The death of a friend is a tragic time. Friendship is one of the most important things we have in life. The love and support we get from our friends is invaluable.

They stick by us, see us at our worst, are there in the hard times and do so selflessly. So when we lose one of those friends it can be devastating.

The pain of losing someone so important and special to us cannot be overstated. But how do we deal with the grief that the death of a friend leads to? How do we get by when a loved one is torn from our lives?

It’s at times like this that those suffering such a loss seek comfort. They look to understand what has happened and find some relief in knowing others have gone through a similar bereavement; have felt the same emotions they do. Maybe even be inspired to move on with their lives if the time is right.

That’s where famous quotes and sayings can help. Seeing others expressing their heartache and pain at losing a friend can help make sense of your own mixed up emotions.

Or remind you the agony you’re going through has been felt by others. It helps to know you aren’t alone or the first to have gone through such an awful loss.

So have a look at this large selection of sad, moving on and inspiring quotes about losing a friend. Hopefully they will aid you in recovering and healing from the loss of such an important person from your life.

Short Quotes About the Death of a Friend

These short quotes and sayings sum up losing a friend to death in the most concise and straightforward way.

• “The comfort of having a friend may be taken away, but not that of having had one” – Seneca
• “Be the things you loved most about the people who are gone” – Unknown
• “We can’t feel the lose of a friend until they are apart from us” – Debolina
• “To lose a friend is the greatest of all loses” – Syrus
• “There’s a thing that keeps surprising you about stormy old friends after they die; their silence” – Ben Becht
• “A friend who dies, it’s something of you who dies” – Gustave Flaubert
• “The loss of a friend is the greatest of losses” – Publilius Syrus
• “Death ends a life, not a relationship” – Jack Lemmon
• “Life without a friend is like death without a witness” – John Ray
• “This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look sad” – William Shakespeare

Sad Quotes About Losing a Friend

Sadness when a friend dies is a given, but knowing others experience the same can help us to feel less alone. These are some heartbreaking and depressing quotes about losing a friend.

• “Even the best of friends cannot attend each other’s funeral” – Kehlog Albran
• “Those we love and lose are always connected by heartstrings into infinity” – Terri Guillemets
• “The loss of a friend is like that of a limb; time may heal the anguish of the wound, but the loss cannot be repaired” – Robert Southey
• “When our friends are alive, we see the good qualities they lack; dead, we remember only those they possessed” – J. Petit-Senn
• “Some people come into our lives and leave footprints on our hearts and we are never, ever the same” – Unknown
• “Nothing endears so much a friend as sorrow for his death. The pleasure of his company has not so powerful an influence” – David Hume
• “You cannot stop loving your friend because he’s dead, especially if he was better than anyone alive, you know?” – Jerome Salinger
• “Don’t be surprised if you grieve more for a friend than you did for a recently deceased relative. The old saying, ‘You pick your friends, relatives are thrust upon you,’ holds true here. Friends are special people in our eyes because we hold them to be. Friends fill time in our lives that will be vacant when they die” – Helen Fitzgerald
• “There are no happy endings. Endings are the saddest part. So just give me a happy middle and a very happy start” – Shel Silverstein
• “When people die,’ she said softly, ‘It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re ready to give them up” – C.A. Belmond

Inspirational Quotes About Losing a Friend

Whilst nothing can stop the grief and devastation of losing someone close to you it’s important to remember all the good times and happy memories. That’s what the quotes below are focusing on – making sure we don’t forget our friends and the joy they brought us.

• “I don’t think of all the misery, but of all the beauty that remains” – Anne Frank
• “While we are mourning the loss of our friend, others are rejoicing to meet him behind the veil” – John Taylor
• “True friends are the ones who never leave your heart, even if they leave your life for a while. Even after years apart, you pick up with them right where you left off, and even if they die they’re never dead in your heart” – Unknown
• “Tell your friend that in his death, a part of you dies and goes with him. Wherever he goes, you also go. He will not be alone” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “We all lose friends… we lose them in death, to distance, and over time. But even though they may be lost, hope is not. The key is to keep them in your heart, and when the time is right, you can pick up the friendship right where you left off. Even the lost find their way home, when you leave the light on” – Amy Marie Waltz
• “The bond between friends cannot be broken by chance; no interval of time or space can destroy it. Not even death itself can part true friends” – John Cassian
• “When someone you love becomes a memory, that memory becomes a treasure” – Unknown
• “Every deceased friend is a magnet drawing us into another world” – Eliza Cook
• “Love is stronger than death even though it can’t stop death from happening, but no matter how hard death tries it can’t separate people from love. It can’t take away our memories either. In the end, life is stronger than death” – Anonymous
• “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. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly-that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp” – Anne Lamott

Quotes About the Sudden Death of a Friend

Sometimes we lose a friend unexpectedly. Whilst the death of a friend in any way is terrible when it’s sudden and we lose the chance to say goodbye it can often be even more painful. These quotes look at a sudden loss of a friend and how awful it is.

• “When a close friend unexpectedly leaves us, a piece of our heart is forever broken” – Chris Lumpkin
• “Death is as casual- and often as unexpected- as birth. It is as difficult to define grief as joy. Each is finite. Each will fade” – Jim Bishop
• “Words seem so feeble in moments like these. Life is so precious, and death such a thief. The depth of your pain I cannot comprehend, but I’ll stand alongside you in the darkness, my friend. Love is a bond that death cannot part. Gone from your arms, but still held in your heart” – John Mark Green
• “Be grateful every second of every day that you get to spend with the people you love. Life is so very precious” – Mandy Hale

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Quotes About Losing a Best Friend

A best friend is that one person above all else you know better than anyone, that you share everything with and would trust with your life. To lose them is soul destroying.

• “I love you every day. And now I will miss you every day” – Mitch Albom
• “His death brings new experience to my life – that of a wound that will not heal” – Ernst Jünger
• “I know for certain that we never lose the people we love, even to death. They continue to participate in every act, thought and decision we make. Their love leaves an indelible imprint in our memories” – Leo Buscaglia
• “We need to grieve the ones we have loved and lost in this lifetime—not to sustain our connection to suffering, but to sustain our connection to love” – Unknown
• “My scars are a testament to the love and the relationship that I had for and with that person. And if the scar is deep, so was the love” – Unknown
• “Goodbyes are not forever. Goodbyes are not the end. They simply mean I’ll miss you until we meet again” – Unknown
• “You’ll never be forgotten that simply cannot be. As long as I am living, I’ll carry you with me. Safely tucked within my heart your light will always shine; a glowing ember never stilled, throughout the end of time. No matter what the future brings, or what may lie ahead, I know that you will walk with me along the path I tread. So rest my angel, be at peace and let your soul fly free. One day I’ll join your glorious flight for all eternity” – Unknown

Quotes About the Losing a Friend and Moving On

The death of a friend is always horrific, and time must be left to grieve properly. But we also have to accept that life does go on. These quotes look at the sadness of losing a friend but how we then move on without lives.

• “Your lost friends are not dead, but gone before, advanced a stage or two upon that road which you must travel in the steps they trod” – Aristophanes
• “Painful though parting be, I bow to you as I see you off to distant clouds” – Emperor Saga
• “Don’t be dismayed at goodbyes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetime, is certain for those, who are friends” – Richard Bach
• “Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend – or a meaningful day” – Dalai Lama
• “But fate ordains that dearest friends must part” – Edward Young
• 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 Kubler Ross
• “What we have once enjoyed deeply we can never lose. For all that we love deeply becomes a part of us” – Helen Keller
• “The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost” – G. K. Chesterton
• “Losing people you love affects you. It is buried inside of you and becomes this big, deep hole of ache. It doesn’t magically go away, even when you stop officially mourning” – Carrie Jones
• “As long as I can I will look at this world for both of us, as long as I can, I will laugh with the birds, I will sing with the flowers, I will pray to the stars, for both of us” – Unknown

Sally Collins

Sally Collins is a writer and the founder and owner of Sympathy Message Ideas. Her passion is to help others deal with grief and provide assistance with talking to those grieving. Learn more about Sally.