Quotes on Grief to Help When You’re Grieving

When you lose someone you love, it’s a challenge to try to make sense of the loss. It is difficult to try to pick up the pieces learning to navigate life anew without them. Grieving is a natural process that ensues when we lose someone we care about and have formed an emotional bond with.

Grief

That loss and the process of grief can begin even before a person dies. For instance, if they’ve been through a long terminal illness, or if you’ve had to watch the person they were slowly disappear before your eyes as they endure dementia or Alzheimer’s. Grief can ensue not only due to death, but also through a divorce or even when a cherished friendship ends. You need to give yourself the appropriate space and time to grieve these losses.

Grief is a bit of a paradox. On the one hand, it is intensely personal, and each person’s path through grief is unique. On the other hand, there are experiences during grief that are found in common among those who are grieving loved ones. In that commonality, we can find some solace because we aren’t as entirely alone as we sometimes feel.

The quotes below may resonate with you, and they may help you as you process your grief. Sometimes we simply don’t have the words with which to express how we’re feeling, and in such cases, someone else’s words can help us bridge the divide. At other times, simply hearing someone else echo what we’ve been saying alleviates the sense that we are alone in our sorrow and that no one understands.

Below you’ll find quotes from various places; some of them are from Scripture, which is God’s word spoken to us to guide us and shape our lives. These verses can enrich our faith, and they help us to see beyond the limits of human wisdom. Other quotes are from people who are simply writing from their own experiences.

In our grief, we can profit from and be encouraged by hearing both. These many quotes remind us of God’s care for us; they help us to map our path in grief, and they remind us that to grieve is okay.

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. so don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. – Matthew 10:29-31, NIV

Deep grief sometimes is almost like a specific location, a coordinate on a map of time. When you are standing in that forest of sorrow, you cannot imagine that you could ever find your way to a better place. But if someone can assure you that they themselves have stood in that same place, and now have moved on, sometimes this will bring hope. – Elizabeth Gilbert

Grief, I’ve learned, is really just love. It’s all the love you want to give, but cannot. All that unspent love gathers up in the corners of your eyes, the lump in your throat, and in that hollow part of your chest. Grief is just love with no place to go. – Jamie Anderson

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. – Proverbs 3:5-6, NIV

We bereaved are not alone. We belong to the largest company in all the world–the company of those who have known suffering. – Helen Keller

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. – Psalm 34:18, NIV

Grief is a most peculiar thing; we’re so helpless in the face of it. It’s like a window that will simply open of its own accord. The room grows cold, and we can do nothing but shiver. But it opens a little less each time, and a little less; and one day we wonder what has become of it. – Arthur Golden

The shadows of the evening that precedes a lovelier morning are drawing down around us both. But our God is in the shadow as in the shine, and all is and will be well: have we not seen his glory in the face of Jesus? And do we not know him a little? This life is a lovely time, but I never was content with it. I look for better – oh, so far better!

I think we do not yet know the joy of mere existence….May the loving Father be near you and may you know it, and be perfectly at peace all the way into the home country, and to the palace home of the living one – the life of our life. – George MacDonald

Mental pain is less dramatic than physical pain, but it is more common and also more hard to bear. The frequent attempt to conceal mental pain increases the burden: it is easier to say “My tooth is aching” than to say “My heart is broken.” – C.S. Lewis

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” – 1 Corinthians 15:54, NIV

The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not ‘get over’ the loss of a loved one; you’ll learn to live with it. You will heal and you will rebuild yourself around the loss you have suffered. You will be whole again but you will never be the same. Nor should you be the same nor would you want to. – Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and David Kessler

You will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly – that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp. – Anne Lamott

For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. – 1 Thessalonians 4:14

Did you ever know, dear, how much you took away with you when you left? You have stripped me even of my past, even of the things we never shared. – C. S. Lewis

Too many Christians feel that grief is wrong, that we’re supposed to rejoice when a loved one goes to be with the Lord. While we can rejoice in their homegoing, we can also grieve our loss. – Bruce Barton

He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces… – Isaiah 25:8, NIV

Part of every misery is, so to speak, the misery’s shadow or reflection: the fact that you don’t merely suffer but have to keep on thinking about the fact that you suffer. I not only live each endless day in grief, but live each day thinking about living each day in grief. – C. S. Lewis

Grief can destroy you – or focus you. You can decide a relationship was all for nothing if it had to end in death, and you alone. OR you can realize that every moment of it had more meaning than you dared to recognize at the time, so much meaning it scared you, so you just lived, just took for granted the love and laughter of each day, and didn’t allow yourself to consider the sacredness of it. – Dean Koontz

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. – Revelation 21:4, NIV

Don’t Grieve Alone

When people are feeling vulnerable, having the support of a community as they grieve is often vital to the process. Grieving alone may lead to a delayed recovery. Sometimes, we may feel alone in our grief, or we may feel as though our society doesn’t validate what we’re going through.

If you have lost someone you love, you may wish to find a therapist. Therapy can help you to process your loss. It offers an opportunity to explore your feelings and memories in a safe space without judgment. There is no loss that is too big or too small to warrant seeking help or support. You do not have to endure your grief alone.

Call the office or fill out the contact form to learn more about how a therapist can help you.