June 4, 2024, 12:45 p.m.
Saying goodbye is never easy, whether it’s to a loved one, a colleague, or even a cherished chapter in your life. It’s a moment filled with emotion, bittersweet memories, and the hope of future encounters. To help encapsulate these feelings, we’ve curated a collection of the top 66 goodbye quotes. These quotes range from heartfelt and sentimental to uplifting and hopeful, providing the perfect words for any farewell moment. Whether you’re seeking solace or looking for the right way to express your emotions, these quotes are sure to resonate with you.
1. “What is that feeling when you're driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? - it's the too-huge world vaulting us, and it's good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.” - Jack Kerouac
2. “I was trying to feel some kind of good-bye. I mean I’ve left schools and places I didn’t even know I was leaving them. I hate that. I don’t care if it’s a sad good-bye or a bad good-bye, but when I leave a place I like to know I’m leaving it. If you don’t you feel even worse.” - J.D. Salinger
3. “The story of life is quicker than the wink of an eye, the story of love is hello and goodbye...until we meet again” - Jimi Hendrix
4. “You'll stay with me?'Until the very end,' said James.” - J. K. Rowling
5. “The summer ends and we wonder who we are And there you go, my friends, with your boxes in your car And today I passed the high school, the river, the maple tree I passed the farms that made it Through the last days of the century And I knew that I was going to learn again Again, in this less hazy light I saw the fields beyond the fields The fields beyond the fields” - Dar Williams
6. “Since I’ve known you, you’ve been spinning and spinning and spinning into all these various personas, and none of this self-exploration and experimentation has given you a sense of peace. I’ve known you for six years, intimately for four, and I still have no idea who I’m in love with.” - Megan McCafferty
7. “It's interesting, isn't it? . . . the chandelier . . . it reminds me of mushroom soup.” - Tennessee Williams
8. “Here is to the nights we felt alive, here is to the tears you knew youd cry, here is to good bye, tomorrow is going to come to soon.” - Eve 6
9. “I've never forgotten him. Dare I say I miss him? I do. I miss him. I still see him in my dreams. They are nightmares mostly, but nightmares tinged with love. Such is the strangeness of the human heart. I still cannot understand how he could abandon me so unceremoniously, without any sort of goodbye, without looking back even once. The pain is like an axe that chops my heart. ” - Yann Martel
10. “Parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say goodnight till it be morrow.” - Shakespeare
11. “When I was all set to go, when I had my bags and all, I stood for a while next to the stairs and took a last look down the goddam corridor. I was sort of crying. I don't know why. I put my red hunting hat on, and turned the peak around to the back, the way I liked it, and then I yelled at the top of my goddam voice, "Sleep tight, ya morons!" I'll bet I woke up every bastard on the whole floor. Then I got the hell out. Some stupid guy had thrown peanut shells all over the stairs, and I damn near broke my crazy neck.” - J.D. Salinger
12. “To part is the lot of all mankind. The world is a scene of constant leave-taking, and the hands that grasp in cordial greeting today, are doomed ere long to unite for the the last time, when the quivering lips pronounce the word - 'Farewell” - R. M. Ballantyne
13. “I hope no one who reads this book has been quite as miserable as Susan and Lucy were that night; but if you have been - if you've been up all night and cried till you have no more tears left in you - you will know that there comes in the end a sort of quietness. You feel as if nothing is ever going to happen again.” - C.S. Lewis
14. “Those unexpected morality lessons provided by the trip had jolted me into some kind of action. It was time to jettison the past before the present jettisoned me. This was my first veiled attempt at recovery. Although perhaps I was just running away again. I returned to Glasgow, planning to say a final goodbye to Anne and get out of her life, but ended up drinking with buddies in the Chip Bar and never seeing her. I called her instead to say I was moving to London and told her she could have the house and everything else we owned, which wasn't much. I think she was as relieved as I was that I was leaving town for good.” - Craig Ferguson
15. “There's nothing good about goodnight when it means goodbye.” - Jeff Thomas
16. “This is a long goodbye, yet not time enough. I have no aptitude for this. I cannot learn this. I would hold on, and hold on, until my hands clutch at emptiness.” - Juliet Marillier
17. “Good bye may seem forever. Farewell is like the end, but in my heart is the memory and there you will always be.” - Disney
18. “I make it easier for people to leave by making them hate me a little.” - Cecelia Ahern
19. “I do not say goodbye. I believe that's one of the bullshitiest words ever invented. It's not like you're given the choice to say bad-bye, or awful-bye, or couldn't-care-less-about-you-bye. Everytime you leave, it's supposed to be a good one.” - John Green
20. “here we were again , always saying good-bye” - Maggie Stiefvater
21. “Well, here at last, dear friends, on the shores of the Sea comes the end of our fellowship in Middle-earth. Go in peace! I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.” - J.R.R. Tolkien
22. “I love you more than songs can say, but I can't keep running after yesterday...” - John Mayer
23. “Then you and I should bid good-bye for a little while?"I suppose so, sir."And how do people perform that ceremony of parting, Jane? Teach me; I'm not quite up to it."They say, Farewell, or any other form they prefer."Then say it."Farewell, Mr. Rochester, for the present."What must I say?"The same, if you like, sir."Farewell, Miss Eyre, for the present; is that all?"Yes."It seems stingy, to my notions, and dry, and unfriendly. I should like something else: a little addition to the rite. If one shook hands for instance; but no--that would not content me either. So you'll do nothing more than say Farwell, Jane?"It is enough, sir; as much good-will may be conveyed in one hearty word as in many."Very likely; but it is blank and cool--'Farewell.” - Charlotte Brontë
24. “for every goodbye, God also provides a hello” - Donna Gable Hatch
25. “Feel so fucking angry; don't want to be reminded of you, But when I left my shit in your kitchen, I said goodbye to your bedroom it smelled of you” - Amy Winehouse
26. “Mr False Pretence, you don't make senseI just don't know youBut you make me cry, where's my kiss goodbyeI think I love you” - Amy Winehouse
27. “And when you left you kissed my lipsYou told me you would never ever forget these images” - Fine Frenzy
28. “No more words. We know them all, all the words that should not be said. But you have made my world more perfect.” - Terry Pratchett
29. “Out of the starless night that covers me, (O tribulation of the wind that rolls!) Black as the cloud of some tremendous spell, The susurration of the sighing sea Sounds like the sobbing whisper of two souls That tremble in a passion of farewell.To the desires that trebled life in me, (O melancholy of the wind that rolls!) The dreams that seemed the future to foretell, The hopes that mounted herward like the sea, To all the sweet things sent on happy souls, I cannot choose but bid a mute farewell.And to the girl who was so much to me (O lamentation of this wind that rolls!) Since I may not the life of her compel, Out of the night, beside the sounding sea, Full of the love that might have blent our souls, A sad, a last, a long, supreme farewell.” - W.E. Henley
30. “I drag the body out into the snowdrifts, as far away from our shack as I can muster. I put her in a thicket of trees, where the green seems to still have a voice in the branches, and try not to think about the beasts that’ll soon be gathering. There’s no way of burying her; the ground is a solid rock of ice beneath us. I kneel beside her and want desperately to weep. My throat tightens and my head aches. Everything hurts inside. But I have no way of releasing it. I’m locked up and hard as stone.“I’m sorry, Mamma,” I whisper to the shell in front of me. I take her hand. It could belong to a glass doll. There’s no life there anymore. So I gather rocks, one by one, and set them over her, trying my best to protect her from the birds, the beasts, keep her safe as much as I can now. I pile the dark stones gently on her stomach, her arms, and over her face, until she becomes one with the mountain. I stand and study my work, feeling like the rocks are on me instead, then I leave the body for the forest and ice.” - Rachel A. Marks
31. “It's the emptiest and yet the fullest of all human messages: 'Good-bye.” - Kurt Vonnegut
32. “I will not try to convince you to love me, to respect me, to commit to me. I deserve better than that; I AM BETTER THAN THAT...Goodbye.” - Steve Maraboli
33. “Severing our young and fragile friendship was a sad ordeal, but sadder still was the fact that this friend found it so difficult to respond to my immediate need, unlike a dreamed boy who always afforded me easy comfort. I couldn’t understand what was so hard about reaching out to hug someone. But judging by Gregory’s uncomfortable conduct I had to assume it was an honest trial.” - Richelle Goodrich
34. “Love me, even if it’s a lie. Leave me yet never say goodbye.” - Faraaz Kazi
35. “Go to sleep now and rest. Our job is done. You kept your promise, and I kept mine...” - Maggie Osborne
36. “The last day is way shorter than counting to ten.” - Leena Ahmad Almashat
37. “Well, I learned to cook. At my age," she told him. "What's next? Art therapy? Anyway, I've had quite a time of it this summer, and who knows what eases down on any road. Come, Rain. A quick goodbye, and off you go." "Goodbye," said Rain to the Lion, and then to the woman. "Not to them," said Glinda, "To me."She turned eyes that were saucerly upon Glinda. "Mum?” - Gregory Maguire
38. “Vous êtes tout les deux les personnes que j'ai le plus aimées au monde et j'ai fait de mon mieux possible, croyez-le.Serrez bien contre vous vos beaux enfants.LucilePS : [...] Je sais bien que ça va vous faire de la peine mais c'est inéluctable à plus ou moins de temps et je préfère mourir vivante.” - Delphine de Vigan
39. “I hadn't said goodbye. It had been easier, like always, to just disappear, sparing myself the messy details of another farewell. Now, my fingers hovered over my track pad, moving the cursor down to his comment section before I stopped myself. What was the point? Anything I said now would only be an afterthought.Elizabeth who goes by her middle name” - Sarah Dessen
40. “... I looked through the car's rear window for a final wave, and it felt like someone had invaded my chest and squeezed all the juice out of my heart until it was a tiny dry sponge.” - Karen Tayleur
41. “I didn't know how to say goodbye. Words were stupid. They said so little. Yet they opened up holes you could fall into and never climb out of again.” - Ann Rinaldi
42. “This wasn't the first time that I'd come close to death, but it was the first time I'd been involved in this part of it, this strange, terrible saying goodbye to someone you've loved.” - Madeleine L'Engle
43. “You get use to someone—start to like them, even—and they leave. In the end, everyone leaves.” - Rachel Ward
44. “Then I kissed Max because I loved him, and everyone I had ever loved before had gone away and I had never kissed them goodbye.” - Glenda Millard
45. “We stood, holding each other's faces, memorising every last detail. I was deperate with my own need to capture this last, lingering moment, desperate to forget the horrible sink at the pit of my stomach telling me all this would be lost forever once they pulled the chip out. Please don't let me forget.” - Heather Anastasiu
46. “I want something good to die for. . . to make it beautiful to live.” - Stacey T. Hunt
47. “I have fooled life and life has fooled me. We are quits. I say good-bye. Think sometimes in the hour of happiness of your poor, comical fool who loved you truly and so well.” - Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing
48. “Okay you found me out. Beyond without a doubt, your lie is safe with me. A friend, i'm sure you are. And on this day so far, I've fallen hundred see?” - Tegan Quin
49. “Alan! How many more times do I have to tell you? We do not say “see you soon” to customers when they leave our shop. We say “goodbye”, because they won’t be coming back, ever. When will you get that into your thick head?” - Jean Teulé
50. “To what shall we compare our fragile life?Life is like a speck of dust that alights upon a surface. It remains there, unmoved, until a draft threatens it. When a breeze comes it holds on till the last. Finally, a gust of wind comes and it is blown asunder. That is how fragile life is, like a speck of dust blown to nothingness.” - Paul Worthington
51. “What happened?" I asked. "What did you say?"Roger put the key in the ignition and looked over at me. "I told her good-bye," he said. Then he started the car and put in in gear, and we headed out.” - Morgan Matson
52. “Even as I hold you, I am letting you go.” - Alice Walker
53. “I have to go home, Masi.You are my home, bella. I am lost without you. He couldn’t speak. There were no words to recoil the loss consuming him. Massimo brought his hands up to her face. Kissing her one last time. He had to for his sanity. And he did with great passion, knowing he’d hurt her face when she kissed him back. But she did. He heard the cry in her throat as their tongues danced. Warm tears touched his palms as they continued to kiss. His fingertips were wet with sadness. He kept on kissing her. Unable to stop, he needed ten more seconds. Ti amo, I love you. Please don’t leave. I’ve waited my whole life for you. When he pulled his face back, she cried, and he realized he did also.” - Avery Aster
54. “Dear Camryn, I never wanted it to be this way. I wanted to tell you these things myself, but I was afraid. I was afraid that if I told you out loud that I loved you, that what we had together would die with me. The truth is that I knew in Kansas that you were the one. I’ve loved you since that day when I first looked up into your eyes as you glared down at me from over the top of that bus seat. Maybe I didn’t know it then, but I knew something had happened to me in that moment and I could never let you go. I have never lived the way I lived during my short time with you. For the first time in my life, I’ve felt whole, alive, free. You were the missing piece of my soul, the breath in my lungs, the blood in my veins. I think that if past lives are real then we have been lovers in every single one of them. I’ve known you for a short time, but I feel like I’ve known you forever. I want you to know that even in death I’ll always remember you. I’ll always love you. I wish that things could’ve turned out differently. I thought of you many nights on the road. I stared up at the ceiling in the motels and pictured what our life might be like together if I had lived. I even got all mushy and thought of you in a wedding dress and even with a mini me in your belly. You know, I always heard that sex is great when you’re pregnant. ;-) But I’m sorry that I had to leave you, Camryn. I’m so sorry…I wish the story of Orpheus and Eurydice was real because then you could come to the Underworld and sing me back into your life. I wouldn’t look back. I wouldn’t fuck it up like Orpheus did. I’m so sorry, baby… I want you to promise me that you’ll stay strong and beautiful and sweet and caring. I want you to be happy and find someone who will love you as much as I did. I want you to get married and have babies and live your life. Just remember to always be yourself and don’t be afraid to speak your mind or to dream out loud. I hope you’ll never forget me. One more thing: don’t feel bad for not telling me that you loved me. You didn’t need to say it. I knew all along that you did. Love Always,Andrew Parrish” - J.A. Redmerski
55. “Please do not—” Before he could argue with her any more to stay or persuade her he’d fix the situation, she’d picked up her bag and stalked out the door. He mumbled, “Leave me.”Lex was gone.” - Avery Aster
56. “We haveNot oneIn commonNo twoAre shaped alikeThe thirdBecause of that eye we lackIn the fourthDirection there is hopeThe fifth Is at the heart-Orihime Inoue” - Tite Kubo
57. “Every meeting led to a parting, and so it would, as long as life was mortal. In every meeting there was some of the sorrow of parting, but in everything parting there was some of the joy of meeting as well.” - Cassandra Clare
58. “Those of us who do not live forever do not like change perhaps as much as those of you who do.” - Cassandra Clare
59. “At last, the wheel comes full circle” - Cassandra Clare
60. “You endure what is unbearable, and you bear it. That is all.” - Cassandra Clare
61. “Faith," said Jem. "That you were better than you thought you were. Forgiveness, that you need not always punish yourself. I always loved you, Will. Whatever you did. And now I need you to do for me what I connot do for myself. For you to be my eyes when I do not have them. For you to be my hands when I cannot use my own. For you to be my heart when mine is done with beating.” - Cassandra Clare
62. “I am not afraid to die; I am only afraid of saying goodbye to you forever.” - Shannon L. Alder
63. “I say good-bye to hope, but I also say good-bye to hope's disappointment.” - David Levithan
64. “Saying goodbye is a little like dying.” - Marjane Satrapi
65. “He turned to take one last look at the Old People’s Home that – until a few moments ago – he had thought would be his last residence on Earth, and then he told himself that he could die some other time, in some other place.The hundred-year-old man set off in his pee-slippers (so called because men of an advanced age rarely pee further than their shoes), first through a park and then alongside an open field where a market was occasionally held in the otherwise quiet provincial town.” - Jonas Jonasson
66. “...and I laugh and I spin and dance and frolic in ecstasy and I... I hurt no more, while you...you petrified little man, are left to wonder if it's you I speak of.” - Kellie Elmore