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71 Bittersweet Quotes About Life

sad life quotes

Sorrow is a part of life; everything cannot be a bowl of peaches all the time. Loss, disappointment, death, and betrayal are just some of the things that can steal our joy. Sadness is an emotion that virtually everyone will experience at some point in their lives.

Once you realize that life inherently comes with its ups and downs, it makes sense to just learn how best to deal with that reality. For those seeking some commiseration and poignant wisdom regarding life’s sorrows, we have compiled here, a collection of sad quotes about life.

There will be times when you just feel inexplicably sad and depressed. There are also times in life where finding the bright side seems an impossible task. Sorrow does not last forever though and the clouds of despair are bound to pass with time.

Life changes like the seasons and if you are resilient enough to stick it out during the bad times, the good times that follow will be all the more sweeter. It’s normal to feel sad when we lose someone or something precious to us, but we don’t have to wallow in our pain.

Below are some of the sad quotes about life and sad thoughts on life that many of us can identify with. a sad person can relate with and if you feel like there is someone who is sad around you, these quotes can tell you how they feel:

1. “Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation” – Khalil Gibran

2. “Don’t fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have“- Louis E. Boone

3. “A feeling of sadness and longing, that is not akin to pain, And resembles sorrow only as the mist resembles the rain‘’ – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

4. “Sorrow is knowledge, those that know the most must mourn the deepest, the tree of knowledge is not the tree of life“- Lord Byron

5. “It’s easy to cry when you realize that everyone you love will reject you or die“- Chuck Palahniuk

6. ‘’The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it’’- William Mather Lewis

7. ‘’Sorrow is one of the vibrations that prove the fact of living’’- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

8. ‘’My feeling is that there is nothing in life but refraining from hurting others, and comforting those who are sad’’. Olive Schreiner

9. “The way sadness works is one of the strange riddles of the world. If you are stricken with a great sadness, you may feel as if you have been set aflame, not only because of the enormous pain but also because your sadness may spread over your life, like smoke from an enormous fire. – Lemony Snicket

10. “Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.” – Percy Bysshe Shelley

11. “Sadness flies away on the wings of time.” – Jean de La Fontaine

12. “Sadness is but a wall between two gardens.” – Kahlil Gibran

13. “Tears are words that need to be written.” – Paulo Coelho

14. “We must understand that sadness is an ocean, and sometimes we drown, while other days we are forced to swim.” – R.M. Drake

15. “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

16. “Experiencing sadness and anger can make you feel more creative, and by being creative you can get beyond your pain or negativity.” – Yoko Ono

17. “Some days are just bad days, that’s all. You have to experience sadness to know happiness, and I remind myself that not every day is going to be a good day, that’s just the way it is.” – Dita Von Teese

18. “Any fool can be happy. It takes a man with real heart to make beauty out of the stuff that makes us weep.” – Clive Barker

19. “There is no point treating a depressed person as though she were just feeling sad, saying, ‘There now, hang on, you’ll get over it.’ Sadness is more or less like a head cold- with patience, it passes. Depression is like cancer.” – Barbara Kingsolver

20. “There is no greater sorrow than to recall in misery the time when we were happy.” – Dante Alighieri

21. “Depression is the most unpleasant thing I have ever experienced. It is that absence of being able to envisage that you will ever be cheerful again. The absence of hope. That very deadened feeling, which is so very different from feeling sad. Sad hurts but it’s a healthy feeling. It is a necessary thing to feel. Depression is very different.” – J.K. Rowling

22. “Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

23. “Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.” – Oscar Wilde

24. “Sometimes we get sad about things and we don’t like to tell other people that we are sad about them. We like to keep it a secret. Or sometimes, we are sad but we really don’t know why we are sad, so we say we aren’t sad but we really are.” – Mark Haddon

25. “Leaning against my father, the sadness finally broke open inside me, hollowing out my heart and leaving me bleeding. My feet felt rooted in the dirt. There were more than two bodies buried here. Pieces of me that I didn’t even know were under the ground. Pieces of dad, too.” – Laurie Halse Anderson

26. “You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.” – Jonathan Safran Foer

27. “The word ‘happy’ would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.” – Carl Jung

28. “Tears shed for another person are not a sign of weakness. They are a sign of a pure heart.” – Jose N Harris

29. “The longer and more carefully we look at a funny story, the sadder it becomes.” – Nikolai Gogol

30. “There is some kind of a sweet innocence in being human- in not having to be just happy or just sad- in the nature of being able to be both broken and whole, at the same time.” – C. Joybell

31. “So it’s true, when all is said and done, grief is the price we pay for love.” – E.A. Bucchianeri

32. “The largest part of what we call ‘personality’ is determined by how we’ve opted to defend ourselves against anxiety and sadness.” – Alain de Botton

33. “Every human walks around with a certain kind of sadness. They may not wear it on their sleeves, but it’s there if you look deep.” – Taraji P. Henson

34. “Sadness gives depth. Happiness gives height. Sadness gives roots. Happiness gives branches. Happiness is like a tree going into the sky, and sadness is like the roots going down into the womb of the earth. Both are needed, and the higher a tree goes, the deeper it goes, simultaneously. The bigger the tree, the bigger will be its roots. In fact, it is always in proportion. That’s its balance.” – Osho

35. “Don’t be ashamed to weep; ’tis right to grieve. Tears are only water, and flowers, trees, and fruit cannot grow without water. But there must be sunlight also. A wounded heart will heal in time, and when it does, the memory and love of our lost ones is sealed inside to comfort us.” – Brian Jacques

36. “Tears are words the mouth can’t say nor can the heart bear.” – Joshua Wisenbaker

37. “The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.” – Nathaniel Branden

38. ‘’Sadness flies away on the wings of time’’. – Jean de La Fontaine

39. ‘’I don’t know if I’m getting better or just used to the pain’’. – Anonymous

40. ‘’Nobody really cares if you’re miserable, so you might as well be happy’’. – Cynthia Nelms

41. ‘’Behind my smile is everything you’ll never understand’’. – Anonymous

42. ‘’It sucks to be alone, even when there are people all around you’’. – Scrubs

43. ‘’I wake up and think dreams are real. I sleep so I don’t have to feel’’. – Anonymous

44. ‘’The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it’’. – W. M. Lewis

45. ‘’For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, ‘it might have been’’. – John Greenleaf Whittier

46. ‘’Words hurt more than anything else can, because they last, sometimes forever’’. – Anonymous

47. ‘’I wanna get lost from my life sometimes, sit on the side and watch the world go by, I wanna get lost and I don’t know why’’. – Everclear

48. ‘’I’ve learned it takes years to build up trust, but only seconds to destroy it’’. – Anonymous

49. ‘’I didn’t want to admit it. It was easier to lie. Hide the hurt and emptiness to smile instead of cry’’. – Anonymous

50. ‘’Not all scars show, not all wounds heal. Sometimes you can’t always see the pain someone feels’’. – Anonymous

51. ‘’She says that beginnings are scary, endings are usually sad, but it’s the middle that counts the most’’. –  Sandra Bullock, Hope Floats

52. ‘’Every morning you get up and put on a fake smile…but what if one morning you didn’t? Would anyone notice?’’ – Anonymous

53. ‘’Life doesn’t hurt until you think about how much things have changed, who you’ve lost along the way, and how much of it was your fault’’. – Jamila M. Allen

54. ‘’It’s hard to hold on to something that you know would never be yours in any way you think of, you just have to learn to let go and face the fact that while good things never last…some don’t even start… ~ Anonymous

55. “Have you ever felt so alone and nothing makes sense? Well that’s how I feel right now…I feel like I’m facing everything myself, with nothing but tears and a fake smile.”.. ~ Anonymous

56. “We enjoy warmth because we have been cold. We appreciate light because we have been in darkness. By the same token, we can experience joy because we have known sadness.” ~ David Weatherford

57. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. ~ Psalms

58. Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable. ~ Wizard of Oz

59. There is no greater sorrow than to recall in misery the time when we were happy. ~ Dante Alighieri

60. How sad to see a father with money and no joy. The man studied economics, but never studied happiness. ~ Jim Rohn

61. Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation. ~ Khalil Gibran

62. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have. ~ Louis E. Boone

63. I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad. Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times; but it is vague, like a breeze among flowers. ~ Helen Keller

64. Clowns wear a face that’s painted intentionally on them so they appear to be happy or sad. What kind of mask are you wearing today? ~ Anonymous

65. It is a time when one’s spirit is subdued and sad, one knows not why; when the past seems a storm-swept desolation, life a vanity and a burden, and the future but a way to death. ~ Mark Twain

66. There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year’s course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness and the word ‘happy’ would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. ~ Carl Gustav Jung

67. “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

68. “All good things must come to an end, but all bad things can’t continue forever.” – Unknown

69. “The word ‘happiness’ would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.” – Carl Gustav Jung

70. “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” – Mark Twain

71. “The sad truth is that man’s real life consists of a complex of inexorable opposites – day and night, birth and death, happiness and misery, good and evil. We are not even sure that one will prevail against the other, that good will overcome evil, or joy defeat pain. Life is a battleground. It always has been and always will be; and if it were not so, existence would come to an end.” ― C.G. Jung

The above are some of the quotes which explain that sadness is something that every human being has to experience. But, sadness is always short-lived and we must be hopeful in our approach towards life. We should always remember that sadness is an essential part of our life and appreciate the fact that it’s always followed by happiness.

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Jetta Moon

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