Quotes about Loss

Statistics show that we lose more fools on this day than in all the other days of the year put together. This proves, by the number left in stock, that one Fourth of July per year is now inadequate, the country has grown so. - Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar

Except for my daughters, I have not grieved for any death as I have grieved for his . His was a great and beautiful spirit, he was a man — all man, from his crown to his footsoles. My reverence for him was deep and genuine.

Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection.

The deep pain that is felt at the death of every friendly soul arises from the feeling that there is in every individual something which is inexpressible, peculiar to him alone, and is, therefore, absolutely and irretrievably lost.

Therefore, we do not become conscious of the three greatest blessings of life as such, namely health, youth, and freedom, as long as we possess them, but only after we have lost them; for they too are negations.

I don't know how long I looked for Toni every day at noontime, sitting on the stoop. Eventually, her image receded into that place from which all my dreams are made.

Our dead line our dreams, their deaths becoming more and more commonplace.

I lost my sister, Gennie, to my silence and her pain and despair, to both our angers and to a world's cruelty that destroys its own young in passing—not even as a rebel gesture or sacrifice or hope for another living of the spirit, but out of not noticing or caring about the destruction.

Death folds the corners of my mouth into a heart-shaped star. It sits on my tongue like a stone around which your name blossoms distorted. — Audre Lorde, from "Speechless," The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde . (W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition February 17, 2000)

One loses everything when one loses one's sense of humor.

One man asked another on the death of a mutual friend, How much did he leave? His friend responded, He left it all.

I loved you, and my love had no return, And therefore my true love has been my death.