3,968 Quotes About Grief

Death is absolute: either you're dead or you're not.

She'd never broken a bone, had surgery. But the worst damage didn't leave a mark. When Hellie died, it was as if someone had cut into Alex's chest, cracked her open like balsa wood. What if it really had been like that and she'd had to walk down the street bleeding, trying to hold her ribs together, her heart and her lungs and every part of her open to the world? Instead, the thing that had broken her had left no mark, no scar for her to point to and say, This is where I ended.

How griefpummels us sharp,breaks upon us to shapethe faces we give the world,the languages we speak in secret.Here, far above the water linepines congregate and meet the ocean.Landscape climaxes against the crash of water.The white walls strikethis fawn height.

I had never seen such sorrow; it appalled me. And I was even more appalled by her attempts to overcome it, because they so plainly, pathetically failed and in failing opened up a view of the world I had only begun to suspect, where wounds did not heal, and things did not work out for the best

They say: 'Come to tea and let us comfort you.' But it's no good. One must be crucified on one's own private cross. I know that V. will not come across the garden from the lodge, & yet I look in that direction for her. I know that she is drowned & yet I listen for her to come in at the door. I know that it is the last page & yet I turn it over. There is no limit to one's stupidity & selfishness.

I'd been standing on a ledge...I couldn't move forward or back. Couldn't move to the left or the right. I couldn't sleep or breathe too deeply for fear of falling. So I held perfectly still on my ledge, making no sudden moves. And in that stillness, I existed. I coped.

Love is a bondthat death cannot part.Gone from your arms,but still held in your heart.

I now know that to be loved as child means to be watched. In high school, I loved when the teacher turned the lights off. A moment to feel loved and unseen at once. I understand now. We can't be loved when the lights are off.

The truth is, I knew loss. I didn't know grief. Now, I do.