It hurts deeply when love or care is not reciprocated. If you’re in that shoe, these one sided effort relationship quotes are for you.
Misery, they say, loves company. But I’ve not compiled these quotes to make you wallow in self-pity. Instead, I’ve handpicked some of the most empowering ones to help nudge you in the right direction.
The first quotes say, someone gets you ― they’ll help you feel understood and a little less lonely. The second category is meant to help you realize that although your love is real, staying in a one-way relationship is unhealthy.
And the last set of quotes will help you improve your self-esteem in your relationship, reclaim your power, and move on if necessary.
One Sided Effort Relationship Quotes for When You’re Feeling Sad and Lonely
- “There’s nothing quite as sad as a one-sided love. When one doesn’t care at all, and the other cares too much.” – Dolly Parton
- “Love isn’t always perfect. It isn’t a fairy tale or a storybook. And it doesn’t always come easy.” – Linda Lapointe
- “Sometimes no matter how many eyelashes or dandelion seeds you blow, no matter how much of your heart you tear out and slap on your sleeve, it just ain’t gonna happen.” – Melissa Jensen
- “My silence is just another word for my pain. A love like I have for you, I’ll never, ever know again.” – Vicki Case
- “Because, if you could love someone and keep loving them without being loved back then, that love had to be real. It hurt too much to be anything else.”- Sarah Cross
- “Every time she laughs, she hopes he’s watching, hoping that he’ll fall for her smile just as hard as she fell for his.” – K. M.
- “A person doesn’t know true hurt and suffering until they’ve felt the pain of falling in love with someone whose affections lie elsewhere.” – Rose Gordon
- “Perhaps unrequited love was a specter in the house, a presence that brushed at the edge of senses, a heat in the dark, and a shadow under the sun.” – Sherry Thomas
- “It hurts when you have someone in your heart, but you can’t have them in your arms.” – Belinda Hernandez
- “The most painful goodbyes are the ones that are left unsaid and never explained.” – Jonathan Harnisch
- “Being in love with someone who doesn’t even know you exist isn’t the worst thing in the world. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Almost like passing in a term paper that you know sucked, but having that period of time where you haven’t gotten your grade back yet ― that kind of exhale where you haven’t been rejected, although you pretty much know how it’s going to turn out.” – Tonya Hurley
- “For so long, I’ve only had one-sided feelings for other people. I’ve completely forgotten how good it feels to be loved.” – Hinako Takanaga
- “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
- “Because what’s worse than knowing you want something, besides knowing you can never have it?” – James Patterson
- “You can sacrifice and not love. But you cannot love and not sacrifice.” – Kris Vallotton
- “Maybe I was destined to forever fall in love with people I couldn’t have. Maybe there’s a whole assortment of impossible people waiting for me to find them. Waiting to make me feel the same impossibility over and over again.” – Carol Rifka Brunt
- “You like someone who can’t like you back because unrequited love can survive in a way that once-requited love cannot.” – John Green
- “It’s kind of funny how someone person can break your heart, and you can still love them with all the little pieces.” – Kuhhrizma Clemons
- “Nobody’s home but me. I’m the only one hangin’ on one-sided love.” – Brooke Hogan
- “The pain of one sided love, of knowing that I had loved her more than she had loved me.” – Sierra Simone
One Sided Effort Relationship Quotes for Putting Yourself First
While a one sided effort relationship doesn’t feel good, there’s a silver lining if you look closely. You learn more about yourself, understanding what you want and don’t want. When you eventually move on (as you should if the other person isn’t willing to meet you halfway), you become a better person and partner in subsequent relationships.
When you’re feeling sad and lonely because your love is not reciprocated, here are some one sided effort relationship quotes to help you look on the bright side.
- “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 into learning. All love transforms to self-awareness.” – Vironika Tugaleva
- “Love yourself first, and everything else falls into line.” – Lucille Ball
- “Stop letting people who do so little for you control so much of your mind, feelings, and emotions.” – Will Smith
- “If you don’t receive love from the ones who are meant to love you, you will never stop looking for it.” – Robert Goolrick
- “Everybody has bad relationships, and, at the end of the day, they are just a great way to set yourself up for a good relationship.” – Anne Hathaway
- “A relationship is nothing if all the feelings, sacrifices, contributions and hard work are only coming from one end.” – Kisstopher
- “Stop chasing after people and being the only one trying to fix everything. It’s mentally and physically exhausting. You have to find peace with whoever comes and goes from your life. Don’t be the only one putting in effort because you will lose yourself trying to save someone else.” – Unknown
- “Any relationship (friend, romantic, or business) that’s one sided isn’t one; it’s a one-way street headed in one direction nowhere. Cultivation requires input from willing participants.” – T. F. Hodge
- “When you care for people more than they deserve, you get hurt more than you deserve.” – Stephen Kyeyune
- “Watering artificial flowers will never make them grow. Stop pouring your energy into one-sided relationships.” – John Mark Green
- “Poisonous relationships can alter our perception. You can spend many years thinking you’re worthless. But you’re not worthless. You’re underappreciated.” – Steve Maraboli
- “Waiting for you is like waiting for rain in the drought, which was useless and disappointing.” – Himanshu Chate
- “Friendship is two-sided. It isn’t a friend just because someone’s doing something nice for you. That’s a nice person. There’s friendship when you do for each other. It’s like marriage – it’s two-sided.” – John Wooden
- “No matter how much you love the person, you cannot change them. You may influence them, but at the end of the day, they must decide for themselves.” – Robert E. Baines Jr.
- “No relationship in this world ever remains warm and close unless good effort is made on both sides to keep it so.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
- “One sided relationship is no relationship at all. The relationship blossoms when there is trust, love and affection between all concerned.” – Sandeep Ravidutt Sharma
- “Yes, the people around us can be insensitive, narcissistic, toxic, and sometimes even abusive, but it is up to us to take that energy on or let it flow through us. No one is responsible for taking away our happiness but us.” – Aletheia Luna
- “I will not allow anyone to walk in my mind with dirty feet.” – Mahatma Gandhi
- “Letting go doesn’t mean that you don’t care about someone anymore. It’s just realizing that the only person you really have control over is yourself.” – Deborah Reber
- “Every day, you must unlearn the ways that hold you back. You must rid yourself of negativity, so you can learn to fly.” – Leon Brown
- “Life doesn’t require that we be the best, only that we try our best.” – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
- “Don’t let toxic people infect you with the fear of giving and receiving one of the most powerful forces in this world… LOVE!” – Yvonne Pierre
- “I decided to put as much effort into contacting you as you do with me. That’s why we don’t talk anymore.” – Unknown
- “Love is a two-way game; you cannot truly love one who does not love you, and neither can you force them to love you; better look past the hurtful deeds and search for the one who truly loves you and that will be right with you.” – Auliq Ice
- “No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other’s worth.” – Robert Southey
- “If the feelings are mutual, the effort will be equal.” – Steve Maraboli
One Sided Effort Relationship Quotes for Moving On
Sometimes it is in your best interest to stop caring for someone and move on! It might be painful initially, but you must not jeopardize your mental and emotional well-being.
If you’ve decided it’s time to move on from a one-way relationship, the following quotes will help you be more resolute in your decision.
- “One of the most courageous decisions you’ll ever make is to finally let go of what is hurting your heart and soul.” – Brigitte Nicole
- “Sometimes, there are things in life that aren’t meant to stay. Sometimes, change may not be what we want. Sometimes change is what we need.” – Don Bolena Jr.
- “Well, you know that I love you more than anyone can but a one-sided love I just don’t understand.” – The Beatles
- “With a love that’s so one sided, there’s no chance at all. The walls have got to fall.” – Sonny & Cher
- “If you know you can’t take it, then baby, why try to give it? Cause I ain’t for no one-sided love affair.” – Elvis Presley
- “The idea is quite simple, stay a light year away from people who make you feel less about yourself.” – Mohith Agadi
- “If you allow people to make more withdrawals than deposits in your life, you will be out of balance and in the negative! Know when to close the account.” – Christie Williams
- “Entitlement is an expression of conditional love. Nobody is ever entitled to your love. You always have a right to protect your mental, emotional, and physical well-being by removing yourself from toxic people and circumstances.” – Dr. Janice Anderson & Kiersten Anderson
- “Real love moves freely in both directions. Don’t waste your time on anything else.” – Cheryl Strayed
- “It’s awfully hard to be happy when you feel you’re not worthy enough for those feelings. You’ve been knocked down so many times; happiness to you is an unnatural state of mind. Lose the fake smile, get up and get rid of the toxic reasons you’re unhappy, no matter who or what’s standing in your way. Time to get real!” – Ron Baratono
- “If you walked away from a toxic, negative, abusive, one-sided, dead-end low vibrational relationship or friendship — you won.” – Lalah Delia
- “Our time is up. Trying to make this work, it ain’t enough one-sided love.” – Blackbear
- “If you wanna be hugged. Well, you’ve gotta hug me, too. Yeah, ’cause I ain’t for no one-sided love affair.” – Aldo
- “Relationships are worth fighting for, but sometimes you can’t be the only one fighting.” – Emily Christine
- “One sided love is never gonna work. So let me tell you something that I’m sure you’ve never heard of: tender love and care in case you’re unaware.” – Mandy Moore
- “I found peace of mind when I walked away from small fights not worth fighting. I stopped fighting for people who gossiped about me. I stopped fighting for those who didn’t respect me. I quit worrying about those who wouldn’t value me for being me.” – Dana Arcuri
- “You lift your spirits by moving away from what upsets you. If the stove is hot, you can’t ask how to touch it but be happy about it.” – Queen Tourmaline
- “There comes a time in your life when you have to choose to turn the page, write another book or simply close it.” – Shannon L. Alder
- “You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.” – Anne Lamott
