Top 20 Toxic Relationship Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Avoid negative people at all costs. They are the greatest destroyers of self-confidence and self-esteem.”

— Brian Tracy

Also featured in: Confidence Quotes, Self-Esteem Quotes, Self-Worth Quotes, Mental Health Quotes

2. “Don’t waste another minute dealing with a toxic, negative, energy-draining person. Some people are wired for negativity. They love being argumentative, combative and abusive. Run for your life as quickly as possible.”

— Les Brown

Also featured in: Self-Care Quotes, Personality Quotes, Quotes About People, Love Is Quotes

3. “What I want is to be needed. What I need is to be indispensable to somebody. Who I need is somebody that will eat up all my free time, my ego, my attention. Somebody addicted to me. A mutual addiction.”

— Chuck Palahniuk

Also featured in: Addiction Quotes

4. “Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.”

— Maya Angelou

Also featured in: Relationship Quotes, Emotional Quotes, Emotion Quotes, Quality Quotes

5. “I used to think the worst thing in life is to end up all alone. It’s not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone.”

— Robin Williams

Also featured in: Relationship Quotes, Emotional Quotes, Depressing Quotes, Quotes About Feelings, Quotes About People

6. “Never run back to what broke you.”

— Frank Ocean

Also featured in: Relationship Quotes, Personality Quotes, Moving On Quotes, Struggle Quotes, Pain Quotes

7. “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. People know themselves much better than you do. That’s why it’s important to stop expecting them to be something other than who they are.”

— Maya Angelou

Also featured in: Personality Quotes, Quotes About Believing, Being Yourself Quotes, Honesty Quotes

8. “An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind.”

— Buddha

Also featured in: Deep Quotes, Friendship Quotes, Quotes About Trust, Hurt Quotes

9. “I stopped looking for a Dream Girl, I just wanted one that wasn’t a nightmare.”

— Charles Bukowski

10. “Years of love have been forgot, In the hatred of a minute.”

— Edgar Allan Poe

Also featured in: Sad Quotes, Quotes About Feelings, Heartbreak Quotes, Marriage Quotes

11. “Avoid him who talks sweetly before you but tries to ruin you behind your back, for he is like a pitcher of poison with milk on top.”

— Chanakya

Also featured in: Integrity Quotes, Strategy Quotes, Human Nature Quotes, Quotes About Trust

12. “I will hurt you for this. I don’t know how yet, but give me time. A day will come when you think yourself safe and happy, and suddenly your joy will turn to ashes in your mouth, and you’ll know the debt is paid.”

— George R.R. Martin

Also featured in: Fiction Quotes, Suffering Quotes, Hurt Quotes, Darkness Quotes

13. “Love is evil, spell it backwards, I’ll show ya.”

— Eminem

Also featured in: Love Is Quotes, Evil Quotes

14. “Poisonous people do not deserve your time. To think otherwise is masochistic.”

— Tim Ferriss

Also featured in: Toxic People Quotes

15. “If you're horrible to me, I'm going to write a song about it, and you won't like it. That's how I operate.”

— Taylor Swift

Also featured in: Music Quotes, Broken Heart Quotes, Heartbreak Quotes, Toxic People Quotes

16. “When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free.”

— Catherine Ponder

Also featured in: Inner Peace Quotes, Recovery Quotes, Forgiveness Quotes

17. “Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.”

— Carrie Fisher

Also featured in: Forgiving Quotes

18. “Love doesn’t hurt you. A person that doesn’t know how to love hurts you. Don’t get it twisted.”

— Tony Gaskins

Also featured in: Love Life Quotes, Quotes About Heart, Couple Quotes, Romantic Quotes for Her

19. “Your relationships will either make you or break you and there is no such thing as a neutral relationship. People either inspire you to greatness or pull you down in the gutter, it’s that simple. No one fails alone, and no one succeeds alone.”

— Eric Thomas

Also featured in: Hard Hitting Quotes, Influence Quotes, Grind Quotes, New Relationship Quotes

20. “You look like an angel, walk like an angel, talk like an angel. But I got wise, you’re the devil in disguise.”

— Elvis Presley

Also featured in: Music Quotes, Liars Quotes

21. “Hurt people hurt people.”

— Anonymous

22. “Don’t want to reach for me, do you? I mean nothing to you, the little things give you away.”

— Linkin Park

Also featured in: Depression Quotes, Quotes About Songs, Fake Friends Quotes