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Sadness is inevitable—it is one of those things that make us human. Being sad is a natural reaction to anything that causes us pain, disappointment, or suffering.
So how do we cope with sadness? How do we make ourselves feel a little less unhappy in times of distress?
The answer is to do things that make us happy. Sadness is temporary, and we can get through it if we have the will power to do so.
This article aims to provide you a way to deal with sadness. These sad quotes we have gathered can give you the boost in spirit that you need.
But before we proceed to our list, let’s discuss a few reasons why it’s totally all right to feel sad sometimes.
(Side note: Want to use these quotes to make a lasting change to your life? Then check out and recite these 57 affirmations for success).
What You Will Learn
Why It’s Okay to Feel Sad
Sadness is one of the four main emotions, along with anger, fear, and happiness.
Feeling sad and a bit depressed over things that you can’t control is fine. It is a lot better to feel sad and lonely instead of pretending to be happy when you aren’t. Hiding what you are feeling is tantamount to invalidating your true thoughts and emotions.
You will never understand how sweet happiness is if you never experience sadness. Sadness can help you make decisions that can improve your life, and if something makes you feel sad because it doesn’t work out, then you will learn for next time. Through experiencing this emotion, you ultimately learn how to choose the things that can make you the happiest.
There are many reasons why sadness is okay, and at times even helpful. These quotes will help you understand how sadness can be a tool to empower you be happier and more successful.
Let’s check them out!
- “Affliction comes to us, not to make us sad but sober; not to make us sorry but wise.” – H. G. Wells
- “You have to hurt in order to know. Fall in order to grow. Lose in order to gain. Because most of life’s lessons are learned through pain.” – Boonah Mohammed
- “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
- “It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” – Samuel Butler
- “A tragedy need not have blood and death; it's enough that it all be filled with that majestic sadness that is the pleasure of tragedy.” – Jean Racine
- “When you feel sad, it's okay. It's not the end of the world. Everyone has those days when you doubt yourself, and when you feel like everything you do sucks, but then there's those days when you feel like Superman. It's just the balance of the world. I just write to feel better.” – Mac Miller
- “We must understand that sadness is an ocean, and sometimes we drown, while other days we are forced to swim.” – R.M. Drake
- “When you wake up each morning, you can choose to be happy or choose to be sad. Unless some terrible catastrophe has occurred the night before, it is pretty much up to you. Tomorrow morning, when the sun shines through your window, choose to make it a happy day.” – Lynda Resnick
- “It’s amazing how someone can break your heart and you can still love them with all the little pieces.” – Ella Harper
- “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
- “Use the pain in you passed as fuel. The fuel that will drive you to a better future.” – Priyanshu Singh
- “Sadness is a super important thing not to be ashamed about but to include in our lives. One of the bigger problems with sadness or depression is there's so much shame around it. If you have it you're a failure. You are felt as being very unattractive.” – Mike Mills
- “Don’t ignore the lessons of pain nor walk the same path again, or it may happen again. Strive to preserve your new-found peace.” – Terry Mark
“Don’t ignore the lessons of pain nor walk the same path again, or it may happen again. Strive to preserve your new-found peace.” – Terry Mark
- “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
- “Tears are the natural penalties of pleasure. It is a law that we should pay for all that we enjoy.” – William Gilmore Simms
- “Experiencing sadness and anger can make you feel more creative, and by being creative you can get beyond your pain or negativity.” – Yoko Ono
- “When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.” – Khalil Gibran
- “The pain never really goes away; you just elevate and get used to it by growing stronger.” – Ritu Ghatourey
- “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
- “Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy.” – Joseph Campbell
- “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
- “Tears are nature's lotion for the eyes. The eyes see better for being washed by them.” – Christian Nestell Bovee
- “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
- “If you can sit with your pain, listen to your pain, and respect your pain—in time you will move through your pain.” – Bryant McGill
- “The tragedy of life is not so much what men suffer, but rather what they miss.” – Thomas Carlyle
- “You have to let it all hang out, let go of the ideas that were more comfortable, and embrace some of the sadness in your life.” – Madeleine Peyroux
- “You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.” – Jonathan Safran Foer
- “We're taught to be ashamed of confusion, anger, fear, and sadness, and to me, they're of equal value to happiness, excitement, and inspiration.” – Alanis Morissette
- “Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.” – Norman Cousins
- “Above all things let us never forget that mankind constitutes one great brotherhood; all born to encounter suffering and sorrow, and therefore bound to sympathize with each other.” – Albert Pike
- “Don’t get lost in your pain, know that one day your pain will become your cure.” – Rumi
“Don’t get lost in your pain, know that one day your pain will become your cure.” – Rumi
- “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. To regret deeply is to live afresh.” – Henry David Thoreau
- “Things change. And friends leave. Life doesn’t stop for anybody.” – Stephen Chbosky
- “Heavy hearts, like heavy clouds in the sky, are best relieved by the letting of a little water.” – Christopher Morley
- “There is no despair so absolute as that which comes with the first moments of our first great sorrow when we have not yet known what it is to have suffered and be healed, to have despaired and have recovered hope.” – George Eliot
- “Be strong now because things will get better. It might be stormy now, but it can't rain forever.” – Anonymous
- “Don't grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.” – Rumi
- “There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the 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
- “We never taste happiness in perfection, our most fortunate successes are mixed with sadness.” – Pierre Corneille
- “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
- “The tragedy of life is in what dies inside a man while he lives – the death of genuine feeling, the death of inspired response, the awareness that makes it possible to feel the pain or the glory of other men in yourself.” – Norman Cousins
- “First, accept sadness. Realize that without losing, winning isn't so great.” – Alyssa Milano
- “Sometimes it takes sadness to know happiness, noise to appreciate silence, and absence to value presence.” – Unknown
- “I do believe that if you haven't learned about sadness, you cannot appreciate happiness.” – Nana Mouskouri
- “I really believe that all of us have a lot of darkness in our souls. Anger, rage, fear, sadness. I don't think that's only reserved for people who have horrible upbringings. I think it really exists and is part of the human condition. I think in the course of your life you figure out ways to deal with that.” – Kevin Bacon
Final Words on Sad Quotes
As mentioned earlier, feeling sad is completely normal. It doesn’t make you weak, so don’t ever feel embarrassed about it. You are entitled to be sad when there is good reason for it.
We hope that the sad quotes we shared today were able to help you find a light to guide you through your dark times. Whenever you feel like you need a mood booster, return to this article and find comfort in these words.
Finally, if you want to use these quotes to make a lasting change to your life, then check out and recite these 57 affirmations for success.