limbs too weak to bear it.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
What is the noble truth of suffering? Birth is suffering, ageing is suffering and sorrow and lamentation, pain, grief and despair are suffering.
—Buddhist Teaching
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
The sorrow which calls for help and comfort is not the greatest, nor does it come from the depths of the heart.
—Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835) German Philosopher, Linguist, Statesman
That loss is common would not make My own less bitter, rather more: Too common! Never morning wore To evening, but some heart did break.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92) British Poet
He that hath pity on another man’s sorrow shall be free from it himself; and he that delighteth in, and scorneth the misery of another shall one time or other fall into it himself.
—Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) English Courtier, Navigator, Poet
There is no greater sorrow than to be mindful of the happy time in misery.
—Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) Italian Poet, Philosopher
Sorrow is the source of literature, joy is the source of virtue.
—Austin O’Malley (1858–1932) American Aphorist, Ophthalmologist
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 worst sorrows in life are not in its losses and misfortunes, but its fears.
—A. C. Benson (1862–1925) English Essayist, Poet, Author
The pleasure that is in sorrow is sweeter than the pleasure of pleasure itself.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
The only thing grief as taught me is to know how shallow it is.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
We come to learn that it does not pay to grieve too much over our errors. Ordinarily we try to do the best we can.
—Thomas Masson (1866–1934) American Journalist, Humorist, Author
This world is so full of care and sorrow that it is a gracious debt we owe to one another to discover the bright crystals of delight hidden in somber circumstances and irksome tasks.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
Sorrow is a kind of rust of the soul which every new idea contributes in its passage to scour away. It is the putrefaction of stagnant life, and is remedied by exercise and motion.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Bear and endure: This sorrow will one day prove to be for your good.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (c.43 BCE–c.18 CE) Roman Poet
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
Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seamed with scars; martyrs have put on their coronation robes glittering with fire, and through their tears have the sorrowful first seen the gates of Heaven.
—Edwin Hubbell Chapin (1814–80) American Preacher, Poet
Sorrow comes to all…Perfect relief is not possible, except with time. You cannot now realize that you will ever feel better and yet you are sure to be happy again.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
There is a joy in sorrow which none but a mourner can know.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Humorist
Those who are held wise among men, and who search for the reason of things, are those who bring the most sorrow upon themselves.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist