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Quotes About Grief

He dies, and makes no sign.
~ William Shakespeare
Must I not serve a long apprenticehoodTo foreign passages, and in the end,Having my freedom, boast of nothing elseBut that I was a journeyman to grief?
~ William Shakespeare
Each substance of a grief hath twenty shadows.
~ William Shakespeare
These dreary dumps.
~ William Shakespeare
Since Cleopatra died, I have liv'd in such dishonour that the gods Detest my baseness.
~ William Shakespeare
We live in grief for having left the womb, for having left the teat, then school, then home. In my case, it was leaving marriages, and the death of my wife.
~ William Shatner
My dad died of a stroke.
~ William Shatner
When I did the film Generations, in which the character died, I felt like a guest for the first time. That made me very sad.
~ William Shatner
Death ends a life, but it does not end a relationship. —
~ William Shatner
A love that is true to living persons and existing realities is steadfast and fine. But I saw then, for the first time, that a love which was fastened upon the dead and true to nothing but a past that was finished, is not a good nor true emotion. If it went on too long, it could become an incubus, throttling a man from the real life of the present, which is the life that we were fashioned to meet and experience.
~ William Sloane
There may be losses too great to understand That rove after you and--faint and terrible-- rip unknown through your hand.
~ William Stafford
What is involved in such issues, in the end, is learning to respect the freedom of the dead to be dead; honoring the dead in their status as dead people, and refraining from harassment of the dead by refusing to mythologize the dead or enshrine them. What is at stake is recognition by those in grief of the right of the dead to be regarded mortally, which is to say, to be treated humanly in death.
~ William Stringfellow
Whatever happened I would not, I dared not, become a hostage to grief. Anthony had been my sweet companion for seventeen years, but grieving for myself because he had died was neither tribute nor benefit to him and should not become the purpose or the focus of my existence. …If I allowed this, the power of death would not only have claimed Anthony in the grave but would also seize me – prematurely, or without sufficient pretext.
~ William Stringfellow
I confess, without shame, that I am sick and tired of fighting — its glory is all moonshine; even success the most brilliant is over dead and mangled bodies, with the anguish and lamentations of distant families, appealing to me for sons, husbands, and fathers ... it is only those who have never heard a shot, never heard the shriek and groans of the wounded and lacerated ... that cry aloud for more blood, more vengeance, more desolation.
~ William Tecumseh Sherman
Only the debris of wreckage, and not much of that, was left behind by the sharks who fed on tragedy: the fishermen, too, mourned the death of a living child.
~ William Trevor
That though the radiance which was once so bright be now forever taken from my sight. Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, glory in the flower. We will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind.
~ William Wordsworth
What fond and wayward thoughts will slideInto a lover's head!"O mercy!" to myself I cried,"If Lucy should be dead!"
~ William Wordsworth
What though the radiance which was once so bright Be not forever taken from my sight, Though nothing can bring back the hour Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;Grief not, rather find, Strength in what remains behind, In the primal sympathy Which having been must ever be, In the soothing thoughts that spring Out of Human suffering, In the faith that looks through death In years that bring philophic mind.
~ William Wordsworth
Splendour in the Grass What though the radiance which was once so bright Be now for ever taken from my sight, Though nothing can bring back the hour Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower, We will grieve not, rather find Strength in what remains behind; In the primal sympathy Which having been must ever be; In the soothing thoughts that spring Out of human suffering; In the faith that looks through death, In years that bring the philosophic mind. --
~ William Wordsworth
What though the radiance that was once so bright, be now forever taken from my sight. Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower; We will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind.
~ William Wordsworth
She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways She dwelt among the untrodden ways Beside the springs of Dove, A Maid whom there were none to praise And very few to love: A violet by a mossy stone Half hidden from the eye! —Fair as a star, when only one Is shining in the sky. She lived unknown, and few could know When Lucy ceased to be; But she is in her grave, and, oh, The difference to me!
~ William Wordsworth
She died, and left to me This heath, this calm and quiet scene, The memory of what has been, And never more will be.
~ William Wordsworth
But the sweet face of Lucy Gray Will never more be seen. The storm came on before its time: She wandered up and down; And many a hill did Lucy climb: But never reached the town.
~ William Wordsworth
Now, in this blank of things, a harmony, Home-felt, and home-created,comes to heal That grief for which the senses still supply Fresh food; for only then, when memory Is hushed, am I at rest. My Friends! restrain those busy cares that would allay my pain; Oh! Leave me to myself, nor let me feel The officious touch that makes me droop again.
~ William Wordsworth