Loss

Explore 10 quotes about Loss

The greatest hazard of all, losing one’s self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all. No other loss can occur so quietly; any other loss-an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc.-is sure to be noticed.

Soren Kierkegaard

Sickness Unto Death

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Topic

Losing oneself Loss Giving up

Author

Soren Kierkegaard

Source

Sickness Unto Death

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Danish

Time

1849 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Kierkegaard, Soren [published as Anti-Climacus]. Sygdommen til Døden [The Sickness unto Death]. Copenhagen: C.A. Reitzels Forlag, 1849.

Current Citation

Kierkegaard, Soren. The Sickness unto Death, translated by Alastair Hannay. Penguin Classics, 1989.

No man can lose what he never had.

Izaak Walton

The Compleat Angler

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Topic

Loss

Speaker

Piscator

Author

Izaak Walton

Source

The Compleat Angler

Medium

Treatise

Language

English

Time

1653 1650s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Walton, Izaak. The Compleat Angler. London: Richard Marriot, 1653, pt. 1, ch. 5.

Current Citation

Walton, Izaak. The Compleat Angler, edited by Marjorie Swann. Oxford University Press, 2014, pt. 1, ch. 5.

I heard the old, old men say,
"All that's beautiful drifts away
Like the waters."

W.B. Yeats

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Topic

Loss

Author

W.B. Yeats

Source

The Old Men Admiring themselves in the Water

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1903 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Yeats, William Butler. "The Old Men Admiring Themselves in the Water." In the Seven Woods. Elizabeth Yeats's Dun Emer Press, 1903.

Current Citation

Yeats, William Butler. "The Old Men Admiring Themselves in the Water." Yeats's Poetry, Drama and Prose. W. W. Norton & Company, 2000.

How often are we to die before we go quite off this stage? In every friend we lose a part of ourselves, and the best part.

Alexander Pope

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Topic

Death of friends Friends Death Loss Mourning

Author

Alexander Pope

Source

Letters of Alexander Pope

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1732 1730s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Pope, Alexander and John Arbuthnot. Letter to Jonathan Swift. 5 Dec. 1732.

The world is gradually becoming a place where I do not care to be any more.

John Berryman

More information about this quote

Topic

Loss

Author

John Berryman

Language

English

Time

1968 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Berryman, John. His Toy, His Dream, His Rest. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1968, poem no. 149.

O my son Absalom—my son, my son Absalom—if only I had died in your place! O Absalom my son, my son!

David

2nd Samuel, 18:33

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Topic

Fathers and sons Losing a loved one Grief Loss Mourning

Speaker

David

Source

2nd Samuel The Bible

Medium

Scripture

Genre

Religious literature

Language

Hebrew

Time

722 BC 720s BC 8th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Citation

The Holy Bible, New King James Version. Thomas Nelson, 1982. (2nd Samuel 18:33).

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

Jesus

Matthew 5:4

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Topic

Mourning Loss Beatitudes Sermon on the Mount

Speaker

Jesus

Source

Gospel of Matthew The Bible

Medium

Scripture

Genre

Religious literature

Language

Greek

Time

60 60s 1st century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Citation

The Holy Bible: The King James Version. 1611. (Matthew 5:4).

Something touched me deep inside
The day the music died.

Don McLean

American Pie

On the death of Buddy Holly.

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Topic

Loss

Speaker

Don McLean

Source

American Pie

Medium

Song

Genre

Rock music

Language

English

Time

1971 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

McLean, Don. "American Pie." American Pie. United Artists Records, 1971.

Though I grieve, there is no help;
Vainly I long to see her.
Men tell me that my wife is
In the mountains of Hagai-
Thither I go,
Toiling along the stony path;
But it avails me not,
For of my wife, as she lived in this world,
I find not the faintest shadow.

Kakinomoto no Hitomaro

More information about this quote

Topic

Missing someone Losing a loved one Grief Loss

Author

Kakinomoto no Hitomaro

Source

The Manyoshu

Medium

Poem

Language

Japanese

Time

759 750s 8th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Man'yōshū. Compiled by Otomo no Yakamochi. c. 759, bk. 2, poem 210-2.

Current Citation

Anonymous. 1000 Poems from the Manyoshu: The Complete Nippon Gakujutsu Shinko Translation, selected and translated by Iwanami Shoten. Dover Publications, 2005, bk. 2, poem 210-2.

We are imperfect mortal beings, aware of that mortality even as we push it away, failed by our very complication, so wired that when we mourn our losses we also mourn, for better or for worse, ourselves. As we were. As we are no longer. As we will one day not be at all.

Joan Didion

The Year of Magical Thinking

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Topic

Mortality Loss The human condition

Author

Joan Didion

Source

The Year of Magical Thinking

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

2005 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Didion, Joan. The Year of Magical Thinking. Alfred A. Knopf, 2005, ch. 17.