What does this quote mean?

“And ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.”

Separation can expose the depth of attachment that ordinary familiarity concealed, making loss a painful measure of how much the bond mattered.

Source note: The Prophet, “On Love.”

“For grief indeed is love and grief beside.”

The sonnet treats grief as attachment plus the pain attached to what has been lost, refusing to separate sorrow cleanly from love.

Source note: Sonnets from the Portuguese, Sonnet XXXV; Project Gutenberg #2002. The statement is part of an intimate love sonnet shaped by earlier bereavements.

“To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also.”

Paul makes forgiveness reciprocal and communal, showing that restoration can require people to align their response rather than preserve separate grievances.

Source note: 2 Corinthians 2:10, King James Version; Paul continues instructions about forgiving and receiving a person who had caused sorrow.

“’Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all.”

Love can remain worth having even when it ends in loss, because avoiding grief by avoiding attachment would also remove the relationship itself.

Source note: In Memoriam A.H.H., Canto 27.

“You have buried one whom you loved; look about for someone to love.”

Continuing to love does not erase the person who died; it refuses to let bereavement close the capacity for relationship permanently.

Source note: Letter 63 urges remembrance of a lost friend while continuing to participate in friendship and life.

“Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin;”

The request comes after their father’s death, when Joseph’s brothers fear retaliation and appeal directly for forgiveness of the wrong they committed against him.

Source note: Genesis 50:17, King James Version; Joseph’s brothers send a message asking pardon for their earlier wrongdoing against him.