40 Empathetic Sorry For Your Loss Quotes to Express Your Condolences

Our latest collection of ‘sorry for your loss’ quotes will remind you of the power of a loved one’s memory.

The death of a loved one is one of the hardest facts of life we face as human beings.

Whether a loved one’s death is sudden or expected doesn’t change the sadness we feel.

It is also difficult to come up with the words to say when expressing your condolences for someone else’s loss.

Words seem hardly adequate when someone you love is experiencing profound grief.

So, what can you say when trying to tell a friend that you are sorry for their loss?

These ‘sorry for your loss’ quotes will help you find the perfect passage to write in a card.

They will also help you understand death and grief alternatively; that you can pass along to someone else.

Both of my parents died suddenly; one was in a car accident when she was 40, and the other had a heart attack at 50.

I often questioned if knowing they would die would have made the grief any “easier.”

My grandpa, who raised me, died of Alzheimer’s when he was 86.

He was sick for so long and then spent a week in hospice.

It was agonizing and slow, and it did not lessen the pain, even though I got to say goodbye.

Keep reading through these ‘sorry for your loss’ quotes to learn how grief and the memories of our loved ones affect our lives.

Don’t forget to also read these grief quotes celebrating the life of someone who passed away.

Check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily inspiration. 

If you enjoy this collection, check out our inspirational quotes category page.

Sorry for your loss quotes that you can write on a card

1. “A great soul serves everyone all the time. A great soul never dies. It brings us together again and again.” – Maya Angelou

2. “If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk in my garden forever.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson

3. “Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality.” – Emily Dickinson

4. “There are no goodbyes for us. Wherever you are, you will always be in my heart.” – Mahatma Gandhi

5. Earth hath no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal.” – Thomas Moore

You will also enjoy our article on I’m sorry quote.

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

7. “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln

8. “While we are mourning the loss of our friend, others are rejoicing to meet him behind the veil.” – John Taylor

9. “Whoever you hold in the heart of you, is forever and always a part of you.” – Rossiter Raymond

10. “Grief is the price we pay for love.” – Queen Elizabeth II

11. “The season of mourning, Like spring, summer, Fall and winter, will also pass.” – Molly Fumia

You will also enjoy our article on quotes about losing a loved one.

Sorry for your loss quotes about the power of a loved one’s memory

12. “Let the grateful memories survive in the time of grief like a bird sings on a rainy day.” — Robert Louis Stevenson

13. “Recalling happiness in the times of misery is the greatest sorrow.” — Dante Alighieri

14. “And when great souls die, after a period of peace blooms, slowly and always irregularly Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration. Our senses, restored, never to be the same whisper to us. They existed. They existed. We can be. Be and be better. For they existed.” — Maya Angelou

15. “I know for certain that we never lose the people we love, even to death. They continue to participate in every act, thought, and decision we make. Their love leaves an indelible imprint in our memories. We find comfort in knowing that our lives have been enriched by having shared their love.” — Leo Buscaglia

16. “How very softly you tiptoed into our world, almost silently, only a moment you stayed. But what an imprint your footsteps have left upon our hearts.” — Dorothy Ferguson

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

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

19. “We are all the pieces of what we remember. We hold in ourselves the hopes and fears of those who love us. As long as there is love and memory, there is no true loss.” — Cassandra Clare

20. “Remember me and smile, for it’s better to forget than to remember me and cry.” — Dr. Seuss

21. “He, who has gone, so we but cherish his memory, abides with us, more potent, nay, more present than the living man” — Antoine De Saint Exupery

You will also enjoy our article on memory quotes.

Sorry for your loss quotes that speak to the grief and sorrow felt by a death

22. “Sorrow should be felt. But sinking under its dominance should not be done.” — Confucius

23. “Say not in grief ‘he is no more’ but in thankfulness that he was.” — Hebrew Proverb

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

25. “Happiness can be good for the body, grief will change the power of the mind.” — Marcel Proust

26. “However long the night, the dawn will break.” – African Proverb

27. “What is lovely never dies, But passes into other loveliness.” – Thomas Bailey Aldrich

28. “Bear and endure: This sorrow will one day prove to be for your good.” – Ovid

29. “There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief.” –Aeschylus

30. “It’s sad when someone you know becomes someone you knew.” – Henry Rollins

Sorry for Your Loss Quotes to Express Sympathy

31. Loss is nothing else but change, and change is nature’s delight.” ― Marcus Aurelius

32. “Time and time again, I have seen the power of love to heal and renew the human spirit.” ― Oprah Winfrey

33. “The loss of a friend is like that of a limb; time may heal the anguish of the wound, but the loss cannot be repaired.” ― Robert Southey

34. “Grief is like the ocean; it comes on waves ebbing and flowing. Sometimes the water is calm, and sometimes it is overwhelming. All we can do is learn to swim.” ― Vicki Harrison

35. “The risk of love is loss, and the price of loss is grief – But the pain of grief is only a shadow when compared with the pain of never risking love.” ― Hilary Stanton Zunin

36. “Grief is not a disorder, a disease or a sign of weakness. It is an emotional, physical and spiritual necessity, the price you pay for love. The only cure for grief is to grieve.” ― Earl Grollman

37. “The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.” ― Honore de Balzac

38. The loss of a beloved is an amputation.” ― C.S. Lewis

39. “The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cry. I prefer to laugh.” ― Mary Tyler Moore

40. “Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.” ― Norman Cousins

Which of these ‘sorry for your loss’ quotes resonated with you best?

Sometimes, a person doesn’t have many memories of their loved one.

My newborn niece passed away at five days old, and there were no words that I could say that would make anything any better.

So my sister and I cried together.

There are rare moments in life when words are not powerful enough to express our feelings, and only tears will do.

The only words I said were that I loved my sister very much, and I would be there for whatever she needed.

Experts have some suggestions of words we should avoid, though, when trying to express our sympathy to someone.

The first one is not to ask how they are doing.

They have likely heard this a lot and while you mean well, the person is more than likely going to tell you they are “fine.”

Instead, try acknowledging their feelings like, “I know you are going through a tough time right now.”

Also, try to avoid saying, “They are in a better place.”

Not everyone shares the same belief system.

They may also struggle with their faith at this moment of loss.

Instead, focus on the person in front of you and recognize they are struggling.

Remind them they are loved, let them feel their feelings, and be there to listen or help with the tasks they do not have the mental energy to complete.

So, which of these ‘sorry for your loss’ quotes and sayings resonated with you best?

Do you have any other inspirational quotes to add?

Let us know in the comment section below.