Words of Sympathy

When sending a sympathy card or note of condolence it is often difficult to know what to say or how to phrase your thoughts and feelings. We have compiled a list of appropriate and warm sympathy sayings to give you a guideline of what to write in a sympathy card. Feel free to combine phrases and write what feels natural and comfortable to you.  The most important thing to remember while writing this is that your sympathy message comes from the heart.  Your friend or loved one is going to appreciate that you are acknowledging their grief and honoring their loss.

We encourage your sympathy message to include a sentence or two sharing a memory of the deceased. Most people relate that receiving cards with personal memories helps them in their healing journey. They want to recall the wonderful and special memories of their loved one and when you share some special aspects of your relationship with the deceased, it brings warmth to their grieving heart. If you did not have a personal relationship with the deceased, don’t worry and don’t stretch to make up a memory.  Just know that your message of sympathy will be appreciated.

  • You are in my thoughts.
  • Our thoughts and prayers are with you.
  • We are thinking of you.
  • We are thinking of you Grief is not something you complete.during this difficult time.
  • With deepest sympathy,
  • My sincere sympathy,
  • Our warmest condolences,
  • With heartfelt condolences,
  • Please accept my condolences,
  • We are deeply sorry to hear about the death of “name of deceased”.
  • Remember that we love and care about you.
  • As you grieve know that we are remembering you and honoring the memory of “name of the deceased”.
  • With caring thoughts,
  • With loving memories of “name of deceased”,
  • Sent with love and remembrance,
  • Our hearts go out to you in your time of sorrow.
  • “Name of Deceased” will remain in our hearts forever.
  • We pray the love of God enfolds you during your journey through grief.
    We send you thoughts of comfort.
  • Please accept our most heartfelt sympathies for your loss…our thoughts are with you and your family during this difficult time.
  • With love and hugs,
  • We will miss “name of deceased”.
  • We share comfort in knowing “name of deceased” is no longer suffering.  We send thoughts of sympathy and support to you as you begin your journey without “name of deceased”.
  • Remembering you and “name of deceased” in our minds and in our hearts.
  • With thoughts of peace and courage for you,
  • We send you thoughts of peace and courage.
  • Words seem inadequate to express the sadness we feel about  “name of deceased” death.  We are here to support you in your grieving process.  With sincere sympathy,
  • “Name of deceased” brought so many gifts to our life. We will never forget him/her!
  • May your heart and soul find peace and comfort.
  • Peace, Prayers and Blessings,
  • Wishing you peace to bring comfort, courage to face the days ahead and loving memories to forever hold in your hearts.
  • May you be comforted by the outpouring of love surrounding you.
  • When reason fails, pray for peace. We will be praying with you.


 

Sympathy Quotes for Loss of a Mother

Loss of Husband/WifeLoss of ChildLoss of FatherLoss of PetQuotes and Poems

  • “But she wasn’t around, and that’s the thing when your parents die, you feel like instead of going in to every fight with backup, you are going into every fight alone.”   Mitch Albom, For One More Day
  • “What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.”   Helen Keller
  • “Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye, in every gesture, dignity and love.”   John Milton
  • “When you speak of her, speak not with tears, for thoughts of her should not be sad. Let memories of the times you shared give you comfort, for her life was rich because of you.”   Author Unknown
  • What is lovely never dies, but passes into another loveliness, Star-dust or sea-foam, Flower or winged air.   Thomas Bailey Aldrich
  • I thought that I would miss you so, and never find my way.
  • And then I heard the angel say “She’s with you every day.”
  • “The sun, the moon, the wind, the stars, will forever be around, reminding you of the love you shared, and the peace she’s finally found.”
  • “Once upon a memory someone wiped away a tear, held me close and loved me, Thank you, Mother dear.”   Author Unknown
  • “A mother holds her children’s hands for a while, their hearts forever.”   Author Unknown
  • “My mom is a never-ending song in my heart of comfort, happiness, and being. I may sometimes forget the words but I always remember the tune.”   Graycie Harmon
  • The tide recedes but leaves behind
    bright seashells on the sand.
    The sun goes down, but gentle
    warmth still lingers on the land.
    The music stops, and yet it echoes
    on in sweet refrains…..
    For every joy that passes,
    something beautiful remains.
    ….   Anonymous
  • “There’s magic in a Mother’s touch, and sunshine in her smile. There’s love in everything she does to make our lives worthwhile. We can find both hope and courage just by looking in her eyes. Her laughter is a source of joy, her works are warm and wise. There is a kindness and compassion to be found in her embrace and we see the light of heaven shining from a Mother’s face.”   Author Unknown


 

Sympathy Quotes for Loss of a Husband/Wife

Loss of MotherLoss of ChildLoss of FatherLoss of PetQuotes and Poems

  • We’ve shared our lives these many years. You’ve held my hand; you’ve held my heart. So many blessings, so few tears – yet for a moment, we must part.   Unknown
  • 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.   Author Unknown


 

Sympathy Quotes for Loss of a Child

Loss of MotherLoss of Husband/WifeLoss of FatherLoss of PetQuotes and Poems

  • I gave birth to you I loved you first. I love you still. I always have and I always will.
  • May you find peace and joy with each butterfly that passes by,
    knowing that your baby lives on in the hearts of all she touched.
  • Only a moment you stayed, but what an imprint your footprints have left on our hearts.   Dorothy Ferguson
  • Those we have held in our arms for a short while we hold in our hearts forever.   Author Unknown
  • A gift for such a little while, your loss seems so wrong, you should not have left before us it’s with loved ones you belong.
  • “The agony is great and yet I will stand it. Had I not loved so much I would not hurt so much. But goodness knows I would not want to diminish that precious love by one fraction of an ounce. I will hurt. And I will be grateful for that hurt for it bears witness to the depth of our meaning. And for that I will be eternally grateful.”   Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
  • “The object is not to forget, but to remember to go on.“   Author Unknown
  • “Parents hold their children’s hands for just a little while .. their hearts forever.”   Author Unknown
  • “Our joys will be greater, our love will be deeper, our life will be fuller because we shared your moment.”   Author Unknown
  • “And we wept that one so lovely should have a life so brief.”   William Cullen Bryant


Sympathy Quotes for Loss of a Father

Loss of MotherLoss of Husband/WifeLoss of ChildLoss of PetQuotes and Poems

  • Say not in grief ‘he is no more’ but in thankfulness that he was.   Hebrew Proverb
  • If I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk forever in my garden.   Claudia Ghandi
  • Dad, your guiding hand on my shoulder will remain with me forever.   Author Unknown
  • He didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.   Clarence Budington Kelland


 

Sympathy Quote for a Loss of a Pet

Loss of MotherLoss of Husband/WifeLoss of ChildLoss of FatherQuotes and Poems

  • Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.   Anatole France
  • “Not the least hard thing to bear when they go from us, these quiet friends, is that they carry away with them so many years of our own lives.”   John Galsworthy
  • “A pet is never truly forgotten until it is no longer remembered.”   Lacie Petitt
  • “Dogs have a way of finding the people who need them, Filling an emptiness we don’t even know we have.”   Thom Jones
  • “His ears were often the first thing to catch my tears.”   Elizabeth Barrett Browning
  • “I believe all animals were created by God to help keep man alive.”   Iwao Fujita
  • “The risk of love is loss, and the price of loss is grief. But the pain of grief is only a shadow when compared with the pain of never risking love.”   Hilary Stanton Zunin
  • “Many who have spent a lifetime in it can tell us less of love than the child that lost a dog yesterday.”   Thornton Wilde
  • Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.   Roger Caras
  • A good dog never dies, he always stays,
    he walks besides you on crisp autumn days
    when frost is on the fields and winter’s drawing near,
    his head within our hand in his old way.
    ….   Anonymous


 

Sympathy Quotes and Poems

Loss of MotherLoss of Husband/WifeLoss of ChildLoss of FatherLoss of Pet

  • The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.   Helen Keller
  • May every sunrise hold more promise, every moonrise hold more peace.   Author Unknown
  • If the future seems overwhelming, remember that it comes one moment at a time.   Beth Mende Conny
  • Friends are the pillars on your porch. Sometimes they hold you up, sometimes they lean on you, and sometimes it’s just enough to know that they are standing by.   Author Unknown
  • – Beloved –
      You are forever loved
      though this life fades away
      and all mortal bodies decay.
      You will forever be my beloved,
      my immortal betrothed,
      my enduring flame,
      my guiding light,
      my compass rose.
                 ….

Thomas Earl Hopson Jr.

  • Wherever you are you will always be in my heart.   Mahatma Gandhi
  • Believe in Angels. They express themselves in many ways, a dream, a whisper, coincidence an overpowering feeling.   Author Unknown
  • If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk in my garden forever.   Alfred Lord Tennyson
  • May the blessings of love be upon you, May its peace abide with you, May its essence illuminate your heart, Now and forever more….   Sufi Blessing
  • Though nothing can bring back the hour
    of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower,
    We will grieve not, rather find
    Strength in what remains behind.
    ….   William Wordsworth
  • Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.   From a Headstone in Ireland
  • Although it’s difficult today to see beyond the sorrow, may looking back in memory help comfort you tomorrow.   Author Unknown
  • They say love beyond the world cannot be separated by it.  Death cannot kill what never dies.   William Penn
  • As you comprehend this profound loss… let yourself cry knowing each tear is a note of love rising to the heavens.   Author Unknown
  • To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.   Thomas Campbell
  • Mourning can go on for years and years.
    It doesn’t end after a year, that’s a false fantasy.
    It usually ends when people realize that they can live again,
    that they can concentrate their energies on their lives as a whole,
    and not on their hurt, and guilt and pain.
    ….   Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
  • Like a bird singing in the rain, let grateful memories survive in time of sorrow.   Robert Louis Stevenson
  • Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower, We will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind.   William Wordsworth
  • You don’t get over it, you just get through it.  Your don’t get by it, because you can’t get around it.  It doesn’t ‘get better’; it just gets different.  Everyday… Grief puts on a new face….   Wendy Feireisen
  • Perhaps they are not the stars, but rather openings in Heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know that are happy.   Author Unknown
  • Angels are watching over you
    Wings wrapped gently around you,
    Whispering you are loved and blessed.
    ….   Angel Blessing
  • When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure.   Author Unknown
  • 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.  We find comfort in knowing that our lives have been enriched by having shared their love.   Leo Buscaglia
  • The guardian angels of life fly so high as to be beyond our sight, but they are always looking down upon us.   Jean Paul Richter
  • When a soul dies, the winds will blow. The greater the soul, the greater the winds.   Ancient Saying
  • May the stars carry your sadness away,
    May the flowers fill your heart with beauty,
    May hope forever wipe away your tears,
    And, above all, may silence make you strong.
    ….   Chief Dan George
  • May the stars carry your sadness away, may the flowers fill your heart with beauty.   Chief Dan George
  • Each new life, no matter how brief, forever changes the world.   Author Unknown
  • How very quietly you tiptoed into our world, silently, only a moment you stayed. But what an imprint your footprints have left upon our hearts.   Author Unknown
  • As you danced in the light with joy, love lifted you. As you brushed against this world so gently, you lifted us.   TC Ring
  • For each thorn, there’s a rosebud…
    For each twilight — a dawn…
    For each trial — the strength to carry on,
    For each storm cloud — a rainbow…
    For each shadow — the sun…
    For each parting — sweet memories when sorrow is done.
    ….   Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • For some moments in life there are no words.   David Seltzer, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
  • When the heart grieves over what is has lost, the spirit rejoices over what it has left.   Sufi