Grief & loss quotes, explained

Tennyson, grieving the sudden death of his closest friend, decides that the pain of losing someone is better than never having loved them. It was written about friendship and death, not a breakup.

The dead of the First World War speak from their graves among the poppies, asking the living to carry on their cause and not break faith with them.

Latin for “remember that you must die.” It is a reminder that life is short, meant to make you humble and to push you to spend your days on what matters.

Donne, seriously ill and hearing a funeral bell, reflects that every person is part of humanity, so every death diminishes us all. The same passage ends with “for whom the bell tolls.”

At a holiday gathering, don't dwell on what the year has taken from you. Count what you still have, because everyone has many blessings and every life has some sorrow.

The poet asks the New Year's bells to ring away the old year's grief, quarrels and injustice and to ring in kindness, truth and peace.

Hamlet asks whether it is better to live and endure life's suffering or to die and end it, and concludes that fear of what comes after death keeps people going.

Life moves through opposite seasons, birth and death, weeping and laughing, and each has its proper time. The passage is both comforting and a reminder that we do not control the timing.

Spoken weeks before the Civil War ended and six weeks before Lincoln was killed. He asked the winning side to heal the nation without revenge.