Lost love is a universal feeling, touching hearts in every corner of the world. Whether it’s the end of a meaningful relationship or the fading away of a once-strong connection, the ache is often hard to describe. Quotes about lost love can capture these deep emotions, offering comfort and understanding.
In this article, we’ll share a collection of the best lost love quotes. These words may stir feelings you’ve tucked away or help you feel less alone in your sorrow. They remind us that while love fades, the memories and lessons endure.
Heartbreaking Lost Love Quotes
“The heart was made to be broken.” – Oscar Wilde
“I have lost and loved and won and cried myself to the person I am today.” – Charlotte Eriksson
“It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson
“The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.” – G.K. Chesterton
“The saddest thing about love is that not only that it cannot last forever, but that heartbreak is soon forgotten.” – William Faulkner
“I think we dream so we don’t have to be apart for so long. If we’re in each other’s dreams, we can be together all the time.” – A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
“The worst feeling is not being lonely, it’s being forgotten by someone you could never forget.” – Lang Leav
“Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart.” – Washington Irving
“Time does not heal all wounds; there are those that remain painfully open until the end.” – Arturo Pérez-Reverte
“I wish I were a little girl again, because skinned knees are easier to fix than a broken heart.” – Julia Roberts
“Love is a beautiful mistake that two people make together.” – Evan Davis
“Though lovers be lost, love shall not; And death shall have no dominion.” – Dylan Thomas
“The heart will break, but broken live on.” – Lord Byron
“I loved her not for the way she danced with my angels, but for the way the sound of her name could silence my demons.” – Christopher Poindexter
“Some people are going to leave, but that’s not the end of your story. That’s the end of their part in your story.” – Faraaz Kazi
“It is better to lock up your heart with a merciless padlock than to fall in love with someone who doesn’t know what they mean to you.” – Michael Bassey Johnson
“Love is a smoke and is made with the fume of sighs.” – William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
“You can’t buy love, but you can pay heavily for it.” – Henny Youngman
“Perhaps someday we’ll run into each other and exchange a small and easy smile, knowing we loved once, deeply and truly. And then we’ll part again, and the memory will be bitter-sweet.” – Unknown
“Love that we cannot have is the one that lasts the longest, hurts the deepest, and feels the strongest.” – Kay Knudsen
“Once upon a time, there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering.” – Nicole Krauss, The History of Love
“We loved with a love that was more than love.” – Edgar Allan Poe
“When you are sorrowful, look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.” – Kahlil Gibran
“The hottest love has the coldest end.” – Socrates
“Part of me aches at the thought of her being so close yet so untouchable.” – Nicholas Sparks, Dear John
“We never truly get over a loss, but we can move forward and evolve from it.” – Elizabeth Berrien
“Hearts will never be practical until they are made unbreakable.” – L. Frank Baum, The Wizard of Oz
“The greatest tragedy of life is not that men perish, but that they cease to love.” – W. Somerset Maugham
“Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.” – William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
“When the flame of love is extinguished, it leaves behind ashes of pain and memories of warmth.” – Anna Sophia
“Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated.” – Lamartine
Empowering Quotes on Lost Love
“The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.” – G.K. Chesterton
“When you can’t look on the bright side, I will sit with you in the dark.” – Alice in Wonderland
“Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart.” – Washington Irving
“Though lovers be lost, love shall not; And death shall have no dominion.” – Dylan Thomas
“If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. If they don’t, they never were.” – Khalil Gibran
“Your absence has gone through me like thread through a needle. Everything I do is stitched with its color.” – W.S. Merwin
“The hottest love has the coldest end.” – Socrates
“Hearts will never be practical until they are made unbreakable.” – L. Frank Baum, The Wizard of Oz
“Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated.” – Alphonse de Lamartine
“Let no one who loves be unhappy, even love unreturned has its rainbow.” – James M. Barrie
“It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson
“To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best.” – William Makepeace Thackeray
“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” – Dr. Seuss
“Where there is love, there is vulnerability, and where there is vulnerability, there is strength.” – Unknown
“Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.” – William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
“Grief is the price we pay for love.” – Queen Elizabeth II
“Love is only part of the story. Acceptance and letting go are the rest.” – Mark Antony
“Sometimes the hardest part isn’t letting go but rather learning to start over.” – Nicole Sobon
“I have loved and I have lost, and I’m starting to believe; it’s okay. Sometimes what we ‘think’ is best for us, is only the beginning of what’s truly ‘meant’ for us.” – Nikki Rowe
“The sorrow we feel when we lose a loved one is the price we pay to have had them in our lives.” – Rob Liano
“The emotion that can break your heart is sometimes the very one that heals it.” – Nicholas Sparks
“Love doesn’t end with heartbreak, it’s the beginning of understanding ourselves.” – Anonymous
“Sometimes you need to run away just to see who will come after you.” – Lisa Brooks
“Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and oftentimes we call a man cold when he is only sad.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“We must be willing to let go of the life we’ve planned to have the life that is waiting for us.” – Joseph Campbell
“The love that lasts the longest is the love that is never returned.” – William Somerset Maugham
“It’s hard to turn the page when you know someone won’t be in the next chapter, but the story must go on.” – Thomas Wilder
“Love is a wound that closes but never fades.” – Erwin Barkley
“We are all a little broken. But the last time I checked, broken crayons still color the same.” – Trent Shelton
“What the heart has once known, it shall never forget.” – Unknown
“Sometimes, the end of one story is the beginning of another.” – Alexis Dee
“So it’s true when all is said and done, grief is the price we pay for love.” – E.A. Bucchianeri
“Losing a loved one is like having an anchor upon your heart, but it also gives you roots to find your ground again.” – Unknown
Lost Love Quotes from Famous Novels
“It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” — Alfred Lord Tennyson
“The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.” — Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
“Love sometimes gets tired of speaking sweetly and wants to rip to shreds all your erroneous notions of truth.” — Hafiz
“Love has no age, no limit; and no death.” — John Galsworthy, The Forsyte Saga
“We loved with a love that was more than love.” — Edgar Allan Poe
“we discover that to love and let go can be the same thing.” — Jack Kornfield
“Lost love is still love. It takes a different form, that’s all.” — Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet in Heaven
“They say love is just a word, until someone comes along and gives it meaning.” — Paulo Coelho, Brida
“The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.” — G.K. Chesterton
“The saddest thing about love is that not only that it cannot last forever, but that heartbreak is soon forgotten.” — William Faulkner
“And when her lips met mine, I knew that I could live to be a hundred and visit every country in the world, but nothing would ever compare to that single moment when I first kissed the girl of my dreams and knew that my love would last forever.” — Nicholas Sparks, Dear John
“What we have once enjoyed deeply we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.” — Helen Keller
“The hardest thing is not talking to someone you used to talk to every day.” — Unknown
“I cannot let you burn me up, nor can I resist you. No mere human can stand in a fire and not be consumed.” — A.S. Byatt, Possession
“Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart.” — Washington Irving
“I loved you like a man loves a woman he never touches, only writes to, keeps little photographs of.” — Charles Bukowski
“Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.” — Khalil Gibran
“You can love someone so much… but you can never love people as much as you can miss them.” — John Green
“He was both everything I could ever want… And nothing I could ever have…” — Ranata Suzuki
“To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best.” — William Makepeace Thackeray
“If you should leave me, my heart will turn to stone, and the joy will fade from my life.” — Anonymous
“Losing the future is the best thing that ever happened to me.” — Marilyn French
“I have lost, and I have loved. The two together make me who I am.” — Unknown
“Loving someone means letting them go if they need to.” — Unknown
“One day you’ll find someone who will love you like you deserve. Then you’ll see why it didn’t work out with anyone else.” — Unknown
“I think we dream so we don’t have to be apart for so long. If we’re in each other’s dreams, we can be together all the time.” — A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
“You’ll always be my favorite ‘what if’.” — Unknown
“I know how it feels to miss someone the way that you miss him.” — Unknown
“My love for him was like a wave that never broke.” — Unknown
“You were the love that made all others pale in comparison.” — Jodi Picoult, Mercy
“You can’t lose what you never had, you can’t keep what’s not yours, and you can’t hold on to something that does not want to stay.” — Unknown
“Part of me aches at the thought of her being so close yet so untouchable.” — Nicholas Sparks, Dear John
Lost Love Quotes from Poetic Masters
“The way sadness works is one of the strange riddles of the world. If you are stricken with a great sadness, you may feel as if you have been set aflame, not only because of the enormous pain but also because your sadness may spread over your life, like smoke from an enormous fire.” – Lemony Snicket
“Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart.” – Washington Irving
“What is the opposite of two? A lonely me, a lonely you.” – Richard Wilbur
“When the heart grieves over what it has lost, the spirit rejoices over what it has left.” – Sufi Proverb
“Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.” – Khalil Gibran
“Though lovers be lost, love shall not.” – Dylan Thomas
“Grief is the garden of compassion.” – Rumi
“Absence diminishes small loves and increases great ones, as the wind blows out the candle and blows up the bonfire.” – François de La Rochefoucauld
“Parting is all we know of heaven and all we need of hell.” – Emily Dickinson
“The heart was made to be broken.” – Oscar Wilde
“The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.” – Charles Dickens
“Stab the body and it heals, but injure the heart and the wound lasts a lifetime.” – Mineko Iwasaki
“Love can sometimes be magic. But magic can sometimes just be an illusion.” – Javan
“We loved with a love that was more than love.” – Edgar Allan Poe
“Love is so short, forgetting is so long.” – Pablo Neruda
“Poetry spills from the cracks of a broken heart, but flows from one which is loved.” – Christopher Paul Rubero
“The hottest love has the coldest end.” – Socrates
“Goodbye is the saddest word I ever heard, goodbye is the last time I will hold you near.” – Céline Dion
“The saddest thing about love is that not only that it cannot last forever, but that heartbreak is soon forgotten.” – William Faulkner
“Hearts are not had as a gift but hearts are earned.” – W.B. Yeats
“Loving can cost a lot but not loving always costs more.” – Merle Shain
“Time heals all wounds, but there are some that time can’t touch.” – Cassandra Clare
“For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been’.” – John Greenleaf Whittier
“It’s amazing how someone can break your heart and you can still love them with all the little pieces.” – Ella Harper
“One of the cruelest things you can do to another person is pretend you’re still in love with them when you know you are not.” – Anonymous
“Perhaps someday we will meet again as characters in a different story, may we’ll share a lifetime then.” – Pavana
“I cannot eat, I cannot drink; the pleasures of youth and love are fled: there was a good time once, but now that is gone, and life is no longer life.” – Plato
“You can love someone so much, but you can never love people as much as you can miss them.” – John Green
“Her absence is like the sky, spread over everything.” – C.S. Lewis
“When you leave, weary of me, without a word I shall gently let you go.” – Kim Sowol
“I think of you only twice a day – when I am alone and when I am with someone else.” – Amit Kalantri
“Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.” – William Shakespeare
Quotes Reflecting the Pain of Lost Love
“The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.” – G.K. Chesterton
“Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.” – Khalil Gibran
“It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson
“When you left, a part of me left with you, and I’m not sure it’ll ever come back.” – Original
“You can love someone so much, but you can never love people as much as you can miss them.” – John Green
“The emotion that can break your heart is sometimes the very one that heals it.” – Nicholas Sparks
“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” – Haruki Murakami
“Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart.” – Washington Irving
“Grief is the price we pay for love.” – Queen Elizabeth II
“The brightest flames leave the deepest scars.” – Original
“Love is a beautiful lie cloaked in a terrible truth.” – Original
“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
“The heart was made to be broken.” – Oscar Wilde
“Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a teardrop.” – Anonymous
“What the heart has once owned and had, it shall never lose.” – Henry Ward Beecher
“To weep is to make less the depth of grief.” – William Shakespeare
“Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated.” – Lamartine
“The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.” – Charles Dickens
“The hottest love has the coldest end.” – Socrates
“Love becomes a memory and turns into a scar.” – Original
“A broken heart is the worst. It’s like having broken ribs. Nobody can see it but it hurts every time you breathe.” – Original
“Hearts will never be practical until they are made unbreakable.” – The Wizard of Oz
“It’s amazing how someone can break your heart and you can still love them with all the little pieces.” – Ella Harper
“The hardest part of dreaming about someone you love is having to wake up.” – Anonymous
“When love is lost, do not bow your head in sadness; instead, keep your head up high and gaze into heaven for that is where your broken heart has been sent to heal.” – Anonymous
“Love is the hardest drug to quit, but it is even harder when it is taken away.” – Ashleyy
“I wish I could turn back the clock. I’d find you sooner and love you longer.” – Original
“Love lost is still love. It takes a different form, that’s all.” – Mitch Albom
“And when I awoke, you were gone. Without you, I feel like I’m wide awake in a nightmare.” – Original
“Sometimes you have to forget what you feel and remember what you deserve.” – Original
“If there are no tears in heaven, then why is the rain falling so heavily from above?” – Original
“Love is a beautiful journey, even when it comes to an end.” – Original
Inspiring Quotes to Heal from Lost Love
“The heart was made to be broken.” – Oscar Wilde
“The hottest love has the coldest end.” – Socrates
“To love and lose, and still have the courage to love again is the truest heroism.” – Maya Angelou
“It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson
“Every broken heart has screamed at one time or another: Why can’t you see who I truly am?” – Shannon L. Alder
“Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.” – Marilyn Monroe
“You can love someone so much… But you can never love people as much as you can miss them.” – John Green
“When love is lost, do not bow your head in sadness; instead, keep your head up high and gaze into heaven, for that is where your broken heart has been sent to heal.” – Unknown
“You can’t expect to heal a lifetime of pain overnight, be patient with yourself, it takes as long as it takes to rebuild yourself.” – Unknown
“The emotion that can break your heart is sometimes the very one that heals it.” – Nicholas Sparks
“The cure for pain is in the pain.” – Rumi
“Grief is the price we pay for love.” – Queen Elizabeth II
“There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues.” – Washington Irving
“We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.” – Kenji Miyazawa
“It’s hard to forget someone who gave you so much to remember.” – Unknown
“The depth of love can only be measured by the amount of heartache you feel.” – Unknown
“Love is an endless act of forgiveness, and forgiveness heals the heart.” – Unknown
“Time doesn’t heal emotional pain, you need to learn how to let go.” – Roy T. Bennett
“If you’re brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new hello.” – Paulo Coelho
“And ever has it been known that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.” – Khalil Gibran
“One day you will remember me and how much I loved you, then hate yourself for letting me go.” – Aubrey Drake Graham
“Healing takes time, and asking for help is a courageous step.” – Mariska Hargitay
“To love deeply in one direction makes us more loving in all others.” – Madame Swetchine
“The greatest step towards a life of simplicity is to learn to let go.” – Steve Maraboli
“No matter how hard your heart is broken, the world doesn’t stop for your grief.” – Faraaz Kazi
“When you leave, weary of me, without a word I shall gently let you go.” – Kim Sowol
“The only way to truly be healed is to find beauty in the ache.” – Unknown
“we only regret the chances we didn’t take.” – Lewis Carroll
“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
“Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.” – Raymond Lindquist
“When it comes to love, sometimes the closure we seek is simply the acceptance of the apology we never received.” – Unknown
“The only thing that can turn a broken heart into a stronger one is time and faith.” – Unknown
Timeless Quotes on Coping with Lost Love
“The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.” – Charles Dickens
“It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson
“Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.” – Khalil Gibran
“The heart was made to be broken.” – Oscar Wilde
“A broken heart bleeds tears.” – Steve Maraboli
“Grief is merely love with no place to go.” – Jamie Anderson
“Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated.” – Alphonse de Lamartine
“To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best.” – William Makepeace Thackeray
“Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart.” – Washington Irving
“I have loved and I have lost and I’m starting to believe; it’s okay.” – Sandol Stoddard
“The sorrow we feel when we lose a loved one is the price we pay to have had them in our lives.” – Rob Liano
“When we lose one we love, our bitterest tears are called forth by the memory of hours when we loved not enough.” – Maurice Maeterlinck
“Though lovers be lost, love shall not; And death shall have no dominion.” – Dylan Thomas
“The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.” – Gilbert K. Chesterton
“You can love someone so much, but you can never love people as much as you can miss them.” – John Green
“Love is only lost if you forget it. Hold on to the memories and let them guide you.” – Unknown
“The only whole heart is a broken one because it lets the light in.” – David J. Wolpe
“Don’t cry because it’s over; smile because it happened.” – Dr. Seuss
“Sometimes the only way to get over a broken heart is to give it time to heal.” – Karen Salmonsohn
“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” – Alexander Graham Bell
“The hottest love has the coldest end.” – Socrates
“You meet everyone twice in this life, when they come and when they go.” – C.C. Aurel
“We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.” – Joseph Campbell
“In the arithmetic of love, one plus one equals everything, and two minus one equals nothing.” – Mignon McLaughlin
“Don’t let the heart that didn’t love you keep you from the one that will.” – Unknown
“As soon as forever is through, I’ll be over you.” – Toto
“Every time I say goodbye, my heart bleeds.” – Frank Sinatra
“The cure for a broken heart is simple, my lady. A hot bath and a good night’s sleep.” – Margaret George
“Hearts live by being wounded.” – Oscar Wilde
“The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” – Maya Angelou
To Wrap Things Up
Lost love is something almost everyone experiences. These quotes capture the feelings of heartache, nostalgia, and acceptance that come with it. Whether they bring comfort or a sense of understanding, they remind us that we are not alone in our emotions.
Reflecting on lost love can be a healing process. It helps us to see our personal growth and the strength we’ve gained. These quotes serve as gentle reminders that while love may come and go, the lessons and memories remain. Perhaps, in time, they will even bring a sense of peace and closure.
