100 Touching Unrequited Love Quotes
Love is a powerful force that can lift us to the highest peaks of joy and plunge us into the deepest depths of despair.
Unrequited love, in particular, can be an especially poignant experience. It’s the love that remains one-sided, a feeling that isn’t returned in the way we hope.
While it can be heart-wrenching, unrequited love has inspired some of the most beautiful, touching quotes in literature and history.
Here, we explore 100 touching unrequited love quotes that capture the essence of this complex emotion.
1. “The hardest thing you’ll ever do is let go of someone who was never really yours.” – Unknown
2. “To burn with desire and keep quiet about it is the greatest punishment we can bring on ourselves.” – Federico García Lorca
3. “You can’t force someone to care. You can only sit and watch as they make a choice that you already know the answer to.” – Unknown
4. “Loving you was like going to war; I never came back the same.” – Warsan Shire
5. “Sometimes, the person you want the most is the person you’re best without.” – Unknown
6. “Unrequited love does not die; it’s only beaten down to a secret place where it hides, curled and wounded.” – Elle Newmark
7. “You never lose by loving. You always lose by holding back.” – Barbara De Angelis
8. “Love isn’t something you decide. It’s something that happens to you. You can’t control it, no matter how much you want to.” – Unknown
9. “When you love someone, you’ll do anything to keep them in your life, even if it means letting them go.” – Unknown
10. “It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson
11. “It’s so difficult to find the words to say to someone who means so much to you when they’re right there in front of you, but you know you mean nothing to them.” – Unknown
12. “Sometimes, you don’t realize how much you care for someone until they stop caring for you.” – Unknown
13. “If you were mine, I would have treasured you for a lifetime.” – Unknown
14. “The most painful goodbyes are the ones that are never said and never explained.” – Unknown
15. “You can’t make someone love you by giving them more of what they already don’t appreciate.” – Unknown
16. “I have to admit, an unrequited love is so much better than a real one. I mean, it’s perfect… As long as something is never even started, you never have to worry about it ending. It has endless potential.” – Sarah Dessen
17. “Hearts will never be practical until they are made unbreakable.” – L. Frank Baum
18. “The worst feeling is falling for someone and knowing that they won’t be there to catch you.” – Rashida Rowe
19. “Loving someone who doesn’t love you back is like hugging a cactus. The tighter you hold on, the more it hurts.” – Unknown
20. “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
21. “The biggest curse in life is not to love and be loved in return, but to love and never find the courage to let that person know how you feel.” – Unknown
22. “It’s hard to wait around for something you know might never happen, but it’s even harder to give up when you know it’s everything you want.” – Unknown
23. “I have given up on you, but I will never give up on loving you.” – Unknown
24. “It hurts when you have someone in your heart but can’t have them in your arms.” – unknown
25. “You can close your eyes to the things you don’t want to see, but you can’t close your heart to the things you don’t want to feel.” – Johnny Depp
26. “Sometimes, we create our own heartbreaks through expectation.” – Unknown
27. “Unrequited love is the infinite curse of a lonely heart.” – Christina Westover
28. “It’s not that I can’t live without you; it’s just that I don’t even want to try.” – Unknown
29. “One of the most difficult tasks in life is removing someone from your heart.” – Unknown
30. “If you don’t receive love from the ones who are meant to love you, you will never stop looking for it.” – Robert Goolrick
31. “I love you, and it’s killing me every day.” – Unknown
32. “The worst way to miss someone is to be sitting right beside them knowing you can’t have them.” – Unknown
33. “My heart is fragile, but my feelings are deep.” – Unknown
34. “Loving someone who doesn’t love you back is like drowning, but you just can’t die.” – Unknown
35. “It’s sad when you realize you aren’t as important to someone as you thought you were.” – Unknown
36. “You can give someone your heart, but it doesn’t mean they’ll give theirs in return.” – Unknown
37. “There’s a certain charm in unrequited love; it stays with you and hurts, but it’s a pure kind of pain.” – Unknown
38. “You can’t just sit there and wait for people to give you that golden dream. You’ve got to get out there and make it happen for yourself.” – Diana Ross
39. “The pain of unrequited love is the best thing to make songs about.” – Unknown
40. “I was born with an enormous need for affection, and a terrible need to give it.” – Audrey Hepburn
41. “Sometimes, I wish I had never met you because then I could go to sleep at night not knowing there was someone like you out there.” – Unknown
42. “The more I see you, the more I fall in love with you.” – Unknown
43. “You don’t love someone because they’re perfect. You love them in spite of the fact that they’re not.” – Jodi Picoult
44. “Sometimes, we give love to the wrong person, and we sit there wondering why it never worked out.” – Unknown
45. “You can miss someone who was never really yours to begin with.” – Unknown
46. “The one you love and the one who loves you are never, ever the same person.” – Chuck Palahniuk
47. “You can’t make yourself stop loving someone, but you can tell yourself that you deserve better.” – Unknown
48. “I wish I could turn back the clock. I’d find you sooner and love you longer.” – Unknown
49. “If you have to beg someone to stay with you, then they were never really yours in the first place.” – Unknown
50. “It’s better to be alone than to be with someone who makes you feel alone.” – Unknown
51. “I would rather be alone with dignity than in a relationship that requires me to sacrifice my self-respect.” – Unknown
52. “Sometimes, it’s better to be alone. No one can hurt you that way.” – Unknown
53. “It’s so hard to pretend to be friends with someone special, when every time you look at that person, all you see is everything you want to have.” – Unknown
54. “One of the cruelest things a person can do is to awaken someone’s love without the intention of truly loving them.” – Unknown
55. “The worst feeling is pretending you don’t care about something when it’s all you seem to think about.” – Unknown
56. “It’s amazing how someone can break your heart, and you can still love them with all the little pieces.” – Unknown
57. “When you care for someone more than they deserve, you get hurt more than you deserve.” – Unknown
58. “It’s not the love you make. It’s the love you give.” – Unknown
59. “Don’t cry over someone who wouldn’t cry over you.” – Lauren Conrad
60. “Love can sometimes be magic. But magic can sometimes… just be an illusion.” – Javan
61. “I’d rather have a broken heart than a closed heart.” – Unknown
62. “Sometimes, I wonder if you’ll ever know how much I love you, how much I care.” – Unknown
63. “It’s better to have nobody than to have someone who is half there, or doesn’t want to be there.” – Unknown
64. “The wrong person will never give you what you want, but they’ll make sure they get what they want from you.” – Unknown
65. “It’s better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone.” – Marilyn Monroe
66. “Loving you was like jumping into the dark abyss, hoping
the landing would be worth the pain.” – Unknown
67. “The scariest thing about distance is you don’t know whether they’ll miss you or forget you.” – Nicholas Sparks
68. “I’m not ignoring you. I’m just waiting to see if you’ll make an effort for me.” – Unknown
69. “The only thing worse than a broken heart is knowing you would give them another chance to do it again.” – Unknown
70. “Sometimes, you just have to accept that some people are meant to stay in your heart, but not in your life.” – Unknown
71. “You know it’s love when all you want is for that person to be happy, even if you’re not part of their happiness.” – Julia Roberts
72. “Loving someone who doesn’t feel the same way is like using a white crayon on a white paper. It’s always invisible.” – Unknown
73. “Sometimes, you have to forget what you feel and remember what you deserve.” – Unknown
74. “There is a distinct, awful pain that comes with loving someone more than they love you.” – Steve Maraboli
75. “Just because we don’t talk anymore doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten about you. It doesn’t mean that I no longer care. Truth is, I still do.” – Unknown
76. “You can’t make homes out of human beings. Someone should have already told you that.” – Warsan Shire
77. “I tried to forget you, but the harder I tried, the more I thought about you.” – Unknown
78. “I never knew that it was possible to miss someone so much without them being a part of my life anymore.” – Unknown
79. “I think I’ll miss you forever like the stars miss the sun in the morning sky.” – Lana Del Rey
80. “No matter how much it hurts now, someday you will look back and realize your struggles changed your life for the better.” – Unknown
81. “The only thing more painful than being an active forgetter is to be an inert rememberer.” – Jonathan Safran Foer
82. “It’s funny how someone can break your heart, and you can still love them with all the little pieces.” – Ella Harper
83. “If someone doesn’t fight to keep you, never fight yourself to stay.” – Unknown
84. “One-sided love is never going to work. But it’s worth the fight if you think it is.” – Unknown
85. “Sometimes, the person you want the most is the person you’re best without.” – Unknown
86. “You may be out of my sight… but never out of my mind… I miss you!” – Unknown
87. “It’s strange how often a heart must be broken before the years can make it wise.” – Sara Teasdale
88. “One of the worst things in life is watching someone you love, love someone else.” – Unknown
89. “I would have waited for you forever, but you didn’t even wait for me.” – Unknown
90. “If I had to choose between loving you and breathing, I would use my last breath to say I love you.” – Unknown
91. “It’s better to wait long than to marry wrong.” – Unknown
92. “You’ll know they love you when they stop loving the things that hurt you.” – Unknown
93. “Maybe I was destined to forever fall in love with people I couldn’t have.” – Unknown
94. “I tried to hate you, but the only thing I hated was how much I loved you.” – Unknown
95. “You can’t just erase someone from your mind. Getting over someone is easier said than done.” – Unknown
96. “I’m a fool for wanting you. And, I’m a fool for not letting go.” – Unknown
97. “You’ll never realize how much you miss someone until they’re gone.” – Unknown
98. “If you could see yourself through my eyes, you’d know how much I care.” – Unknown
99. “Love isn’t a decision. It’s a feeling. If we could decide who we loved, it would be much simpler, but much less magical.” – Trey Parker
100. “Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.” – Hermann Hesse
Unrequited love, though painful, teaches us about resilience, the complexity of emotions, and the beauty of loving deeply.
These quotes reflect the myriad of feelings associated with loving someone who doesn’t love you back, offering solace and understanding to those navigating this tough emotional terrain. Remember, it’s okay to feel what you’re feeling, and in time, healing will come.
