Every time I’ve gone through a breakup, I’ve turned to words to provide me solace. In reading books or quotes about heartbreak, I’m comforted by the fact that I am not the first to endure such pain, nor will I, absolutely, positively, be the last. Not only that, but it probably won’t even be the last breakup that I’ll experience in my lifetime. And you know what? I’m OK with that. It just adds to my charm and character. (Or so I tell myself.)
No matter why the relationship came to an end, a breakup is never easy. It’s a loss and loss is something that, although we’re equipped as humans to deal with, process, and ultimately grow from, it also never gets any easier — as much as one might hope to become to immune to such things.
Surviving a breakup is certainly no picnic, but if we take a moment to realize that it’s a universal thing which there is no avoiding, at least for the most part, then we can accept it or, if we’re lucky, take the pain and turn it into something amazing. Just look at what Adele did after her devastating breakup — she wrote and recorded 21 and won a million Grammy awards for it.
My point? Breakups aren’t always a bad thing. And here are 15 quotes to make you realize just that... and get you to the other side.
1. “Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.” — Dr. Seuss
2. “I believe I know the only cure, which is to make one’s center of life inside of one’s self, not selfishly or excludingly, but with a kind of unassailable serenity—to decorate one’s inner house so richly that one is content there, glad to welcome anyone who wants to come and stay, but happy all the same when one is inevitably alone.” — Edith Wharton
3. “Everything I’ve ever let go of has claw marks on it.” ― David Foster Wallace
4. "I love my past, I love my present. I am not ashamed of what I have had, and I am not sad because I no longer have it." — Sidonie Gabrielle Colette
5. “Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.” — Herman Hesse
6. "I postpone death by living, by suffering, by error, by risking, by giving, by losing." — Anaïs Nin
7. “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
8. “Like some wines our love could neither mature nor travel.” — Graham Greene
9. “This is a good sign, having a broken heart. It means we have tried for something.” — Elizabeth Gilbert
10. "Life is essentially a cheat and its conditions are those of defeat; the redeeming things are not happiness and pleasure but the deeper satisfactions that come out of struggle." — F. Scott Fitzgerald
11. “New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.” — Lao Tzu
12. "For my part, I prefer my heart to be broken. It is so lovely, dawn-kaleidoscopic within the crack." — D.H. Lawrence
13. "The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places." — Ernest Hemingway
14. "I must endure the presence of two or three caterpillars, if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies." — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
15. “The heart was made to be broken.”— Oscar Wilde
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