In the intricate tapestry of human experience, sorrow weaves its threads with a weight that cannot be understated. It’s a universal emotion that transcends cultural boundaries, languages, and time periods. From the ancient lamentations of poets to the modern expressions of grief in art and literature, sorrow has been a perennial muse, inspiring introspection, empathy, and resilience in the face of adversity.
In the midst of sorrow, words often serve as both solace and expression, offering a way to articulate the complex emotions that accompany loss, disappointment, or hardship. Through the lens of literature, philosophy, and personal reflection, we confront the depth and breadth of sorrow’s impact on our lives, seeking understanding, connection, and perhaps even a glimmer of hope amidst the darkness. It’s within these moments of vulnerability and honesty that we discover the profound beauty and strength inherent in the human spirit.
Below, you’ll find a collection of sorrow quotes gathered from various sources, spanning different perspectives, cultures, and epochs. Whether you seek words of comfort, companionship in your sorrow, or simply a deeper understanding of this intricate emotion, may these quotes serve as a beacon of light in the shadows of grief and as a reminder of the resilience that resides within us all.
If future generations are to remember us more with gratitude than sorrow, we must achieve more than just the miracles of technology. We must also leave them a glimpse of the world as it was created, not just as it looked when we got through with it. Lyndon B. Johnson
We should feel sorrow, but not sink under its oppression. Confucius
Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like. Lao Tzu
The ideal God holds for us is to form families in the way most likely to lead to happiness and away from sorrow. Henry B. Eyring
The excursion is the same when you go looking for your sorrow as when you go looking for your joy. Eudora Welty
An actor’s body should be full of emotions, whether it is happiness or sorrow, pain or joy, enraged or elated. Sonny Chiba
Sorrow ages you prematurely. When you’re in emotional debt, you’re pessimistic about the future and, even in your green years, long to return to the past to remedy the shortfalls of love and opportunity you suffered. David Viscott
Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine. Thomas Aquinas
He that raises a large family does, indeed, while he lives to observe them, stand a broader mark for sorrow; but then he stands a broader mark for pleasure too. Benjamin Franklin
The rose and the thorn, and sorrow and gladness are linked together. Saadi
Above all things let us never forget that mankind constitutes one great brotherhood; all born to encounter suffering and sorrow, and therefore bound to sympathize with each other. Albert Pike
Truly, it is in darkness that one finds the light, so when we are in sorrow, then this light is nearest of all to us. Meister Eckhart
Every where the years bring to all enough of sin and sorrow; but in slavery the very dawn of life is darkened by these shadows. Harriet Ann Jacobs
There are no words to express my sorrow and regret for the pain I have caused others by words and actions. To the people I have hurt, I am truly sorry. Matt Lauer
Sorrow is knowledge, those that know the most must mourn the deepest, the tree of knowledge is not the tree of life. Lord Byron
I have lived eighty years of life and know nothing for it, but to be resigned and tell myself that flies are born to be eaten by spiders and man to be devoured by sorrow. Voltaire
Old age is the supreme evil, for it deprives man of all pleasures while allowing his appetites to remain, and it brings with it every possible sorrow. Yet men fear death and desire old age. Giacomo Leopardi
As a medical doctor, I have known the face of adversity. I have seen much of death and dying, suffering and sorrow. I also remember the plight of students overwhelmed by their studies and of those striving to learn a foreign language. And I recall the fatigue and frustration felt by young parents with children in need. Russell M. Nelson
Since our society equates happiness with youth, we often assume that sorrow, quiet desperation, and hopelessness go hand in hand with getting older. They don’t. Emotional pain or numbness are symptoms of living the wrong life, not a long life. Martha Beck
Nobody understands another’s sorrow, and nobody another’s joy. Franz Schubert
Suffering, failure, loneliness, sorrow, discouragement, and death will be part of your journey, but the Kingdom of God will conquer all these horrors. No evil can resist grace forever. Brennan Manning
Poetry comes from the highest happiness or the deepest sorrow. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
You find out in life that people really like you funny. So what do you give ’em? Humor. And then if you show them the other side, they don’t like you as much. I find, too, that I can hide behind the idiot’s mask being funny, and you never see the sorrow or the pain. Terry Bradshaw
Excess of joy is harder to bear than any amount of sorrow. Honore de Balzac
I think that one of the reasons why people look towards the end of humanity is that people are afraid to die alone. If you die alone, the people you love will miss you, or if they die, you miss them – the sorrow is inevitable. When you truly love someone, the thought of losing them forever is horrible. Joe Rogan
If we could read the secret history of our enemies we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Sorrow is held the eldest child of sin. John Webster
When I wished to sing of love, it turned to sorrow. And when I wished to sing of sorrow, it was transformed for me into love. Franz Schubert
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. 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. Khalil Gibran
In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and to the young, it comes with bitterest agony because it takes them unawares. I have had experience enough to know what I say. Abraham Lincoln
If my art has nothing to do with people’s pain and sorrow, what is ‘art’ for? Ai Weiwei
Can I see another’s woe, and not be in sorrow too? Can I see another’s grief, and not seek for kind relief? William Blake
The pleasure that is in sorrow is sweeter than the pleasure of pleasure itself. Percy Bysshe Shelley
Let us remember that sorrow alone is the creator of great things. Ernest Renan
What else does anxiety about the future bring you but sorrow upon sorrow? Thomas a Kempis
Words are less needful to sorrow than to joy. Helen Hunt Jackson
I write about the power of trying, because I want to be okay with failing. I write about generosity because I battle selfishness. I write about joy because I know sorrow. I write about faith because I almost lost mine, and I know what it is to be broken and in need of redemption. I write about gratitude because I am thankful – for all of it. Kristin Armstrong
Genius is sorrow’s child. John Adams
The only way to take sorrow out of death is to take love out of life. Russell M. Nelson
Remember, the burden of sorrow is doubled when it is borne alone. Goran Persson
A sorrow’s crown of sorrow is remembering happier times. Alfred Lord Tennyson
You left and I cried tears of blood. My sorrow grows. Its not just that You left. But when You left my eyes went with You. Now, how will I cry? Rumi
Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
It seldom happens that any felicity comes so pure as not to be tempered and allayed by some mixture of sorrow. Miguel de Cervantes
Excessive sorrow laughs. Excessive joy weeps. William Blake
Every life has a measure of sorrow, and sometimes this is what awakens us. Steven Tyler
Godly sorrow is a gift of the Spirit. It is a deep realization that our actions have offended our Father and our God. It is the sharp and keen awareness that our behavior caused the Savior, He who knew no sin, even the greatest of all, to endure agony and suffering. Ezra Taft Benson
I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing. Agatha Christie
Humor reminds you, when you’re flattened by sorrow, that you’re still human. Elizabeth McCracken
The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities. Sophocles
He who is overly attached to his family members experiences fear and sorrow, for the root of all grief is attachment. Thus one should discard attachment to be happy. Chanakya
I sing my sorrow, and I paint my joy. Joni Mitchell
We turned the switch, saw the flashes, watched for ten minutes, then switched everything off and went home. That night I knew the world was headed for sorrow. Leo Szilard
There is no despair so absolute as that which comes with the first moments of our first great sorrow, when we have not yet known what it is to have suffered and be healed, to have despaired and have recovered hope. George Eliot
My sorrow, when she’s here with me, thinks these dark days of autumn rain are beautiful as days can be; she loves the bare, the withered tree; she walks the sodden pasture lane. Robert Frost
Seeing the world is the best education you can get. You see sorrow, and you also see great spirit and will to survive. Brad Pitt
There have been hours in my unhappy life, many of them, when the contemplation of death as the end of earthly sorrow – of the grave as a resting place for the tired and worn out body – has been pleasant to dwell upon. Solomon Northup
Sorrow for sin is indeed necessary, but it should not be an endless preoccupation. You must dwell also on the glad remembrance of God’s loving-kindness; otherwise, sadness will harden the heart and lead it more deeply into despair. Saint Bernard
If people would dare to speak to one another unreservedly, there would be a good deal less sorrow in the world a hundred years hence. Samuel Butler
It is only in sorrow bad weather masters us; in joy we face the storm and defy it. Amelia Barr
When sparrows build and the leaves break forth, My old sorrow wakes and cries. Jean Ingelow
When we tell the story of our own conversion, I would have it done with great sorrow, remembering what we used to be, and with great joy and gratitude, remembering how little we deserve these things. Charles Spurgeon
The natural effect of sorrow over the dead is to refine and elevate the mind. Washington Irving
Forgive me, Spirit of my spirit, for this, that I have found it easier to read the mystery told in tears and understood Thee better in sorrow than in joy. George William Russell
Regret is not a proactive feeling. It is situated in disappointment, sorrow, even remorse. It merely wishes things were different without an act to cause a difference. However, repentance is different. Repentance is an admission of, hatred of, and turning away from sin before God. Monica Johnson
Sorrow is so easy to express and yet so hard to tell. Joni Mitchell
I have been in Sorrow’s kitchen and licked out all the pots. Then I have stood on the peaky mountain wrapped in rainbows, with a harp and sword in my hands. Zora Neale Hurston
People who drink to drown their sorrow should be told that sorrow knows how to swim. Ann Landers
Bear and endure: This sorrow will one day prove to be for your good. Ovid
Patience is sorrow’s salve. Charles Churchill
Old age is not a matter for sorrow. It is matter for thanks if we have left our work done behind us. Thomas Carlyle
Since my earliest childhood a barb of sorrow has lodged in my heart. As long as it stays I am ironic if it is pulled out I shall die. Soren Kierkegaard
Mankind is like dogs, not gods – as long as you don’t get mad they’ll bite you – but stay mad and you’ll never be bitten. Dogs don’t respect humility and sorrow. Jack Kerouac
I think I’ve lived a pretty hard life. What I mean by hard is that… I’ve been kind of reckless with things. I’m a passionate person. I’m a super passionate person. I think there’s definitely been sorrow in my life, good and bad. I think it comes through. I hope it comes through in my writing because to me that’s what artistry is. Kip Moore
Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow. William Shakespeare
There is nothing better than work. Work is also play; children know that. Children play earnestly as if it were work. But people grow up, and they work with a sorrow upon them. It’s duty. Mary Oliver
Your heart will be shattered by sorrow if you force it to live in tomorrow’s ephemeral imagination – world instead of in today’s eternal reality – now. Sri Chinmoy
The very greatest things – great thoughts, discoveries, inventions – have usually been nurtured in hardship, often pondered over in sorrow, and at length established with difficulty. Samuel Smiles
The proud, the cold untroubled heart of stone, that never mused on sorrow but its own. Thomas Campbell
Since I was a little girl, I have witnessed the strength and courage that energized my mother, who left every sorrow and pain in the past, who would work unyieldingly to obtain her goals, who was the great warrior from whom I learned all the values that are today fundamental pillars of my every day. Thalia
There’s no such thing as old age, there is only sorrow. Fay Weldon
The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse to be divorced. Every other wound we seek to heal – every other affliction to forget: but this wound we consider it a duty to keep open – this affliction we cherish and brood over in solitude. Washington Irving
Partying is such sweet sorrow. Robert Byrne
There is no harm in patience, and no profit in lamentation. Death is easier to bear (than) that which precedes it, and more severe than that which comes after it. Remember the death of the Apostle of God, and your sorrow will be lessened. Abu Bakr
Nature best teaches how to pray, and how to reverence all the gifts the Almighty has given us. She is like a vast outspread handkerchief, embroidered with God’s eternal name, on which we may dry alike our tears of sorrow and of joy; she turns weeping into ecstasy, and fills our hearts with speechless, quiet reverence and resignation. Robert Schumann
A propensity to hope and joy is real riches; one to fear and sorrow real poverty. David Hume
Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength. Corrie Ten Boom
Sorrow is a fruit. God does not make it grow on limbs too weak to bear it. Victor Hugo
The foolish man conceives the idea of ‘self.’ The wise man sees there is no ground on which to build the idea of ‘self;’ thus, he has a right conception of the world and well concludes that all compounds amassed by sorrow will be dissolved again, but the truth will remain. Buddha
Three conditions are necessary for Penance: contrition, which is sorrow for sin, together with a purpose of amendment; confession of sins without any omission; and satisfaction by means of good works. Thomas Aquinas
The garden of love is green without limit and yields many fruits other than sorrow or joy. Love is beyond either condition: without spring, without autumn, it is always fresh. Rumi
I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing. Agatha Christie
Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh. Henry David Thoreau
Sorrow happens, hardship happens, the hell with it, who never knew the price of happiness, will not be happy. Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Each day holds a surprise. But only if we expect it can we see, hear, or feel it when it comes to us. Let’s not be afraid to receive each day’s surprise, whether it comes to us as sorrow or as joy It will open a new place in our hearts, a place where we can welcome new friends and celebrate more fully our shared humanity. Henri Nouwen
It is foolish to tear one’s hair in grief, as though sorrow would be made less by baldness. Marcus Tullius Cicero
Revenge is a sorrow for the person who has to take it on. And the person who is rash enough to think it’s going to help a situation is always wrong. Louise Erdrich
No one can ever prepare a parent for two things: the immeasurable love that comes with having a child; and the sorrow and confusion that comes when your child appears to learn in a different way from other children. Maryanne Wolf
For the poison of hatred seated near the heart doubles the burden for the one who suffers the disease; he is burdened with his own sorrow, and groans on seeing another’s happiness. Aeschylus
There is no greater sorrow than to recall happiness in times of misery. Dante Alighieri
