135 Bad Breakup Quotes to Help You Move On from Heartache

Bad relationships happen to the best of us. They often sneak up in moments when we least expect it, and they can leave us reeling from the turbulence that often comes with its toxicity. Despite the negative effects of being in a bad relationship, we can all rise from it. To help set yourself free from bad relationships, here are 135 quotes for you.

Good relationships go bad for many different factors. Infidelity, abuse, and disrespect all contribute to relationships going sour. Relationships can also go bad when both parties either don't communicate or are not willing to meet the other's expectations.

Bad relationships can have negative effects on one's self-worth and overall emotional health, causing one to withdraw from loved ones and fulfilling activities and raise questions about his/her loveability, preventing the person from embarking on a new relationship.

Anyone who has experienced a bad relationship will understand the need for encouragement and support. One way to get some encouragement is to read through these carefully curated quotes about the importance of rising from the experience of bad relationships.

Gift Gugu Mona's quote: “Losing will not always amount to a loss. Sometimes you have to lose those toxic relationships and bad habits to create a space for better things.” | Image: AmoDays

BAD RELATIONSHIP QUOTES ABOUT TOXICITY

“Until you let go of all the toxic people in your life you will never be able to grow into your fullest potential. Let them go so you can grow.” — DLQ

“Toxic people attach themselves like cinder blocks tied to your ankles, and then invite you for a swim in their poisoned waters.” — John Mark Green

“Losing will not always amount to a loss. Sometimes you have to lose those toxic relationships and bad habits to create a space for better things.” — Gift Gugu Mona

“You don’t know what’s right or wrong. You’ve been told ‘you’re crazy’ ‘you´re overreacting’ so many times you started to believe that’s the truth.” — Anna Akana

“Professionalism makes work relationships healthy, foolishness and dishonesty erodes them.” — Ty Howard

DLQ's quote: “Until you let go of all the toxic people in your life you will never be able to grow into your fullest potential. Let them go so you can grow.” | AmoDays

“Poisonous relationships can alter our perception. You can spend many years thinking you’re worthless. But you’re not worthless. You’re underappreciated.” — Steve Maraboli

“We all have that toxic people around us that make our lives miserable… The day we take them out from our lives, we will all become better people; including them…” — Rodolfo Peon

“Fire false friends as early as possible. Do it before they dig out the dream seeds you’ve planted! The earlier, the better; the quicker, the safer!” — Israelmore Ayivor

“There are people who break you down by just being them. They need not do anything. Dissociate.” — Malebo Sephodi

“I felt an inner peace and softness. My Berlin Wall had been cracked; the toxic relationship between me and that critical voice had been severed.” — Penny De Villiers

John Mark Green's quote: “Toxic people attach themselves like cinder blocks tied to your ankles, and then invite you for a swim in their poisoned waters.” | Image: AmoDays

“When you get out of it, you realize how toxic it actually was.” — Steve Maraboli

“The creative process is lost in a toxic environment. The risk of staying is too great because in it you may never reach your full destiny.” — Germany Kent

“Just say no to complicated, dead-end, unhealthy, and toxic relationships.” — Stephanie Lahart

“When being in a toxic relationship in life at times you may have to step outside yourself, to see yourself, so you can find yourself and love yourself again.” — Angel Moreira

“Letting go of toxic people in your life is a big step in loving yourself.” — Hussein Nishah

Anna Akana's quote: “You don’t know what’s right or wrong. You’ve been told ‘you’re crazy’ ‘you´re overreacting’ so many times you started to believe that’s the truth.” | Image: AmoDays

“Break free of toxic people and relationships, they erode your quality of life.” — Ty Howard

“Toxic relationships are like a good pasta that has been overcooked.” — Asa Don Brown

“May you reach that level within, where you no longer allow your past or people with toxic intentions to negatively affect or condition you.” — Lalah Delia

SHORT QUOTES ABOUT BAD RELATIONSHIPS

“Girls you’ve gotta know when it’s time to turn the page.” — Tori Amos

“It’s better to be healthy alone than sick with someone else.” — Dr. Phil

Shannon L. Adler's quot: “Nostalgia has a way of blocking the reality of the past.” | Image: AmoDays

“We teach people how to treat us.” — Dr. Phil

“If you look for the bad in people expecting to find it, you surely will.” — Abraham Lincoln

“You will evolve past certain people. Let yourself.” — Mandy Hale

“It is far better to be alone than to be in bad company.” — George Washington

“Sooner or later we’ve all got to let go of our past.” — Dan Brown

Henry Winkler's quote: “Assumptions are the termites of relationships.” | Image: AmoDays

“Love cannot live where there is no trust.” — Edith Hamilton

“You don’t have to let that one thing be the thing that defines you.” — Jojo Moyes

“The quality of your life is the quality of your relationships.” — Anthony Robbins

“Relationships end, but they don’t end your life.” — Steve Martin

“Unhealthy relationships keep our self-esteem low.” — Sam Owen

Malika E Nura's quote: “Learn to walk away from those who cause harm to you.” | Image: AmoDays

“Love is not only something you feel, it is something you do.” — David Wilkerson

“The person who doesn’t value you is blocking you from the one who will.” — Robert Tew

“Suspicion and jealousy are the death knell of any relationship.” — Jonathan Lockwood Huie

“Love should not make you feel like walking on eggshells.” — Emma Xu

“Sometimes trying to fix them, breaks you.” — Steve Maraboli

Wayne Dyer's quote: “Relationships based on obligation lack dignity.” | Image: AmoDays

“Assumptions are the termites of relationships.” — Henry Winkler

“Nostalgia has a way of blocking the reality of the past.” ― Shannon L. Alder

“Learn to walk away from those who cause harm to you.” — Malika E Nura

“If they do it often, it’s not a mistake; it’s just their behavior.” — Steve Maraboli

“Relationships based on obligation lack dignity.” — Wayne Dyer

Sam Owen's quote: “We are responsible for our own relationships, their success, their failures, the good times, the bad times. Take responsibility for creating the relationships that you desire.” | Image: AmoDays

ADVICE ON AVOIDING BAD RELATIONSHIPS

“Relationships are supposed to make you feel good. Relationships are not supposed to make you feel bad.” — Laura Bowers

“We are responsible for our own relationships, their success, their failures, the good times, the bad times. Take responsibility for creating the relationships that you desire.” — Sam Owen

“Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart. — Washington Irving

“The wrong person will give you less than what you’re worth but that doesn’t mean that you have to accept it.” — Sonya Parker

“It is better for someone to break your heart once by leaving your life, than for them to stay in your life and break your heart continually." — Terry Mark

Laura Bowers's quote: “Relationships are supposed to make you feel good. Relationships are not supposed to make you feel bad.” | Image: AmoDays

“Problems in relationship occur because each person is concentrating on what is missing in the other person.” — Wayne Dyer

“I think a relationship is like a shark. It has to constantly move forward or it dies.” — Woody Allen

“I love to shop after a bad relationship. I don’t know. I buy a new outfit and it makes me feel better. It just does. Sometimes I see a really great outfit, I’ll break up with someone on purpose.” — Rita Rudner

“If you aren’t good at loving yourself, you will have a difficult time loving anyone, since you’ll resent the time and energy you give another person that you aren’t even giving to yourself.” — Barbara De Angelis

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” — Lao Tzu

Faraaz Kazi's quote: “The most difficult aspect of moving on is accepting that the other person already did.” | Image: AmoDays

QUOTES TO HELP YOU LET GO OF A BAD RELATIONSHIP

“Cry. Forgive. Learn. Move on. Let your tears water the seeds of your future happiness.” — Steve Maraboli

“The most difficult aspect of moving on is accepting that the other person already did.” — Faraaz Kazi

“Life becomes easier when you learn to accept an apology you never got.” — Robert Brault

“It happens to everyone as they grow up. You find out who you are and what you want, and then you realize that people you’ve known forever don’t see things the way you do. So you keep the wonderful memories, but find yourself moving on.” — Nicholas Sparks

“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

Steve Maraboli's quote: “Cry. Forgive. Learn. Move on. Let your tears water the seeds of your future happiness.” | Image: AmoDays

“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. I tie no weights to my ankles.” — C. JoyBell C.

“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

“Grudges are for those who insist that they are owed something; forgiveness, however, is for those who are substantial enough to move on.” — Criss Jami

“It is important that we forgive ourselves for making mistakes. We need to learn from our errors and move on.” — Steve Maraboli

WISE QUOTES ABOUT BAD RELATIONSHIPS

“Even though you may want to move forward in your life, you may have one foot on the brakes. In order to be free, we must learn how to let go. Release the hurt. Release the fear. Refuse to entertain your old pain. The energy it takes to hang onto the past is holding you back from a new life. What is it you would let go of today?” — Mary Manin Morrissey

Sam Owen's quote:

“If you spend your time hoping someone will suffer the consequences for what they did to your heart, then you’re allowing them to hurt you a second time in your mind.” — Shannon L. Alder

“Sometimes we must undergo hardships, breakups, and narcissistic wounds, which shatter the flattering image that we had of ourselves, in order to discover two truths: that we are not who we thought we were; and that the loss of a cherished pleasure is not necessarily the loss of true happiness and well-being.” — Jean-Yves Leloup

“I mean, if the relationship can’t survive the long term, why on earth would it be worth my time and energy for the short term?” — Nicholas Sparks

“What’s broken is broken — and I’d rather remember it as it was than mend it and see the broken places as long as I lived.” — Margaret Mitchell

3

“One’s dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but it can never be taken away unless it is surrendered.” — Michael J. Fox

“Maybe the most that you can expect from a relationship that goes bad is to come out of it with a few good songs.” — Marianne Faithfull

“We’re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness — and call it love — true love.” — Robert Fulghum

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” — 1 Corinthians 13:4

“There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

Sam Owen's quote:

"Love yourself first, and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.” — Lucille Ball

“Everyone in life is gonna hurt you; you just have to figure out which people are worth the pain.” — Erica Baican

“You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly.” — Sam Keen

“I don’t trust people who don’t love themselves and tell me, ‘I love you.’ … There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt.” — Maya Angelou

BAD RELATIONSHIP QUOTES TO HELP YOU MOVE ON

“You must make a decision that you are going to move on. It won’t happen automatically. You will have to rise up and say, ‘I don’t care how hard this is, I don’t care how disappointed I am, I’m not going to let this get the best of me. I’m moving on with my life.’” — Joel Osteen

3

“Sometimes it takes heartbreak to shake us awake and help us see we are worth so much more than we’re settling for.” — Mandy Hale

“It was strange, really. A couple of months ago, I had thought I couldn’t live without him. Apparently, I could.” — Gabrielle Zevin

“Every woman that finally figured out her worth has picked up her suitcases of pride and boarded a flight to freedom, which landed in the valley of change.” — Shannon L. Alder

“And perhaps there is a limit to the grieving that the human heart can do. As when one adds salt to a tumbler of water, there comes a point where simply no more will be absorbed.” — Sarah Waters

“To be bitter is to attribute intent and personality to the formless, infinite, unchanging and unchangeable void. We drift on a chartless, resistless sea. Let us sing when we can, and forget the rest…” — H.P. Lovecraft

4

“Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can’t build on it; it’s only good for wallowing in.” — Katherine Mansfield

“I had to cease to mourn what could never be and make the most of what was possible. And I would begin doing that by trying to mend the hurts of the past.” — Cameron Dokey

“Even seasonal situations can bring with them lessons that last a lifetime. If the love doesn’t last, it prepares you for the one that will.” — Mandy Hale

“That’s all you can do in this world, no matter how strong the current beats against you, or how heavy your burden, or how tragic your love story. You keep going.” — Robyn Schneider

“A deadness occurs in relationships when people are no longer willing to tell each other how they really feel.” — Shakti Gawain

4

“Staying in an unhealthy relationship that robs you of peace of mind is not being loyal. It is choosing to hurt yourself mentally, emotionally, and sometimes, physically.” — Kemi Sogunle

“Friends do not cast shade in order to shine. Remember that. I used to put up with my closest friends throwing shade all the time, because, I wanted them to shine. But then I learned that when you give other people the space to shine at your own expense, you’re slowly committing suicide. True friends mutually desire the other to shine without the need to cast shade or throw the other under a bus.” — C. Joybell C.

BAD RELATIONSHIP QUOTES FOR WHEN YOU FEEL DEJECTED

“No partner in a love relationship… should feel that he has to give up an essential part of himself to make it viable.” — May Sarton

“For lack of an occasional expression of love, a relationship strong at the seams can wear thin in the middle.” — Robert Breault

“How can I let you be a priority in my life, when I’m still an option in your life?” — Hussein Nishah

4

“A bad relationship can do that, can make you doubt everything good you ever felt about yourself.” — Dionne Warwick

“Everybody has bad relationships and, at the end of the day, they are just a great way to set yourself up for a good relationship.” — Anne Hathaway

“The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too.” — Ernest Hemingway

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

“Now I believe it when people say love is blind… because I must have been blind to love a person like you.” — Mitch Cuento

5

“Nothing in the universe can stop you from letting go and starting over.” — Guy Finley

MORE BAD RELATIONSHIP QUOTES

“Whenever you’re in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude.” — William James

“Don’t settle for a relationship that won’t let you be yourself.” — Oprah Winfrey

“If you were in a bad relationship and you meet someone new, you’re going to leave with your luggage. The next person is going to have to endure things that someone else causes.” — Curtis Jackson

“There are two dilemmas that rattle the human skull: How do you hang on to someone who won’t stay? And how do you get rid of someone who won’t go?” — Danny DeVito

5

“Sometimes two people need to step apart and make a space between that each might see the other anew, in a glance across a room or silhouetted against the moon.” — Robert Breault

“In a relationship, when does the art of compromise become compromising?” — Sarah Jessica Parker

“We are born in relationship, we are wounded in relationship, and we can be healed in relationship.” — Harville Hendrix

“We were left with nothing because of a love like acid that ate its way through our entire family.” — R.D. Ronald

“Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, and don’t put up with people that are reckless with yours.” — Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

5

“There are only two kinds of people who can drain your energy: those you love, and those you fear. In both instances it is you who let them in. They did not force their way into your aura, or pry their way into your reality experience.” — Anthon St. Maarten

“Sometimes you don’t get closure, you just move on.” — Karen Salmansohn

“Forgiveness is a personal process that doesn’t depend on us having direct contact with the people who have hurt us.” — Sharon Salzberg

“Sometimes it’s better to end something & try to start something new than imprison yourself in hoping for the impossible.” — Karen Salmansohn

“You create more space in your life when you turn your excess baggage to garbage.” — Chinonye J. Chidolue

5

“It is really exhausting to live in a dictatorship of ‘Me’, which is basically a tyranny of others.” — Stefan Molyneux

“The hardest part of being in an emotionally abusive relationship, it’s actually admitting you’re in one.” — Anna Akana

“Sometimes the hardest part isn’t letting go but rather learning to start over.” — Nicole Sobon

“Sometimes it takes a heartbreak to shake us awake & help us see we are worth so much more than we’re settling for.” — Mandy Hale

6

“When someone you love says goodbye, you can stare long and hard at the door they closed and forget to see all the doors God has open in front of you.” — Shannon Alder

BAD RELATIONSHIP QUOTES TO ENCOURAGE YOU TO LOVE AGAIN

“People hold on to the wrong person because they think that person has the potential to be a better person.” — Sonya Parker

"You don’t let go of a bad relationship because you stop caring about them. You let go because you start caring about yourself.” — Charles Orlando

“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” — Maya Angelou

5

“Truth is everybody is going to hurt you: you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.” — Bob Marley

“If you love someone, set them free. If they come back, they’re yours; if they don’t, they never were.” — Richard Bach

“Nothing is perfect. Life is messy. Relationships are complex. Outcomes are uncertain. People are irrational.” — Hugh Mackay

“Spend your time with those who love you unconditionally, not with those who only love you under certain conditions.” ― Suzy Kassem

“It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.” — Theodore Roosevelt

7

“Don’t ask why people keep hurting you. Ask yourself why you keep allowing it to happen.” — Robert Tew

“Remove yourself from people who treat you like your time doesn’t matter, like your feelings are worthless, or like your soul is replaceable.” — S. Mcnutt

“A bad relationship is like standing on broken glass. If you stay you will keep hurting…If you walk away, you will hurt but eventually, you will heal.” — Autumn Kohler

“In any relationship where one person depends on another to be his or her ‘parachute’ — and the other accepts this role — both will fall to the ground.” — Guy Finley

“If you’re giving love and not receiving it, you’re not in the right relationship. If you’re receiving it and not giving it then you are taking advantage of the other person.” — Patti Stange

7

“We should fight for our relationships, but if fighting means ripping yourself to shreds and piggybacking all his demons, you need to leave.” — Tara Love

“At some point, you have to realize that some people can stay in your heart but not in your life.” — Tara Westover

“Sometimes to keep yourself together, you must allow yourself to leave. Even if breaking your own heart is what it takes to let you breathe.” — Erin Hanson

“Let things come and go. Stay calm, don’t let anything disturb your peace, and carry on.” — Germany Kent

“Losing excess fats through exercise is important, but losing useless friends is urgent. Treat urgent things first!” — Israelmore Ayivo

8

Reflecting on what you could have done better after leaving a bad relationship is important. It helps provide perspective on the factors that contributed to the relationship going bad, as well as the things you can do in the future to have a healthier relationship.

But it is also important to avoid making value judgments about yourself that can leave you feeling terrible. Even if a breakup left you reeling, it is always helpful to understand that you deserve the love you want. So chin up, you'll find the love you deserve.

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