The Quote Garden

 I dig old books.

 Est. 1998




Home      About      Contact      Terms      Privacy


Quotations about Heartache,
Broken Hearts, Breaking Up, etc.



Love sings that he is deathless—
Then dies.
~James Oppenheim, "The Mortal," War and Laughter, 1916


To wound the heart is to create it. ~Antonio Porchia (1886–1968), Voces, 1943–1966, translated from the Spanish by W.S. Merwin (1927–2019), c.1968


I have tried every means to crush from my heart the wild love that I bear you; but I cannot. ~Anonymous, Dacia Singleton, 1867


...the beauty of the world which is so soon to perish, has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder. ~Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own, 1929


Love lingers…
Sweet scent in an empty bottle.
~Barbara F. Craigie, "Love Lingers," in College Verse, November 1931


Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul... ~William Shakespeare, Othello, c.1604  [I, 1, Iago]


Funny how a broken heart keeps right on beating, isn't it? ~Cid Ricketts Sumner, Tammy Out of Time, 1958


[Robert] Anderson offers a final comfort that is small, but not cold:  the heart is the only broken instrument that works. ~T. E. Kalem, "Solitaire / Double Solitaire," 1971


      Another call from the spiritual universe is to the realm of sorrow. We are not good for much until our hearts are broken. I know of no more pathetic object in time than a man or woman who has come to middle life, still heart-whole. It seems as if they had been overlooked or forgotten in the great curriculum of life.
      Sorrow cleanses our vision of misty humors, restores our spiritual myopia, so that we get a clear, long-range outlook upon the verities, the imperishable substances of the inner life.
      He has lived poorly who has come to mature years and has not been touched by world-pain; who has not heard the sighing and the groaning of the millions; who has not at least stepped back a little way into the awful shadow of the world’s spiritual sorrow; known something of its shame and agony for sin; its terrors of an avenging conscience; its fear of angry gods; its shivering dread in presence of an unknown eternity.
      Unless called now and then into the stillness and shadow of this common experience of sorrow, how would we ever be healed of our folly for the getting and having of things? What ministry of consolation and strength could we have among the sinful, the suffering, and the broken-hearted! ~Rev. James H. Ecob, "The Call of the Universe," 1904  [a little altered —tg]


Nothing remains but the bare, gray ashes from the once bright fires of love. ~James Lendall Basford (1845–1915), Seven Seventy Seven Sensations, 1897


'Never, never meet again,' he said; and was not her heart bleeding bitterly because he had said it? ~Charles Gibbon, The Flower of the Forest, 1882


Iron left in the rain
      And fog and dew
With rust is covered.—Pain
      Rusts in beauty, too.
I know full well that this is so:
— I had a heartbreak long ago.
~Mary Carolyn Davies, "Rust," Youth Riding, 1919


...he felt a dull, leaden weight upon his heart, which seemed to crush him down, down to the earth. ~Charles Gibbon, The Flower of the Forest, 1882


Come, ye disconsolate, where'er you languish, Come, at God's altar fervently kneel; Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish— Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal... ~Thomas Moore, "Come, Ye Disconsolate"


Sadness flies on the wings of the morning, and out of the heart of darkness comes the light. ~Jean Giraudoux, The Madwoman of Chaillot, 1948, English adaptation by Maurice Valency


The old man's heart was sorely stung. ~Charles Gibbon, The Flower of the Forest, 1882


I hate the day, because it lendeth light
To see all things, and not my love to see...
~Edmund Spenser, "Daphnaida"


The broken heart is broadest. ~Emily Dickinson, 1881


Oh, was there no loving without hurt? Was there no pure essence of love unpoisoned by pain and heartbreak? ~Cid Ricketts Sumner, But the Morning Will Come, 1949


Women's hearts are like old china, none the worse for a break or two. ~W. Somerset Maugham, Lady Frederick, 1907


Only the soul that knows the mighty grief
Can know the mighty rapture. Sorrows come
To stretch out spaces in the heart for joy.
~Edwin Markham, "Victory in Defeat," 1909


[N]o moment must be lost when a heart is breaking, for though it broke so long, each time is newer than the last, if it broke truly. ~Emily Dickinson


Loss leaves us empty — but learn not to close your heart and mind in grief. Allow life to replenish you. When sorrow comes it seems impossible — but new joys will fill the void. ~Pam Brown, To Someone Special, Wishing You Happiness, 2008, helenexley.com


      Hope had grown grey hairs,
      Hope had mourning on,
Trenched with tears, carved with cares...
~Gerard Manley Hopkins, "The Wreck of the Deutschland," 1876


My heart may be broken, but it will never stop loving. ~Jessica Garay, @sickwonderland, September 2009 entry to The Quote Garden create your own quote contest on Twitter, @quotegarden


...If we must part for ever,
Give me but one kind word to think upon,
And please myself withal, whilst my heart's breaking.
~Thomas Otway (1652–1685), The Orphan


She jilted him with a jolt that knocked his heart out of his mouth. ~Rupert Hughes, "Don't You Care!," In a Little Town, 1917


Walking, working, barely breathing
My thoughts, far away
Heart aching, mind racing
Sleep does not come easily, nor last long...
~Peter Winstanley


When those we love betray our trust,
We find the depth of human pain;
Oh, let me rise above these hurts
Until the sun shines, once again!
~Gertrude Tooley Buckingham, "My Prayer," 1940s


Maybe part of loving is learning to let go. ~The Wonder Years, "How I'm Spending My Summer Vacation," 1989, written by Jane Anderson  [S2, E17]


Once, when I was young and true,
      Someone left me sad—
Broke my brittle heart in two;
      And that is very bad.
Love is for unlucky folk,
      Love is but a curse.
Once there was a heart I broke;
      And that, I think, is worse.
~Dorothy Parker, "A Very Short Song," 1926


...tears are the safety valve of sorrow, and he who can weep will not die of a broken heart. ~Gustav Nieritz (1795–1876), "The Garden Grave," The Cobbler, the Clerk, and the Lawyer of Liebstein, translated from the German by Annie Harwood, 1868


Heartbreaks that are too new
      Can not be used to make
Beauty that will startle.
      That takes an old heartbreak.
Old heartbreaks are old wine.
Too new to pour is mine.
~Mary Carolyn Davies, "Vintage," Youth Riding, 1919


'Tis not love's going hurts my days,
But that it went in little ways.
~Edna St. Vincent Millay, "The Spring and the Fall," The Harp-Weaver and Other Poems, 1923


...my heart is zerrissen (ripped)... ~James Oppenheim, Wild Oats, 1910


...the heart is bold
That pain has made incapable of pain...
~Dorothy Parker (1893–1967), "Testament"


The water heaved and rushed. And the ship throbbed away, like a great, unfaithful heart, from the fading, mist-blurred land. ~Anita Vivanti Chartres (1866–1942), The Hunt for Happiness, 1896 


There is no mortal whom sorrow cannot reach. ~Publilius Syrus, 1st century BCE, from the Latin by D. Lyman, 1856


If I had a big balloon
      Round as any Harvest Moon
      And a bully kicked it, say,
      With his foot, and ran away.
      All the world would comfort me,
      Saying softly, "What a shame!"
Well, it wasn't stamped or kicked,
      My balloon was only pricked
      With a very little pin
      Touched to it, not driven in.
      No one came to comfort me
      Though 'twas broken, just the same.
~Janet Barton, "My World"


The memory of an unkind word often outlasts the remembrance of many charitable acts. ~Thomas Clark Henley, A Handful of Paper Shavings, 1861


...the one romance of his life is shattered at his feet! ~Frederick William Robinson, Under the Spell, 1870


My heart, my heart is heavy
Though May shines bright on all...
~Heinrich Heine, "Der Heimkehr," translated from German by Hal Draper


...he only loves me with a quarter of his heart... ~Jittie Martin Horlick (1881–1973), A String of Beads, 1911


...his heart enlarged and accepted so much emotion that there was a kind of rapture in the very power to ache so well... ~Rupert Hughes, The Thirteenth Commandment, 1916


The finest luxury of sentiment is the sense of being loved, and one flitting thought may destroy it. ~Thomas Clark Henley, A Handful of Paper Shavings, 1861


...Lost in your heart, lost in your eyes
Lost every day, no map to follow
Entire days, weeks, a blur
Flickers of light, in the darkness,
Only to be enveloped in shadows once more...
~Peter Winstanley


Love broken lies, a tassel of the wind
Caught on my breast...
~Olive Tilford Dargan (1869–1968)


I never knew until that moment how much it could hurt to lose something you never really had. ~The Wonder Years, "The St. Valentine's Day Massacre," 1990, written by Mark B. Perry  [S3, E14]


The more fiercely lovers love each other the more delicate are the antennæ of their souls, the more easily bruised. ~Rupert Hughes, The Thirteenth Commandment, 1916


In the arithmetic of love, one plus one equals everything, and two minus one equals nothing. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966, © Thomas Paine McLaughlin


Time catalogues heartbreak as love poetry. ~Terri Guillemets


How strange that the sun can be shining
      And the world be looking so fair,
      When my heart is downcast with sorrow
      And pain that is so hard to bear!
How strange there is bright, children's laughter;
      That gaiety reigns every place,
      When darkness is swirling about me
      And covering all of God's face!...
~Gertrude Tooley Buckingham, "How Strange!," 1940s


How strange that the moon shines in glory
      And the stars are wondrously bright,
      When the one whom I thought had loved me
      Has failed me, and now all is night!
How strange the sun rises each morning
      And sets every night, as of yore,
      When my heart is, so surely, breaking
      For the one I'd loved more and more!
I pray God will heal all my heartache
      And I'll o'ercome all of this pain;
      That my soul may be filled with gladness,
      And peace will be mine, once again.
~Gertrude Tooley Buckingham, "How Strange!," 1940s


      When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
      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 (1883–1931), The Prophet


If it be an object to forget a person, a portrait is a great mistake... ~Anonymous, Will is the Cause of Woe, 1878


Sometimes what gets to you most isn't the large holes that get ripped from your heart but the fraying of its edges — when what held you together isn't anymore. ~Terri Guillemets


God! what a light has passed away from earth
Since my last look!...
How beautiful the yesterday that stood
Over me like a rainbow! I am alone.
The past is past. I see the future stretch
All dark and barren as a rainy sea.
~Alexander Smith, A Life-Drama


Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it. ~J.K. Rowling, "The Parting of the Ways," Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, 2000  [Albus Dumbledore —tg]


The love that makes you feel light as a feather is the love that makes your heart feel heaviest when it goes. ~Terri Guillemets


I prithee send me back my heart,
Since I cannot have thine:
For if from yours you will not part,
Why then should'st thou have mine!...
~John Suckling


There's May amid the meadows
There's May amid the trees...
Above the rippling river
May swallows skim and dart;
November and December
Keep watch within my heart.
~Amy Levy, "A Dirge," c.1884


The spring breathes in the breezes,
The woods with wood-notes ring,
And all the budding hedgerows
Are fragrant of the spring.
In secret, silent places
The live green things upstart;
Ice-bound, ice-crown'd dwells winter
For ever in my heart.
~Amy Levy, "A Dirge," c.1884


With what a deep devotedness of woe
I wept thy absence — o'er and o'er again
Thinking of thee, still thee, till thought grew pain,
And memory, like a drop, that, night and day,
Falls cold and ceaseless, wore my heart away!
Didst thou but know how pale I sat at home,
My eyes still turn'd the way thou wert to come,
And, all the long, long night of hope and fear,
Thy voice and step still sounding in my ear...
~Thomas Moore, "Lalla Rookh," 1817


The flame of love is now just a cold loneliness. ~Terri Guillemets


Yes, I will go. I would rather grieve over your absence than over you. ~Antonio Porchia (1886–1968), Voces, 1943–1966, translated from the Spanish by W.S. Merwin (1927–2019), c.1968


Let no one who loves be called altogether unhappy. Even love unreturned has its rainbow... ~James Matthew Barrie, The Little Minister


You flew off with the wings of my heart and left me flightless. ~Terri Guillemets


As soon as forever is through
I'll be over you.
~Steve Lukather & Randy Goodrum, "I'll Be Over You," 1985, performed by Toto ♫





Home      About      Contact      Terms      Privacy



published 2000 Dec 23
revised 2021 Jul 16
last saved 2024 Sep 3
www.quotegarden.com/heartache.html