The bitterest tears

"The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone."

~Harriet Beecher Stowe

Black

“Don't order any black things. Rejoice in his memory; and be radiant: leave grief to the children. Wear violet and purple. Be patient with the poor people who will snivel: they don't know; and they think they will live for ever, which makes death a division instead of a bond.”

George Bernard Shaw

I will not say

I will not say, Do not weep... not all tears are an evil.

~Gandalf, Lord of the Rings

No tomb

No tomb for Denethor and Faramir. No long, slow sleep of death embalmed. We shall burn, like the heathen kings of old. Bring wood and oil.

~Denethor, The Lord of the Rings

You need not cry

You need not cry, for the well is full
You need not mourn the past,
for the present is upon us.
You need not grieve,
for the essence of existence is the
Transformation of form.

~David Bolen

With silence

With silence only as their benediction God's angels come
Where, in the shadow of a great affliction, the soul sits dumb.

~James Greenleaf Whittier
(writing to a friend on the death of his sister)

Your pain is

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain. And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy; And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields. And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.

~Kahlil Gibran

Do not be daunted

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.

~The Talmud