Is the death anniversary of your brother or brother-in-law approaching? As you probably already realize, there is no expiration date for grief. So, whether your brother died a year ago, 10 years ago, or 22 years ago, here are some quotes about grief, death, and loss that might resonate with you.
Jump ahead to these sections:
- 1 Year Death Anniversary Quotes for a Brother
- 10 Year Death Anniversary Quotes for a Brother
- Religious Death Anniversary Quotes for a Brother
- Non-Religious Death Anniversary Quotes for a Brother
- Condolence Quotes to Share With a Loved One on Their Brother’s Death Anniversary
Some of the quotes will be for people of faith. We will also give you quotes to share with others approaching the death anniversary of a brother. Consider sharing these quotes on social media, writing about them in a journal, or meditating about them as you remember that special person in your life.
1 Year Death Anniversary Quotes for a Brother
A year has passed since you said goodbye to your brother. Here are some quotes about death and grief that may help you sort through the emotions you have experienced this last year.
1. “Grief makes one hour ten.” – William Shakespeare
You may feel like the last year has felt like 10 years as you learned to live without your brother. This quote is from Richard II.
2. “The heart which grief hath cankered hath one unfailing remedy – the tankard.” – C.S. Calverley
Perhaps this light-hearted quote about grief might be appropriate for your situation.
3. “What wound did ever heal but by degrees?” – William Shakespeare
This quote is a good reminder that it may take a lot of time before you feel normal again. In fact, your life might never feel the same after going through a significant loss.
4. “The anniversary date of a loved one’s death is particularly significant. You will have done something you thought was impossible a few months earlier. You will have survived an entire year without someone who was as important to you as life itself.” – Bob Diets
This quote came from a book called Life After Loss.
5. “Death ends a life, but it does not end a relationship.” – Dennis Klass
This is an interesting idea that we hope gives you encouragement and comfort.
6. “What we have once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes a part of us.” – Helen Keller
Share this quote with others who are mourning a loss.
10 Year Death Anniversary Quotes for a Brother
Consider doing something special on the 10-year death anniversary of your brother. Gather together to share memories of the deceased or spend the day volunteering with an organization that was close to your brother’s heart.
Here are some quotes about loss, grief, and memories.
7. “Grief is like a journey one must take on a winding mountainside, often seeing the same scenery many times, a road which eventually leads to somewhere we’ve never been before.” – Gladys M. Hunt
Hunt is an author and speaker known for writing Honey for a Woman’s Heart.
8. “The pain passes, but the beauty remains.” – Pierre Auguste Renoir
We hope this is your experience as you remember your brother’s life.
9. “With love that is almost joy I remember them.” – John Hall Wheelock
It’s okay to feel joy on your loved one’s death anniversary.
10. “Even the saddest things can become, once we have made peace with them, a source of wisdom and strength.” – Frederick Buecchner
Buecchner is a writer and ordained Presbyterian minister.
11. “For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity.” – William Penn
William Penn was the founder of Pennsylvania.
12. “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
Lamott is a writer, political activist, and teacher.
Religious Death Anniversary Quotes for a Brother
Even if your brother wasn’t a believer, we hope these words give you comfort as you grieve your loss. They may be helpful if you aren’t sure what to say on a death anniversary, or you might want to use them when sending a condolence message for the loss of a brother.
13. “Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you.” – Psalm 55:22
This is an excellent reminder that God is there for us when we grieve.
14. “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint.” – Isaiah 40:31
The Bible is full of these words of encouragement for those overcome with sorrow.
15. “Out of my pain, God became a living reality to me as never before.” – Gerald Sittser
This quote came from a book called A Grace Disguised.
16. “I learned to trust that through God’s grace something beautiful and new would emerge even in the face of my weakness, tears, pain, and hopelessness. I too would live again.” – Bethel Crockett
This quote was published in an article about Crockett’s loss of her mother.
17. “I have only slipped away into the next room. I am I and you are you. Whatever we were to each other, that we still are.” – Henry Scott Holland
These are lines from Holland’s favorite poem that begins, “Death is nothing at all.”
18. “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 8:38–39
This passage from Paul’s letter should encourage every believer.
Non-Religious Death Anniversary Quotes for a Brother
Here are some death quotes that make no mention of God or the afterlife.
19. “Death changes us, the living. In the presence of death, we become more aware of life . . . It can inspire us to decide what really matters in life – and then to seek it.” – Candy Lightner
Lightner founded Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
20. “Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality.” – Emily Dickinson
Dickinson only saw a few of her poems published during her life. But, of course, she became a very popular poet following her death.
21. “You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair.” – Chinese Proverb
This quote paints a vivid picture, doesn’t it?
22. “Should his heart break and the grief pour out, it would flow over the whole earth, it seems, and yet, no one sees it.” – Anton Chekhov
Chekhov was a Russian playwright and physician.
23. “What is there to do when people die – people so dear and rare – but bring them back by remembering?” – May Sarton
Sarton is a Belgian-American poet.
24. “Ah, woe is me! Winter is come and gone, // But grief returns with the revolving year.” – Percy Bysshe Shelly
Shelly is the father of Mary Shelly, the author of Frankenstein.
Condolence Quotes to Share With a Loved One on Their Brother’s Death Anniversary
It’s hard to know what to say when someone dies. “I’m sorry for your loss” may feel inadequate. So here are some quotes that might fit in certain situations.
25. “A cut finger is numb before it bleeds; it bleeds before it hurts, it hurts until it begins to heal; it forms a scab and itches until finally, the scab is gone and a small scar is left where once there was a wound. Grief is the deepest wound you ever had. Like a cut finger, it goes through stages, and leaves a scar.” – Unknown
We wish we knew who to attribute for these wise words about grief.
26. “I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness and the willingness to remain vulnerable.” – Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Although known for being Charles Lindbergh’s wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh was also an accomplished pilot.
27. “Sorrow makes us all children again – destroys all differences of intellect. The wisest know nothing.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
This quote describes why it is so difficult to know what to say when someone dies.
28. “Grief is a journey, often perilous and without clear direction, that must be taken. The experience of grieving cannot be ordered or categorized, hurried or controlled, pushed aside or ignored indefinitely. It is inevitable as breathing, as change, as love. It may be postponed, but it will not be denied.” – Molly Fumia
Fumia is the author of A Child at Dawn: The Healing of a Memory and Safe Passage.
29. “Although it’s difficult today to see beyond the sorrow. May looking back in memory help comfort you tomorrow.” – Unknown
Consider creating your own sympathy card with this message inside.
30. “And when great souls die, after a period peace blooms, slowly and always irregularly. Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration. Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to us. They existed. They existed. We can be. Be and be better. For they existed.” – Maya Angelou
Angelou wrote these words following the death of Martin Luther King, Jr.
31. “Deep grief sometimes is almost like a specific location, a coordinate on a map of time. When you are standing in that forest of sorrow, you cannot imagine that you could ever find your way to a better place. But if someone can assure you that they themselves have stood in that same place, and now have moved on, sometimes this will bring hope.” – Elizabeth Gilbert
Gilbert is the author of Eat, Pray, Love.
Finding the Right Message May Be Challenging
Grief quotes aren’t one-size-fits-all. Some of the selections we have offered may describe your experience, while others may feel like foreign ideas.
It’s worth remembering that most people describe grief as changing over time. So bookmark this article and circle back to it later to see if any strange messages make more sense as time passes.