Quotes about good-bye

A collection of quotes on the topic of good, good-bye, goodness, love.

Quotes about good-bye

Josemaría Escrivá photo

“Those in love do not know how to say good-bye: they are with one another all the time.”

Josemaría Escrivá (1902–1975) Spanish theologian

The Furrow (1986)

Frederick Buechner photo
Jack Kerouac photo
Ronald Reagan photo

“We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them — this morning, as they prepared for their journey, and waved good-bye, and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God."”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

Speech about the Space Shuttle disaster http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/12886b.htm(28 January 1986)
1980s, Second term of office (1985–1989)

Ronald Reagan photo
Peter Ustinov photo

“Good-bye to you too ol' Rights of Man!”

Peter Ustinov (1921–2004) English actor, writer, and dramatist

Bill Budd, as he is impressed into service aboard the warship HMS Avenger
Billy Budd (1962)

Agatha Christie photo
Jenny Han photo
Stephen King photo

“The goodbyes we speak and the goodbyes we hear are the good byes that tell us we're still alive.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Source: Wolves of the Calla

Shannon Hale photo
Jenny Han photo
A.A. Milne photo

“Good-bye and hello, as always.”

Source: The Courts of Chaos

Cassandra Clare photo

“You sure you don’t want to kiss me good-bye, baby?”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Strikes

Rachel Caine photo

“Look, I hate good-byes, too. But sometimes, we need them just to survive.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Fall of Night

David Levithan photo

“I say good-bye to hope, but I also say good-bye to hope's disappointment.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: How They Met, and Other Stories

Melissa de la Cruz photo

“It was time to say good-bye. Jack sent.”

Melissa de la Cruz (1971) American writer

Source: Gates of Paradise

Orson Scott Card photo
Mindy Kaling photo
Ambrose Bierce photo
Cassandra Clare photo
Jenny Han photo
Maureen Johnson photo

“It's always easier to say good-bye when you know it's just a prelude to hello.”

Maureen Johnson (1973) writer from the USA

Source: The Last Little Blue Envelope

Scott Westerfeld photo
Alyson Nöel photo
Jack Kerouac photo
Sherman Alexie photo

“We all have to find our own ways to say good-bye.”

Source: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Suzanne Collins photo
Elizabeth Gilbert photo
David Levithan photo

“I say good-bye to the part of myself that misses him so much.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: How They Met, and Other Stories

“They say money talks, but all mine ever says is 'good-bye sucker.”

Jill Shalvis (1963) American writer

Source: Head Over Heels

Suzanne Collins photo
Mitch Albom photo
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor photo
Rachel Caine photo

“I’ve had a lot of fun. Good-bye, and thank you.”

Romain Gary (1914–1980) French writer and diplomat

The Life and Death of Émile Ajar (1980), an essay written prior to his suicide, as quoted in "Romain Gary: A Short Biography" by Madeleine Schwartz, at The Harvard Advocate http://www.theharvardadvocate.com/content/romain-gary-short-biography
Context: The gossip that came back to me from fashionable dinners where people pitied poor Romain Gary, who must be a little sad, a little jealous of the meteoric rise in the literary firmament of his cousin Emile Ajar… I’ve had a lot of fun. Good-bye, and thank you.

Mitch Albom photo

“All I was afraid of is saying good-bye.”

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

Marilyn Monroe photo

“The studio people want me to do "Good-bye Charlie" for the movies, but I'm not going to do it. I don't like the idea of playing a man in a woman's body — you know? It just doesn't seem feminine.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

On turning down a role, eventually played by Debbie Reynolds, as quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 41

Garth Brooks photo

“He asked her twice to come along;
They said good-bye at the break of dawn.
'Cause you can't hold back the wind,
If it's meant to be again,
Then someday he'll find his way back to her arms.”

Garth Brooks (1962) American country music artist

That Ol' Wind, written by Leigh Reynolds and G. Brooks.
Song lyrics, Fresh Horses (1995)

Bob Dylan photo

“I kiss good-bye the howling beast on the borderline which separated you from me.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, Blood on the Tracks (1975), Idiot Wind

Robert Frost photo

“How often already you've had to be told,
Keep cold, young orchard. Good-bye and keep cold.
Dread fifty above more than fifty below.
I have to be gone for a season or so.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

" Goodbye and Keep Cold http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/good-bye-and-keep-cold-2/" (1923)
1920s

John Clare photo
H.L. Mencken photo

“The only good bureaucrat is one with a pistol at his head. Put it in his hand and it's good-bye to the Bill of Rights.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe (1920-1936), p. 279
1920s

Ralph Waldo Emerson photo

“Good bye, proud world! I'm going home;
Thou art not my friend; I am not thine.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Good Bye
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Variant: Good bye, proud world! I'm going home;
Thou art not my friend; I am not thine.

Jean Henri Fabre photo
Wisława Szymborska photo
Suzanne Collins photo
A.A. Milne photo
Pope Benedict XVI photo
Hugo Ball photo
Nastassja Kinski photo

“I always fall in love with someone while I'm working in a film. It's a joy to get up in the morning. Sometimes when I'm not infatuated, I just make things up in my mind. Making a film is such an intense thing. You're eliminating everything in your life and you're absorbed into the world of the movie. It's exciting. It's like somebody saying you have an illness and you only have this short time to live. Then you live it that life is over with. Good-bye. You never see any of the people again. But meanwhile you have this short life in which you can do and feel and fantasize about all kinds of things because you know it will soon be over. So I always fall in love. Then you slip out of it, like a skin you take off, and you're naked and you're cold but it's exciting because there is going to be something new. My relationships are as intense and as giving and as short as my parts are. I would pump everything into a person. I would give my left arm that it was for life, but it dies so shortly. And when it dies, it doesn't even leave traces. The relationship vanishes into space. When I finish a part, it's the same feeling. I leave people and people leave me, I leave parts and parts leave me. I say it is 'the flow of life,' but it affects me terribly. Every once in a while I have such a breakdown, question every move.”

Nastassja Kinski (1961) German actress

As quoted in Denise Worrell (1989), Icons: Intimate Portraits.

George du Maurier photo

“A little work, a little gay
To keep us going—and so good-day!

A little warmth, a little light
Of love’s bestowing—and so, good-night.

A little fun, to match the sorrow
Of each day’s growing—and so, good-morrow!

A little trust that when we die
We reap our sowing—and so—good-bye!”

Trilby (1894). Compare:
:PEU DE CHOSE
La vie est vaine,
Un peu d’amour,
Un peu de haine,
Et puis—Bonjour!

La vie est brève:
Un peu d’espoir,
Un peu de rève
Et puis—Bon soir!
::Léon de Montenaeken; translated by Louise Chandler Moulton as:
:Ah, brief is Life,
Love’s short sweet way,
With dreamings rife,
And then—Good-day!

And Life is vain—
Hope’s vague delight,
Grief’s transient pain,
And then—Good-night.

Tom Petty photo

“You and I will meet again
When we're least expecting it.
One day in some far off place
I will recognize your face.
I won't say good-bye my friend,
For you and I will meet again.”

Tom Petty (1950–2017) American musician

You & I Will Meet Again
Lyrics, Into The Great Wide Open (1991)

Alberto Gonzales photo
John Keats photo

“I can scarcely bid you good-bye, even in a letter. I always made an awkward bow. God bless you!”

John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet

Letter to Charles Armitage Brown (November 30, 1820)
Letters (1817–1820)

Kate Bush photo

“I want you as the dream,
Not the reality.
That clumsy good-bye kiss could fool me.
But looking back over my shoulder
at you happy without me.”

Kate Bush (1958) British recording artist; singer, songwriter, musician and record producer

Song lyrics, The Sensual World (1989)

Brigham Young photo
Jay-Z photo
Robert G. Ingersoll photo
Sarah Fuller Flower Adams photo

“Once have a priest for enemy, good bye
To peace.”

Sarah Fuller Flower Adams (1805–1848) English poet, hymnwriter

Vivia Perpetua, Act iii. Sc. ii.

Jean-François Millet photo
George S. Patton IV photo
Roberto Bolaño photo

“The Eye never said good-bye to anyone. I never said good-bye to anyone either.”

Mauricio ('The Eye') Silva
Last Evenings on Earth (2006)
Context: One day I heard that The Eye had left Mexico. I wasn't surprised that he hadn't said good-bye. The Eye never said good-bye to anyone. I never said good-bye to anyone either.

“The Void Which Binds is touched by all of us who have wept with happiness, bidden a lover good-bye, been exalted with orgasm, stood over the grave of a loved one, or watched our baby open his or her eyes for the first time.”

Aenea is looking at me as she speaks, and I feel the gooseflesh rise along my arms.
“The Void Which Binds is always under and above the surface of our thoughts and senses,” she continues, invisible but as present as the breathing of our beloved next to us in the night. Its actual but unaccessible presence in our universe is one of the prime causes for our species elaborating myth and religion, for our stubborn, blind belief in extrasensory powers, in telepathy and precognition, in demons and demigods and resurrection and reincarnation and ghosts and messiahs and so many other categories of almost-but-not-quite satisfying bullshit.”
Source: The Rise of Endymion (1997), Chapter 20 (p. 400)

Manny Pacquiao photo

“To the greatest fans and the greatest sport in the world, thank you! Thank you for all the wonderful memories. This is the hardest decision I’ve ever made, but I’m at peace with it. Chase your dreams, work hard, and watch what happens. Good bye boxing.”

Manny Pacquiao (1978) Filipino boxer, basketball player, singer and politician, dancer.

Manny Pacquiao announcing his retirement from boxing, September 29, 2021. https://twitter.com/MannyPacquiao/status/1443063035627651078