“A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.”
Ecclesiastes, c. 250 BC · Hebrew book of the Preacher
Chapter 7
On Sorrow
“Jesus wept.”
Gospel of John, c. 95 AD · at the tomb of Lazarus
“The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.”
Book of Psalms, c. 500 BC · Hebrew songbook
“Give sorrow words: the grief that does not speak whispers the o'er-fraught heart and bids it break.”
William Shakespeare, 1606 · English playwright, in the mouth of Malcolm
“After great pain, a formal feeling comes. The nerves sit ceremonious, like tombs.”
Emily Dickinson, 1862 · American poet of Amherst
“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.”
Kahlil Gibran, 1923 · Lebanese American poet and painter
“The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”
Book of Job, c. 500 BC · spoken by Job on the day he lost everything
“Let us see to it that the recollection of those whom we have lost becomes a pleasant memory to us.”
Seneca the Younger, c. 64 AD · Roman Stoic consoling a grieving friend
“Better by far you should forget and smile than that you should remember and be sad.”
Christina Rossetti, 1862 · English Victorian poet
People who wrote about a painful experience for a few short sessions made fewer doctor visits and reported better mood months later. Words given to grief do measurable work.
James W. Pennebaker, 1997 · psychologist who tested expressive writing
Grief is not one straight road. Mourners swing back and forth between facing the loss and rebuilding daily life, and that oscillation is itself the healing.
Margaret Stroebe and Henk Schut, 1999 · bereavement researchers at Utrecht
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