106 Uplifting Comfort Grief Quotes That Offer Hope and Peace

Grief has no script, no timeline — only waves. Whether your heart is heavy with a recent loss or you're simply missing someone deeply, the right words can bring stillness to the chaos. These 106 comforting grief quotes from thinkers, authors, and spiritual leaders offer warmth, wisdom, and the quiet hope you need to take your next breath.

Along with meditation practices, the following words of comfort can soothe pain and help heal like nothing else. Make your journey easier with impactful books available in a summarized form on Headway. Many will captivate you with raw emotions, while others will undoubtedly change your life and mindset.

100+ uplifting comfort grief quotes

Denial

1. "The mind knows the truth when your heart denies what it feels." — Shannon L. Alder

2. "Comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it." —  C.S. Lewis

3. "Denial ain't just a river in Egypt." — Mark Twain​

4. "Like flowers pressed between the pages of a book, beautiful memories are ours to keep." – Melvina Young

5. "The true measure of all our actions is how long the good in them lasts." – Queen Elizabeth II

6. "Denial helps us to pace our feelings of grief." — Elisabeth Kubler-Ross​

7. "Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more." — Melody Beattie​

8. "Common sufferings are far stronger links than common joys." – Alphonse de Lamartine

9. "When you experience loss, people say you'll move through the five stages of grief. What they don't tell you is that you'll cycle through them all every day." — Ranata Suzuki​

10. "Denial is a common tactic that substitutes deliberate ignorance for thoughtful planning." — Charles Tremper

11. "There is no grief like the grief that does not speak." – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

12. "Denial is the shock absorber for the soul. It protects us until we are equipped to cope with reality." – C. S. Lewis 

13. "The world is indeed full of peril; but still there is much that is fair." – J.R.R. Tolkien

14. "There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another." – Alexandre Dumas

15. "You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore." ― William Faulkner

16. "Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect." ― Margaret Mitchell

17. "If pain must come, may it come quickly." ― Paulo Coelho

18. "Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed." ― Alexander Pope

19. "Storms make people stronger and never last forever." ― Roy T. Bennett

20. "Tears shed for another person are not a sign of weakness." ― José N. Harris 

21. "Let go and give room for the pain to pass through you. It's just energy. Just see it as energy and let it go." — Michael A. Singer, 'The Untethered Soul'

Bestselling author and meditation center founder Michael A. Singer breaks down the steps to attaining inner freedom.

Anger

1. 22 "Your trial cannot be longer than the lasting power of God's faithfulness, and mercy, and patience, and power." — Tim Challies 

2. "Anger is a natural reaction to the unfairness of loss."  — Elisabeth Kubler-Ross​

3. "Give sorrow words." — William Shakespeare

4. "Anger is often grief that has been silent for too long." — Nayyirah Waheed​

5. "What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose." — Helen Keller

6. "Anger is a valid emotion. It's only bad when it takes control and makes you do things you don't want to do." — Ellen Hopkins​

7. "The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain." — Kahlil Gibran

8. "Anger is a wind which blows out the lamp of the mind." — Robert Green Ingersoll​

9. "Grief is like the ocean; All we can do is learn to swim." — Vicki Harrison

10. "Anger is one letter short of danger." — Eleanor Roosevelt​ 

11. "There is a sacredness in tears. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues." — Washington Irving

12. "Anger is a signal, and one worth listening to." — Harriet Lerner​

13. "Maybe everyone can live beyond what they're capable of." — Markus Zusak

14. "I don't think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains." — Anne Frank

15. "There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." — Leonard Cohen

16. "The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something." — Barack Obama

17. "Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength." — Dalai Lama XIV

18. "As long as there is love and memory, there is no true loss." — Cassandra Clare

19. "Shoot for the moon, even if you fail, you'll land among the stars." ― Cecelia Ahern

20. "One lives in the hope of becoming a memory." ― Antonio Porchia

21. "Our ultimate goal, after all, is not a good death but a good life to the very end." ― Atul Gawande, 'Being Mortal'

This life-changing work will make you reconsider everything you know about death and inspire you to live your life in your own way.

Bargaining

1. 43 "Understand there's no right or wrong way to grieve, including anticipatory grief." — Dana Arcuri

2. "The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together." — William Shakespeare

3. "Bargaining is the stage of false hope." — Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

4. "The road that is built in hope is more pleasant to the traveler than the road built in despair." — Marion Zimmer Bradley

5. "It isn't as bad as you sometimes think it is. It all works out." — Gordon B. Hinckley

6. "When you're at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on." ― Theodore Roosevelt

7. "Keep your best wishes close to your heart and watch what happens." ― Tony DeLiso

8. "But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness." ― Kālidāsa 

9. "Keep a little fire burning; however small, however hidden." ― Cormac McCarthy

10. "There is nothing like a dream to create the future." ― Victor Hugo

11. "All events are blessings given to us to learn from." — Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

12. "There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief." — Aeschylus

13. "Death is no more than passing from one room into another." — Helen Keller

14. "Grieving people don't deny for more than a moment that their loved one has died." — Jim Beaver

15. "Bargaining can feel like a desperate act to regain control." — David Kessler

16. "Grief does not change you. It reveals you." ​—  John Green

17. "Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose." — Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

18. "We would not grieve if we did not love." — Queen Elizabeth II

19. "Grieving is a necessary passage and a difficult transition to finally letting go of sorrow — it is not a permanent rest stop." — Dodinsky 

20. "Grief is nature's way of healing a broken heart." — Earl Grollman

21. "The real work of deep grief is making a home there." ― Cheryl Strayed, 'Tiny Beautiful Things'

Award-winning essayist and memoirist Cheryl Strayed explains how to deal with an identity crisis after losing a loved one and find hope in the present grief. 

Depression

1. 64 "And grief still feels like fear. It gives life a permanently provisional feeling." —  C.S. Lewis

2. "Grief is depression in proportion to circumstance; depression is grief out of proportion to circumstance." — Andrew Solomon

3. "God is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit." — Psalm 34:18

4. "But one day hope and healing will call our/your name." – Keely Chace

5. "As difficult as it is to endure, depression has elements that can be helpful in grief." — Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

6. "Keep your face to the sun and you will never see the shadows." ― Helen Keller

7. "There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn't." — John Green

8. "I laugh because I must not cry, that is all, that is all." ― Abraham Lincoln

9. "Even if storms come to pass, the sun will shine again." ― Natsuki Takaya

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

11. "Tears are the silent language of grief." — Voltaire

12. "Your joy is your sorrow unmasked." — Kahlil Gibran

13. "In times of grief and sorrow I will hold you and rock you and take your grief and make it my own." — Nicholas Sparks

14. "Not everyone understands how you can spin two lassos at the same time, one of hope and one of grief." — Jodi Picoult

15. "Grief knits two hearts in closer bonds than happiness ever can." — Alphonse de Lamartine 

16. "The reason it hurts so much to separate is because our souls are connected." — Nicholas Sparks

17. "If you don't expect anything, you don't get disappointed." — Patricia McCormick

18. "The chief beauty about time is that you cannot waste it in advance." — Arnold Bennett

19. "Happiness is always there. You just have to choose to see it." — Carrie Hope Fletcher

20. "Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life." ― J.K. Rowling

21. "When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves." — Viktor E. Frankl, 'Man's Search for Meaning' 

Frankl, a Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist, teaches that meaning can be found even in unimaginable pain.

Acceptance

1. 85 "Accept that someday what pains you now will surely pain you less." ― Cheryl Strayed 

2. "Grief is like a long valley, a winding valley where any bend may reveal a totally new landscape." —  C.S. Lewis

3. "You will not 'get over' the loss of a loved one; you will learn to live with it." – Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

4. "Behind the clouds is the sun still shining." – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

5. "You make yourself strong because it's expected of you." – Jodi Picoult 

6. "Those we love and lose are always connected by heartstrings into infinity." — Terri Guillemets

7. "Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future." — Robert H. Schuller

8. "You have to believe in yourself when no one else does." — Serena Williams

9. "Death ends a life, not a relationship." — Mitch Albom

10. "Grief is the agony of an instant, the indulgence of grief, the blunder of a life." — Benjamin Disraeli

11. "What you are, the world is. And without your transformation, there can be no transformation of the world." — Eckhart Tolle, 'A New Earth'

Learn more in the full summary of 'A New Earth' by Eckhart Tolle on the Headway app.

1. 96 "The only remedy for love is to love more." — Henry David Thoreau

2. "In a gentle way, you can shake the world." — Mahatma Gandhi​

3. "It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop." — Confucius​

4. "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans." — John Lennon​

5. "Keep your face always toward the sunshine—and shadows will fall behind you." — Walt Whitman​

6. "It always seems impossible until it's done." — Nelson Mandela​

7. "Believe in yourself and all that you are." — Christian D. Larson​

8. "The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." — Walt Disney

9. "Healing takes time, and asking for help is a courageous step." — Mariska Hargitay

10. "Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul." — Emily Dickinson

11. "Grief is not a disorder, a disease, or a sign of weakness. It is an emotional, physical, and spiritual necessity." — Earl Grollman

Each quote above is more than just a phrase — it's a window into a powerful story or life lesson. Explore many other insights from these authors in the Headway app.

Open your heart to hope with Headway top reads

Letting go is never easy, even after saying goodbye to your loved one at a funeral home and attending the funeral service. You keep holding on to beautiful memories, but those are not enough to achieve a peaceful mind.

Learn how to rebuild your inner peace with inspirational quotes from the world's most comforting books. With Headway's bite-sized format, you don't have to read hundreds of pages to reach the core. A 15-minute summary is all you need for a daily self-care ritual.

Download our Headway app to lift your spirit with words of comfort and support that call to mind and heart.