Toxic Relationships Quotes

Handling toxic people is not an art, they will be the victim of their own toxicity ~ P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar

The people in your life will either help you shake hands with yourself or they'll teach you what you don't want. Everyone, eventually, does one or the other. All pain transforms to learning. All love transforms to self-awareness. ~ Vironika Tugaleva

A sociopath, on the other hand, has the same regard for financial obligations as he does to personal ones: no remorse, no conscience. Get what you want now, and damn the consequences later. ~ Mary Jo Buttafuoco

The wise do not consider the chains and shackles of jail to be the toughest restraints. The chains of attachment are the strongest of the ties that bind. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

We can deeply love our poison. We can love the taste of it, the scent of it, the comforting weight of it in our belly and find ourselves woken in the night with stabbing cramps, arms around porcelain toilet bowls, hurling every last bit until collapsing on bathroom tile, limp from dehydration. Sometimes parting with love is essential for survival. 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

It's very possible and very okay to forgive someone and still not want to spend time with them ~ Karen Salmansohn

The end for us came with a knock on my window. ~ Liz Thebart

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, what if I hurt their feelings, what if they get upset?'

What if you miss your destiny?

What if they are keeping you from going to the next level?

When you come to the end of life, you won't stand before people, you will stand before God.

He has entrusted you with a gift, you have an assignment, there is something for you to accomplish. you have a responsibility to become who God has created you to be. You have to take bold steps to protect what you are feeding. ~ Joel Osteen

And this great love makes you both ruthless. ~ Iris Murdoch

Some people are just 'diminishers' and 'spoilers' for others. I suppose almost everybody diminishes someone. A saint would be nobody's spoiler. ~ Iris Murdoch

All right, Tess. You want it all? You don't care about consequences? Then it is too late. I could tell you to leave him alone. That he's complicated, not in a sexy way, but in a damaged way. I could tell you damage isn't sexy, it's scary. You're still young enough to think every experience will improve you in some long-term way, but it isn't true. How do you suppose damage gets passed on? ~ Stephanie Danler

Jane simpered and curled herself back around Joel, like he'd said something romantic rather than creepy and sinister. ~ Holly Bourne

He would talk, and I would talk, and he would talk, and each of our words sounded out the deepest secret depths inside us. There are some forms of love that words can do no justice to. There are some scars that can't be seen. Perfection is in itself an imperfection. He had flaws. He was sick. He needed help. Is not everyone sick, at one time or another? That was part of his beauty, his sickness. If he had not been sick, he would not have been beautiful, in the way that consumptives are, burning themselves up in brilliant flashes of light . . . I don't expect you to be able to understand. Love is strong enough to resurrect the dead. I don't like the word scar, because it implies intent and blame. A soul as powerful as his had to burn. I have never known a love like this. You don't know. I would have done anything at all for him. You don't know. It feels so goddamn good to be needed, to have someone tell you that he has a gaping hole in him whose shape is made to fit you . . . I saw that he was burning a piece of art on me, a signature on my psyche because it filled the hole in his own, and he wanted to make me his. ~ Dexter Palmer

I burned by bridges so the devil couldn't follow me. ~ L.M. Browning

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 our their struggles. ~ Aletheia Luna

He guided me into the house and walked me to the shower. He ran the water and cared for me as if I was an upset toddler or an elderly person who could no longer care for herself. He washed me hair and gently washed my body, while I cried as if the world was ending. For me, it seemed it was. -The Art of Leaving ~ Shilo Niziolek

I felt an inner peace and softness. My Berlin Wall had been cracked; the toxic relationship between me and that critical voice had been severed. ~ Penny De Villiers

I am thoroughly convinced that there are people who cross our paths every day that do nothing but discourage us and make us lose focus on the big picture of what God has called us to do. If we allow them, they will steal our joy, our enthusiasm, and our calling. When you come across people like that, give them no time or opportunity. God is the source of our joy, and we must spend our energies focused on Him alone. ~ Ron Lambros

Just because something is addictive doesn't mean that you will get addicted to it. But ... if your stomach ties up in knots while you count the seconds waiting for a phone call from that special someone ... if you hear a loud buzzing in your ears when you see a certain person's car (or one just like it) ... if your eyes burn when you hear a random love song or see a couple holding hands ... if you suffer the twin agonies of craving for and withdrawing from a series of unrequited crushes or toxic relationships ... if you always feel like you're clutching at someone's ankle and dragged across the floor as they try to leave the room ... welcome to the club. ~ Ethlie Ann Vare

A woman's number one relationship goal should be with herself first. Liking, loving, and valuing who she is will set the standard for what kind of man she chooses to date and/or marry. She's got to not only know her worth, but she's got to protect it, too! Protect it from men that don't mean her any good. Dead-end, unhealthy, and toxic relationships won't be something that she cares to entertain. Her self-love won't allow her to go down that road. ~ Stephanie Lahart

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

The hardest part of being in an emotionally abusive relationship, it's actually admitting you're in one. ~ Anna Akana

Oh what an ill fate it was that has made me love that man. ~ Iris Murdoch

Develop a healthy relationship with food. If you're hungry, eat. If you're full, don't eat. Eat vegetables to be good to your body, but eat ice cream to be good to your soul.

Take pictures of yourself frequently. Chronicle your life. Selfies are completely underrated. Even if the pictures are unflattering, keep them anyway. There will always be mountains and cities and buildings, but you will never look the same way as you did in that one moment in time.

Your worth does not depend on how desirable someone finds you. Spend less time in front of the mirror and more time with people who make you feel beautiful.

Close doors. Don't hold onto things that no longer brings you happiness and do not help you grow as a person. It is okay to walk away from toxic relationships. You are not weak for letting go.

Forgive yourself. We all have something in our pasts that we are ashamed of, but they only weigh us down if we allow them to. Make amends with the old you and work every day to become the person that you've always wanted to be. ~ Tina Tran

The moments of silence are gone. We run from them into the rush of unimportant things, so filled is the quiet with the painful whispers of all that goes unspoken. Busy-ness is our drug of choice, numbing our minds just enough to keep us from dwelling on all that we fear we can't change. A compilation of coping mechanisms, we have become our fatigue. Unwilling or unable to cut ourselves free of this modern machine we have built, we're dragged in its wake all too quickly toward our end. The virtue of a society's culture is reflected in the physical, mental, and emotional health of its people. The time has come to part ways with all that is toxic, and preserve our quality of life. ~ L.M. Browning

We are all potentially demons to each other, but some close relationships are saved from this fate. ~ Iris Murdoch

All these bad experiences that we go through, they don't just disappear. We carry them our whole life trying to forget, escaping in habits, addictions, hate, toxic relationships. But what we don't know is that by doing so we let them stay alive. We water them like withered flowers and we hang onto them to justify our mistakes and failures. ~ Asper Blurry

Toxic relationships are like a good pasta that has been overcooked. ~ Asa Don Brown

Forgiveness is a personal process that doesn't depend on us having direct contact with the people who have hurt us. ~ Sharon Salzberg

I was in denial of the glaring reality that my existence depended on my willingness to comply with the family policy of me earning the splinter of space they granted to me. ~ M. Wakefield

Narcissists are very retaliative if they believe another has achieved what they desire,
exposed their insecurities, or refused to be under their control. ~ Lorraine Nilon

A victim evokes sympathy, right? Victims are not responsible, right? Victims have the moral high ground… someone else is causing the misery, right? Victims can easily justify why they are right. Victims allow themselves to be stuck in the status quo and they excel at seeing the faults in others, ignoring their own re-sponsibility. They love to take others' inventory of faults and are excellent at blaming. Victims become hypersensitive to real and perceived injustice, where any slight becomes a reason to reject. Victimization is the toxic wind blowing through families, fanning the fires of dysfunction. ~ David Walton Earle

That's the thing about toxic relationships. They aren't always toxic. They give us moments of happiness that we wish would last a lifetime. Those are the moments we cling onto. You convince yourself that there is enough love, underneath all of the chaos and mayhem you created in each other's lives. You tell yourself that maybe there's enough love left to make things work. And this made you question every little thing, including yourself. Maybe it wasn't just him that was toxic. Maybe I was toxic to myself by continually opening the same closed doors, very well knowing there was nothing good behind them. ~ Finding Bohemia

Grayson Dunn is in my head. He's under my skin. He's invaded me like a deadly disease and hijacked my immune system until I don't even bother fighting it anymore. I look at him, and I'm twisted into knots. Tangled into a messy spool of desire and desperation. ~ Julie Johnson

The problem isn't that they don't show you love, respect, and attention... The problem is that you wish they would... and now you're begging, hoping, and giving endless second chances. They don't value you and if you don't change something, they'll convince you to not value yourself. Stop arguing with reality. When it comes to love, respect, and attention, the right person won't have to be begged. ~ Steve Maraboli

There is no in between, we all have to touch our own bottom. ~ Liz Thebart

I seem to be torn between 'I wish we'd met earlier' and 'I wish we'd never met'. ~ Ahmed Mostafa

He said he loved more than any other women he's ever loved and I had a black eye to prove it. ~ Crystal Woods

If you've ever met an energy vampire (and you probably have), you'll get the distinct feeling that this person has an intense need to prey off the vitality of others. There is a kind of acute neediness present in energy vampires which can be quite overwhelming and depleting to those they come in contact with. ~ Mateo Sol

When you leave, I feel like I'm alone with your demons. ~ Crystal Woods

I wrote a song called 'Red' and thinking about what that song means to me and all the different emotions on this album they're all pretty much about the tumultuous, crazy, insane, intense, semi-toxic relationships I've experienced in the last two years. All those emotions fanning from intense love, intense frustration, intense jealousy, confusion, all of that in my mind, all those emotions are red. There's nothing in between, there's nothing beige about those feelings and so I called my record that. ~ Taylor Swift

We arrive and depart this life alone. Every moment in-between is a unique opportunity to experience as much love and belonging as we can possibly muster. Instead we obsess over petty differences and turn our backs on those we are supposed to love. ~ Anthon St. Maarten

Mind Games: constantly bashing a brick wall with your head because you are giving all you've got and hardly receiving anything back (...) a series of deliberate actions or responses planned for psychological effects on you, typically for amusement or competitive advantage. ~ Efrat Cybulkiewicz

The last thing I remember ia an exquisitely beautiful green and silver moth landing on the curve of my wrist. The sound of rain on the roof of our house gently pulls me toward consciousness. I fight to return to sleep though, wrapped in a warm cocoon of blankets, safe at home. I'm vaguely aware that my head aches. Possibly I have the flu and this is why I'm allowed to stay in bed, even though I can tell I've been asleep a long time. My mother's hand strokes my cheek and I don't push is away as I would in wakefulness, never wanting her to know how much I crave that gentle touch. How much I miss her even though I still don't trust her. Then there's a voice, the wrong voice, not my mother's and i'm scared. ~ Suzanne Collins

I was nervous when I approached him about certain topics (...) [I] felta misunderstood for most of our relationship. He made me doubt my sanity and my intelligence. I stayed for as longer as I did because I hoped he would change ~ Anna Akana

My love is toxic and you're suicidal. ~ Ahmed Mostafa

I'm in love with my corporate girlfriend,
with the Cyclops heart ~ Phil Volatile

When you do not know how to focus your thoughts effectively, they can become scattered, miscellaneous, and fixated on "stuff negative notions, toxic relationships, and situations from the past." ~ Darren Johnson

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.

Many survivors are used to the "wait and see" tactic which only leaves them vulnerable to a second attack. As your boundaries get stronger, the wait time gets shorter. You never have justify your intuition. ~ Shahida Arabi

Nothing breaks like
Boys
Pretending to be men. ~ Casey Renee Kiser

The most toxic relationships in life are defined by the way they make us feel about ourselves. ~ R.K. Lilley

You think you can change a guy, that he'll be different with you, that you'll finally be the one to tame him… and before you know it, you're alone in your underwear at nine o'clock on a Saturday night, crying to Adele songs, eating ice cream straight from the gallon, and wondering what the hell is the matter with you that you fell for such a goddamned man-child, after he explicitly warned you not to. ~ Julie Johnson

I've had a few semi-toxic relationships, but it's not what I look for when I'm seeing someone. ~ Taylor Swift

She's has craters you didn't create and darkness you don't deserve. She's as stunning as the moon on a cloudless night, but it may take millennia for her to find and manifest her own internal sunlight. ~ Curtis Tyrone Jones

Sometimes we have toxic relationships with certain people. We know who they are, We know how they operate, and we still haven't cut them off. It's difficult for us to let people go, even if they hurt us because we have a greater fear of loneliness. ~ Alafia Stewart

It's sad... Some people are damaged. And damaged people damage people. They've lost belief in themselves and their projections will convince you to doubt yourself too. Help them if you can... If they want to be helped. If not, listen closely when I tell you to GET THE F*** OUT OF THERE! ~ Steve Maraboli

I find some small, twisted comfort in thinking that perhaps we used each other. Him, for a glimpse into what it would be like to live a life entirely different from the one he'd been raised to desire, and me for the steady diet of angst and emotional damage that seemed to make me better, sharper, like a sword against a whetstone.
I was his intellectual escape from a long parade of pretty, empty girls... and he was my drug of choice -- unhealthy, probably lethal, but ultimately so addictive it was hard to turn away.
The problem, of course, with this theory of mutual exploitation, is that it is the deepest of lies. There was nothing equal or mutual about the way we used each other. I barely scratched his surface while he sliced me limb from limb.
There's no comfort in that. None at all. ~ Julie Johnson

A monster
Someone who left me in the dark
Someone who darkened me
A million times over ~ Dorothea Lasky

I'm not angry anymore. I'm just really disappointed about who you turned out to be. ~ Karen Salmansohn

It is really exhausting to live in a dictatorship of 'Me', which is basically a tyranny of others. ~ Stefan Molyneux

Seriously, a thirty-something woman shouldn't be daydreaming about a fictional character in a two-hundred-year-old world to the point where it interfered with her very real and much more important life and relationships. Of course she shouldn't. ~ Shannon Hale

Once you have a major success with assertiveness, you learn that it's a much healthier path than being a doormat to the insensitive folks. You gain respect for yourself, have more time for your priorities, and develop authentic and healthier relationships. ~ Doreen Virtue

The only thing I'll say is, make your own friends. Peter will be making tons of friends because of lacrosse, and the people he'll be friends with aren't necessarily the kinds of people you'd pick to be friends with. So make your own friends. Find your people. (Margot to Lara Jean) ~ Jenny Han

i'm not scared
of the monsters

hidden underneath
my bed.

i'm much more scared
of the boys

with messy brown hair,
sleepy eyes,

& mouths
that only know

how to form
half-truths. ~ Amanda Lovelace

A beautiful garden and a beautiful woman have much in common. They both bring peace and tranquillity to the man who is fortunate enough to possess them."

Rachel was silent. To be possessed by Jeronimo was a dream she could never aspire to, but she would remember his words for ever. ~ Elizabeth Hunter

Something must happen; that is the reason for most human relationships. Something must happen; even servitude in love, in war, ordeath. ~ Albert Camus

It takes three to make love, not two: you, your spouse, and God. Without God people only succeed in bringing out the worst in one another. Lovers who have nothing else to do but love each other soon find there is nothing else. Without a central loyalty life is unfinished. ~ Fulton J. Sheen

This has been a really tough lesson for me to learn. The people I love, I love hard and without conditions. My loyalty, once earned, will be with you for a lifetime. I really get that we are all connected and that until we all get it, no-one is getting it. That said, I'm also learning that some people are not a good match for us and their presence in our life is incredibly toxic. We can still love them, we just need to love them from a distance. Maybe after a few more reincarnations, we'll be able to love them up close again. ~ Brooke Hampton

Good advice is a toxic gas for hardhearted's lungs. ~ Toba Beta

Personal relationships are always the key to good business. You can buy networking; you can't buy friendships. ~ Lindsay Fox

I think a toxic message in a lot of Christianity has been that the self has to be annihilated in order for God to be found. I think that has been a toxic message. ~ Barbara Brown Taylor

Jean Valjean felt his heart melt within him with delight, at all these sparks of a tenderness so exclusive, so wholly satisfied with himself alone. The poor man trembled, inundated with angelic joy; he declared to himself ecstatically that this would last all their lives; he told himself that he really had not suffered sufficiently to merit so radiant a bliss, and he thanked God, in the depths of his soul, for having permitted him to be loved thus, he, a wretch, by that innocent being. ~ Victor Hugo

She had been lonely, the kiss hadn't meant anything, and he was clearly regretting it. How many mistakes did that sentence encapsulate in the history of relationships? ~ Thea Harrison

Society. Sins such as adultery, bribery, and betrayal are more like treason than like crime; they damage the social order. Social harmony can be rewoven only by slowly recommitting to relationships and rebuilding trust. The sins of arrogance and pride arise from a perverse desire for status and superiority. The only remedy for them is to humble oneself before others. In other words, people in earlier times inherited a vast moral vocabulary and set of moral tools, developed over centuries and handed down from generation to generation. This was a practical inheritance, like learning how to speak a certain language, which people could use to engage their own moral struggles. ~ David Brooks

Sometimes the door closes on a relationship, not because we failed but because something bigger than us says this no longer fits our life. So, lock the door, shed a tear, turn around and look for the new door that's opened. It's a sign that you're no longer that person you were, it's time to change into who you are. It's going to be okay. ~ Lee Goff

Let them see that you trust them & let them solve their own problems, make their own decisions.Do that & they will commit their lives to you. Bully the, control them out of fear or malice or just for your own convenience, & after a while you'll have to spend all your time thinking for them, controlling them, & stifling their resentment. ~ Octavia E. Butler

In recent years, a green burial movement has protested formaldehyde, which oxidizes to formic acid, the toxic in fire ants and bee stingers, as yet one more poison to leach into water tables: careless people, polluting even from the tomb. ~ Alan Weisman

It's my nature to run from relationships, because I have never seen a good one. ~ Bethenny Frankel

The biggest milestone in a relationship is when you can fart in front of each other freely and loudly. Without judgements ~ Himmilicious

All of marketing consists in creating relationships. Real relationships: friends, lovers, partners, warriors, fans. ~ John Kremer

I always notice the dysfunctional dynamic of human relationships because most places where you encounter it, people are trying to pretend it isn't happening. ~ Sophie Hannah

They were governed by private loyalties which they did not question. What mattered were individual relationships, and a completely helpless gesture, an embrace, a tear, a word spoken to a dying man, could have value in itself ~ George Orwell

Successful adult relationships, whether between lovers or
friends, require a significant degree of vulnerability, trust,
and openness - ~ Susan Forward

Love always doesn't come across as bad, but it always has two sides. ~ Auliq Ice

Love was for dummies, soulmates were the creation of pulp-fiction writers; romance was craved by ageing, lonely cat owners. Successful relationships were built on rationality and compromise. ~ Karan Bajaj

Love makes me naked;
Propinquity's a harsh master;
O the songs we hide singing to ourselves! ~ Theodore Roethke

It's amazing that relationships can form and last under the constraints of never fully knowing. Never knowing for sure what the other person is thinking. Never knowing for sure who a person is. ~ Iain Reid

We're lost in each other, in the heart of Toronto, slow dancing to nothing but the beat of my heart and the sound of her breath on my neck. I know the subway trains are trembling beneath my feet and that we're amidst the constant buzz of city life, yet I hear nothing but my heart beating and feel nothing but her breath on my neck. ~ Shannon Mullen

Topology is the science of fundamental pattern and structural relationships of event constellations. ~ R. Buckminster Fuller

So in this section I also deal with the attitudes, skills, and strategies for creating and maintaining trustful relationships with other people. In effect, once we become relatively independent, our challenge is to become effectively interdependent with others. To do this we must practice empathy and synergy in our efforts to be proactive and productive. ~ Stephen R. Covey

I never thought to differentiate between you and the person who writes your letters. But I think I see your point. I send you an email: how do you know who wrote it? It could be anyone. There's no way for me to convince you. I say, "It's me!"; you say: "Who's 'me'?"
Wouldn't it be amazing if it turned out that we both had ghostwriters? Just imagine them taking a long walk together, walking and walking, and talking only if something came up... ~ Elif Batuman

The entertainment business is hard on relationships, but it's just as hard on your own spiritual well-being. It's easy to lose focus, to forget your priorities and wander from the path. There is not any one thing you can do to survive this desert. It's a matter of maintenance, of the small things you do every day and every week to keep the engine running smoothly. ~ Ralph K. Winter, Jr.

Shame is internalized when one is abandoned. Abandonment is the precise term to describe how one loses one's authentic self and ceases to exist psychologically. ~ John Bradshaw

what matters is not who initiated but how we responded thereafter. We both responded with affirming words and validating actions. We invested in the relationship equally, together giving and receiving. We kept communication open the whole way through. ~ Debra Fileta

The classics tell us that, in relationships, the one between teacher and student comes second only to the one between parent and child. ~ Lisa See

If love comes to you in a way that isn't the norm then at least it came to you; not everyone is that lucky. ~ Donna Lynn Hope

When the world is too much, create your own. I do it every day. ~ Melody Lee

But the reality is that women today do not think of themselves in the context of helping "their man." Women today have been brainwashed into thinking that efforts in that direction are in the category of oppression, subservience, and catering to frail male egos. It is sad that this is the prevalent point of view, because interdependence is what ultimately feeds both the man and the woman what they truly need to be happy. ~ Laura C. Schlessinger

I'm in a pocket of glowing light, protected from complicated relationships and huge mistakes, past and future. ~ Lauren Fox

The most important relationship in your life is the relationship you have with yourself. Because no matter what happens, you will always be with yourself. ~ Diane Von Furstenberg