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Inspirational Quotes

Reading · 15 min read · First published 2004 · Updated November 2026

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Words to help you heal, to inspire, and to comfort.

Grief is not the same for any two people, and a line that comforts one person may do nothing for another. Every quote here is from a work in the public domain, and each is credited to its source.

Key points

  • These grief quotes are grouped so you can find the right words fast: short quotes, missing someone, losing a mother or father, love and loss, faith, and pet loss.
  • A short quote is often all a sympathy card needs. One line, then a few words of your own.
  • In a eulogy, use a quote to open or close, not both.
  • Always credit the writer, and check the wording before you print it.

Writing a eulogy and looking for the right words? If you'd rather write by hand, the eulogy workbook takes you through it page by page.

Classic lines on life and loss

"A useless life is an early death."

~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Iphigenie auf Tauris (1787), Act I, Scene 2 ("Ein unnütz Leben ist ein früher Tod")

"Every Mortal loss is an Immortal Gain."

~William Blake, in a letter to William Hayley, May 6, 1800

Short grief quotes

"Well, every one can master a grief but he that has it."

~William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act III, Scene 2

"...grief makes one hour ten."

~William Shakespeare, Richard II, Act I, Scene 3

"The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse to be divorced."

~Washington Irving, "Rural Funerals," The Sketch Book

"Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts."

~Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, Chapter 19

"Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them."

~George Eliot, Adam Bede, Chapter 10

"Grief can take care of itself; but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with."

~Mark Twain, Following the Equator (1897), Chapter 48

"Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul,"

~Emily Dickinson, "Hope," Poems, Second Series (1891)

"Let us see to it that the recollection of those whom we have lost becomes a pleasant memory to us."

~Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 63 (Richard M. Gummere's translation)

Quotes about missing someone

"But O for the touch of a vanish'd hand, And the sound of a voice that is still!"

~Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Break, Break, Break" (1842)

"Un seul être vous manque, et tout est dépeuplé !" One person is missing, and the whole world feels empty.

~Alphonse de Lamartine, "L'Isolement," Méditations poétiques (1820)

"But if the while I think on thee (dear friend) All losses are restor'd, and sorrows end."

~William Shakespeare, Sonnet 30

"The sweeping up the heart, And putting love away We shall not want to use again Until eternity."

~Emily Dickinson, "The bustle in a house," Poems (1890)

"But for those who Love, Time is not."

~Henry van Dyke, "Katrina's Sun-Dial," Music and Other Poems (1904)

"...he whom we think we have lost has only been sent on ahead."

~Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 63 (Richard M. Gummere's translation)

Quotes for the loss of a mother

"Because I feel that, in the heavens above, The angels, whispering to one another, Can find, among their burning terms of love, None so devotional as that of 'mother'"

~Edgar Allan Poe, "Sonnet — To My Mother" (1849)

"Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come. She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness."

~Proverbs 31:25-26 (King James Version)

"Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her."

~Proverbs 31:28 (King James Version)

"I know whose love would follow me still, Mother o' mine, O mother o' mine!"

~Rudyard Kipling, "Mother o' Mine"

"Mother, come back from the echoless shore, Take me again to your heart as of yore;"

~Elizabeth Akers Allen, "Rock Me to Sleep" (1859)

Quotes for the loss of a father

"He was a man. Take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again."

~William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I, Scene 2, Hamlet speaking of his father

"The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him."

~Proverbs 20:7 (King James Version)

"...the glory of children are their fathers."

~Proverbs 17:6 (King James Version)

"Only a dad, but the best of men."

~Edgar A. Guest, "Only a Dad," A Heap o' Livin' (1916)

"Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

~Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Ulysses" (1842)

Quotes about love and loss

"'Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all."

~Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam A. H. H., section 27 (1850)

"...for love is strong as death... Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it"

~Song of Solomon 8:6-7 (King James Version)

"Charity never faileth."

~1 Corinthians 13:8 (King James Version)

"...and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death."

~Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese, Sonnet 43 (1850)

"More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world."

~Edna St. Vincent Millay, "Dirge Without Music," The Buck in the Snow (1928)

"And if thou wilt, remember, And if thou wilt, forget."

~Christina Rossetti, "Song" ("When I am dead, my dearest"), 1862

Words of comfort from many traditions

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die."

~Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 (King James Version)

"The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart."

~Psalm 34:18 (King James Version)

"He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds."

~Psalm 147:3 (King James Version)

"...weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."

~Psalm 30:5 (King James Version)

"...the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."

~Job 1:21 (King James Version)

Baruch Dayan HaEmet. "Blessed is the Judge of Truth."

~Traditional Jewish words said on hearing of a death

"Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted."

~Matthew 5:4 (King James Version)

"I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:"

~John 11:25 (King James Version)

"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you."

~John 14:1-2 (King James Version)

"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

~Romans 8:38-39 (King James Version)

"He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces"

~Isaiah 25:8 (King James Version)

"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying."

~Revelation 21:4 (King James Version)

"Who say, when a misfortune striketh them: Lo! we are Allah's and lo! unto Him we are returning."

~The Qur'an, 2:156 (Marmaduke Pickthall translation, 1930)

"Every soul will taste of death."

~The Qur'an, 3:185 (Marmaduke Pickthall translation, 1930)

"But lo! with hardship goeth ease"

~The Qur'an, 94:5 (Marmaduke Pickthall translation, 1930)

"Never the spirit was born; the spirit shall cease to be never; Never was time it was not; End and Beginning are dreams! Birthless and deathless and changeless remaineth the spirit for ever; Death hath not touched it at all, dead though the house of it seems!"

~The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2 (Edwin Arnold's translation, The Song Celestial)

"Nay, but as when one layeth His worn-out robes away, And taking new ones, sayeth, 'These will I wear to-day!'"

~The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2 (Edwin Arnold's translation, The Song Celestial)

"The world does not know that we must all come to an end here;--but those who know it, their quarrels cease at once."

~The Dhammapada, verse 6 (F. Max Müller's translation)

"This returning to their root is what we call the state of stillness; and that stillness may be called a reporting that they have fulfilled their appointed end."

~Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 16 (James Legge's translation)

"He who dies and yet does not perish, has longevity."

~Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 33 (James Legge's translation)

"And with the morn those angel faces smile Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile."

~John Henry Newman, "The Pillar of the Cloud" ("Lead, Kindly Light")

"...be of good cheer about death, and know of a certainty, that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death."

~Socrates, in Plato's Apology (Benjamin Jowett's translation)

On sorrow and on love

"Give sorrow words. The grief that does not speak Whispers the o'erfraught heart and bids it break."

~William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act IV, Scene 3

"Let not the eyes be dry when we have lost a friend, nor let them overflow. We may weep, but we must not wail."

~Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 63 (Richard M. Gummere's translation)

"When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight."

~Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (1923), "On Joy and Sorrow"

"There is no flock, however watched and tended, But one dead lamb is there! There is no fireside, howsoe'er defended, But has one vacant chair!"

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "Resignation," The Seaside and the Fireside (1849)

"Parting is all we know of heaven, And all we need of hell."

~Emily Dickinson, "My life closed twice before its close," Poems, Third Series (1896)

"What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. ... All that we love deeply becomes a part of us."

~Helen Keller, We Bereaved (1929)

On living, and on dying well

"Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good."

~Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book IV, Section 17 (George Long's translation)

"For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun? And what is it to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?"

~Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (1923), "On Death"

"And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier."

~Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself," Section 6, Leaves of Grass

For those grieving a pet

"The one absolutely unselfish friend that a man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is the dog."

~George Graham Vest, closing argument in a Missouri trial over a dog's death, 1870

"Beauty without Vanity, Strength without Insolence, Courage without Ferocity, and all the Virtues of Man without his Vices."

~From the inscription on the monument to Lord Byron's Newfoundland dog, Boatswain, at Newstead Abbey (1808). Most scholars think the opening lines were written by Byron's friend John Cam Hobhouse.

"Animals are such agreeable friends—they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms."

~George Eliot, "Mr. Gilfil's Love Story," Scenes of Clerical Life, Chapter 7

"Brothers and sisters, I bid you beware Of giving your heart to a dog to tear."

~Rudyard Kipling, "The Power of the Dog"

"O LORD, thou preservest man and beast."

~Psalm 36:6 (King James Version)

"A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast"

~Proverbs 12:10 (King James Version)

For poems to read at a pet's goodbye, see Rainbow Bridge and Other Pet Loss Poems and Pet Sympathy Messages.

How to use a quote in a card or eulogy

In a sympathy card. Write the quote first, then one or two sentences of your own. "I've been thinking of you, and of your mom's wonderful laugh." The quote opens the door, and your own words are what they'll remember. Keep it to one quote, and choose a faith quote only if you know it will be welcome. For more ideas, see What to Write in a Sympathy Card and Condolence Messages.

In a eulogy. A quote works best at the very start, to settle the room, or at the very end, to give everyone a last line to hold. Introduce it simply: "Dad loved the Psalms, so I'll end with one." Then pause before and after. For help building the rest, see Tips for Writing a Eulogy and Eulogy Examples.

On a memorial card, program or keepsake. Short quotes print best. Credit the writer on the line below, and copy the wording exactly from a reliable source, because many quotes online are reworded or credited to the wrong person.

In a journal. Some people copy one quote a day into a notebook and write a few lines under it. It can be an easy way to start writing about your grief.

Found a quote that sounds just like them? Work through your eulogy on paper with the eulogy workbook.

Sources

Written by Words to Comfort

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