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30 Troubled Relationship Quotes That Will Break Your Heart

When you get into a relationship with your special someone, there’s one vital thing that you have to keep in mind – no relationship in the whole world can be all rainbows and butterflies. A relationship generally means an entire package of ecstatic romance, fun, intimacy, and at the same time quarrels, fights, and sometimes even breakups. When you are going through trying times, be it a tiff with your lover or a serious argument, it can feel particularly lonely and frustrating because it feels like there is no one else in the world who understands how traumatized you feel. That is, until you stumble across sayings that reveal fantastic insight into what you’re feeling right now, especially when penned by someone well known and respected. Then, the sun may not shine again immediately, but at least it feels like you’ve got an umbrella for your rainy day.


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We have compiled a list of such quotable musings from spending yet another brooding night crying into your pillow. This compilation of what geniuses have uttered about troubled relationships is bound to strike a chord with your heart and show you just how you can improve things. You’re welcome!

1. “Nothing is perfect. Life is messy. Relationships are complex. Outcomes are uncertain. People are irrational.” – Pietro Aretino

troubled relationship quote

These words correctly elucidate what a troubled relationship may feel like. When nothing seems to make sense and it feels like everything has gone wrong, then this is the exact kind of thought that runs through your head.

2. “We don’t develop courage by being happy every day. We develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.” – Barbara de Angelis

troubled relationship quote

And this is precisely what romance in real life is all about, unlike how romance is portrayed in the movies and works of fiction. In any relationship, one is bound to face tough situations and this quote says exactly how you could still make the best of all the mess and chaos.

3. “Once a woman has forgiven her man, she must not reheat his sins for breakfast.” – Marlene Dietrich

troubled relationship quote

This one is solid advice for those women who tend to bear grudges against their partners. Doing so will only lead to a troubled relationship that will never improve.

4. “It is probably a bad indicator of your lifestyle when you miss your ex-boyfriend because he’s absolutely lethal.” – Charlaine Harris

troubled relationship quote

It will be impossible for you to move on and do justice to your current relationship if your former lover is still stuck in your head, especially if it was a toxic relationship. To avoid a troubled relationship, you must let go of the past that did not work out.

5. “When someone is hard on you it may have very little to do with you.” – Bryan McGill

troubled relationship quote

In a troubled relationship you have got to quit blaming yourself for every little thing that goes wrong. For more often than not, it is hardly your fault.

6. “Every man I meet wants to protect me. I can’t figure out what from.” – Mae West

troubled relationship quote

A woman is an independent being and does not like it when the man she is with behaves all protective all the time. This kind of dynamic between couples creates an imbalance which might bring your relationship down.

7. “Relationships don’t always make sense. Especially from the outside.” – Sarah Dessen

troubled relationship quote

If observing as an outsider, it is difficult to understand how certain couples make their relationship work. At the same time, troubled relationships may not be that tumultuous from the perspective of the couple concerned.

8. “Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That’s why it’s a comfort to go hand in hand.” – Emily Kimbrough

troubled relationship quote

No matter how messy a relationship is, one can definitely make it work if problems are sorted out together. Alone you may not do anything as well as you can do it as one.

9. “It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

troubled relationship quote

This is one of those troubled relationship quotes that is a pure gem. Troubled relationships are the result of a lack of communication, which is just what this quote is referring to. In a marriage or any stage of a relationship, it is important that the partners are best friends first, or the failure of the relationship is inevitable.


Suggested read: 25 timeless quotes about love and relationships


10. “Assumptions are the termites of relationships.” – Henry Winkler

troubled relationship quote

Doubts, doubts, and more doubts. These are sometimes enough to fully wreck a relationship beyond repair. It has been rightly said that when couples make assumptions about each other, they are gradually moving towards destruction.

11. “When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are.” – Donald Miller

troubled relationship quote

Relationships get troublesome when people begin to have impractical expectations of their better half. To be truly and purely in love, you have to accept your partner for who and how they are.

12. “A man who marries a woman to educate her falls victim to the same fallacy as the woman who marries a man to reform him.” – Elbert Hubbard

troubled relationship quote

Imagine a relationship where both the man and the woman only pick faults of each other and keep trying to correct each other. How can such a relationship be anything but extremely problematic?

13. “When you don’t talk, there’s a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said.” – Catherine Gilbert Murdok, Dairy Queen

troubled relationship quote

Again, this is one of those troubled relationship quotes that rightly directs to the fact that communication is the key to a happy relationship.

14. “The emotion that can break your heart is sometimes the very one that heals it.” – Nicholas Sparks

troubled relationship quote

Yes, heartbreaks can lead to a state of mind that may feel like life has lost all meaning. However, if you think about it, you will realize that troubled relationships and sadness in the long run only make you a stronger person.

15. “Love hurts worse than getting slammed by a 250-pound linebacker.” – Miranda Kenneally

troubled relationship quote

When your relationship is going through a rough phase, you are bound to get grumpy and lose all interest in daily life. It truly does feel a lot tougher than any physical wound.

16. “Why did I always end up loving the person who hurt me the most? Why was love so cruel?” – J.C. Reed

troubled relationship quote

Sometimes you fall in love with the wrong person. Deep down, you know you deserve a lot better, but Cupid just seemed to have struck his arrow at the wrong person, leading you into thinking negatively and blaming it on love.

17. “There will always be a time when you are forced to follow your heart away from someone you love.”  – Ashly Lorenzana

troubled relationship quote

Life is a tough battle, and at times you just have to let go of the person you love with all your heart.

18. “Hands that never touch. Lips that never meet. The Almost Lovers, never to be.” – Rae Hachton

troubled relationship quote

Nothing on earth hurts more than unrequited love where lovers, for one reason or the other, never get united.

19. “Obstacles in life get the best of a person from time to time. When two people experience obstacles separately, it leaves little room to help each other. This does not mean the relationship failed because you did not try hard enough, obstacles aren’t always conquered in general.” – Kimberly Danner

troubled relationship quote

While in a troubled relationship, even hurdles can teach you a lot. When you try to overcome those hurdles, your struggles teach you important lessons, irrespective of whether you fail or succeed.


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20. “Love can sometimes be magic. But magic can sometimes be an illusion.” – Anonymous

troubled relationship quote

True enough, you might think you are in love and are happy, but you come to realize that you are living an illusionary life when you enter into a difficult stage of your love life.

21. “The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.”  – Mother Teresa

troubled relationship quote

The golden words uttered by the great humanitarian holds truth that cannot be denied. It expresses just how difficult it is to be and feel loved.

22. “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” – Carl Jung

troubled relationship quote

When you are in a relationship that isn’t going very smoothly, you indirectly understand your likes and dislikes. If you have to see things in an optimistic manner, then you can say that even troubled relations can be educational.

23. “What we wait around a lifetime for with one person, we can find in a moment with someone else.”  –Stephanie Klein

troubled relationship quote

Making the wrong choice while choosing your partner can prove to be deadly. Hence, you should make such choices wisely, or you will surely regret it in later life… if perchance you meet someone you like better than your partner.

24. “You can measure the happiness of a marriage by the number of scars that each partner carries on their tongues, earned from years of biting back angry words.” – Elizabeth Gilbert

troubled relationship quote

Committed relationships are indeed all about compromises, and though by making these compromises couples can make their marriage work, it is still a substantial sacrifice.

25. “Never marry at all, Dorian. Men marry because they are tired, women, because they are curious: both are disappointed.” – Oscar Wilde

troubled relationship quote

The cynical, witty genius never fails to amaze us with the bitter truth that lies hidden in his rather blunt statements. However, if you give it some thought, you will realize that his quote truly describes how marriages are in the modern day.

26. “Trouble is part of your life, and if you don’t share it, you don’t give the person who loves you enough chance to love you enough.” – Dinah Shore

troubled relationship quote

Again, this reminds us of what relationship experts have been saying for decades. Sharing is caring. If you can discover the joy of sharing you will simultaneously discover how fulfilling a relationship can be.

27. “Never allow yourself to become a choice in any relationship. The moment you do is when you have reduced your loved one’s affections to a daily biological question: Should I take a dump here or wait till I get home?” – Shannon L.Alder

troubled relationship quote

Your relationship should not become an obligation. Do only what you feel is right.

28. “Relationships, marriages are ruined where one person continues to learn, develop and grow and the other person stands still.” Catherine Pulsifer

troubled relationship quote

This is one of those troubled relationship quotes that is a brilliant reminder for those who refuse to accommodate and compromise and try to become a better person.

29. “Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved.” – Barbara Johnson

troubled relationship quote

Relationships fail when you fail to realize what your priorities are. If you focus more on the needs of your lover, then problems in your love will automatically get solved.


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30. “Real giving is when we give to our spouses what’s important to them, whether we understand it, like it, agree with it, or not.” – Michele Weiner-Davis

troubled relationship quote

Sometimes you have to give up and let your spouse have things their way. This quote brings out the essence of how difficult a relationship can be otherwise.

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30 Troubled Relationship Quotes That Will Break Your Heart
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Going through a rough patch in your relationship? Worry not, take a look at these troubled relationship quotes to get inspired to work through your issues.
Suraiya Islam

Suraiya Islam

The mind of an introvert works in the weirdest fashion. They are overly sensitive, sentimental and have tons of thoughts running through their minds, but at the same time, for reasons unknown even to themselves, they like nothing better than to stay aloof. Being one such self-confessed introvert, I have always loved putting my thoughts into words. Good books and music with moving lyrics work as my Muse. Children and things abounding with innocence strengthen my faith in goodness. Contemporary Indian works of literature make me a happy bookworm, and songs by Coldplay brighten up my day like nothing else! Here's hoping you will enjoy reading my posts, for you can trust an introvert to be a keen observer and a very devoted blogger!