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Last updated on January 29, 2026
Depressing quotes that make you ugly cry are what some of the best YA contemporaries can do. We have rounded up some of the most hard-hitting, saddest quotes that are depressing from some of our favourite YA books. If you are looking for some depressing quotes with sad feelings, then these incredibly depressing quotes will fit the bill.
Depressing Quotes
1.
“I should be happy, but instead I feel nothing. I feel a lot of nothing these days. I’ve cried a few times, but mostly I’m empty, as if whatever makes me feel and hurt and laugh and love has been surgically removed, leaving me hollowed out like a shell.”
Read more about All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven.
2. I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
“I want to get my invisibility sweatshirt and skullcap out of my bag and put it on. but I don’t. I want to believe the red ribbon around my wrist will keep me safe always. but it won’t. I want to play how would you rather die? Instead of figuring out how to live.”
3. More Happy than Not by Adam Silvera
“I realize l’m crying a little, too. I remember. Sometimes pain is so unmanageable that the idea of spending another day with it seems impossible. Other times pain acts as a compass to help you through the messier tunnels of growing up. But pain can only help you find
happiness if you remember it.”
4. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
“Much of my life had been devoted to trying not to cry in front of people who loved me, so I knew what Augustus was doing. You clench your teeth. You look up. You tell yourself that if they see you cry, it will hurt them, and you will be nothing but a Sadness in their lives, and you must not become a mere sadness, so you will not cry, and you say all of this to yourself while looking up at the ceiling, and then you swallow even though your throat does not want to close and you
look at the person who loves you and smile.”
5. The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
“The thing about being a fish on a hook is the more you try to get off, the more trapped you are. The hook just buries itself deeper and you bleed a little more. You can’t get off the hook. You can only go through it. Said another way: the hook has to go through you, and it’s gonna hurt like a motherfucker.”
6. The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith
“I feel these forbidden thoughts creep in sometimes without warning. Slow thoughts that always start quietly, like whispers you’re not even sure you’re hearing. And then they get louder and louder until they become every sound in the entire world. Thoughts that can’t be undone. Would anyone care? Would anyone even fucking notice? What if one day I just wasn’t here anymore? What if one day it all just stopped? What if? What if? What if?”
7. Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow
“I’m so lonely in the world. l want to peel all of my flesh off and walk, just bone and gristle, straight into the river, to be swallowed.”
8. Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone
“I didn’t go there looking for you. I went looking for me.” My voice is soft, low, and shaky. “But now, here you are, and somehow, in finding you, I think I’ve found myself.”
9. I Was Here by Gayle Forman
“She didn’t tell me that she found life to be so unbearably painful. I mean, I didn’t even have a clue.” A kind of laugh escapes, and I know that if I’m not very careful, what follows will be something I don’t want to hear, that no one wants to hear. How can you not know that about your best friend? Even if she doesn’t tell you, how can you not know? How can you believe someone to be beautiful and amazing and just about the most magical person you’ve ever known, when it turns out she was in such pain that she had to drink poison that robbed her cells of oxygen until her heart had no choice but to stop beating? So don’t ask me about Meg. Because I don’t know shit.”
10. Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner
“Grief is weird. It seems to come in these waves out of nowhere. One minute I’m standing in the ocean, fine. The next minute I’m drowning.”
11. Looking for Alaska by John Green
“And then something invisible snapped inside her, and that which had come together commenced to fall apart.”
12. A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
“Maybe I’d always been broken and dark inside.”
13. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
“A flood of emotions rushes into me. Pain and anger. Sadness and pity. But most surprising of all, hope.”
14. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
“She wasn’t bitter. She was sad, though. But it was a hopeful kind of sad. The kind of sad that just takes time. ”
15. It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini
“Sometimes I just think depression’s one way of coping with the world. Like, some people get drunk, some people do drugs, some people get depressed. Because there’s so much stuff out there that you have to do something to deal with it.”
16. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
“When people don’t express themselves, they die one piece at a time. You’d be shocked at how many adults are really dead inside—walking through their days with no idea who they are, just waiting for a heart attack or cancer or a Mack truck to come along and finish the job. It’s the saddest thing I know.”
17. My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga
“Anyone who has actually been that sad can tell you that there’s nothing beautiful or literary or mysterious about depression.”
18. Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira
“It’s sad when everyone knows you, but no one knows you.”
19. The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand
“Where are you?” I wheeze into the floor. “Where did you go?”
20. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
“I guess that’s what saying good-bye is always like–like jumping off an edge. The worst part is making the choice to do it. Once you’re in the air, there’s nothing you can do but let go.”
21. Just Listen by Sarah Dessen
“She knew I could tell with one glance, one look, one simple instant. It was her eyes. Despite the thick makeup, they were still dark-rimmed., haunted, and sad. Most of all though, they were familiar. The fact that we were in front of hundreds of strangers changed nothing at all. I’d spent a summer with those same eyes-scared, lost, confused-staring back at me. I would have known them anywhere.”
22. Turtles all the Way Down by John Green
“The worst part of being truly alone is you think about all the times you wished that everyone would just leave you be. Then they do, and you are left being, and you turn out to be terrible company.”
23. Under Rose-Tainted Skies by Louise Gornall
“See, anxiety doesn’t just stop. You can have nice moments, minutes where it shrinks, but it doesn’t leave. It lurks in the background like a shadow, like that important assignment you have to do but keep putting off or the dull ache that follows a three-day migraine. The best you can hope for is to contain it, make it as small as possible so it stops being intrusive. Am I coping? Yes, but it’s taking a monumental amount of effort to keep the dynamite inside my stomach from exploding.”
24. I’ll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios
“I needed to hear her voice because everything was getting dark in me and she’s the only light I’ve found since all this shit happened. I just thought, if she would answer, if she would answer, maybe I could, I don’t know, just tell her in the right way why I was so messed up.”
25. Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella
“The trouble is, depression doesn’t come with handy symptoms like spots and a temperature, so you don’t realize it at first. You keep saying ‘I’m fine’ to people when you’re not fine. You think you should be fine. You keep saying to yourself: ‘Why aren’t I fine?”
26. Normal People by Sally Rooney
“Most people go through their whole lives, without ever really feeling that close with anyone.”
27. Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare
“She had loved him for such a long time, she thought. How was it that she did now know him at all?”
28. History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera
“Time doesn’t heal all wounds. We both know that’s bullshit; it comes from people who have nothing comforting or original to say.”
29. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
“Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness.”
30. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
“Silence is a protective coating over pain.”
Depressing Quotes
Depressing quotes can really bring on a lot of feelings. While these books all feature depressing quotes that will make you cry, most of them contain inspiring stories of moving on and finding strength. What are some sad quotes from books that have moved you?
About The Candid Cover
Olivia ❀ Canadian YA book blogger, Starbucks lover, & professional bibliophile.