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Grief quotes

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“Reserved people often really need the frank discussion of their sentiments and griefs more than the expansive.” Charlotte Brontë, “Jane Eyre” - 16 October 1847

“Grief makes one hour ten.” William Shakespeare, “Richard II” - 1595

“Secret griefs are more cruel than public calamities.” Voltaire, “Candide” - 1759

“Well, every one can master a grief but he that has it.” William Shakespeare, “Much Ado About Nothing” - 1600

“To weep is to make less the depth of grief.” William Shakespeare, “Henry VI, Part 3” - 1595

“Grief does not change you, Hazel. It reveals you.” John Green, “The Fault in Our Stars” - 2012

“Grief can take care of itself; but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with.” Mark Twain, “Following the Equator” - 1897

“His grief he will not forget; but it will not darken his heart, it will teach him wisdom.” J. R. R. Tolkien, “The Return of the King” - 1955

“It’s the great mystery of human life that old grief passes gradually into quiet, tender joy.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “The Brothers Karamazov” - 1880

“Is there no pity sitting in the clouds that sees into the bottom of my grief?” William Shakespeare, “Romeo and Juliet” - 1597

“This feather stirs; she lives! If it be so, it is a chance which does redeem all sorrows that ever I have felt.” William Shakespeare, “King Lear” - 1623

“When we our betters see bearing our woes, we scarcely think our miseries our foes.” William Shakespeare, “King Lear” - 1623

“I am sure care's an enemy to life.” William Shakespeare, “Twelfth Night” - 1623

“The tears live in an onion that should water this sorrow.” William Shakespeare, “Antony and Cleopatra” - 1623

“What's gone and what's past help should be past grief.” William Shakespeare, “The Winter's Tale” - 1623

“Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!” Edgar Allan Poe, “The Raven” - 1845

“Grief fills the room up of my absent child, lies in his bed, walks up and down with me, puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words, remembers me of all his gracious parts, stuffs out his vacant garments with his form; then have I reason to be...” William Shakespeare, “King John” - 1623

“Joy and grief were mingled in the cup; but there were no bitter tears: for even grief itself arose so softened, and clothed in such sweet and tender recollections, that it became a solemn pleasure, and lost all character of pain.” Charles Dickens, “Oliver Twist” - 1838

“Even extreme grief may ultimately vent itself in violence—but more generally takes the form of apathy...” Joseph Conrad, “Heart of Darkness” - 1899

“Meanwhile the trees were just as green as before; the birds sang and the sun shone as clearly now as ever. The familiar surroundings had not darkened because of her grief, nor sickened because of her pain.” Thomas Hardy, “Tess of the d'Urbervilles” - 1891

“I know not, but strained silence, so I deem, Is no less ominous than excessive grief.” Sophocles, “Antigone” - c. 441 BC

“When life offers you a dream so far beyond any of your expectations, it's not reasonable to grieve when it comes to an end.” Stephenie Meyer, “Twilight” - 2005

“It is well for the unfortunate to be resigned, but for the guilty there is no peace. The agonies of remorse poison the luxury there is otherwise sometimes found in indulging the excess of grief.” Mary Shelley, “Frankenstein” - 1818

“He saw her now only as a spy. Their love and his grief were relegated to the boxroom of his mind. Later, perhaps they would be dragged out, dispassionately examined, and then bitterly thrust back with other sentimental baggage he would rather forget.” Ian Fleming, “Casino Royale” - 1953

“The only person I really wanted to talk to about Augustus Waters’s death was Augustus Waters.” John Green, “The Fault in Our Stars” - 2012

“It felt like losing your co-rememberer meant losing the memory itself, as if the things we’d done were less real and important than they had been hours before.” John Green, “The Fault in Our Stars” - 2012

“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.” J. R. R. Tolkien, “The Fellowship of the Ring” - 1954

“You care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it.” J. K. Rowling, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” - 2003

“It is far better to endure patiently a smart which nobody feels but yourself, than to commit a hasty action whose evil consequences will extend to all connected with you; and besides, the Bible bids us return good for evil.” Charlotte Brontë, “Jane Eyre” - 16 October 1847

“She could no longer borrow from the future to help her through the present grief.” Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Scarlet Letter” - 1850

“She wanted—what some people want throughout life—a grief that should deeply touch her, and thus humanize and make her capable of sympathy.” Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Scarlet Letter” - 1850

“Against my better judgment, I feel certain that somewhere very near here—the first house down the road, maybe—there's a good poet dying, but also somewhere very near here somebody's having a hilarious pint of pus taken from her lovely young...” J. D. Salinger, “Franny and Zooey” - 1961

Related topics

pain death joy love life sorrow crying violence wisdom darkness past future dream care pity suffering guilt drinking secret self-awareness

Related authors

William Shakespeare (10)
John Green (3)
Charlotte Brontë (2)
Nathaniel Hawthorne (2)
J. R. R. Tolkien (2)
Edgar Allan Poe (1)
Mark Twain (1)
J. K. Rowling (1)
Charles Dickens (1)
Thomas Hardy (1)
Joseph Conrad (1)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1)
Sophocles (1)
Voltaire (1)
J. D. Salinger (1)
Stephenie Meyer (1)
Mary Shelley (1)
Ian Fleming (1)

Related sources

The Fault in Our Stars (3)
King Lear (2)
Jane Eyre (2)
The Scarlet Letter (2)
Romeo and Juliet (1)
Twelfth Night (1)
Much Ado About Nothing (1)
Antony and Cleopatra (1)
Richard II (1)
The Winter's Tale (1)
The Raven (1)
Henry VI, Part 3 (1)
King John (1)
Oliver Twist (1)
Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1)
Heart of Darkness (1)
The Brothers Karamazov (1)
Antigone (1)
Candide (1)
Twilight (1)