quotations about sorrow
Ah done been in sorrow's kitchen and Ah done licked out all de pots. Ah done died in grief and been buried in de bitter waters, and Ah done rose agin from de dead lak Lazarus.
ZORA NEALE HURSTON
Jonah's Gourd Vine
The sorrows of other men seem to us like clouds of rain that empty themselves in the distance, and whose long-travelling thunder comes to us mellowed and subdued; but our own troubles are like a storm bursting right overhead, and sending down its bolts upon us with direct plunge.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Life Thoughts
Some of you say, "Joy is greater than sorrow," and others say, "Nay, sorrow is the greater." But I say unto you, they are inseparable. Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.
KAHLIL GIBRAN
The Prophet
Sorrow is how we learn to love. Your heart isn't breaking. It hurts because it's getting larger. The larger it gets, the more love it holds.
RITA MAE BROWN
Riding Shotgun
Sorrow made you,
Yeah,
In the bottom of the dark dead sea.
GAZETTE
"The Invisible Wall"
Sorrow comes in great waves ... but it rolls over us, and though it may almost smother us it leaves us on the spot, and we know that if it is strong we are stronger, inasmuch as it passes and we remain. It wears us, uses us, but we wear it and use it in return; and it is blind, whereas we after a manner see.
HENRY JAMES
letter to Miss Grace Norton, July 28, 1883
Sorrow is held the eldest child of sin.
JOHN WEBSTER
The Duchess of Malfi
A scrap of sorrow, like a bird, lights on the heart.
I carry this in my body, seed
in an unswept corner, husk-encowled and seeming safe.
But they guard me, these small pains,
from growing sure
of myself and perhaps forgetting.
JANE HIRSHFIELD
"To Hear the Falling World"
Alas! sorrow from happiness is oft evolved.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
Die Natürliche Tochter
Drownin' your sorrows only irrigates 'em.
KEN ALSTAD
Savvy Sayin's
Not to sorrow freely is never to open the bosom to the sweets of sunshine.
WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS
Egeria: Or Voices of Thought and Counsel, for the Woods and Wayside
Sorrow turns the stars into mourners, and every wind of heaven into a dirge.
DAVID HANNAY
attributed, Day's Collacon
Day-thoughts feed nightly dreams;
And sorrow tracketh wrong,
As echo follows song.
HARRIET MARTINEAU
Hymn
Two thirds of all sorrow is homemade and, so far as the universe is concerned, unnecessary.
ALDOUS HUXLEY
Island
The pleasure that is in sorrow is sweeter than the pleasure of pleasure itself.
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
A Defence of Poetry
Lay down your sorrows,
Let me carry them awhile
Cast off your sadness,
And I'll lend you a smile
You've traveled such a long way
Searchin' for the light
Lay down your sorrows
And lay with me tonight
JOHNNY WINTER
"Lay Down Your Sorrows"
Sorrow is never more sorrowful than when it jests at its own misery.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought