Breakup Quotes to Help You Move On
Heartbreak has a way of sticking around—even once you’ve binged every episode of New Girl, watched your favorite rom-com, and listened to Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour so much even Spotify asked if you were ok. Sometimes we heal by keeping self-love quotes close by or practicing peaceful exercises through meditation. Planning a movie night with friends, exercising a little retail therapy, or actually exercising are proven ways to lift our spirits.
But, there's no one-size-fits-all when it comes to moving on from a relationship. These break-up quotes will help you realize you're not alone. There's hope to be happy again—keep reading to get closer to it.
“I know my heart will never be the same. But I'm telling myself I'll be okay.” — Sara Evans, A Little Bit Stronger
"You will need to allow your mind to take it all in so that by the time you get back up on your feet, you know how you feel.” —Lauren Conrad
“It’s so empowering to say, ‘This isn’t serving me,’ and walk away in peace.” — Anonymous
“You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest that it leaves your arms too full to embrace the present.” — Jan Glidewell
“We too, like trees can shake off our dead leaves and begin again.” ― A.Y. Greyson
"You get through it. It's a process that's not easy, but I get less and less sad about it every day." —Ryan Phillippe
"But every time you hurt me, the less that I cry. And every time you leave me, the quicker these tears dry. And every time you walk out, the less I love you. Baby, we don't stand a chance, it's sad but it's true." — Sam Smith, Too Good At Goodbyes
"Holding on is believing that there’s a past; letting go is knowing that there’s a future." —Daphne Rose Kingma
"I know that I love being able to give my love out to someone. I know there is somebody great out there for me."— Jennifer Love Hewitt
"The only way out is through."—Robert Frost, Servant to Servant
"Just believe that the heartbreak was a gift in itself. Cry if you have to, but it won't be forever! You will find love again, and it will be even more beautiful! In the meantime enjoy all that YOU are!" —Rihanna
“You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair.” — Chinese Proverb
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” ― Albert Einstein
"You thought that I'd be weak without ya, but I'm stronger. You thought that I'd be broke without ya, but I'm richer. You thought that I'd be sad without ya, I love harder." — Destiny's Child, Survivor
“Just believe in yourself. Even if you don’t pretend that you do and, and some point, you will.”—Venus Williams
“The greatest win is walking away and choosing not to engage in drama and toxic energy at all.” — Lalah Delia
“I am beginning to feel like the only way to truly get over someone that you cared a lot about is to start a new chapter.” —Mindy, The Mindy Project
“Isn't it strange how life won't flow, like a river, but moves in jumps, as if it were held back by locks that are opened now and then to let it jump forwards in a kind of flood?”
― Anita Desai
“Every time you thought you couldn’t keep moving forward, you did. Take a moment to appreciate your strength.” — Karen Salmanson
"I was so scared of ever being alone, and I think, conquering that fear, this year, was actually bigger than any other transition that I had, this entire year."— Miley Cyrus
“If you truly want to be respected by people you love, you must prove to them that you can survive without them.” ― Michael Bassey Johnson, The Infinity Sign
“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
“The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot move forward.”— Steve Maraboli
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. When I let go of what I have, I receive what I need.” — Lao Tzu
“Moving on is not forgetting — moving on is being able to remember without feeling awful about it.” — Sam Madison
"Sadness flies away on the wings of time."—Jean de La Fontaine
"You replace these old habits with new habits, like texting your friends in a group chat all day and planning fun dinner parties and going out on adventures with your girlfriends, and then all of a sudden one day you're in London and you realize you've been in the same place as your ex for two weeks and you're fine. And you hope he's fine." — Taylor Swift
“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
“You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.”— Louise Erdich, The Painted Drum
“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.” ― Rumi
"Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –over and over announcing your place in the family of things.” ― Mary Oliver"We're all where we're supposed to be. I am exactly where I want to be now. You can't go backward. I'm not going backward. I'm grateful that I'm here, blessed to have what I have. Nobody can be prepared for anything. If you end up in a place where you can look back and go, 'It happened, but I'm so lucky to be sitting where I am sitting. . . .'"— Sandra Bullock
“You can't move things by not moving.” — Suzy Kassem
“I always get to where I am going by walking away from where I have been.” —A. A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh
“You can't start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one.”― Michael McMillian
“A very wise man once told me that you can’t look back – you just have to put the past behind you, and find something better in your future.” — Jodi Picoult
"I'm not sure what the future holds but I do know that I'm going to be positive and not wake up feeling desperate." — Nicole Kidman
"Pain is a part of life. Sometimes it's a big part, and sometimes it isn't, but either way, it's a part of the big puzzle, the deep music, the great game. Pain does two things: It teaches you, tells you that you're alive. Then it passes away and leaves you changed. It leaves you wiser, sometimes. Sometimes it leaves you stronger." — Jim Butcher
"It’s hard to be clear about who you are when you are carrying around a bunch of baggage from the past. I’ve learned to let go and move more quickly into the next place."—Angelina Jolie
“There are things that we never want to let go of, people we never want to leave behind. But keep in mind that letting go isn’t the end of the world, it’s the beginning of a new life.” — Unknown
“Keep your face always toward the sunshine — and shadows will fall behind you.”― Walt Whitman
"One taught me love. One taught me patience/ And one taught me pain Now, I'm so amazing. Say I've loved and I've lost But that's not what I see. So, look what I got Look what you taught me."— Ariana Grande, Thank u, next
"I’d rather love a million times and have my heart broken every time, than hold a permanently empty heart forever." — H.C. Paye
"Never forget what you are. The rest of the world will not. Wear it like armor, and it can never be used to hurt you."— Tyrion Lannister, Game of Thrones
“Accept yourself, love yourself, and keep moving forward. If you want to fly, you have to give up what weighs you down.” ― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart
"Whatever you do, never run back to what broke you." – Frank Ocean
“So many things become beautiful when you really look.” ― Lauren Oliver, Before I Fall
"Through it all, I have learned to laugh and cry and grow. I look at the woman I was in my 20s and I see a young lady growing into confidence but intent on pleasing everyone around her. I now feel so much more beautiful, so much sexier, so much more interesting. And so much more powerful." — Beyonce
"Only time can heal his heart, just as only time can heal his broken arms and legs." — Miss Piggy
“If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself.” ― Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief
“Someday you will wake up feeling 51 percent happy and slowly, molecule by molecule, you will feel like yourself again.”— Amy Poehler
“It's not how hard you hit. It's how hard you get hit...and keep moving forward.”
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture“It is always important to know when something has reached its end. Closing circles, shutting doors, finishing chapters, it doesn't matter what we call it; what matters is to leave in the past those moments in life that are over.” ― Paulo Coelho, The Zahir
"I promise you there is something worse out there than being sad, and that's being alone and being sad. Ain't no one in this room alone." — Ted Lasso
“Don't worry. Just when you think your life is over, a new storyline falls from the sky and lands right in your lap.”― Rebekah Crane
"Don't be sorry, be fierce."—RuPaul, Rupaul's Drag Race
"It is strange how often a heart must be broken before the years can make it wise."—Sara Teasdale
"Gonna love myself, no, I don’t need anybody else." — Hailee Steinfeld, Love Myself
“Isn't it funny how the memories you cherish before a breakup can become your worst enemies afterward? The thoughts you loved to think about, the memories you wanted to hold up to the light and view from every angle--it suddenly seems a lot safer to lock them in a box, far from the light of day and throw away the key. It's not an act of bitterness. It's an act if self-preservation. It's not always a bad idea to stay behind the window and look out at life instead, is it?” ― Allyson Braithwaite Condie, First Day
"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
“Life becomes easier when you learn to accept an apology you never got.” ― Robert Brault
"Don't change yourself so that other people will like you. Be yourself, and the right people will like you.” — Unknown
"This is the part of me that you’re never gonna ever take away from me, no! Throw your sticks and your stones, throw your bombs and your blow. But you’re not gonna break my soul." — Katy Perry, Part Of Me
“We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” ― Joseph Campbell
“You stop revisiting memories when you outgrow the people you made them with.” — Nikki Rowe
I would rather have my heart broken a thousand times than never to love at all. I have so much love to give — I'm not empty of love, I'm full of love."— Cameron Diaz
"I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together."— Marilyn Monroe
"You're gonna make it after all."—The Mary Tyler Moore Show
“Go back?" he thought. "No good at all! Go sideways? Impossible! Go forward? Only thing to do! On we go!" So up he got, and trotted along with his little sword held in front of him and one hand feeling the wall, and his heart all of a patter and a pitter.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit“The great courageous act that we must all do, is to have the courage to step out of our history and past so that we can live our dreams.”― Oprah Winfrey
“Let everything happen to you. Beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final”
― Rainer Maria Rilke“If it doesn't agree with your spirit let it go.” — Germany Kent
"I'm breaking down, gonna start from scratch"/"Shake it off like an Etch-A-Sketch"/"My lips are saying goodbye"/"My eyes are finally dry." — Fifth Harmony, Miss Movin On
"After all, tomorrow is another day."—Scarlett O´Hara, Gone with the Wind
"The truth is, I should be angry, resentful and disillusioned about relationships. But I'm not. Love did not work with that person. But it can work with another."— Eva Longoria
"When your heart is broken, your boats are burned: nothing matters anymore. It is the end of happiness and the beginning of peace."—George Bernard Shaw
“Sometimes love means letting go when you want to hold on tighter.” ― Melissa Marr, Ink Exchange
“If you didn't love him, this never would have happened. But you did. And accepting that love and everything that followed it is part of letting it go.” ― Sarah Dessen, Dreamland
"I love you, but I love me more."—Samantha, Sex and the City
"It’s always darkest before the dawn." — Thomas Fuller
“My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness.” — Maya Angelou
"Someday you’re gonna look back on this moment of your life as such a sweet time of grieving. You’ll see that you were in mourning and your heart was broken, but your life was changing." — Elizabeth Gilbert
“Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is.” ― Maxim Gorky, The Lower Depths and Other Plays
“It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.” ― Lewis Carroll
“Some of us think holding on makes us strong but sometimes it is letting go”― Herman Hesse
"I will not allow myself to not feel chosen every single day. And I’ll wait till whenever that is." — Hannah Brown
“Hope, Smiles from the threshold of the year to come, Whispering 'it will be happier'...”
― Alfred Lord Tennyson"There should be stars for great wars like ours. There ought to be awards
and plenty of champagne for the survivors."— Sandra Cisneros, One Last Poem For Richard
“We’d always go into it blindly. I needed to lose you to find me. This dancing was killing me softly. I needed to hate you to love me.” —Selena Gomez, Lose You to Love Me
"You've got to love yourself first. You've got to be OK on your own before you're OK with someone else. You've got to value yourself and know that you're worth everything. And until you value yourself enough and love yourself enough to know that, you can’t really have a healthy relationship." —Jennifer Lopez
“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” ― Neil Gaiman, Coraline
“I'm just a masterpiece trying to master peace.” ― Dalai Aya
“Life has tried to break me, the wounds have not yet healed. But I am not a victim,
never been and never will. My heart was born a warrior, each day I'm fighting still.
I am everything the darkness could not kill.” ― John Mark Green“Turn your wounds into wisdom.” ― Oprah Winfrey
“What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again.” ― Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay
“I was smiling yesterday,I am smiling today and I will smile tomorrow.Simply because life is too short to cry for anything.” ― Santosh Kalwar
“Letting go is hard but being free is beautiful.”—Wilder Poetry
“Dance, when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you're perfectly free.” ― Rumi
“Though nobody can go back and make a new beginning... Anyone can start over and make a new ending.” ― Chico Xavier
“We need, in love, to practice only this: letting each other go. For holding on comes easily; we do not need to learn it.” ― Rainer Maria Rilke
“You can spend minutes, hours, days, weeks, or even months over-analyzing a situation; trying to put the pieces together, justifying what could've, would've happened...or you can just leave the pieces on the floor and move on.”—Tupac Shakur
“There are far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” — C.S. Lewis
“The pain of letting go will be eclipsed by the relief of moving on.” — Scott Stabile
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