Grief is such a painful, heartbreaking experience.
Grief can feel like it will swallow us alive. Grieving can make us feel like we have lost a piece of ourselves, like we may never feel whole again.
With that in mind, I have put together a list of 10 grief quotes to help you through the grieving process.
As with all of my quote posts, I include the quote and then my personal thoughts on the quote itself and why I picked it to be included in the list.
If you are grieving, I hope you can find some comfort in this list.
Disclosure – I am not a trained therapist or counselor, so if you are struggling with grief, depression or anxiety, please consult a medical professional for assistance.
Just a heads up – you will see a recurring theme in many of the quotes I have chosen. It’s not a coincidence. Grief is about sadness and loss. But it also about love. This list is about amplifying that love.
What we have once enjoyed deeply we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.” – Helen Keller
Love is a part of us. The love we share becomes a part of us. Let that love become a part of you, always.
May love be what you remember most.” – Darcie Sims
If you are grieving I hope that you remember the love the most.
I appreciate that in the beginning of the grieving process, the love may be painful to recall. It may not feel like love. It may feel more like sadness and loss. Even the happy memories may bring you to tears.
But the love is still there. Don’t force it. Just let it naturally evolve as the grieving process runs it course.
It is perfectly okay to admit you are not okay.” – Unknown
When we are grieving we often put on a happy face, smile and pretend we are okay when inside our hearts are breaking. We smile when we want to cry.
At a time of loss, it’s okay to NOT be okay.
While people might be uncomfortable with crying and outpourings of emotion, our pain has to be released somehow. Better through tears than through anger and indulging in our vices which will take us down a darker path.
Also remember it’s okay to ask for help. If you need it, seek out help from a professional grief counselor. Make use of any free Government provided grief counselling services available to you. Research into what is available, there might be more options than you realize.
Let family and friends be there for you but most importantly reach out to a professional if you need it.
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Grief is the price we pay for love.” – Queen Elizabeth II
Love comes at a cost but the cost is worth it. Don’t shield your heart from love, because you fear the loss.
How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” – Winnie the Pooh
I have always loved this quote, though if I am being totally honest, it always makes me tear up a little.
Saying goodbye is not something most of us are good at.
It’s difficult and heartbreaking and when it comes to death, final.
And yet, we are blessed to have loved and been loved. It will not feel like it at the time, but we are lucky to have something that made saying goodbye so difficult.
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Little by little we let go of loss…but never of love.” – Unknown Hallmark
To me, this one is about time. It’s about giving ourselves permission to work through the grieving process. It’s also about accepting that grieving takes time.
When we are in pain, this can be one of the hardest things to acknowledge and accept. We want the pain to stop. We want to feel good again but it doesn’t happen overnight.
Little by little, day by day, week by week, even year by year, we start to feel whole again. We start to fill in the missing pieces. We start to fill the emptiness we feel inside.
A big part of that is letting go of the loss and holding onto the love.
No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.” – C.S. Lewis
Grief brings up feelings of fear.
Fear of change, fear of being alone, fear of what the future holds. It’s the fear of letting go of the life we thought we had planned for the life that we now have.
It’s the fear of having to learn a new way of living, the fear of starting all over again (this one is huge).
Sometimes we need to build a new life for ourselves.
It can be scary and overwhelming but we find the strength.
We don’t feel strong when we are grieving. Quite the opposite actually, grief can make us feel weak and frightened.
Yet it is our true inner strength and our courage to feel our feelings and deal with those feelings that makes us stronger than we every realized.
Fear can be scary but it also helps us grow. Grow through your grieving and through your fear. You will come out stronger on the other side.
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I am trying to remember you and let you go at the same time.” – Unknown
This is one of the aspects of grief that haunts people.
At some point, they want to move on (or know they need to move on) but then they feel guilty for doing that exact thing.
We start to let go and then the guilt sets in. We forget details from the past and then beat ourselves up for forgetting.
We try to forget and remember all at the same time and the grieving roller coaster continues on its frustrating way.
At a point that is right for us, we need to give ourselves permission to move forward.
Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.” – Rumi
I put this one in because I thought it might help people.
To be honest, I thought about not including it because I’m not sure I believe in this one myself. I’m not sure if what you loss comes back in another form.
But it’s not about what I believe, it’s about what you believe and if it can give one person some comfort it’s worth being on the list.
Everyone can master grief but he that has it.” – William Shakespeare
I thought I would finish with a reminder to be gentle with people in their grief.
When we are not grieving ourselves, we don’t fully realize the toll grieving takes on a person. This toll can be emotional, physical and spiritual.
We might offer support and advice without truly understanding the intensity of the other person’s feelings.
Casually being told to ‘move on’ can be crushing. Though the advice might be logical and it might seem like it’s time (from a non-grieving person’s perspective) to the person grieving it may just come across as hurtful.
Another important point to remember is that one person’s grief is not the same as another person’s. We all grieve differently. What may be a minor loss for one person, could be devastating for someone else.
Grief is a personal journey. It’s unique for each and every person. How we grieve depends on the relationship with whoever or whatever we lost, our beliefs, values and past experiences.
I hope these quotes bring some peace and comfort to your journey.
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