Have you ever experienced grief so immense you thought you were suffocating? I have, and to be honest — it was even worse than it sounds. Over the years, though, I’ve found that reading helps me calm down, so here are some sorrow quotes that could ease your mind a bit.
Life has taught me that sorrow is all-encompassing and that in order to shake it off, you have to go through all the stages. There are no shortcuts, and you cannot cheat your way through the process.
In the end, the journey to complete recovery is also a lonely one, which is why reading a few sorrow quotes along the way could help you.
You’re not alone, no matter how lonely you feel — as you’ll see, sorrow is universal to all human beings.
34 Sorrow Quotes for Motivation and Finding That Inner Strength
The Wisest Sorrow Quotes
#1. “Tears shed for another person are not a sign of weakness. They are a sign of a pure heart.” — José N. Harris
#2. “Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up the o-er wrought heart and bids it break.” — William Shakespeare, Macbeth
#3. “Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” — Lao Tzu
#4. “If you suppress grief too much, it can well redouble.” — Moliere
#5. “The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.” — Sophocles
#6. “The sorrow which has no vent in tears may make other organs weep.” — Henry Maudsley
#7. “Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heals them.” — Leo Tolstoy
#8. “Sorrow makes us all children again — destroys all differences of intellect. The wisest know nothing.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
#9. “Since our society equates happiness with youth, we often assume that sorrow, quiet desperation, and hopelessness go hand in hand with getting older. They don’t. Emotional pain or numbness are symptoms of living the wrong life, not a long life.” — Martha Beck
#10. “If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
#11. “No matter how bad your heart is broken, the world doesn’t stop for your grief.” — Faraaz Kazi
#12. “Sorrow is so easy to express and yet so hard to tell.” — Joni Mitchell
#13. “Excess of joy is harder to bear than any amount of sorrow.” — Honore de Balzac
Inspirational Sorrow Quotes
#14. “She was a genius of sadness, immersing herself in it, separating its numerous strands, appreciating its subtle nuances. She was a prism through which sadness could be divided into its infinite spectrum.” — Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything Is Illuminated
#15. “Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
#16. “He who is overly attached to his family members experiences fear and sorrow, for the root of all grief is attachment. Thus one should discard attachment to be happy.” — Chanakya
#17. “Time is a physician that heals every grief.” — Diphilus
#18. “Life has never been easy. Nor is it meant to be. It is a matter of being joyous in the face of sorrow.” — Dirk Benedict
#19. “Sorrow is a fruit. God does not make it grow on limbs too weak to bear it.” — Victor Hugo
#20. “Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.” — Henry David Thoreau
#21. “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” — Winston Churchill
#22. “When you are joyous, look deep into your heart, and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth, you are weeping for that which has been your delight.” — Khalil Gibran
Sorrow Quotes to Help You Feel Better About Your Grief
#23. “While we are mourning the loss of our friend, others are rejoicing to meet him behind the veil.” — John Taylor
#24. “She was no longer wrestling with the grief, but could sit down with it as a lasting companion and make it a sharer in her thoughts.” — George Eliot
#25. “There’s a bit of magic in everything, and some loss to even things out.” — Lou Reed
#26. “Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.” — Rumi
Sorrow Quotes for Lovers All Around the World
#27. “Without you in my arms, I feel an emptiness in my soul. I find myself searching the crowds for your face – I know it’s an impossibility, but I cannot help myself.” — Nicholas Sparks, Message in a Bottle
#28. “Love is an engraved invitation to grief.” — Sunshine O’Donnell, Open Me
#29. “So it’s true; when all is said and done, grief is the price we pay for love.” — E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly
#30. “In times of grief and sorrow, I will hold you and rock you and take your grief and make it my own. When you cry, I cry, and when you hurt, I hurt. And together we will try to hold back the floods to tears and despair and make it through the potholed street of life.” — Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook
#31. “You left, and I cried tears of blood. My sorrow grows. It’s not just that You left. But when You left my eyes went with You. Now, how will I cry?” — Rumi
#32. “The only way to take sorrow out of death is to take love out of life.” — Russell M. Nelson
Funny Sorrow Quotes to Brighten Your Day
#33. “Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath, and a glass of wine.” — Thomas Aquinas
#34. “People who drink to drown their sorrow should be told that sorrow knows how to swim.” — Ann Landers
Conclusion
Even though the sadness you feel now seems like it will last forever, these sorrow quotes should inspire you to push through. Never give up on yourself, and know that happiness will have a starring role in your life once more.
All you have to do is persevere!
