We all have those moments. We feel sad, and sometimes it feels good to stay there. But when we’re ready, sometimes we need a little help or a distraction to boost our mood. So I’ve compiled 95 quotes about our saddest feelings.
This roundup of sad quotes can help get you out of a funk. But they can also help you validate your feelings and give you just the right pick-me-up when you need it.
Let’s dive in!
93 Quotes – Saddest Feelings
- “There are moments when I wish I could roll back the clock and take all the sadness away, but I have the feeling that if I did, the joy would be gone as well.” – Nicholas Sparks
- “Life’s under no obligation to give us what we expect.” – Margaret Mitchell
- “Learning is a gift. Even when pain is your teacher.” – Maya Watson
- “You see, I usually find myself among strangers because I drift here and there trying to forget the sad things that happened to me.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
- “Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.” – Mark Twain
- “Things change. And friends leave. And life doesn’t stop for anybody.” – Stephen Chbosky
- “One must not let oneself be overwhelmed by sadness.” – Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis
- “The word ‘happy’ would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.” – Carl Jung
- “Life is a moderately good play with a badly written third act.” – Truman Capote
- “I have learned now that while those who speak about one’s miseries usually hurt, those who keep silence hurt more.” – C.S. Lewis
- “The excursion is the same when you go looking for your sorrow as when you go looking for your joy.” – Eudora Welty
- “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.” – J.D. Salinger
- “I wish I could go back to the day I met you and just walk away.” – Unknown
- “I’m not crying because of you; you’re not worth it. I’m crying because my delusion of who you were was shattered by the truth of who you are.” – Steve Maraboli
- “To live in a hallucination of being loved is more painful than rejection.” – Vinaya Panicker
- “So it’s true, when all is said and done, grief is the price we pay for love.” – E.A. Bucchianeri
- “What is hardest to accept about the passage of time is that the people who once mattered the most to us wind up in parentheses.” – John Irving
- “Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them.” – George Eliot
- “The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe
- “It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more.” – J.K. Rowling
- “It’s sad when someone you know becomes someone you knew.” – Henry Rollins
- “There is a time for departure, even when there’s no certain place to go.” – Tennessee Williams
- “You meet everyone twice in this life, when they come and when they go.” – C.C. Aurel
- “Grief is not as heavy as guilt, but it takes more away from you.” – Veronica Roth
- “Death is a great revealer of what is in a man, and in its solemn shadow appear the naked lineaments of the soul.” – E.H. Chapin
- “Death is the dropping of the flower that the fruit may swell.” – Henry Ward Beecher
- “You know, a heart can be broken, but it keeps on beating, just the same.” – Fannie Flagg
- “It’s amazing how someone can break your heart, and you can still love them with all the little pieces.” – Ella Harper
- “I keep thinking about this river somewhere, with the water moving really fast. And these two people in the water, trying to hold onto each other, holding on as hard as they can, but in the end it’s just too much. The current’s too strong. They’ve got to let go, drift apart. That’s how it is with us.” – Kazuo Ishiguro
- “There is a distinct, awful pain that comes with loving someone more than they love you.” – Steve Maraboli
- “To have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever.” – J.K. Rowling
- “To have felt too much is to end in feeling nothing.” – Dorothy Thompson
- “Now, you are just a stranger with all my secrets.” – Unknown
- “I never got to fall out of love. I just had to move on.” – Christina Lauren
- Our greatest joy and our greatest pain come in our relationships with others.” – Stephen R. Covey
- “Some stories don’t have happy endings. Even love stories. Maybe especially love stories.” – Kristin Hannah
- “Love is so short, forgetting is so long.” – Pablo Neruda
- “To fall in love is awfully simple, but to fall out of love is simply awful.” – Bess Myerson
- “If you gave someone your heart and they died, did they take it with them? Did you spend the rest of forever with a hole inside you that couldn’t be filled?” – Jodi Picoult
- “You make me feel like a firefly. Trapped in a belljar; starved for love.” – Ayushee Ghoshal
- “You’re like a song that I heard when I was a little kid but forgot I knew until I heard it again.” – Maggie Stiefvater
- “There is no greater sorrow than to recall, in misery, the time when we were happy.” – Dante Alighieri
- “The worst feeling isn’t being lonely, it’s being forgotten by someone you’d never forget.” – Helen Hywater
- “Sometimes you got to hurt something to help something. Sometimes you have to plow under one thing in order for something else to grow.” – Ernest J. Gaines
- “Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold.” – Zelda Fitzgerald
- Broken relationships are a source of heavy heartbreak that seem to affect every family.” – Jerry B. Jenkins
- “Who has not sat before his own heart’s curtain? It lifts: and the scenery is falling apart.” – Rainer Maria Rilke
- “Stab the body and it heals, but injure the heart and the wound lasts a lifetime.” – Mineko Iwasaki
- “Tears are words the mouth can’t say nor can the heart bear.” – Joshua Wisenbaker
- “Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, ‘It might have been.'” – Kurt Vonnegut
- “We must understand that sadness is an ocean, and sometimes we drown, while other days we are forced to swim.” – R.M. Drake
- Being a successful person is not necessarily defined by what you have achieved, but by what you have overcome.” – Fannie Flagg
- “It is sadder to find the past again and find it inadequate to the present than it is to have it elude you and remain forever a harmonious conception of memory.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
- “I always like walking in the rain, so no one can see me crying.” – Charlie Chaplin
- “One thing you can’t hide is when you’re crippled inside.” – John Lennon
- “Faking a smile is so much easier than explaining why you are sad.” – Iona Mink
- “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” – Zora Neale Hurston
- “Heavy hearts, like heavy clouds in the sky, are best relieved by the letting of a little water.” – Christopher Morley
- “Tears come from the heart and not from the brain.” – Leonardo da Vinci
- “Long after I have given up, my heart still searches for you without my permission.” – Rudy Francisco
- “The good times of today are the sad thoughts of tomorrow.” – Bob Marley
- “Some people feel like they don’t deserve love. They walk away quietly into empty spaces, trying to close the gaps of the past.” – Jon Krakauer
- “There are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than anything that bleeds.” – Laurell K. Hamilton
- “So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I’m still trying to figure out how that could be.” – Stephen Chbosky
- “The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive.” – John Green
- “The reason it hurts so much to separate is because our souls are connected.” – Nicholas Sparks
- “You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world…but you do have some say in who hurts you.” – John Green
- “There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well.” – Jane Austen
- “If you’re my friend I should be able to talk to you but I can’t, and if I can’t talk to you, well, what is the point of you? Of us?” – David Nicholls
- “I felt her absence. It was like waking up one day with no teeth in your mouth. You wouldn’t need to run to the mirror to know they were gone.” – James Dashner
- “It hurts to leave a light on for nobody.” – Graham Foust
- “Depression is melancholy minus its charms.” – Susan Sontag
- “There is an ocean of silence between us… and I am drowning in it.” – Ranata Suzuki
- “You showed me colors you know I can’t see with anyone else.” – Taylor Swift
- “Of all the weapons you fight with, your silence is the most violent.” – Paramore
- “Breathing is hard. When you cry so much, it makes you realize that breathing is hard.” – David Levithan
- “They always call depression the blues, but I would have been happy to waken to a periwinkle outlook.” – Gillian Flynn
- “When you’re happy, you enjoy the music but when you’re sad, you understand the lyrics.” – Frank Ocean
- “How’s it going to be when you found out there was nothing between you and me.” – Third Eye Blind
- “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” – Maya Angelou
- “I hate the way you’re always right, I hate it when you lie, I hate it when you make me laugh, even worse when you make me cry.” – 10 Things I Hate About You
- “Here’s to the ones who dream, foolish as they may seem. Here’s to the hearts that ache, here’s to the mess we make.” – La La Land
- “Can the child within my heart rise above? Can I sail through the changin’ ocean tides? Can I handle the seasons of my life?” – Fleetwood Mac
- “Lately, I’ve been staring in the mirror, very slowly picking me apart.” – Stevie Wonder
- “You can love someone so much…But you can never love people as much as you can miss them.” – John Green
- “Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.” – Maya Angelou
- “The walls we build around us to keep sadness out also keep out the joy.” – Jim Rohn
- “When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.” – William Shakespeare
- “New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.” – Lao Tzu
- “Turn your wounds into wisdom.” – Oprah Winfrey
- “Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these — It might have been.” – John Greenleaf Whittier
- “Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest.” – Henry David Thoreau
- “There is a sacredness in tears. They are not a mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition and of unspeakable love.” – Washington Irving
Final Thoughts
These sad quotes show us that feeling down is part of the human experience. Even famous writers and successful people have bad days. It’s okay to feel sad sometimes.
Tough times and emotional pain are part of life. But remember, they don’t last forever. Many of these inspirational quotes remind us that challenging times can make us stronger.
Some of these are sad love quotes about a broken heart. Others are about money problems or health issues. They show that everyone has problems, no matter who they are.
I find that reading quotes from people who’ve felt similar emotions can be comforting. It reminds me I’m not alone when I’m having a hard time. Sometimes, just knowing others have been through it and come out okay can help.
These depression quotes aren’t meant to keep you feeling down. Instead, they can be a first step to feeling better. They acknowledge your pain, which is important for healing.
Remember, if sadness lasts a long time or feels too heavy, it’s okay to ask for help. Talking to someone about your mental health can lead to a much better time.
Even in sad times, there can be good things to notice. Many of these quotes encourage us to look for small joys. They remind us that a happy life often comes after overcoming difficulties.
Jeff Campbell is a father, martial artist, budget-master, Disney-addict, musician, and recovering foodie having spent over 2 decades as a leader for Whole Foods Market. Click Here to learn more about me. Click Here to learn more about my site. Editorial Policies.
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