Infidelity can be difficult to handle. Everyone embarks on relationships with an outpouring of love and hope — we wish that it will last — and faithfulness is one of the most essential promises that we make to each other. When a partner breaks that promise, it is devastating. It is heart-breaking to feel like you weren’t enough, that your relationship wasn’t important.
In times of difficulty we turn to art; art always makes one feel better. Beautiful words can often heal.
Suggested read: 14 facts about infidelity that will totally surprise you
Here are 25 poignant infidelity quotes that will move you and make your heart bleed, but will also give you solace and strength.
1. “I think you still love me, but we can’t escape the fact that I’m not enough for you. I knew this was going to happen. So I’m not blaming you for falling in love with another woman. I’m not angry, either. I should be, but I’m not. I just feel pain. A lot of pain. I thought I could imagine how much this would hurt, but I was wrong.” ― Haruki Murakami
This quote perfectly explains one of the most important truths of any relationship — that love isn’t enough. Relationships are a lot of hard work.
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2. “Cheating and lying aren’t struggles, they’re reasons to break up.” ― Patti Callahan Henry
Preach! It’s important to know when you’re beating a dead horse. Sometimes there’s nothing you can do to save a relationship, except walk away from it.
3. “I know I am but summer to your heart, and not the full four seasons of the year.” ― Edna St. Vincent Millay
The raw emotion here is brought out so well. It’s heart-breaking to feel, to know, that you’re not enough. That your partner means more to you than you mean to them.
4. “When would he realize that it wasn’t his infidelity I couldn’t bear, but his cowardice?” ― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah’s Key
So true. Cheaters are cowards. They don’t have the guts to acknowledge that maybe they’re not 100% satisfied. PSA: If you’re not happy in a relationship, break up. Don’t cheat!
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5. “You told me anyway, even though I didn’t want to know. A stupid drunken fling while you were visiting Toby in Austin. Months ago. And the thing I hate the most is knowing how much hinges on my reaction, how your unburdening can only lead to me being burdened. If I lose it now, I will lose you, too. I know that. I hate it. You wait for my response.” ― David Levithan
Isn’t it so difficult to be the partner being cheated on? They’ve been horribly disrespectful to you, but you love them still. How do you let go?
6. “Fidelity is a living, breathing entity. On wobbly footing, it can wander, becoming something different entirely.” ― Kay Goodstadt, Love and Death Over Tea
Sometimes infidelity signifies that there is something deeper wrong with the relationship.
7. “It has always been my opinion,” Bea said musingly, “that there can be worse kinds of infidelity than the merely sexual. I’m a simple woman with a very simple outlook on life. I’ve always found that things work out best if you keep to certain simple rules. Right down the line. And one of the first rules for a successful marriage is loyalty to your partner. Total loyalty.” ― Emma Darcy
Emotional infidelity is so much worse than physical infidelity, because it involves a connection of the mind.
8. “I have to love myself more than I love him, in order to leave him.” ― Kay M. Rutherford
We must always prioritize ourselves over a relationship. Especially when our partner doesn’t seem to prioritize the relationship at all.
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9. “If you’re single and not committed, then go for it. The world’s your oyster. But, if you’re happily married and want to remain happily married, then the only oyster should be the one sliding down your throat from your spouse.” ― Jack Dancer
Exactly! Commitment is a choice you make. You wake up in the morning every day and you make a subconscious decision: my relationship is important to me.
10. “Marriage to the groom does not mean that his heart belongs to the bride.” ― Dennis E. Adonis
True commitment comes from within, not from any official document that says you are together.
11. “It had been years since she had questioned his fidelity, but he’d stepped on to the old fame track again, and that was where the road had taken them before. Infidelity could be forgiven, but forgetting it was impossible. Strangely, that wasn’t what bothered her the most. What bothered her was that she didn’t really care.” ― Kristin Hannah
This is the sad reality of many relationships. When you have to live with someone who isn’t faithful to you, after a point, you just become apathetic so you can survive.
12. “Was he a bad man or just a foolish one? He didn’t feel bad to himself. As a husband he believed himself to be essentially good and loyal. It just wasn’t written in a man’s nature to be monogamous, that was all. And he owed something to his nature even when his nature was at odds with his desire, which was to stay at home and cherish his wife. It was his nature – all nature, the rule of nature – that was the bastard, not him.” ― Howard Jacobson
Nope. It’s easy to blame the animalistic nature of man to rationalize your actions, but cheating is always a choice you consciously make to cross the line.
Suggested read: A step-by-step guide on how to confront a cheater most effectively
13. “Because I’ve been on the receiving end of infidelity, I know how much it hurts.” ― Rachel Hunter
This is one of the infidelity quotes that puts it well: it’s only when you experience it can you truly understand how crushing it is.
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14. “Love is understood, in a historical way, as one of the great human vocations – but its counterspell has always been infidelity. This terrible, terrible betrayal that can tear apart not only another person, not only oneself, but whole families.” ― Junot Diaz
Infidelity can turn your whole life upside down. It destroys families as well.
15. “Infidelity is a deal breaker for me. I’ve broken up with people over it. You can’t do monogamy 90 percent of the time.” ― Alanis Morissette
Yep. Being loyal and faithful when it’s convenient for you is not the way you behave in a relationship. You have to be all in, 100 percent loyal.
16. “Physical infidelity is the signal, the notice given, that all fidelities are undermined.” ― Katherine Anne Porter
It’s only when they have absolute disrespect for you that they will do something so reprehensible. It really brings to light how your partner perceives you.
17. “Dad could talk about peace and love out loud to the world, but he could never show it to the people who supposedly meant the most to him: his wife and son. How can you talk about peace and love and have a family in bits and pieces – no communication, adultery, divorce? You can’t do it, not if you’re being true and honest with yourself.” ― Julian Lennon
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Cheating on someone means you have serious emotional issues. If one is true to themselves, they’d never do anything like that.
18. “Virtually all women will always carry the scars and a deep sense of loss and grief from the betrayal. Whether a woman has stayed, left, or been left, it must be remembered that time is the salve on this journey towards forgiveness and healing, because it is also a process of grieving.” —Meryn G. Callander
It’s sad that probably all of us will get a taste of this betrayal at some point in our life.
19. “Those who are faithless know the pleasures of love; it is the faithful who know love’s tragedies.” ― Oscar Wilde
When you love someone deeply, and commit to them 100 percent, and they don’t — nothing can be worse than that. It truly is a tragedy.
20. “Love grows where trust is laid, and love does when trust is betrayed.” ― Tigress Luv
Trust is essential in any healthy relationship. And when someone breaks your trust, love does suffer.
21. “When your lover is a liar, you and he have a lot in common, you’re both lying to you!” ― Susan Forward
Don’t be in denial. Be aware of where your relationship is going.
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22. “Soon he was online every night until one or two a.m. Often he would wake up at three of four a.m. and go back online. He would shut down the computer screen when I walked in. In the past, he used to take the laptop to bed with him and we would both be on our laptops, hips touching. He stopped doing that, slipping off to his office instead and closing the door even when I was asleep. He started closing doors behind him. I was steeped in denial, but my body knew.” ― Suzanne Finnamore
This is one of those quotes on infidelity that is so heart-wrenching. It describes the reality of living with someone who is unfaithful.
23. “What irritated me most in that entire situation was the fact that I wasn’t feeling humiliated, or annoyed, or even fooled. Betrayal was what I felt, my heart broken not just by a guy I was in love with, but also by, as I once believed, a true friend.” ― Danka V.
There’s always a bitter taste in your mouth when you realize you’ve lost one of the most important people in your life.
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24. “When you truly love someone, you don’t hurt or cause them pain, that’s how I painfully realised you didn’t love me.” ― Michael Hayssu
Love means making sure you don’t hurt your partner, at least not deliberately. Definitely not by cheating on them.
Suggested read: 16 clever ways to catch a cheater
25. “The next time I date someone, I want a signed affidavit with a penalty for perjury stating that there is no one else in his life, and that it is over with his ex.” ― Brenda Priddy
We end with a slightly tongue-in-cheek but still poignant adultery quote. Honesty and complete emotional availability are the hallmarks of a great relationship.
Cheating destroys relationships. There, the harsh truth. Though some people do strive on, it’s not so easy to rebuild the broken trust and stay in the relationship. One lapse of judgment can nullify years of effort. Knowing your partner has been unfaithful to you is a painful situation, after all; forgiveness is difficult even when your significant other seems remorseful. These infidelity quotes perfectly encapsulate the agony and betrayal felt when you’re on the receiving end of infidelity.
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