There’s a point after a death when people start asking if you’re “moving on”. It could be after you’ve gone back to work or have cleared out the closet of your loved one. And it can feel a bit strange.
Most people who have been through it will tell you the same thing – you don’t leave the person behind. As your life starts up again you learn how to carry that person with you.
So these are quotes about moving on from loss that say that better than anyone else probably can. There are lines from writers and poets, Bible verses a few from books and films and some original quotes that work well in a card or a journal.
If you’re looking for comfort in the early days after losing some then our grief quotes and quotes about losing a loved one may fit better right now.
Quotes About Moving On From Loss
These are some most famous and well known lines about life carrying on after someone dies. Many of them come from people who wrote them while grieving themselves.
- “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” Robert Frost
- “What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.” Helen Keller
- “Grief is the price we pay for love.” Queen Elizabeth II
- “The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places.” Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
- “Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.” Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy
- “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” Søren Kierkegaard
- “He says the best way out is always through.” Robert Frost, A Servant to Servants
- “Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it.” Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking
- “‘Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all.” Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam
- “To live in hearts we leave behind / Is not to die.” Thomas Campbell, Hallowed Ground
- “Unable are the Loved to die / For Love is Immortality.” Emily Dickinson
Quotes About Moving Forward Not Moving On
A lot of grieving people really don’t like the phrase “moving on”. These quotes are about the fact that you don’t get over a loss but grow around it.
- “We don’t move on from grief. We move forward with it.” Nora McInerny
- “Death ends a life, not a relationship.” Morrie Schwartz, in Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
- “Some things cannot be fixed. They can only be carried.” Megan Devine, It’s OK That You’re Not OK
- “Lost love is still love. It takes a different form, that’s all.” Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet in Heaven
- “The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not ‘get over’ the loss of a loved one; you will learn to live with it. You will heal and you will rebuild yourself around the loss you have suffered. You will be whole again but you will never be the same. Nor should you be the same nor would you want to.” Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and David Kessler, On Grief and Grieving
- “You will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through.” Anne Lamott
- “Life means all that it ever meant.” Henry Scott Holland, Death Is Nothing at All
Quotes About Healing and Time
People love to say “time heals” but its more that time changes how the pain affects you. These quotes are a bit more truthful about how slow it is.
- “For in grief nothing ‘stays put.’ One keeps on emerging from a phase, but it always recurs. Round and round.” C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed
- “No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.” C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed
- “Her absence is like the sky, spread over everything.” C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed
- “Give sorrow words: the grief that does not speak / Whispers the o’er-fraught heart and bids it break.” William Shakespeare, Macbeth
- “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.” Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
- “The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.” Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
- “Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.” Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
- “And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in.” Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
- “Hope is the thing with feathers / That perches in the soul.” Emily Dickinson
SEE MORE: Letting Go Quotes
Quotes About Moving On From Books and Movies
Sometimes a line from a favorite story is better than one from a poem. These work well for younger people or anyone who’d rather share something that’s a bit less formal.
- “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
- “Grief does not change you, Hazel. It reveals you.” John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
- “Oh yes, the past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it.” Rafiki, The Lion King
- “Thanks for the adventure – now go have a new one!” Ellie, Up
- “What is grief, if not love persevering?” Vision, WandaVision
Short Quotes About Moving On After a Death
These are original ones so you can use them anywhere without worrying about credit. They’re short enough for a a bookmark or writing on the back of a photo.
- Moving forward is not the same as leaving you behind
- I’m still sad. I’m also still here
- Some days I carry the grief. Some days it carries me
- You’re not in the room, but you’re in everything I do
- I didn’t get over you. I got used to taking you with me
- Life kept going, so I’m learning to go with it
- Healing isn’t forgetting. It’s remembering with a little less pain
- The ache is quieter now. The love isn’t
- One small step today. That’s enough
- Smiling again doesn’t mean I miss you any less
- Grief and joy can sit at the same table
- I keep living because you would have wanted me to
- Your chair is empty. My heart isn’t
- New days, same love
- Learning to live in a world you’re not in
- I’ll never stop missing you. I’m just learning to live alongside it
Original Quotes About Letting Go Without Forgetting
The fear for most people is that moving is the same as forgetting about the person. These longer original quotes are for when you need to hear that it doesn’t.
- You can pack away their things and still keep every bit of them. Love doesn’t live in a closet
- The first time you laugh after a loss, it can feel wrong. It isn’t. It’s the person you lost still teaching you how to live
- Moving on doesn’t mean the story is over. It means you’re still writing it, and they’re still in every chapter
- There will be a morning when you wake up and they’re not your first thought. Don’t feel guilty. They’re still in your heart, just making room for the day
- Grief doesn’t shrink. You grow bigger around it, until there’s room for other things too
- Letting go of the pain is not letting go of the person. You get to keep the love
- It’s OK to make plans they’ll never see. You’re still carrying them into every one
- The best way to honor a life is to keep living yours, with them in mind
- Some days moving forward means getting dressed. Some days it means booking a trip. Both count
- You don’t need anyone’s timeline for grief. Not even your own
- One day you’ll tell their stories with a smile instead of tears. That’s not forgetting. That’s love settling in for the long haul
- Moving on is just a phrase. What you’re really doing is learning to love someone in a different way
Messages for Someone Who Is Trying to Move On
If you’re writing to a friend months after their loss don’t tell them it’s time to move on. Let them know you see how hard they’re working just to keep going.
These work in a card, a text or included with a small gift. Our thinking of you quotes are good too.
- I know you’re finding your way back to everyday life. Just wanted you to know I’m still here, and I still think of _____ often
- There’s no deadline on this. Take all the time you need, and I’ll be around for every bit of it
- I saw you smile today and it made my week. I know _____ would have loved to see it too
- Moving forward doesn’t mean you’re done grieving. Whatever kind of day you’re having, I’m thinking of you
- You’re doing so much better than you probably feel like you are. I’m proud of you
- I know the world expects you to be “back to normal” by now. Please don’t put that pressure on yourself
- No need to reply. I just wanted to say I’m thinking of you and _____ today
- Whenever you want to talk about _____, I’d love to listen. I’ll never get tired of hearing about them
- Starting something new without them must be bittersweet. I hope it brings you a little joy, and I hope you feel them cheering you on
- Grief doesn’t follow a straight line. If this week is a hard one, I’ve got coffee and an open afternoon
SEE MORE: What to Say When You Find Out About a Death Months Later
Bible Verses About Moving On After Loss
If your faith is part of how you grieve these verses will speak to you. They’re from the King James Version. You’ll find many more in our Bible verses about loss.
- “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” Matthew 5:4
- “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” Psalm 30:5
- “He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.” Psalm 147:3
- “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven… A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.” Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4
- “It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23
- “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” Jeremiah 29:11
- “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.” Revelation 21:4
Poems About Life Going On
These are short poems and poem excerpts where the person who died is, in a way, giving permission to keep living. They can be lovely to read at a memorial or a death anniversary. For longer ones see our poems about grief.
The Bustle in a House
The Bustle in a House
The Morning after Death
Is solemnest of industries
Enacted upon Earth –
The Sweeping up the Heart
And putting Love away
We shall not want to use again
Until Eternity –
By Emily Dickinson
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Remember (excerpt)
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
By Christina Rossetti
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If I Should Go Before the Rest of You (excerpt)
Weep if you must,
Parting is hell,
But life goes on,
So sing as well.
By Joyce Grenfell
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Ode: Intimations of Immortality (excerpt)
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind
By William Wordsworth
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When Great Trees Fall (excerpt)
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.
By Maya Angelou
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In Blackwater Woods (excerpt)
To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.
By Mary Oliver
Ways to Use These Quotes
- Write one on a sticky note for your mirror or fridge
- Add one to the first page of a grief journal. Our grief journaling prompts can help you keep going from there
- Share one with a photo on a death anniversary or birthday
- Tuck one into a card for a friend a few months after their loss when the cards usually stop
- Read a poem excerpt at a memorial, celebration of life or scattering of ashes
- Save one as your phone background for the harder weeks
- Have one engraved inside a memorial bracelet or on a garden stone
- Always credit the author when you share a quote, and check the wording against the original if it’s going into print
Moving on after a loss is like learning to walk again with something heavy in your pocket. Some days you’re fine but others it pulls you down.
Wherever you are with it I hope one of these quotes helps you take the next small step and reminds you that the love comes with you.