Quotes about grief and love

Living with loss is no walk in the park and anything that can help us through it is a blessing.

I love quotes, especially ones that make you stop and think. Here’s 10 quotes I adore about grief and love and how they relate to my journey through grief after losing my dad.

“Grief is odd. Yesterday I looked at your picture and smiled. Today I cried.”

This sums up perfectly how confusing grief can be.

One minute you feel fine, the next minute you feel completely, utterly broken. I think this is why it’s so hard to explain how you feel or to ever answer the question “are you okay?” or “how are you doing?” because we simply don’t know. We’re just taking it minute by minute.

“The irony of grief is that the person you need to talk about how you feel is the person that is no longer here.”

I feel this with my entire heart.

In a strange way, I think my dad taught me how to grieve him. I don’t think it was intentional but the fact that he used to talk about his dad a lot - who he lost when he was young - and tell stories and even look into his family history to try and find out more about him taught me to never forget. It taught me that you can carry a memory with you and keep a person alive through stories and facts.

That’s pretty special.

“Grief is the price we pay for love.”

It’s true that loss hurts so much more when there’s a lot of love there. I feel extremely lucky to have had a really wonderful dad and I had 21 years of his laughter, fun, expertise, advice and most of all love. I’m grateful. I just wish it didn’t hurt so much.

“Be the things you loved most about the people who are gone.”

I love this so much. Carrying a legacy of sorts.

My dad was incredibly wise, ambitious and curious. He loved to find out how things worked and had a list of aspirations that never stopped. I like to think I carry that with me. My own ambition I mean. Being the things that I admired about dad is such a special way to honour him while giving my own life more purpose and meaning.

“On my silent days, I miss you a little louder.”

I think this one is really powerful. In order to understand when people might need extra love and care or support - or space even - depending on the individual.

If I’m isolating myself in order to process, feel, grieve or simply cry - I usually need that time and space to do that. It really rings true in the quote that the days I can’t find the words or the laughter, are most probably the days I’m struggling a little more than usual.

“Grief is love with nowhere to go.”

All the love, ready to share, but essentially all bottled up and wrapped in every emotion that comes with love. It’s powerful but it’s forever.

“Hidden beneath the laughter is a sadness that I will live with for the rest of my life. This is the fear of grief.”

Putting on that brave face. That’s the bit that can cause harm in a way that no one knows how much pain you might be feeling. However it’s not as easy as just feeling what you’re feeling outwardly at all times. I for one use humour as a way to mask pain and as a defense mechanism too. As humans we don’t deal with sadness well, but we love a joke and a laugh.

Sometimes it’s simply easier to smile through it that have to explain your story…

“It’s hard to turn the page when you know someone won’t be in the next chapter.”

I felt this strongly on the first New Years eve after losing dad. It felt like betrayal to be going into a New Year without dad. Like we couldn’t just leave him behind. I was heart broken to start a fresh new year, as if I’d forget or something!? How could I ever. It was definitely intensified in my head but this quote sums it up perfectly.

“You’re everywhere except right here and it hurts.”

All the signs and triggers from sounds. All the things they’ve left behind exactly as they left it. I didn’t want anything else to change after dad was gone. His desk had to be left as is. Of course this didn’t help us and in the end changing the way things were in the house was a healthy step in the right direction.

It’s not so easy though. We have left dad’s shed exactly as it was and it’s like a time capsule with his list of to-do’s on the side and tools left where they live. It’s hard to move on from the physical things.

We will eventually… But only when we’re ready.

“When someone you love dies, it changes your life forever. It is not something you ‘get over’. The loss now becomes a part of who you are.”

I feel like this explains grief in a way that is brutal and to the point enough for the majority of people to understand. If anyone is ever under the illusion that grief is something you can ‘get over’, I feel sympathy for them. The fact they have been made to believe that is true is horrible and sad. If grief is love with nowhere to go then it’s going to take a lifetime to share it all.

Quotes have helped me through dark times. Sometimes to reframe my thinking but mostly to help me iterate what I’m feeling and to be able to explain it when asked. They help understand it to a degree when I’m so caught up in it. It helps to feel like you’re not alone and that someone else may feel this too.

Check out the wall of self kindness for more quotes in image format.

Wall of kindness