Grief and recovery look different for everyone. Whether you’re grieving the loss of a loved one, a relationship, or just struggling to move forward, each scenario is as unique as the individual no longer present in your life.
Some people seek solace and quiet to sort through their emotions, and others find comfort in the presence of close friends and family. Some read, some journal, some exercise…
It all depends on how you process your feelings.
For many, the hardest transition is the dreaded “letting go.” After all, how can you let go of someone so dear to you?
Well, the good news is that you don’t have to.
You don’t have to let go of that special someone — the memories of them, their smile and laugh, the lessons they taught you — but you do have to let go of the grief of losing them. You know in your heart that they wouldn’t want to hinder your joy after they’ve gone.
So if you find yourself here during that difficult transition, perhaps looking for a word of encouragement or a calming reminder, we hope these beautiful quotes about letting go will sooth and strengthen your spirit.
10 Most Beautiful Letting Go Quotes
1. “Sometimes letting go is the only way to heal.” — RubyAnne
2. “Letting go will teach you the lesson of being soft and humble, yet powerful and free.”— Alexandra Vasiliu
3. “Holding on is believing that there’s only a past; letting go is knowing that there’s a future.” ― Daphne Rose Kingma
4. “Accept what is. Let go of what was. Believe in what will be.” — Unknown
5. I love you. I will never not love you. But I must let go.
6. “When we forgive, we heal. When we let go, we grow.” — Unknown
7. “Some of us think holding on is what makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.” — Herman Hesse
8. “Change is never easy. We fight to hold on, and we fight to let go.” — Unknown
9. “Autumn shows us just how beautiful it can be to let things go.” — Unknown
10. “We must be willing to let go of the life we had planned, so as to gain the life that is waiting for us.” — Joseph Campbell
Letting Go of Someone You Love Quotes
11. “There ain’t no way you can hold onto something that wants to go, you understand? You can only love what you got while you got it.”― Kate DiCamillo
12. “Feel what you need to feel and then let it go. Do not let it consume you.” – Dhiman
13. “Sometimes letting go isn’t the hardest part, but learning to start over.” — Unknown
14. “Little by little we let go of loss, but never of the love we shared.” — Unknown
15. “How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” — A.A. Milne
16. “There are things that we don’t want to happen, but have to accept. People that we can’t live without, but have to let go.” — Unknown
17. “Letting go isn’t about loss, and it isn’t defeat. To let go is to cherish the memories, to overcome and move on.” — Unknown
18. “Things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end, if not always in the way we expect.” — J.K. Rowling
19. “The art is not one of forgetting, but of letting go. And when everything else is gone, you find yourself rich in loss.” — Rebecca Solnit
20. “You don’t need strength to let go of someone. What you need is understanding.” — Unknown
21.“To ‘let go’ sometimes makes us feel like losers because it means giving up what truly we felt we had a right to. But true strength lies in resisting the urge to hold onto things and people that bring us down.”― Chinonye J. Chidolue
22. “Sometimes letting go isn’t the loss you thought it was.” — Samantha King Holmes
23. “Everything we love goes. So to be able to grieve that loss, to let go, to have that grief be absolutely full, is the only way to have our hearts be full and open.” — Sarah Brach
24. “Sometimes I am alright… Is this what they call letting go? I have let go. If letting go means I am alright sometimes.” — David Sheff
25. “To let go gracefully is an art form many must perfect.” — Unknown
26. “Let it hurt. Then let it go.” — Rohosin
27. “In the end we can discover that to love and to let go are the same thing.” — Jack Kornfield
28. “There is love in holding, and there is love in letting go.” — Elizabeth Berg
29. “Sometimes love means letting go when you want to hold on tighter.” — Melissa Marr
30. The pain will leave you when you learn to go. — Unknown
Related: 100 Best Saying Goodbye Quotes
Letting Go of the Past Quotes
31. “Sometimes letting go is an act of far greater power than hanging on.” — Eckhart Tolle
32. “Nothing in the universe can keep you from letting go and starting over.” — Guy Finley
33. “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” — C.S. Lewis
34. “You can be as mad as a mad dog at the way things went, you can curse the fates. But when it comes to the end, you have to let go.” Eric Roth
35. “Peace can only be achieved by letting go of the past and accepting what is.” — Abhishek Kumar
36. “The more you let go, the faster you will move ahead.” — Alan Cohen
37. “When you finally let go of the past, something better comes along.” — Unknown
38. “In order to reach out and grasp the future, you must let go of what’s behind.” — Unknown
39. “It’s hard to be clear about who you are when you’re carrying around baggage from the past. I’ve learned to let go, and then I can move more quickly to the next place.” — Angelina Jolie
40. “Life moves on, and so should we.” — Spencer Johnson
41. “Let go of your past so that God can open the door to your future.” — Unknown
42. “Why let go of yesterday? Because yesterday has already let go of you.” — Steve Maraboli
43. “Sooner or later we all have to let go of the past. How else can we embrace our future?” — Unknown
44. Letting go of the pain doesn’t mean you deny the reality of the joys you knew. It simply means that you face the truth.
45. All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on. – Havelock Ellis
46. “Let today be the day you learn the grace of letting go and the power of moving on.” — Steve Maraboli
47. “To hold onto the past always creates suffering, even if it was wonderful.” — Teal Scott
48. “To design your future effectively, you must first let go of the past.” — Charles Givens
49. “You can be happy if you are willing to let go of your past and leave yourself unencumbered so you can fly freely.” — Chris Prentiss
50. “The more anger you hold in your heart toward the past, the less capable you are of loving your present.” — Unknown
Letting Go of a Relationship Quotes
51. “Everything and everyone that you hate is engraved upon your heart; if you want to let go of something, if you want to forget, you cannot hate.” ― C. JoyBell C.
52.“Letting go means to come to the realization that some people are a part of your history, but not a part of your destiny.”― Steve Maraboli
53. “You have never been in love until you loved someone enough to let them go.” — Max Doe
54. “Let go of the attachment, but keep the lesson.” — L.J. Vanier
55. “Forget what hurt you, but never forget what it taught you.” — Shannon Alder
56. “One of the hardest things in the world is letting go of what you thought was real.” — Unknown
57. “Don’t go back to something that God has already rescued you from. Let it go.” — Mandy Hale
58. “Letting go of someone you love is hard, but holding onto someone who doesn’t even feel the same is much harder.” — Unknown
59. “Letting go doesn’t mean I don’t love you. It means I love you so much that I want you to be happy.” — Unknown
60. “Let go of things that ended, and be grateful that you were able to experience them.” — Unknown
61. “True love doesn’t always have a happy ending, because true love never ends. Letting go is one way of saying I love you.” — Barbara Johnson
62. “Let go. Why do you cling to pain? Why hold onto the very thing that will keep you from hope and love.” — Leo Buscaglia
63. “Was it hard? I ask. Letting go? Not as hard as holding onto something that wasn’t real.” — Unknown
64. “Holding on can be brave, but letting go and moving on can often make us stronger and happier.” — Unknown
65. “Sometimes we can’t let go of hurt because it’s a reminder of a great love story that we didn’t expect to end.” — Unknown
66. “Renew, release, let go. Yesterday’s gone. There’s nothing you can do to bring it back. You can’t “should’ve” done something. You can only DO something. Renew yourself. Release that attachment. Today is a new day!” – Steve Maraboli
67. “To let go does not mean to get rid of. To let go means to let be. When we let be with compassion, things come and go on their own.” – Jack Kornfield
68. “Sometimes the reason we can’t let go is because deep down we still have hope.” — Unknown
69. “Letting go isn’t a one-time thing, it’s something you have to do every day, over and over again.” – Dawson’s Creek
70. “One of the best times for figuring out who you are & what you really want out of life? Right after a break-up.” – Mandy Hale
Letting Go Quotes for Loss of a Loved One
71. “Letting go of the people who have already slipped away is one of the kindest things you can ever do for yourself.” — Unknown
72. “You will find that it is necessary to let things go; simply for the reason that they are heavy. So let them go, let go of them.” — C. JoyBell C.
73. “Letting go doesn’t mean that you don’t care about someone anymore. It’s just realizing that the only person you really have control over is yourself.” —Deborah Reber
74. “I realize there’s something incredibly honest about trees in winter, how they’re experts at letting things go.” — Jeffrey McDaniel
75. “I don’t think of all the misery. I think of all the beauty that remains.” — Anne Frank
76. “It takes strength to make your way through grief, to grab hold of life and let it pull you forward.” — Patti Davis
77. “We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for the journey.” — Kenji Miyazawa
78. “The pain passes, but the beauty remains.” — Pierre Renoir
79. “There is a time to hold on and a time to let go, but one thing is for sure — you cannot do both.” — Unknown
80. “If the pain of holding on is greater than the pain of letting go, then it’s time to let go.” — Unknown
81. “Time doesn’t heal emotional pain. You must learn how to let go.” — Roy T. Bennet
82. “There is love in holding, and there is love in letting go.” — Elizabeth Berg
83. And in the end, letting go was a lot like finding love. I had to learn to say goodbye to the one who gave me the courage to say hello. ― R.M Drake
84. Letting go of someone you love is the rarest and truest form of love itself. — Shree
85. To love and let go, love and let go, love, and let go… it’s the single most important thing we can learn in this lifetime.— Rachel Brathen
86. “As long as there is love and memory, there is no true loss.” — Cassandra Clare
87. “It’s sad, but sometimes moving on with the rest of your life starts with saying goodbye.” — Carrie Underwood
88. “Love can touch us one time, but last for a lifetime. And never let go til we’re gone.” — Celine Dion
89. “Life is a balance of holding on and letting go.” — Rumi
90. “No one teaches us about this. How do you let go of someone you loved so much?” — Unknown
More: 22 Honest Quotes About Grief
Quotes About Letting Go & Moving On
91. “The beautiful journey of today can only begin when we learn to let go of yesterday.” ― Steve Maraboli
92. “One of the happiest moments in life is when you find the courage to let go of what you cannot change.” — Kathy Griffin
93. “In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: it goes on.” — Robert Frost
94. “If you can’t do anything about it, then let it go. Don’t be a prisoner to the things you can’t change.” — Tony Gaskins
95. “I can’t take back the past, but I can fight for the future.” — Shannon Thompson
96. “Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.” — Lyndon B. Johnson
97. “In any given moment you have two options: step forward into growth, or step back into safety.” — Abraham Maslow
98. “Getting knocked down in life is a given. Getting back up is a choice.” — Zig Ziglar
99. “Move on. Where there is hope, there is a way.” — Invajy
100. “The first step of moving forward is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are.” — Unknown
101. “In order to be free, we must learn how to let go.” — Mary Morissey
Read Next: How to Rebuild Life After Death of a Spouse
With a heart full of empathy and a desire for supporting those in mourning, McKenna is someone who understands the profound impact of loss and the myriad of emotions that accompany it.
With the attention to detail gained through an M.A. in Fine Arts (Pensacola Christian College), McKenna strives to address the questions that often accompany grief: How do you navigate the intricate emotions that arise when you lose a loved one? What resources are available to assist you in your journey towards healing? How can you find the strength to move forward while cherishing the memories of your loved ones?
With a unique blend of skills in writing, graphic design, SEO, and editing, she is dedicated to crafting meaningful and visually captivating content that resonates with you during times of grief.
McKenna has been writing for US Urns Online since 2022, where she serves as an author and content editor.