Bereavement Quotes

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  I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death.

  Robert Fulghum

  Love, Life, Death

  Robert Fulghum (2010). “It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It”, p.8, Ivy Books

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• There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.

  Washington Irving

  Love, Marriage, Sympathy

  203 Copy quote

• I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness and the willingness to remain vulnerable.

  Anne Morrow Lindbergh

  Love, Inspirational, Motivational

  Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1973). “Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1929-1932”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P

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• The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing...that is a friend who cares.

  Henri Nouwen

  Friendship, True Friend, Grief

  "Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life". Book by Henri Nouwen, 1974.

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• To spare oneself from grief at all cost can be achieved only at the price of total detachment, which excludes the ability to experience happiness

  Erich Fromm

  Grief, Grieving, Mourning

  Erich Fromm (2013). “Man for Himself: An Inquiry Into the Psychology of Ethics”, p.195, Open Road Media

  45 Copy quote

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• Bereavement is a universal and integral part of our experience of love.

  C. S. Lewis

  Grief Observed, Universal, Pain Of Separation

  C.S. Lewis (2012). “A Grief Observed”, p.25, Faber & Faber

  22 Copy quote

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• We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.

  Kenji Miyazawa

  Inspirational, Positive, Sympathy

  137 Copy quote

• In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.

  Robert Frost

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  239 Copy quote

• There is no grief like the grief that does not speak.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Sympathy, Death, Grief

  23 Copy quote

• When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.

  Henri Nouwen

  Life, Motivational, Friendship

  "Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life". Book by Henri Nouwen, 1974.

  787 Copy quote

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• Grief can be a burden, but also an anchor. You get used to the weight, how it holds you in place.

  Sarah Dessen

  Grief, Anchors, Sorrow

  Sarah Dessen (2006). “The Truth About Forever”, p.129, Penguin

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• The weird, weird thing about devastating loss is that life actually goes on. When you're faced with a tragedy, a loss so huge that you have no idea how you can live through it, somehow, the world keeps turning, the seconds keep ticking.

  James Patterson

  Grief, Loss, Ideas

  35 Copy quote

• In the night of death, hope sees a star, and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Sad, Sympathy, Stars

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.2414, Library of Alexandria

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• On the death of a friend, we should consider that the fates through confidence have devolved on us the task of a double living, that we have henceforth to fulfill the promise of our friend's life also, in our own, to the world.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Death, Fate, Promise

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.2009, Delphi Classics

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• Grief knits two hearts in closer bonds than happiness ever can; and common sufferings are far stronger links than common joys.

  Alphonse de Lamartine

  Sympathy, Death, Pain

  Alphonse de Lamartine (1849). “Raphael: Or, Pages of the Book of Life at Twenty”, p.29

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• Tears are sometimes an inappropriate response to death. When a life has been lived completely honestly, completely successfully, or just completely, the correct response to death's perfect punctuation mark is a smile.

  Julie Burchill

  Love, Sympathy, Death

  "The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations". Book by Mark Water, p. 111, 2000.

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• How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.

  A. A. Milne

  Relationship, Meaningful, Goodbye

  159 Copy quote

• Bereavement is the deepest initiation into the mysteries of human life, an initiation more searching and profound than even happy love.

  William Ralph Inge

  Death, Grieving, Profound

  7 Copy quote

• Once you accept your own death, all of a sudden you're free to live. You no longer care about your reputation. You no longer care except so far as your life can be used tactically to promote a cause you believe in.

  Saul Alinsky

  Death, Grief, Believe

  12 Copy quote

• The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse to be divorced. Every other wound we seek to heal - every other affliction to forget: but this wound we consider it a duty to keep open - this affliction we cherish and brood over in solitude.

  Washington Irving

  Grieving, Funeral, Solitude

  Washington Irving (1834). “The Complete Works of Washington Irving in One Volume”, p.270

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• Don't order any black things. Rejoice in his memory; and be radiant: leave grief to the children. Wear violet and purple. Be patient with the poor people who will snivel: they don't know; and they think they will live for ever, which makes death a division instead of a bond.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Memories, Children, Grief

  7 Copy quote

• Happiness is beneficial for the body, but it is grief that develops the powers of the mind.

  Marcel Proust

  Happiness, Sympathy, Depression

  A la recherche du temps perdu: Le Temps retrouve Vol. 2, Ch. 3

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• Never does one feel oneself so utterly helpless as in trying to speak comfort for great bereavement.

  Jane Welsh Carlyle

  Death, Trying, Comfort

  Jane Welsh Carlyle (1883). “Letters and Memorials...”

  64 Copy quote

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• Bereavement is a darkness impenetrable to the imagination of the unbereaved

  Iris Murdoch

  Love, Grief, Saying Goodbye

  Iris Murdoch (1984). “The Sacred and Profane Love Machine”, p.31, Penguin

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• If, as I can't help suspecting, the dead also feel the pains of separation (and this may be one of their purgatorial sufferings), then for both lovers, and for all pairs of lovers without exception, bereavement is a universal and integral part of our experience of love.

  C. S. Lewis

  Love, Pain, Suffering

  C.S. Lewis (2012). “A Grief Observed”, p.25, Faber & Faber

  7 Copy quote

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