If you’re here, I get it. Loving someone who doesn’t feel the same way is heartbreaking. You might be feeling lost, hurt, or even a bit frustrated right now. Trust me, it’s okay to feel all of that—it’s human.
Unrequited love can make you feel like you’re stuck in an emotional loop, replaying all the ‘what ifs’ and ‘why nots’ in your head. I know it hurts more than we care to admit.
These quotes are like a warm hug on a tough day. They’ll speak to the part of you that’s hurting but also remind you that there’s so much more to love. So read on, find a quote that resonates, and let it remind you that your love is special and deserves to be returned.
Table of Contents
Famous Quotes About Unrequited Love
- “There is no remedy for love but to love more.” — Henry David Thoreau
- “The heart was made to be broken.” — Oscar Wilde
- “Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.” — William Shakespeare
- “Unrequited love is a ridiculous state, and it makes those in it behave ridiculously.” — Cassandra Clare
- “To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best.” — William Thackeray

- “Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.” — Robert Frost
- “Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart.” — Washington Irving
- “Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.” — William Shakespeare
- “Love is a fire. But whether it is going to warm your hearth or burn down your house, you can never tell.” — Joan Crawford
- “The course of true love never did run smooth.” — William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
- “You can’t make someone love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved. The rest is up to them.” — Unknown

- “Love is or it ain’t. Thin love ain’t love at all.” — Toni Morrison
- “There is nothing so mortifying as to fall in love with someone who does not share one’s sentiments.” — Georgette Heyer, Arabella
- “Perhaps that is the irony of unrequited love; to be so fixated on another that you lose sight of yourself.” — Unknown
- “When you care for someone more than they deserve, you get hurt more than you deserve.” — Unknown
- “The worst feeling is falling for someone and knowing that they won’t be there to catch you.” — Rashida Rowe
- “Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love.” — Charlie Brown
- “Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back.” — Plato
Heartbreaking Unrequited Love Quotes
- “To burn with desire and keep quiet about it is the greatest punishment we can bring on ourselves.” — Federico García Lorca
- “Love is an untamed force. When we try to control it, it destroys us. When we try to imprison it, it enslaves us. When we try to understand it, it leaves us feeling lost and confused.” ― Paulo Coelho
- “The worst feeling is not being lonely, but being forgotten by someone you can’t forget.” — Unknown
- “It’s amazing how someone can break your heart and you can still love them with all the little pieces.” — Ella Harper

- “It’s like reaching for something in the dark that you can’t see, but you know it’s there, hoping it’ll reach back for you.” — Unknown
- “Maybe I was destined to forever fall in love with people I couldn’t have. Maybe there’s a whole assortment of impossible people waiting for me to find them. Waiting to make me feel the same impossibility over and over again.” — Carol Rifka Brunt
- “I wish I could go back to the day I met you and just walk away.” — Unknown
- “It’s better to have nobody than to have someone who is half there or doesn’t want to be there.” — Unknown
- “If you don’t receive love from the ones who are meant to love you, you will never stop looking for it.” — Robert Goolrick
- “Because, if you could love someone, and keep loving them, without being loved back… then that love had to be real. It hurt too much to be anything else.” — Sarah Cross

- “Unrequited love is a melancholy feeling, but it can also be a beautiful one. It’s a reminder that we are capable of great love, even if it’s not always returned.” — Unknown
- “Unrequited love is like a ghost that haunts you, a constant reminder of what could have been.” — Unknown
- Until this moment, I had not realized that someone could break your heart twice, along the very same fault lines. –Jodi Picoult
- “There’s something funny about unrequited love — I suppose it’s because we can all identify with it.” — Charles Schulz
- “Because what’s worse than knowing you want something, besides knowing you can never have it?” — James Patterson
- “To love someone who doesn’t love you back is to experience the beauty and tragedy of an unfinished story.” — Sanober Khan
Short and Relatable Quotes About Unrequited Love
- “He who loves not, lives not.” — Ramon Llull
- “Loving you was like going to war; I never came back the same.” — Warsan Shire
- “I loved you in secret.” — Sylvia Plath
- “You deserve someone who is sure of you.” — r.h. Sin
- “The heart wants what it wants. There’s no logic to those things.” — Woody Allen

- “You can’t force love where it doesn’t exist.” — Unknown
- “Love unreturned is like a question without an answer.” — Unknown
- “Unrequited love is the infinite curse of a lonely heart.” — Christina Westover
- “It hurts to let go, but sometimes it hurts more to hold on.” — Unknown
- “The silence of the person you love is worse than a thousand cries.” — Unknown
Quotes on Letting Go of Someone Who Doesn’t Love You
- “Never love anyone who treats you like you’re ordinary.” — Oscar Wilde
- “Why do I have to chase you when I’m the catch?” — Unknown
- “You can’t make someone love you by giving them more of what they already don’t appreciate.” — Unknown
- “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

- “When you loved someone and had to let them go, there will always be that small part of yourself that whispers, “What was it that you wanted and why didn’t you fight for it?”— Shannon L. Alder
- “Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option.” — Mark Twain
- “How do you know when it’s over? Maybe when you feel more in love with the memory of someone than the person standing in front of you.” — Karen Salmansohn
- “It’s sad when someone you know becomes someone you knew.” — Henry Rollins
- “Don’t allow someone not worth it to have the power to occupy your thoughts. If they don’t find you worth the effort or the time, why should you waste yours?” — Donna Lynn Hope
- “If you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you, it’s yours forever. If it doesn’t, then it was never meant to be.” — Unknown

- “In the process of letting go, you will lose many things from the past, but you will find yourself.” — Deepak Chopra
- “The person you’re meant to be with will never have to be chased, begged, or given an ultimatum.” — Mandy Hale
- “Pain will leave you, when you let go.” — Jeremy Aldana
- “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
- “You must learn to let go. Release the stress. You were never in control anyway.” — Steve Maraboli
- “Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great strength. However, there are times when it takes much more strength to know when to let go and then do it.” — Ann Landers
- “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

Inspirational Quotes to Heal from Unrequited Love
- “Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.” — Maya Angelou
- “Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” — Alfred Lord Tennyson
- “The heart will break, but broken live on.” — Lord Byron
- “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” — Alexander Graham Bell
- “It takes a strong heart to love but it takes a stronger heart to continue to love after being hurt.” ― Chandin Whitten

- “Sometimes the hardest part isn’t letting go but rather learning to start over.” — Nicole Sobon
- “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
- “Respect yourself enough to walk away from anything that no longer serves you, grows you, or makes you happy.” — Robert Tew
- “No one is worth your tears, but when you find someone who is, they won’t make you cry.” — Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- “Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.” — Maya Angelou

- “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
- “Don’t settle for being someone’s sometimes.” — Unknown
- “You can’t control who you love, but you can control how long you wait for them to love you back.” — Unknown
- “Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.” — Dalai Lama
Quotes from Books, Movies, and TV Shows
- “…unrequited love does not die; it’s only beaten down to a secret place where it hides, curled and wounded. For some unfortunates, it turns bitter and mean, and those who come after pay the price for the hurt done by the one who came before.” ― Elle Newmark, The Book of Unholy Mischief
- “The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too.” — Ernest Hemingway, Men Without Women

- “I wish I knew how to quit you.” — Jack Twist, Brokeback Mountain (2005)
- “It’s funny how you can go from strangers to friends to strangers again.” — 500 Days of Summer (2009)
- “The one you love and the one who loves you are never, ever the same person.” ― Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters
- “Maybe one day you’ll understand that hearts don’t intend to break other hearts.” — Sally Rooney, Normal People
- “You can’t force love, I realized. It’s there or it isn’t. If it’s not there, you’ve got to be able to admit it. If it is there, you’ve got to do whatever it takes to protect the ones you love.” — Richelle Mead, Frostbite
Final Thoughts
I hope these quotes brought you some comfort or at least put your feelings into words. Sometimes, it helps to know that others have been through the same thing and came out stronger on the other side. Remember, you deserve to be loved the way you love others—completely and openly.
So, take your time to heal. Focus on yourself, and don’t forget that love will find its way to you when you’re ready. You are worth the wait, and you deserve a love that’s real and true.