80 Quotes About Losing A Loved One

Everything is going to be okay.

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Every day feels like we are constantly swimming through a pool of mixed emotions, and the list of quotes about losing a loved one below touch on just that. The moment we resurface to catch our breath, something begs us to go back into the unknown and hold our breath just awhile longer.

With the coronavirus pandemic now infecting more than one million people in the United States, questions are beginning to appear more than answers and resolutions. "When are things going to go back to normal," "When can we go back out to enjoy ourselves?"

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The battle between man and an invisible crusader is raging on as experts and scientists in different parts of the world are racing against time to create the first vaccine for COVID-19.

But what's worse than an actual pandemic? The loss of a loved one.

RELATED: 50 Inspirational Quotes About Grief To Help You Through The Loss Of A Loved One

It seems to me that at almost every moment I hear an ambulance speeding past my area. And in the back of my mind, I hope and pray that they are not going to pick up yet another lost soul to the virus.

But with a beautiful life often comes a tragic death no matter how wonderful things may seem. We all know and expect death to come knocking at our doors at some point in life, but we don't like to expect it during times like this.

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The thought of any one of our family members falling ill to the virus is a scary thought alone. But not knowing if their immune system potentially wouldn't be able to fight this disease is even worse.

Losing someone you know or love is probably one of the hardest things to endure in life. One moment they're here, and the next we are standing over their grave wondering why we did not call or text them one last time.

There are so many ways to help you during your time of mourning, and I hope that these next quotes about losing a loved one help make the process a bit easier.

1. "Come back. Even as a shadow, even as a dream."— Euripides

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RELATED: 7 Grounding Techniques To Calm Anxiety When You're This Close To Losing It

2. "If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them."— James O’Barr

3. "When he died, all things soft and beautiful and bright would be buried with him."— Madeline Miller

4. "All deaths are sudden, no matter how gradual the dying may be.”― Michael McDowell

5. “Those we love never truly leave us. There are things that death cannot touch.” ― Jack Thorne

6. “What we have once enjoyed we can never lose; all that we deeply love becomes a part of us.”— Helen Keller

7. “Remember that people are only guests in your story – the same way you are only a guest in theirs – so make the chapters worth reading.” ― Lauren Klarfeld

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8. “To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.” ― Thomas Campbell

9. “When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure.”

10. "The death of a beloved is an amputation."— C. S. Lewis

11. "Death leaves a heartache no one can heal; love leaves a memory no one can steal. From an Irish headstone."— Richard Puz

12. "The whole world can become the enemy when you lose what you love."— Kristina McMorris

13. "Without you in my arms, I feel an emptiness in my soul. I find myself searching the crowds for your face – I know it’s an impossibility, but I cannot help myself."— Nicholas Sparks

14. "You cannot stop the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can stop them nesting in your hair."— Eva Ibbotson

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15. "Those we love never truly leave us, Harry. There are things that death cannot touch."— Jack Thorne

16. "For as long as the world spins and the earth is green with new wood, she will lie in this box and not in my arms."— Lurlene McDaniel

17. "I love you every day. And now I will miss you every day."— Mitch Albom

18. "Those we love and lose are always connected by heartstrings into infinity."— Terri Guillemets

19. "Sometimes, when one person is absent, the whole world seems depopulated."— Alphonse de Lamartine

20. “We understand death only after it has placed its hands on someone we love.”— Anne L. de Stael

RELATED: 25 Life Quotes To Help You Cope & Heal When Someone Passes Away Unexpectedly

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21. “For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one."— Kalil Gibran

22. “Death – the last sleep? No, it is the final awakening."— Sir Walter Scott

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

24. “We never truly get over a loss, but we can move forward and evolve from it.”—Elizabeth Berrien

25. “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”— Dr. Seuss

26. “Lucky is the spouse who dies first, who never has to know what survivors endure.” —Sue Grafton

27. "They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity. Death cannot kill what never dies.”— William Penn

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28. “Seeing death as the end of life is like seeing the horizon as the end of the ocean.”— David Searls

29. “The only way to get over a death is by seeing it as a life completed, instead of a life interrupted.”― Anonymous

30. "The dead never truly die. They simply change form.” ― Suzy Kassem

31. “Death is tough for the people left behind on earth.” ― Prateeksha Malik

32. "It takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, and a day to love them, but it takes an entire lifetime to forget them."

33. "If you ever lose someone dear to you, never say the words they’re gone. They’ll come back."— Prince

34. "Do not stand at my grave and cry. I am not there. I did not die."

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35. "Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome."— Isaac Asimov

36. "The song is ended but the melody lingers on…"— Irving Berlin

37. "Remember that people are only guests in your story – the same way you are only a guest in theirs – so make the chapters worth reading."— Lauren Klarfeld

38. "Whoever said that loss gets easier with time was a liar. Here’s what really happens: The spaces between the times you miss them grow longer. Then, when you do remember to miss them again, it’s still with a stabbing pain to the heart. And you have guilt. Guilt because it’s been too long since you missed them last."— Kristin O’Donnell Tubb

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39. “I love you every day. And now I will miss you every day.” ― Mitch Albom

40. “Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality.”—Emily Dickinson

RELATED: 25 Encouraging Quotes To Share With Someone Who Is Grieving The Loss Of A Loved One

41. “Love is stronger than death even though it can’t stop death from happening, but no matter how hard death tries it can’t separate people from love. It can’t take away our memories either. In the end, life is stronger than death.”—Anonymous

42. “We shall find peace. We shall hear angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.” —Anyon Chekov

43. “Those we love don’t go away, they walk beside us every day. Unseen, unheard, but always near; still loved, still missed and very dear.”— Anonymous

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44. “Deep down inside we always seek for our departed loved ones” ― Munia Khan

45. “There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief…and unspeakable love.”– Washington Irving

46. “There is no greater sorrow than to recall happiness in times of misery.”— Dante

47. “For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity.”—William Penn

48. “Death” is never an end, but a To Be Continued…” ― Renée Chae

49. “Your end, which is endless, is as a snowflake dissolving in the pure air.”— Zen Teaching

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50. “Remember me with smiles and laughter, for that is how I will remember you all. If you can only remember me with tears, then don’t remember me at all.”— Laura Ingles Wilder

51. “The tragedy of life is in what dies inside a man while he lives.”— Norman Cousins

52. “Because death is the only thing that could have ever kept him from you.” ― Ally Carter

53. “Though we are terrorized by death, it’s not different from birth, it just happens” ― Bangambiki Habyarimana

54. “All of us have parents. Generations pass. We are not unique. Now it is our family’s turn.” ― Ralph Webster

55. “It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.”— George S. Patton Jr.

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56. “The whole world can become the enemy when you lose what you love.”—Kristina McMorris

57. “Remember that everyone you meet is afraid of something, loves something, and has lost something.”— Jackson Brown Jr.

58. “The mightiest power of death is not that it can make people die, but that it can make the people you left behind want to stop living.”― Fredrik Backman

59. “And yet I want to be human; I want to be thinking of him because then I feel he is alive somewhere, if only in my head.”― Sally Green

60. "People in the real world always say, when something terrible happens, that the sadness and loss and aching pain of the heart will “lessen as time passes," but it isn’t true. Sorrow and loss are constant, but if we all had to go through our whole lives carrying them the whole time, we wouldn’t be able to stand it. The sadness would paralyze us. So, in the end, we just pack it into bags and find somewhere to leave it."— Fredrik Backman

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RELATED: 50 Songs About Losing Someone

61. "If you’re going through hell, keep going."— Winston Churchill

62. "It’s easier to miss her at a cemetery, where she’s never been anything but dead than to miss her at all the places where she was alive."— John Scalzi

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63. "Closed eyes, heart not beating, but a living love."— Avis Corea

64. “Grief is in two parts. The first is loss. The second is the remaking of life.”— Anne Roiphe

65. “After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.”— Albus Dumbledore

66. “The sun can break through the darkest cloud; love can brighten the gloomiest day.”— William Arthur Ward

67. “The very worst part of grief is that you can’t control it. The best we can do is try to let ourselves feel it when it comes. And let it go when we can.”— Grey’s Anatomy

68. “Everyone for whom I would have cried has already died.” ― Kathryn Orzech

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69. “Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome.” – Isaac Asimov

70. “Death wasn’t a movie where the pretty star faded away with a touch of pale makeup and every hair in place.” ― Soheir Khashoggi

71. “And where does that minute go, that minute that separates life from death? I want those sixty seconds back.” ― Carmen Rodrigues

72. “His death brings a new experience to my life – that of a wound that will not heal.” ― Ernst Jünger

73. “Time they said… Time will heal all wounds but they lied…” ― Tilicia Haridat

74. “Never take life for granted. Savor every sunrise, because no one is promised tomorrow…or even the rest of today.” ― Eleanor Brownn

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75. “If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them.”—James O’Barr

76. “When people die,’ she said softly, ‘It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re ready to give them up.” ― C.A. Belmond

77. “Death had touched her, hurt her, and left her to deal with its disagreeable aftermath.” ― Zoe Forward

78. “It’s more like she left some of herself behind in the walls and the floors and the books, like there’s something she wants to tell me.” ― Marie Bostwick

79. “The Lord gives a good many things twice over, but he don’t give ye a mother but once.” ― Harriet Beecher Stowe

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80. “I don’t think of all the misery, but of all the beauty that remains."— Anne Frank

RELATED: 30 Uplifting Quotes To Comfort Someone Who Is Grieving

Destiny Duprey is a writer who covers music, self-care, and love and relationships.