Literary Quotes That Will Break Your Heart

Sometimes you’re just sad and need a really well-written quote to describe exactly how you feel. Here are a few of the most heartbreaking quotes in literature, many of which are sadder in the context of the book or author.

Never say goodbye because goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting.
― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

A great sorrow, and one that I am only beginning to understand: we don’t get to choose our own hearts. We can’t make ourselves want what’s good for us or what’s good for other people. We don’t get to choose the people we are.
― Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch

It’s important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go. Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did, and your heart is heavy with remorse.
― Yann Martel, Life of Pi

You see, I usually find myself among strangers because I drift here and there trying to forget the sad things that happened to me.
— F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.
― Anne Frank, Diary of a Young Girl

It is such a secret place, the land of tears.
— Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince

Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living.
—Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.
― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well. I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I’ve a call.
–Sylvie Plath, Lady Lazarus

It would be too easy to say that I feel invisible. Instead, I feel painfully visible, and entirely ignored.
― David Levithan, Every Day

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.
― André Aciman, Call Me by Your Name

Your mind will believe comforting lies while also knowing the painful truths that make those lies necessary. And your mind will punish you for believing both.
― Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls

My pain was never more valuable than his potential.
― Chanel Miller, Know My Name

I have become lost to the world
In which I otherwise wasted so much time
It means nothing to me
Whether the world believes me dead
I can hardly say anything to refute it
For truly, I am no longer a part of the world.
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.
― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

He died that day because his body had served its purpose. His soul had done what it came to do, learned what it came to learn, and then was free to leave.
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

It’s hard being left behind. (…) It’s hard to be the one who stays.
― Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler’s Wife

You were merely wishing for the end of pain, the monster said. Your own pain. An end to how it isolated you. It is the most human wish of all.
― Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls