60 Sorrow Quotes That Will Take Your Pain Away

Most of the time, we cannot control what we feel, so we’ve prepared this list of sorrow quotes for you if you need a force that will help reduce the sadness.

Sorrow is a natural part of life. It is usually felt when we suffer from misfortune or the loss of something—or someone—important.

We’re all bound to experience sorrow, whether it be through internal or external forces in our lives.

Though sorrow is inevitable, it is also only temporary. It’s alright to grieve over adversity, but sooner or later, we must move forward.

So, as a reminder that everything will be okay, we’ve curated this collection that will help you see the light amidst darkness.

Let’s begin.

And don’t forget to check out these suffering quotes and hurt quotes.

Best Sorrow Quotes

1. “The only way to take sorrow out of death is to take love out of life.” – Russell M. Nelson

2. “People who drink to drown their sorrow should be told that sorrow knows how to swim.” – Ann Landers

3. “Any mind that is capable of real sorrow is capable of good.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe

4. “Every life has a measure of sorrow, and sometimes this is what awakens us.” – Steven Tyler

5. “You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair.” – Old Chinese Proverb

“You can’t keep the birds of sadness from flying over your head, but you can keep them from nesting in your hair.”

6. “Pebbles that bring you joy are better than diamonds that bring you sorrow.” – Matshona Dhliwayo

7. “The sorrow we feel when we lose a loved one is the price we pay to have had them in our lives.” – Rob Liano

8. “Sorrows are like thunderclouds. In the distance, they look black, over our heads scarcely gray.” – Jean-Paul

9. “When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.” – William Shakespeare

10. “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 to have recovered hope.” – George Eliot

11. “Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow. Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart, far better things will take their place.” – Rumi

Famous Quotes About Sorrow

12. “Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow; it only saps today of its joy.” – Leo Buscaglia

13. “Sorrow is knowledge, those that know the most must mourn the deepest, the tree of knowledge is not the tree of life.” – Lord Byron

14. “The rose and the thorn, and sorrow and gladness are linked together.” – Saadi

15. “The closest bonds we will ever know are bonds of grief. The deepest community, one of sorrow.” – Cormac McCarthy

16. “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

17. “Life’s joys and sorrows meet us every day, but some are blinded by their tears of sorrow and see no joy.” – S. Moore

18. “Sorrow makes us all children again—destroys all differences of intellect. The wisest know nothing.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

19. “Sorrows cannot all be explained away in a life truly lived. Grief and loss accumulate like possessions.” – Stefan Kanfer

20. “The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.” – Sophocles

21. “Sorrows humanize our race. Tears are the showers that fertilize this world.” – Jean Ingelow

Also read: Famous Quotes, Positive Quotes

Inspirational Sorrow Quotes That Will Help You Move Forward

22. “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

23. “Life has never been easy. Nor is it meant to be. It is a matter of being joyous in the face of sorrow.” – Dirk Benedict

24. “The easiest and simplest way to deal with sorrow is to remember that nothing is permanent.” – Swami Swaroopananda

25. “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

26. “All the sorrows in your life arise in the absence of knowledge of the soul and disappear with the attainment of knowledge of the soul.” – Shiva Negi

27. “Although it’s difficult today to see beyond the sorrow, may looking back in memory help comfort you tomorrow.” – Anonymous

28. “It’s the sorrow you feel that allows you to crave love. Without the suffering, there would be no true pleasure. Without tears, no joy. Without deficiency, no longing. This is the secret of the human heart, Rom.” – Ted Dekker

29. “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

30. “Has it never occurred to us, when surrounded by sorrows, that they may be sent to us only for our instruction, as we darken the cages of birds when we wish to teach them to sing?” – Jean-Paul

31. “Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy. The warrior’s approach is to say ‘yes’ to life. ‘Yes’ to it all.” – Joseph Campbell

32. “No truth can cure the sorrow we feel from losing a loved one. No truth, no sincerity, no strength, no kindness can cure that sorrow. All we can do is see it through to the end and learn something from it, but what we learn will be no help in facing the next sorrow that comes to us without warning.” – Haruki Murakami

Also read: Inspirational Quotes, Encouraging Quotes

Short Sorrow Quotes

33. “Genius is sorrow’s child.” – John Adams

34. “Sorrow ends not when it seemeth done.” – William Shakespeare

35. “Sorrows remembered sweeten present joy.” – Robert Pollok

36. “We should feel sorrow, but not sink under its oppression.” – Confucius

37. “There’s no such thing as old age; there is only sorrow.” – Fay Weldon

38. “Night brings out stars as sorrow shows us truths.” – Philip James Bailey

39. “He who has most of heart, knows most of sorrow.” – P.J. Bailey

40. “Sorrows come to stretch out places in the heart for joy.” – Edwin Markham

41. “Sorrow is so easy to express and yet so hard to tell.” – Joni Mitchell

42. “A sorrow’s crown of sorrow is remembering happier times.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson

43. “All sorrows are bearable if there is bread.” – Miguel de Cervantes

44. “Our days and nights have sorrows woven with delights.” – Francois De Malherbe

45. “Illusory joy is often worth more than genuine sorrow.” – Rene Descartes

46. “The cure for sorrow is to learn something.” – Barbara Sher

47. “Let us remember that sorrow alone is the creator of great things.” – Ernest Renan

Also read: Sad Quotes, Frustration Quotes

Sorrow Quotes That Will Make You Believe That There’s Light in Darkness

48. “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

49. “Sorrow rightly used may often give insight, forcing the mind to think and the eye to see—just as disease may read us many a lesson.” – Hugh Black

50. “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

51. “Truly, it is in the darkness that one finds the light. So, when we are in sorrow, then this light is nearest of all to us.” – Meister Eckhart

52. “Sorrow is only one of the lower notes in the oratorio of our blessedness.” – Adoniram Judson Gordon

53. “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.” – Kahlil Gibran

Also read: Feeling Down Quotes, Feeling Empty Quotes

Sorrow Quotes to Strengthen Your Faith in God

54. “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

55. “Whenever sorrow comes, be kind to it. For God has placed a pearl in sorrow’s hand.” – Rumi

56. “Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish. Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.” – Thomas Moore

57. “Trouble comes to us all in this life. We set our hearts on things which isn’t God’s will for us to have, and then we go sorrowing.” – George Eliot

58. “Never let anything so fill you with sorrow as to make you forget the joy of the Christ risen.” – Mother Teresa

59. “Quiet and sincere sympathy is often the most welcome and efficient consolation to the afflicted. Said a wise man to one in deep sorrow, ‘I did not come to comfort you. God only can do that, but I did come to say how deeply and tenderly I feel for you in your affliction.’” – Tryon Edwards

60. “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

Did These Quotes Help You Have a More Positive Outlook Despite Sorrowful Feelings?

It is difficult to see the world positively when there’s sorrow. It brings pain that transcends our physical bodies, like when we feel our hearts being pulled out from our chests. When we think of all sorts of pain, it’s challenging to see the silver lining in things.

But, once we get over our sorrow and learn to live with what we have, we will realize that we’re stronger and wiser than ever. Feeling sorrowful is terrible, yet it can also help us learn from our experiences and live better lives. To achieve this, we must know how and when to move forward.

The process of getting over a sorrowful experience is unique to each one of us. So, do not let anyone dictate how we shall recover from our pain. We can only trust ourselves in this matter because we know ourselves the most.

At the same time, remember that you can only move forward from sorrow if you are not so hard on yourself. By that remark, we hope this collection was able to remind you that feeling sorrowful is normal and that it is in your hands to move past it. Take your time and trust the process!

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Karen Danao

Hi, I’m Karen, a content curator and writer for Quote Ambition; I’m also a marketing and advertising professional. Beyond the keyboard and the screen, I’m someone who’s out to enjoy every bit that life has to offer!

Poetry, philosophy, history, and movies are all topics I love writing about! However, my true passion is in traveling, photography, and finding common ground to which everyone from different cultures can relate.

With the many places I’ve been to, I found that love, inspiration, and happiness are some things that bring people together. No matter how different we are on the outside, I’m a true believer that our emotions don’t lie; if you dig deep into our psyche, we’re all the same inside.

This belief was further amplified when I joined Quote Ambition. Through the quotes I’ve read, collected, organized, and written about, I found that humans are resilient, creative, and compassionate.

We take from each others’ hearts and courage, and it’s through our individual experiences that we learn how to rise above our challenges and pain. In so many ways, Quote Ambition is a platform that allows people from all over the world to gain the inspiration they need anytime, anywhere!

You can find me on MuckRack and LinkedIn.