Sad quotes
A collection of quotes on the topic of goodbye, depressing, heartbreaking, moving on.
Best sad quotes
“Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.”
Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet
As quoted in Path for Greatness : Spiritualty at Work (2000) by Linda J. Ferguson, p. 51
“If I know what love is, it is because of you.”
Hermann Hesse book Narcissus and Goldmund
Narcissus and Goldmund (1930)
“Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.”
Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books
Often attributed to Dr. Seuss without citation; also cited as an anonymous proverb.
This quote has also been attributed to Gabriel García Márquez, in Spanish: "No llores porque ya se terminó, sonríe porque sucedió."
Compare lines from In Memoriam A.H.H. of Tennyson:
  'Tis better to have loved and lost
  Than never to have loved at all.
Disputed
Variant: Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.
“The funniest people are the saddest ones”
Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
“The way we see the problem is the problem.”
Stephen R. Covey (1932–2012) American educator, author, businessman and motivational speaker
“Sadness flies away on the wings of time.”
Jean De La Fontaine (1621–1695) French poet, fabulist and writer.
“The trouble is, you think you have time.”
Jack Kornfield (1945) American writer
Source: Buddha's Little Instruction Book
“Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
Sad quotes
“Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it.”
Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)
Johnny Depp (1963) American actor, film producer, and musician
Also attributed to Chester Bennington (singer of Linkin Park)
Ernest Hemingway book Men Without Women
Disputed <br class="br">Source: Claimed to be from Men Without Women, but it does not appear in that work. May have originated in a 2011 blogpost by Marc Chernoff entitled 30 things to stop doing to yourself http://www.marcandangel.com/2011/12/11/30-things-to-stop-doing-to-yourself/.
“The good times of today are the sad thoughts of tomorrow.”
Bob Marley (1945–1981) Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician
Variant: The good times of today are the sad thoughts of tomorrow.
“It's sad when someone you know becomes someone you knew.”
Henry Rollins (1961) American singer-songwriter
Variant: It is sad when someone you know becomes someone you knew.
“There's a time for departure even when there's no certain place to go.”
Tennessee Williams (1911–1983) American playwright
“The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.”
Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French-German physician, theologian, musician and philosopher
Variant: The tragedy in a man’s life is what dies inside of him while he lives.
“If it's not important for you, then it's not important for me.”
Lucky Gupta (1998) Internet celebrity
2021
“It is sad not to be loved, but it is much sadder not to be able to love.”
Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) 19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher
To a Young Writer
“Nothing is more sad than the death of an illusion.”
Arthur Koestler (1905–1983) Hungarian-British author and journalist
“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.”
Bob Marley (1945–1981) Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician
Variant: One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.
“It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.”
André Gide (1869–1951) French novelist and essayist
Frequently misattributed to Marilyn Monroe or Kurt Cobain.
Source: https://books.google.com/books?id=xUtdDnEhkMMC&pg=PT12&lpg=PT12#v=onepage&q&f=false
Source: Autumn Leaves, Philosophical eLibrary, 2012, (Feuillets d'automne, 1941, trans. Jeanine Parisier Plottel)
Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer
"In Blackwater Woods"
American Primitive (1983)
Source: New and Selected Poems, Vol. 1
“If you expect nothing from somebody you are never disappointed.”
Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar
Source: The Bell Jar (1963), Ch. 5
“Sometimes things fall apart so that better things can fall together.”
Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer
Variant: Sometimes good things fall apart so that better things can fall together.
“To love is to will the good of the other.”
Thomas Aquinas book Summa Theologica
II-II, q. 26, art. 6
Summa Theologica (1265–1274)
Joanne K. Rowling (1965) British novelist, author of the Harry Potter series
2000s <br class="br">Context: Depression is the most unpleasant thing I have ever experienced. … It is that absence of being able to envisage that you will ever be cheerful again. The absence of hope. That very deadened feeling, which is so very different from feeling sad. Sad hurts but it's a healthy feeling. It's a necessary thing to feel. Depression is very different.<br><br>As quoted in "J. K. Rowling : The Interview," by Ann Treneman in The Times (30 June 2000) http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2000/0600-times-treneman.html
“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.”
Axel Munthe (1857–1949) Swedish physician
Source: supanet.com/find/famous-quotes-by/axel-munthe/a-man-can-stand-a-lot-as-fqb50991/
“It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”
Paulo Coelho book Manuscript Found in Accra
Manuscript Found in Accra (2012), Love has always passed me by
“One thing you can't hide - is when you're crippled inside.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter
“The magic of first love is our ignorance that it can ever end.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister
Book 4, chapter 1. Often misquoted as "The magic of first love is our ignorance that it can never end".
Books, Coningsby (1844), Henrietta Temple (1837)
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Variant: If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.
“Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things.”
Arthur Schopenhauer book Parerga and Paralipomena
Meistens belehrt uns erst der Verlust über den Wert der Dinge.
Source: Parerga and Paralipomena (1851), Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life
“There are no have-to's, just choices”
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States
“Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a man's last romance.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
“A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her.”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Variant: A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her.
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“You don't forget the face of the person who was your last hope.”
Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games
Katniss Everdeen, p. 85
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, The Hunger Games (2008)
“Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. ”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) British poet laureate
“There is, in the end, the letting go.”
Marya Hornbacher book Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia
Source: Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia
“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”
Zora Neale Hurston book Their Eyes Were Watching God
Source: Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), Ch. 3, p. 21.
C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology
"The Art of Living", interview with journalist Gordon Young first published in 1960
Variant: [T]here are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year's course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word "happy" would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.
“Breathing is hard. When you cry so much, it makes you realize that breathing is hard.”
David Levithan book Love Is the Higher Law
Source: Love Is the Higher Law
“It's much easier not to know things sometimes.”
Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Variant: It’s much easier not to know things sometimes.
Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Romantic poet
St. 18
To a Skylark (1821)
Source: The Complete Poems
Fannie Flagg (1944) American actress, comedian and author
Source: The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion
“The reason it hurts so much to separate is because our souls are connected.”
Nicholas Sparks (1965) American writer and novelist
“Our sweetest songs are those of saddest thought.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Romantic poet
Source: The Complete Poems
“You know, a heart can be broken, but it keeps on beating, just the same.”
Fannie Flagg book Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Variant: You know, a heart can be broken, but it still keeps a-beating just the same.
Source: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
“The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.”
Robert B. Cialdini (1945) American social psychologist
Source: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
“I couldn’t see the point of getting up. I had nothing to look forward to.”
Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar
Source: The Bell Jar
“Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them.”
George Eliot book Adam Bede
Source: Adam Bede (1859)
“I didn't want to wake up. I was having a much better time asleep. And that's really sad.”
Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story
Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story
“It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses, we must plant more roses.”
George Eliot (1819–1880) English novelist, journalist and translator
“We are afraid to care too much, for fear that the other person does not care at all.”
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States
“Perhaps it was freedom itself that choked her.”
Patricia Highsmith book The Price of Salt
Source: The Price of Salt
“Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English playwright and poet
“There is no such thing in life as normal”
Morrissey (1959) English singer
Ref: en.wikiquote.org - Lauretta Bender / Quotes / 1954 Senate Subcommittee Hearings into Juvenile Delinquency, "Testimony of Dr. Lauretta Bender, senior psychiatrist, Belleveu hospital Newyork N.Y." http://www.thecomicbooks.com/bender.html <br class="br">From songs
“Do not grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.”
Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet
"Unmarked boxes" /Ode#1937
Disputed, The Essential Rumi (1995)
“As long as there's me
As long as there's you”
David Bowie (1947–2016) British musician, actor, record producer and arranger
"Where Are We Now?" (2013)
Song lyrics, The Next Day (2013)
Context: Where are we now?
Where are we now?
The moment you know
You know, you know
As long as there's sun
As long as there's sun
As long as there's rain
As long as there's rain
As long as there's fire
As long as there's fire
As long as there's me
As long as there's you
“Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.”
George Bernard Shaw Man and Superman
#25
1900s, Maxims for Revolutionists (1903)
Source: Man and Superman
“Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.”
Pablo Neruda book Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair
"Tonight I Can Write" (Puedo Escribir), XX, p. 49.
Source: Veinte Poemas de Amor y una Canción Desesperada (Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair) (1924)
“Hearts are not to be had as a gift, hearts are to be earned.”
W.B. Yeats (1865–1939) Irish poet and playwright
“Some people care too much. I think it's called love.”
A.A. Milne book Winnie-the-Pooh
Source: Winnie-the-Pooh
“Pleasure of love lasts but a moment, Pain of love lasts a lifetime.”
Bette Davis (1908–1989) film and television actress from the United States
“The heart will break, but broken live on.”
George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement
Variant: And thus the heart will break, yet brokenly live on.
“Life is to be lived, not controlled.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
“Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“Melancholy is the happiness of being sad.”
Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist
“Love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah”
Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) Canadian poet and singer-songwriter
Source: Songs of Leonard Cohen, Herewith: Music, Words and Photographs
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated (1894)
“This moment will just be another story someday.”
Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
“The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
“We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.”
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet
Table-Talk (1857)
Source: The Complete Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“Let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.”
Mark Twain book Pudd'nhead Wilson
Variant: Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.
Source: Pudd'nhead Wilson
“Proud people breed sad sorrows for themselves.”
Emily Brontë book Wuthering Heights
Nelly Dean (Ch. VII).
Wuthering Heights (1847)
“Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.”
Jane Austen book Mansfield Park
Dinner was soon followed by tea and coffee, a ten miles' drive home allowed no waste of hours; and from the time of their sitting down to table, it was a quick succession of busy nothings till the carriage came to the door, and Mrs. Norris, having fidgeted about, and obtained a few pheasants' eggs and a cream cheese from the housekeeper, and made abundance of civil speeches to Mrs. Rushworth, was ready to lead the way.
Misattributed
Source: Said by Fanny Price in a 1999 adaptation of Mansfield Park. Actual quote:
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
“no expectations, no disappointments!”
Eric Jerome Dickey (1961) American author
Sleeping with Strangers
“The love that is not all pain is not all love.”
Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet
El amor que no es todo dolor, no es todo amor.
Voces (1943)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe book Elective Affinities
Tränenreiche Männer sind gut. Verlasse mich jeder, der trocknen Herzens, trockner Augen ist!
Bk. I, Ch. 18, R. J. Hollingdale, trans. (1971), p. 147
Elective Affinities (1809)
“The saddest thing that befalls a soul
Is when it loses faith in God and woman.”
Alexander Smith (1829–1867) Scottish poet and essayist
Scene 12.
A Life Drama and other Poems (1853)