72 Heartfelt Goodbye Quotes

Saying goodbye is never easy, whether it's to a friend moving to a new city, a colleague embarking on a new career path, or a loved one leaving this world. These moments are filled with a swirl of emotions—sadness, gratitude, and sometimes even relief. To help navigate through this emotional journey, words can provide comfort and closure. Our collection of 72 heartfelt goodbye quotes offers a touch of solace and inspiration, capturing the essence of farewells with grace and wisdom. Whether you're searching for the right words to express your feelings or seeking comfort for yourself, this curated selection is sure to resonate with anyone standing at the crossroads of goodbye.

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. “Sleep tight, ya morons!” - J.D. Salinger

4. “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

5. “You'll stay with me?'Until the very end,' said James.” - J. K. Rowling

6. “Never say goodbye because goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting.” - J.M. Barrie

7. “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

8. “It's interesting, isn't it? . . . the chandelier . . . it reminds me of mushroom soup.” - Tennessee Williams

9. “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

10. “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

11. “Parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say goodnight till it be morrow.” - Shakespeare

12. “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

13. “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

14. “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

15. “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

16. “There's nothing good about goodnight when it means goodbye.” - Jeff Thomas

17. “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

18. “Good bye may seem forever. Farewell is like the end, but in my heart is the memory and there you will always be.” - Disney

19. “I make it easier for people to leave by making them hate me a little.” - Cecelia Ahern

20. “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

21. “here we were again , always saying good-bye” - Maggie Stiefvater

22. “I wonder how you say goodbye to someone forever?” - Ann M. Martin

23. “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

24. “I love you more than songs can say, but I can't keep running after yesterday...” - John Mayer

25. “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

26. “for every goodbye, God also provides a hello” - Donna Gable Hatch

27. “My breaking heart and I agree, that you and I could never be, so with my best...my very best, I set you free” - Rachel Yamagata

28. “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

29. “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

30. “And when you left you kissed my lipsYou told me you would never ever forget these images” - Fine Frenzy

31. “So you're gone and i'm hauntedAnd i bet you are just fineDid i make it that easy to walkRight in and out of my life” - Fine Frenzy

32. “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

33. “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

34. “Thank God I found the GOOD in goodbye” - Beyoncé Knowles

35. “But all the love in the world won't save a sinking ship. You have to either bail or jump overboard.” - Sarah Dessen

36. “It's the emptiest and yet the fullest of all human messages: 'Good-bye.” - Kurt Vonnegut

37. “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

38. “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

39. “Love me, even if it’s a lie. Leave me yet never say goodbye.” - Faraaz Kazi

40. “Go to sleep now and rest. Our job is done. You kept your promise, and I kept mine...” - Maggie Osborne

41. “The last day is way shorter than counting to ten.” - Leena Ahmad Almashat

42. “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

43. “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

44. “Do you know what your problem is? You can't live with the idea that someone might leave.” - John Green

45. “Every moment was a precious thing, having in it the essence of finality.” - Daphne du Maurier

46. “... 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

47. “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

48. “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

49. “You get use to someone—start to like them, even—and they leave. In the end, everyone leaves.” - Rachel Ward

50. “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

51. “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

52. “I want something good to die for. . . to make it beautiful to live.” - Stacey T. Hunt

53. “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

54. “Hello? It's where I've been so goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye. Hello? It's you and me so goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.” - Tegan Quin

55. “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

56. “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

57. “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

58. “Farewell has a sweet sound of reluctance. Good-by is short and final, a word with teeth sharp to bite through the string that ties past to the future.” - John Steinbeck

59. “Even as I hold you, I am letting you go.” - Alice Walker

60. “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

61. “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

62. “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

63. “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

64. “At last, the wheel comes full circle” - Cassandra Clare

65. “You endure what is unbearable, and you bear it. That is all.” - Cassandra Clare

66. “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

67. “I am not afraid to die; I am only afraid of saying goodbye to you forever.” - Shannon L. Alder

68. “I say good-bye to hope, but I also say good-bye to hope's disappointment.” - David Levithan

69. “Saying goodbye is a little like dying.” - Marjane Satrapi

70. “Money talks, but tell me why all it says is just Goodbye.” - Edna O'Brien

71. “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

72. “...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