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Sad quotes

A curated collection of quotes on heartbreak, grief, yearning and consolation — from Karin Boye, Tomas Tranströmer, Leonard Cohen, Tennyson and Pascal. For funerals, memorials, and for the moments when the heart needs words.

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Quotes on heartbreak

'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
Alfred TennysonIn Memoriam, 1850
The heart was made to be broken.
Oscar Wilde
The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.
Blaise PascalPensées, 1670

Quotes on grief

Grief is the price we pay for love.
Queen Elizabeth II
Tears are words that the heart can't express.
Gerald Chapman
Grief is the final act of love.
Anonymous
The greatest tragedy in life is not death, but what dies inside us while we live.
Norman Cousins

Quotes on yearning

To live is to miss someone.
Tomas Tranströmer
I carry your heart with me. I carry it in my heart.
E.E. Cummingsi carry your heart with me

Quotes on loneliness

We're all alone — born alone, die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone.
Orson Welles
No one is as alone as the one who has lost their only one.
Hjalmar Gullberg
Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self.
May Sarton

Quotes on consolation

There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.
Leonard CohenAnthem, 1992
Time doesn't heal all wounds. It teaches us to live with them.
Anonymous
What we have once enjoyed deeply we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.
Helen Keller
You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair.
Chinese proverb
Yes, it hurts when buds burst. Why else would spring hesitate?
Karin BoyeYes, of course it hurts, 1935
Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.
Victor HugoLes Misérables, 1862