The following inspiring breakup quotes are hand-picked.
Students of our Ex-DETOX Course collected them for five years.
These are people who live in the trenches. People who are actually going through a breakup and feeling the pain.
We chose the quotes based on the following criteria:
- they must be positive and inspiring (no sad quotes)
- they must be motivational (not depressing)
- they must have a positive impact on your breakup recovery
In short, we've chosen quotes that will actually help you, encourage you, and provoke positive thinking to further your recovery.
Breakup quotes can be helpful.
There's a reason why self-help book writers put them at the beginning of each chapter.
They beautifully condense universal truths so that we intuitively understand.
They help us to realize that we are not alone out there.
Loss is an essential part of us, and it's an opportunity to grow. We have to use our broken hearts as a catalyst for a better future:
60 Selected Positive Breakup Quotes
So without further ado, here are the all-time best ever positive breakup quotes that will help you get over your breakup (I’ve divided them into categories, and highlighted the ones that I think are exceptionally helpful).
Contents:
Inspirational Breakup Quotes
The following quotes are outstanding. They can create epiphanies and push you into recovery.
1) “Relationships are like glass. Sometimes it's better to leave them broken than try to hurt yourself putting it back together.”
2) “If you really love something set it free. If it comes back it's yours, if not it wasn't meant to be.”
3) “Your relationship with yourself sets the tone for every other relationship you have.” — Robert Holden
4) “Those who do not know how to weep with their whole heart do not know how to laugh either.”
5) “Some people think that it's holding on that makes one strong; sometimes it's letting go.”
6) ” Don't change yourself so that other people will like you. Be yourself, and the right people will like you.”
7) “I’m going to smile and make you think I'm happy, I'm going to laugh, so you don't see me cry, I'm going to let you go in style, and even if it kills me – I'm going to smile.” — Lone Star
8) “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” — M. Kathleen Casey
9) ” You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one.”
(MORE: 3 Proven Secrets on How to Get Over a Breakup Fast)
10) “The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love, and to be greater than our suffering.” — Ben Okri
11) ” The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.” — Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
12) “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” -Rumi
13) “Love is what you were born with. Fear is what you learned here.” — Marianne Williamson
14) “Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” — J.K. Rowling
15) “Set your life on fire, and seek those who fan the flames.” — Rumi
16) “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
Motivational Breakup Quotes
Have you lost sight of what’s essential in your recovery?
Don’t see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel?
What you need are some chosen motivational quotes that will give you a virtual kick in the butt.
17) “If I don’t listen to the stories my mind is telling me, is there a problem right now?”
(MORE: No Contact Rule After a Breakup: The Definitive Guide)
18) “It always seems impossible until it's done.” — Nelson Mandela
19) “You're always one decision away from a totally different life.”
20) “The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. Just by being there, looking at the problem or at the darkness of your thoughts straight in the eye and deciding you won't surrender to it, you won't let it shallow you; you are being the bravest you can ever be and starting the path to your personal freedom.” — Nelson Mandela
21) “Pain is the person you never want to see. But without Pain, how would you recognize Joy?”
22) “Love yourself enough to set boundaries. Your time and energy are precious. You get to choose how you use it. You teach people how to treat you by deciding what you will and won't accept.”
23) “Nobody will protect you from your suffering. You can't cry it away or eat it away or starve it away or walk it away or punch it away or even therapy it away. It's just there, and you have to survive it. You have to endure it. You have to live through it and love it and move on and be better for it and run as far as you can in the direction of your best and happiest dreams across the bridge that was built by your own desire to heal.” ”• Cheryl Strayed
24) “Every time you thought you couldn’t keep moving forward, you did. Take a moment to appreciate your strength.” — Karen Salmanson
25) “You are telling the story of your life. You have the power to tell a different one. You choose, every day, how you interpret others’ actions, events, and the world around you. You and only you have the power to change this. Change the script!” — Laura Elliott
26) ” Sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step of your life. Tip toe if you must, but take the step.” ”• Naeem Callaway
(MORE: How To Stay Strong And Not Text Your Ex)
27) “Don’t be afraid to stand for what you believe in, even if that means standing alone.” — Andy Biersack
Feel-Better Breakup Quotes
Are you having a tough time with your breakup?
Sometimes we just need to hear something that makes us feel better.
28) “Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.” – Walt Whitman
29) “As I look back on my life, I realize that every time I thought I was being rejected from something good, I was actually be re-directed to something better.”
30) “With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
31) “If you went back and erased all the mistakes you've made, you erase yourself.”
32) “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” — Abraham Lincoln
33) “The habit of forever looking backward is fatal to efficiency just as is the habit of looking forward too much. Today is the day. Live the day and have done with it. Fling your best into it, then you have nothing to regret, and there is no need of anticipating tomorrow.” — O. S. Marden
34) “It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.” — J. K. Rowling
35) “If you're gonna make a change, you're gonna have to operate from a new belief that says life happens not to me but for me.” — Tony Robbins
36) “Not all storms come to disrupt your life, some come to clear your path.”
37) “You never lose by loving. You always lose by holding back.” — Barbara De Angelis
38) “Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.” — Dalai Lama
(MORE: 7 New Stages of a Breakup: The Ultimate Guide)
39) “Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break, and all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intentions. So go, Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world awaits in darkness for the light that is you.” — L.R. Frost
40) “It’s always darkest before the dawn.”
Letting Go Breakup Quotes
Eventually, we stop chasing our Ex. We abandon the hope of getting back together again and start our breakup recovery.
We decide to move on and let go.
Here are the best quotes regarding moving on from an Ex-Partner, and why you should choose love instead of regret.
41) “Forgive others, not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace.”
42) “Forgiveness is not something we do for other people. It's something we do for ourselves to move on.”
43) “Holding on to anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”
(MORE: The Need For Revenge On Your Ex: How To Use It To Fuel Your Recovery)
44) “The sign of true forgiveness is when you stop wishing it had been any other way.”
45) “When a dewdrop slides off a leaf and surrenders to gravity, the drop loses its previous identity and joins the vastness of the earth below. It must have trembled before it fell, just on the edge between the known and the unknown.
Sometimes things end, they are finished, they are completing. Whatever it is, they are things that might have helped us to define who we are.
It's time to let go of it, allowing sadness, but not trying to hold on. Something greater is awaiting, dimensions are there to be discovered. We are past the point of no return now, and gravity is doing its work.
Go with it – it represents liberation.”
46) “Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. 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.” — The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich
47) “If you can love the wrong person that much, imagine how much you can love the right one.”
48) “Anyone can give you attention and compliments, but someone who loves you will give you that plus respect, honesty, trust, and loyalty.” — Charles Orlando
49) “You
not wanting me
was
the beginning of me
wanting myself
thank you”
— Nayyirah Waheed
50) “Even though I believe I’ve made choices that have hurt myself and others that are unforgivable, I now realize, claim, and embody that these choices were exactly what my soul had deemed as perfect for me to come home as the next highest and most divine version of myself.
Everything was and is in perfect creation, design, and order for life and my soul to lovingly grant me everything I needed for my evolution. There is no wasted time, and there is nothing that is wrong.
I also understand that everything that occurred to any other player in this cast of perfection was also the highest, most gracious event offered by their soul in concert with mine.” — Melanie Tonia Evans
(MORE: 21 Shocking Narcissist Quotes That Will Make You Leave)
51) “Someday we’ll forget the hurt, the reason we cried, and who caused us pain. We will finally realize that the secret of being free is not revenge, but letting things unfold in their own way and own time. After all, what matters is not the first, but the last chapter of our life which shows how well we ran the race. So smile, laugh, forgive, believe, and love all over again.”
52) “Let me be clear, my love is unconditional, but your presence in my life is not. The moment that you prove that your value of me does not measure up to my sense of self-worth, I’ll have no problem unconditionally loving the memory of you and moving on.” — Carson Patrick Bowie
53) “When life shows you its time to let someone go, and you refuse to, life will allow the person to hurt you to the point you have no choice but to let go.”
Funny Breakup Quotes
A breakup is a serious business.
We are torturing our minds with unpleasant thoughts of regret, guilt, and anger.
How about a little humor once in a while to lighten up our minds? Laughter is some of the best (breakup) medicine.
(MORE: 11 Most Hilarious Breakup Cartoons To Forget Your Ex)
54) “I’m trying to be a more positive person every day. Today, I'm positive everyone is an asshole.”
55) “Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig.” – Mark Twain
56) “It's so hot outside, I almost called my ex so that I could be around something shady.”
57) “I’m moving on because we had religious differences. He thinks he's God, and I don’t.”
58) “Being back with your ex is like reheating your Mcdonald's fries.”
59) “You never know who you are married to until you get divorced.”
60) When an ex tries to hit you up:
“Hey!”
“Hey.”
“What's up?”
“My standards. Bye.”
And, of course, how can I forget the guided meditation that will crack you up like an egg (it's hilarious AND helpful at the same time):
Conclusion and Your Next Step
If you are going through a tough breakup right now, go through the list and find the breakup quotes that stand out for you.
These are the ones that triggered something in you … a truth or epiphany that you need to focus upon.
Follow these where they lead you, and you will be on your way to breakup recovery.
If you need more help with your breakup, please consider joining our free email mini course, which will teach you how to stop obsessing over your Ex.
That’s the first step you need to take so that you can let the bird fly. If it comes back, it’s yours.
If not, it was never meant to be.
