Phyllis McGinley Quotes

Whose lenient sorrows find relief, whose joys are chastened by their grief.

Nothing dries sooner than a tear.

Heart, we will forget him! You and I, to-night! You may forget the warmth he gave, I will forget the light. When you have done, pray tell me, That I my thoughts may dim; Haste! lest while you’re lagging, I may remember him!

It's time to live with what we have and mourn what we lost.

The tears that heal are also the tears that scald and scourge.

She must face her grief where the struggle is always hardest-in the place where each trivial object is attended by pleasant memories.

Grieving doesn't make you imperfect. It makes you human.

Time doesn’t, as advertised, heal all wounds. Although the wrenching immediacy of grief eventually passed, the settled sorrow that replaced it might in its own way be even more intense.

You know, when one's in love,' I said, 'and things go all wrong, one's terribly unhappy and one thinks one won't ever get over it. But you'll be astounded to learn what the sea will do.' What do you mean?' she smiled. Well, love isn't a good sailor and it languishes on a sea voyage. You'll be surprised when you have the Atlantic between you and Larry to find how slight the pang is that before you sailed seemed intolerable.

The most painful thing to experience is not defeat but regret

I honestly have no idea how to live without you.

You cannot die of grief, though it feels as if you can. A heart does not actually break, though sometimes your chest aches as if it is breaking. Grief dims with time. It is the way of things. There comes a day when you smile again, and you feel like a traitor. How dare I feel happy. How dare I be glad in a world where my father is no more. And then you cry fresh tears, because you do not miss him as much as you once did, and giving up your grief is another kind of death.

You who have inhabited me in the deepest and most broken place, are going, going

Like love, grief fades in and out.

The bruise on the heart which at first feels incredibly tender to the slightest touch eventually turns all the shades of the rainbow and stops aching. We forget about it. We even forget we have hearts until the next time. And then we wonder how we ever could have forgotten. We think this one is better, because, in fact, we cannot fully remember the time before.

His grief he will not forget; but it will not darken his heart, it will teach him wisdom.

You can always forgive, you just can't really forget.

...you have to learn where your pain is. You have to burrow down and find the wound, and if the burden of it is too terrible to shoulder, you have to shout it out; you have to shout for help... And then finally, the way through grief is grieving.

And I began to let him go. Hour by hour. Days into months. It was a physical sensation, like letting out the string of a kite. Except that the string was coming from my center.

I can’t believe we will forget our sorrows altogether. That would mean forgetting that we had lived, humanly speaking. Sorrow seems to me to be a great part of the substance of human life.

Once I got over my anger and rage from childhood, once I stopped feeling like a victim, I was able to open myself to great sources of learning.

Hearts can break. Yes, hearts can break. Sometimes I think it would be better if we died when they did, but we don't.

They who are sad find somehow sweetness in tears.