Love And Loss Quotes

“And on that evening when we grow older still we'll speak about these two young men as though they were two strangers we met on the train and whom we admire and want to help along. And we'll want to call it envy, because to call it regret would break our hearts.”
― André Aciman, Call Me by Your Name

“Most of us can't help but live as though we've got two lives to live, one is the mockup, the other the finished version, and then there are all those versions in between. But there's only one, and before you know it, your heart is worn out, and, as for your body, there comes a point when no one looks at it, much less wants to come near it. Right now there's sorrow. I don't envy the pain. But I envy you the pain. (p. 225)”
― André Aciman, Call Me by Your Name

“Maybe it was the alcohol, maybe it was the truth, maybe I didn't want things to turn abstract, but I felt I should say it, because this was the moment to say it, because it suddenly dawned on me that this was why I had come, to tell him 'You are the only person I'd like to say goodbye to when I die, because only then will this thing I call my life make any sense. And if I should hear that you died, my life as I know it, the me who is speaking with you now, will cease to exist.”
― André Aciman, Call Me by Your Name

“Everyone goes through a period of Traviamento - when we take, say, a different turn in life, the other via. Dante himself did. Some recover, some pretend to recover, some never come back, some chicken out before even starting, and some, for fear of taking any turns, find themselves leading the wrong life all life long.”
― André Aciman, Call Me by Your Name

“Over the years I'd lodged him in the permanent past, my pluperfect lover, put him on ice, stuffed him with memories and mothballs like a hunted ornament confabulating with the ghost of all my evenings. I'd dust him off from time to time and then put him back on the mantelpiece. He no longer belonged to earth or to life. All I was likely to discover at this point wasn't just how distant were the paths we'd taken, it was the measure of loss that was going to strike me--a loss I didn't mind thinking about in abstract terms but which would hurt when stared at in the face, the way nostalgia hurts long after we've stopped thinking of things we lost and may never have cared for.”
― André Aciman, Call Me by Your Name

“I think anyone who opened their heart enough to love without restraint and subsequently were devastated by loss knows that in that moment you are forever changed; a apart of you is no longer whole. Some will never again love with that level of abandon where life is perceived as innocent and the threat of loss seems implausible. Love and loss, therefore, are linked.”
― Donna Lynn Hope

“If there is pain, nurse it, and if there is a flame, don't snuff it out, don't be brutal with it. Withdrawal can be a terrible thing when it keeps us awake at night, and watching others forget us sooner than we'd want to be forgotten is no better. We rip out so much of ourselves to be cured of things faster than we should that we go bankrupt by the age of thirty and have less to offer each time we start with someone new. But to feel nothing so as not to feel anything - what a waste! (p. 225)”
― André Aciman

“His mouth went dry and for a split second he had a metallic taste on the sides of his tongue. He stood, turned, and gulped. A vision had appeared from somewhere. Was she real? She was tall, with long, glossy light-gold hair surrounding a perfectly shaped face. The front of her silk white robe was open down to a delightful cleavage where a long silver cross hung. As she walked slowly past Alec to sit at the desk, the robe parted for a fleeting glimpse of her leg. A scent of lily of the valley meandered over him. A hand with long graceful fingers indicated for him to sit again in his chair. She was real!
She was, without doubt, the most beautiful woman Alec had ever seen.”
― Hugo Woolley, The Wasp Trap: Book 3 in the Charlotte's War Trilogy

“We can only truly have but one love in our life.”
― Amanda Adams, The Voyeur's Yacht

“What I wanted to preserve was the turbulent gasp in his voice which lingered with me for days afterward and told me that, if I could have him like this in my dreams every night of my life, I'd stake my entire life on dreams and be done with the rest. (p. 109)”
― André Aciman, Call Me by Your Name

“Do you know where Jean de Tournet is?” Jason asked.
“He is dead, Uncle,” Charlotte said flatly.
“How do you know?”
“I killed him in 1943. He was doing business with the Nazis. He tried to rape me” – she stopped and shivered – “but I killed him before he could.”
Jason and Sophie both looked at Charlotte with horror. This was the first time Jason had showed any genuine emotion throughout the evening. It was fear.”
― Hugo Woolley, The Wasp Trap: Book 3 in the Charlotte's War Trilogy

“LXXIX

When I die, I want your hands on my eyes.
I want the light and wheat of your beloved hands to pass their freshness over me once more.
I want to feel the softness that changed my destiny.

I want you to live while I wait for you, asleep.
I want your ears still to hear the wind, I want you to sniff the sea's aroma that we loved together,
to continue to walk on the sand we walk on.

I want what I love to continue to live,
and you whom I love and sang above everything else.
to continue to flourish, full-flowered.

So that you can reach everything my love directs you to.
So that my shadow can travel along in your hair,
so that everything can learn the reason for my song.”
― Pablo Neruda

“Cindy Divine rushed out of her first-period classroom at Calloway County Middle School. Betty Sue Bowling, her English teacher, rushed to the doorway and ordered her back to the classroom. Cindy ignored her as she ran to the nearest fire alarm and pulled the handle. A screeching blare flooded the classrooms and hallways.”
― Shafter Bailey, Cindy Divine: The Little Girl Who Frightened Kings

“I have watched people survive great love,” she said. “I have watched others refuse to. It never told me who loved more.”
― Ashley Mark Mason, Lira

“The kiss deepens, our hearts pounding in unison. It wasn’t just a kiss; it was a confession, a surrender, a reckoning.”
― Tricia Newlan, Echoes of One Night: Forbidden Love Romance

“the reverse side of love is unbearable loss.”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“It is impossible to say why we love something or someone. We can come up with reasons if we have to, but the important part happens in the dark, beyond our control. We just know when it is there. And when it goes away.”
― John Ajvide Lindqvist, Little Star

“Never love something so much that you can’t let go of it.”
― Ginni Rometty

“If you love someone and they vanish, you are left nodding like a zombie and throwing teacups at a wall.”
― Corey Ann Haydu, The Careful Undressing of Love

“Love fades where every gesture has a price.”
― Angelika Regossi

“Love comes from the heart, not by force. And the heart is like glass, once it breaks, it can’t be fixed.”
― Ayoub Imilouane

“The hardest choices are not between right and wrong. They are between two things you cannot bear to lose.”
― Serbjeet Sidhu, ONLY ONE: Whom Would You Save When Everyone Matters?

“Bonfire of Broken Hearts by Stewart Stafford

A shivering man craving warmth,
Mustn't let the fire consume him,
Despite temptation heat flares,
In arousal-seared microseconds.

Lured in with passion's promise,
A stray spark or lick of flame is all
Love ignites into walking fireball—
Devotion's immolation sacrifice.

On a cracked cardiac bonfire,
Toughened muscles take time to burn,
An atrophied, coarse chest slump,
Once burned it is charcoal brittle.

In the hall of mirrors' reflection,
ICU, but do you see any of me?
No salve - a scorched psyche set free.

© 2026, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“A love of such terrible strength that it could let go.”
― Ruslana Pidsadiuk, Before the Eyes of Doubt

“He shook his head, looking at the computer screen sadly. "I love her." then he closed his laptop. "Loved her."
"Me too," she said a little softer.”
― Heidi Dischler, You Were Always There

“I always believed that when I found the person I loved that would be it. She would always be the one. So, if that’s the case, then that means I’m—”
“Alone,” Jessie finished. “It feels the same way for me.”
― Heidi Dischler, You Were Always There

“You taught me how to live. How to trust people. How to feel like I belonged somewhere. You taught me how to have fun. But now, after everything, I feel like all you’ve ever really taught me was how to lose.”
― Heidi Dischler, You Were Always There

“The heart has its own way
of keeping things.
It turns moments into places
we can never return to.”
― Monika Ajay Kaul

“Here’s the truth about moments that change you: You rarely see them coming. Sometimes you don’t even notice how much they’ve changed you until long after they’ve passed. And somewhere along the line, you lose yourself.”
― Marieke Nijkamp, After We Burned

“Uchránim ho od bolesti.
Pretože ho milujem, tak ako som ho vždy milovala.
Aj keď ma ten chlapec, ktorého milujem, už viac nemiloval.”
― Tillie Coleová, A Thousand Boy Kisses