Sometimes a relationship can be toxic from the start.
Other times it sneaks up on you.
It deteriorates and slowly becomes draining and inflamed.
In today’s post I’d like to share 130 of the most relatable and helpful toxic relationship quotes.
To help you find the common signs of a toxic relationship and to find a healthier and happier path forward in your own life.
And if you want more helpful inspiration to deal with tough situations, have a look at these post with quotes on dealing with toxic people and toxic family and also this one filled with being used quotes.
Relatable Toxic Relationship Quotes
“At some point you have to realize that some people can stay in your heart but not in your life.”
– Tara Westover
“A real relationship is two-way.”
– Sophie Kinsella
“Don’t confuse “familiar” with “acceptable”. Toxic relationships can fool you like that.”
– Steve Maraboli
“You make me feel like a firefly. Trapped in a bell jar; starved for love.”
– Ayushee Ghoshal
“I think most people know when they’re in a toxic relationship – it requires an enormous amount of effort to keep it going, and you don’t get what you want from it.”
– Joanna Coles
“Toxic people attach themselves like cinder blocks tied to your ankles, and then invite you for a swim in their poisoned waters.”
– John Mark Green
“A bad relationship is like standing on broken glass, if you stay you will keep hurting. If you walk away, you will hurt but eventually, you will heal.”
– Autumn Kohler
“May you reach that level within, where you no longer allow your past or people with toxic intentions to negatively affect or condition you.”
– Lalah Delia
“Don’t let negative and toxic people rent space in your head. Raise the rent and kick them out.”
– Zig Ziglar
“Release the toxic and infectious spreaders of misery, souls destroying souls and poisonous liars. Awaken from the hallucinations and take back your heart. Reclaim your self-esteem and leave the toxic be.”
– Giorge Leedy
“If you walked away from a toxic, negative, abusive, one-sided, dead-end, low vibrational, relationship or friendship – you won.”
– Lalah Delia
“Ego is probably one of the biggest poisons we can have – it’s toxic to any environment.”
– Jonny Kim
“Forgiveness does not create a relationship. Unless people speak the truth about what they have done and change their mind and behavior, a relationship of trust is not possible. When you forgive someone you certainly release them from judgment, but without true change, no real relationship can be established.”
– William P. Young
“Couples often live out years of falsehood trying to protect and save a relationship, all the while destroying any chance of real relationship.”
– Henry Cloud
“If there is a particular person in your life that is repeatedly choosing not to honor you and is causing you more sadness or pain than they are joy – it might be time to release that friendship back to God and trust that it is not where you belong.”
– Mandy Hale
“Cut the toxic ties that force you to mask your true feelings.”
– Linda Greyman
“As you begin to walk away from negativity and toxic people, it will inspire you to embrace positivity and your life will become more rewarding and fulfilling.”
– Germany Kent
“A healthy relationship will never require you to sacrifice your friends, your dream, or your dignity.”
– Unknown
“A good friend will help you to discover the potentials you haven’t uncovered. A bad friend will help you to cover up the potential you have already recovered. Make your choice!”
– Israelmore Ayivor
“You can't just be a part of someone else’s existence and life. You matter too. Your dreams are important and valid. They are not to be mocked or minimized. ”
– Rip Miller
“Toxic people defy logic. Some are blissfully unaware of the negative impact that they have on those around them, and others seem to derive satisfaction from creating chaos and pushing other people’s buttons.”
– Travis Bradberry
“Clutter is not just physical stuff. It’s old ideas, toxic relationships and bad habits. Clutter is anything that does not support your better self.”
– Eleanor Brown
“A toxic lover is someone damaged beyond repair.”
– Unknown
“It’s amazing how someone can break your heart and you can still love them with all the little pieces.”
– Ella Harper
“The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too.”
– Ernest Hemingway
Helpful Toxic Relationship Quotes
“It is only when we no longer compulsively need someone that we can have a real relationship with them.”
– Anthony Storr
“Many people get into a relationship as a way to compensate for something they lack or hate within themselves. This is a one-way ticket to a toxic relationship because it makes your love conditional – you will love your partner as long as they help you feel better about yourself.”
– Mark Manson
“Staying in an unhealthy relationship that robs you of peace of mind, is not being loyal. It is choosing to hurt yourself mentally, emotionally, and sometimes, physically.”
– Kemi Sogunle
“The wrong person will give you less than what you’re worth but that doesn’t mean that you have to accept it.”
– Sonya Parker
“Toxic relationships are dangerous to your health; they will literally kill you. Stress shortens your lifespan. Even a broken heart can kill you. There is an undeniable mind-body connection. Your arguments and hateful talk can land you in the emergency room or in the morgue. You were not meant to live in a fever of anxiety; screaming yourself hoarse in a frenzy of dreadful, panicked fight-or-flight that leaves you exhausted and numb with grief.
You were not meant to live like animals tearing one another to shreds. Don’t turn your hair gray. Don’t carve a roadmap of pain into the sweet wrinkles on your face. Don’t lay in the quiet with your heart pounding like a trapped, frightened creature.
For your own precious and beautiful life, and for those around you – seek help or get out before it is too late. This is your wake-up call!”
– Bryant McGill
“Until you let go of all the toxic people in your life, you will never be able to grow into your fullest potential. Let them go so you can grow.”
– DLQ
“Let go of negative people. They only show up to share complaints, problems, disastrous stories, fear, and judgment on others. If somebody is looking for a bin to throw all their trash into, make sure it’s not in your mind.”
– Dalai Lama
“It takes strength to walk away from a toxic relationship, but it's the only way to save yourself and find true happiness again.”
– Unknown
“Know your worth and please don’t invest in toxic people or relationships, because any bond that requires servicing is not worth your time.”
– Masaba Gupta
“It's one thing if a person owns up to their behavior and makes an effort to change. But if a person disregards your feelings, ignores your boundaries, and continues to treat you in a harmful way, they need to go.”
– Daniell Koepke
“My encouragement: delete the energy vampires from your life, clean out all complexity, build a team around you that frees you to fly, remove anything toxic, and cherish simplicity. Because that’s where genius lives.”
– Robin S. Sharma
“Life is too short to hang around people who are causing you to compromise. Pulling you down. Your time is too valuable to waste it with people who don’t have a dream. People that aren’t going anywhere. You don’t need to make some big announcement, but little by little, you should spend less time with them.
– Joel Osteen
“Don’t allow someone not worth it to have the power to occupy your thoughts.”
– Donna Lynn Hope
“You are in control of your life. Set new boundaries by removing all of the toxic people from your inner circle.”
– Germany Kent
“Don’t settle for a relationship that won’t let you be yourself.”
– Oprah Winfrey
“We all have those toxic people around us that make our lives miserable… The day we take them out from our lives, we will all become better people; including them…”
– Rodolfo Peon
“Poisonous relationships can alter our perception. You can spend many years thinking you're worthless. But you're not worthless. You're underappreciated.”
– Steve Maraboli
“Fire false friends as early as possible. Do it before they dig out the dream seeds you’ve planted! The earlier, the better; the quicker, the safer!”
– Israelmore Ayivor
“If you do not respect your own wishes, no one else will. You will simply attract people who disrespect you as much as you do.”
– Vironika Tugaleva
Wise Toxic Relationship Quotes
“Like arsenic, toxic people will slowly kill you. They kill your positive spirit and play with your mind and emotions. The only cure is to let them go.”
– Dennisse Lisseth
“Toxic relationships are like a good pasta that has been overcooked.”
– Asa Don Brown
“A good relationship is when someone accepts your past, supports your present and encourages your future.”
– Karen Salmansohn
“Hanging around the small-minded eventually makes us small-minded. The plant only grows as big as the environment it’s in.”
– Torron-Lee Dewar
“When being in a toxic relationship in life at times you may have to step outside yourself, to see yourself, so you can find yourself and love yourself again.”
– Angel Moreira
“When he’s the last thing you need, he’ll drain you. He’ll exhaust you. He’ll destroy you. And you won’t see it that way. In fact, you won’t notice it at all. But everyone else will.”
– Kirsten Corley
“You create more space in your life when you turn your excess baggage to garbage. ”
– Chinonye J. Chidolue
“I’ve found the most tragic aspect of losing loved ones wasn’t the big boom of the fallout, but realizing later how much healthier I was without them.”
– Maggie Young
“Problems in relationships occur because each person is concentrating on what is missing in the other person.”
– Wayne Dyer
“It’s amazing how quickly things can turn around when you remove toxic people from your life.”
– Robert Tew
“No partner in a love relationship… should feel that he has to give up an essential part of himself to make it viable.”
– May Sarton
Also be sure to check out these posts on dealing with liars and ungrateful people.
Insightful Toxic Relationship Quotes
“Losing will not always amount to a loss, sometimes you have to lose those toxic relationships and bad habits to create a space for better things.”
– Gift Gugu Mona
“If you’re in a relationship and all you do is cry, you need to stop and ask yourself, are you dating a human or an onion?”
– Karen Salmansohn
“People who try to bring you down everyday aren’t important in your life, so you better treat their opinions as such”
– Terry Mark
“Don’t let toxic people infect you with the fear of giving and receiving one of the most powerful forces in this world… LOVE!”
– Yvonne Pierre
“It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“Energy vampires prey on others because they are in pain, and their behavior is a disguised cry for help. However, the important thing to remember is that you are not responsible for resolving their issues. While you can offer help to an energy vampire, it is ultimately their responsibility to sort out their struggles.”
– Aletheia Luna
“Relationships based on obligation lack dignity.”
– Wayne Dyer
“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you too can become great.”
– Mark Twain
“I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone. It’s not. The worst thing in life is ending up with people who make you feel all alone”
– Robin Williams
“There are only two kinds of people who can drain your energy: those you love, and those you fear. In both instances, it is you who let them in. They did not force their way into your aura, or pry their way into your reality experience.”
– Anthon St. Maarten
“Pay no attention to toxic words. What people say is often a reflection of themselves, not you.”
– Christian Baloga
“Controllers, abusers, and manipulative people don’t question themselves. They don’t ask themselves if the problem is them. They always say the problem is someone else.”
– Darlene Quimet
“Don’t let toxic people sabotage your happiness, ruin your positive attitude, contaminate your mind or destroy your self-confidence. Instead, surround yourself with generous, positive, and nurturing people who will lift you up.”
– Farshad Asl
“Cry. Forgive. Learn. Move on. Let your tears water the seeds of your future happiness.”
– Steve Maraboli
“Forgiveness is a personal process that doesn’t depend on us having direct contact with the people who have hurt us.”
– Sharon Salzberg
Toxic Relationship Quotes To Set You Free
“Don’t stay in an unhealthy relationship because you think it’ll get better eventually. Know your worth and move on.”
– Unknown
“We teach people how to treat us.”
– Dr. Phil
“One’s dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but it can never be taken away unless it is surrendered.”
– Michael J. Fox
“Just because someone desires you, does not mean that he values you.”
– Julianne Cantarella
“Don’t judge yourself by what others did to you.”
– C. Kennedy
“Bravery is leaving a toxic relationship and knowing that you deserve better.”
– Unknown
“People inspire you, or they drain you. Pick them wisely.”
– Hans F. Hasen
“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
“It was strange, really. A couple of months ago, I had thought I couldn’t live without him. Apparently I could.”
– Gabrielle Zevin
“It is better for someone to break your heart once by leaving your life, than for them to stay in your life and break your heart continually.”
– Terry Mark
“The only way to win with a toxic partner is not to play.”
– Unknown
“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
“Do not hold your breath for anyone, do not wish your lungs to be still, it may delay the cracks from spreading, but eventually they will. Sometimes to keep yourself together, you must allow yourself to leave, even if breaking your own heart is what it takes to let you breathe.”
– Erin Hanson
“When you notice someone does something toxic the first time, don’t wait for the second time before you address it or cut them off.
– Shahida Arabi
“You don’t let go of a bad relationship because you stop caring about them. You let go because you start caring about yourself.”
– Charles Orlando
“Life becomes easier when you learn to accept an apology you never got.”
– Robert Brault
“We’ve all loved someone way too freaking much.”
– Karen Salmonsohn
“A bad relationship can do that, can make you doubt everything good you ever felt about yourself.”
– Dionne Warwick
“Leaving a toxic relationship means giving yourself an opportunity to understand your needs.”
– Unknown
“Dear Self: Stop re-opening your doors for toxic people, then calling it ‘seeking closure.’ Certain things don't work out in life . . . and that's ok.”
– Reyna Biddy
“It's better to be single with high standards than in a relationship settling for less.”
– Unknown
“Some people live in cages with bars built from their own fears and doubts. Some people live in cages with bars built from other people’s fears and doubts; their parents, their friends, their brothers and sisters, their families. Some people live in cages with bars built from the choices others made for them, the circumstances other people imposed upon them. And some people break free.”
– C. JoyBell C.
“It’s better to be healthy alone than sick with someone else.”
– Dr. Phil
“Break free of toxic people and relationships, they erode your quality of life and make your days just worse and worse over time.”
– Unknown
This post with feeling unappreciated quotes might also be helpful for you.
Short Toxic Relationship Quotes
“When you get out of it, you realize how toxic it actually was.”
– Steve Maraboli
“The one who loves the least, controls the relationship.”
– Robert Anthony
“The problem with getting attached to a wrong person is, when they leave, you just feel lost.”
– Unknown
“The hottest love has the coldest end.”
– Socrates
“Being alone may scare you, but being in a bad relationship may damage you.”
– Unknown
“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.”
– Steve Jobs
“While it may feel scary to be alone again, it may be even scarier to stay.”
– Unknown
“A broken heart bleeds tears.”
– Steve Maraboli
“Sometimes, we just fall in love with the wrong people.”
– Unknown
“Thinking of you is a poison I drink often.”
– Atticus
“The moment that you start to wonder if you deserve better, you do.”
– Unknown
“When dealing with toxic people, they always choose distance over disrespect.”
– Germany Kent
“A healthy relationship doesn't drag you down. It inspires you to be better.”
– Unknown
“There are people who bring you down, by just being them”
– Malebo Sephodi
“Never let someone who contributes so little to a relationship control so much of it.”
– Unknown
You may also find this post on not feeling like a priority in a relationship helpful.
Quick and Powerful Toxic Relationship Quotes
“You take your power back by letting people go.”
– Emma Xu
“Bravery is leaving a toxic relationship and knowing that you deserve better.”
– Unknown
“With some people, loyalty ends when the benefits stop. Stay away from them.”
– Unknown
“Just say no to complicated, dead-end, unhealthy, and toxic relationships.”
– Stephanie Lahart
“You don't ever have to feel guilty about removing toxic people from your life.”
– Unknown
“I will not allow anyone to walk in my mind with dirty feet.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
“Sometimes you need to give up on people, not because you don’t care but because they don’t.”
– Unknown
“The one who loves the least, controls the relationship.”
– Robert Anthony
“If they do it often, it isn’t a mistake; it’s just their behavior”
– Steve Maraboli
“A relationship controlled by ambiguity, jealousy, and control is not a relationship at all.”
– Unknown
“Don't let the comforting weight of a relationship you know well be the thing that makes you stay when the whole thing is toxic.”
– Rip Miller
“Unhappy people can be very dangerous, don’t forget that.”
– S.E. Lynes
“You cannot thrive in toxic relationships.”
– Unknown
“Celebrate endings, for they precede new beginnings.”
– Jonathan Lockwood Huie
“Let negative people live their negative lives with their negative minds .”
– Moosa Rahat
“Love cannot live where there is no trust.”
– Edith Hamilton
“When someone tells me ‘no,’ it doesn’t mean I can’t do it, it simply means I can’t do it with them.”
– Karen E. Quinones Miller
“Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go.”
– Hermen Hesse
If you found these toxic relationship quotes helpful or eye-opening then share them with a friend via social media or email.
Want even more timeless help? Have a look at this post with disrespectful people quotes, this one with family isn't always blood quotes plus this one that's all about fake family quotes.
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