Oftentimes, the way to mend an aching heart is to remember you are not alone in your emotional torment. Books are friends who sit beside you, saying, “I know how you feel, buddy.”
Here are 12 relatable quotes about love and relationships from characters who are familiar with the bitter disappointment that comes from failed romances.
1. “Love can change a person the way a parent can change a baby — awkwardly, and often with a great deal of mess.”
~ Horseradish by Lemony Snicket
Source: Amazon
2. “She doesn’t want to love me, but she doesn’t want to lose me either. She wants us to stay okay. Like before. But it’s not as certain anymore.“
~ I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak
Source: Amazon
3. “It’s impeccable how brutal the truth can be at times. Usually, we walk around constantly believing ourselves. ‘I’m okay,’ we say. ‘I’m all right.’ But sometimes the truth arrives on you, and you can’t get it off. That’s when you realize that sometimes it isn’t even an answer — it’s a question.”
~ I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak (again)
Source: Amazon
4. “I just think it’s bad when a boy looks at a girl and thinks that the way he sees the girl is better than the girl already is. And I think it’s bad when the most honest way a boy can look at a girl is through a camera.”
~The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Source: Amazon
5. “The Buddha said that suffering was caused by desire, and that the cessation of desire meant the cessation of suffering. When you stopped wishing things wouldn’t fall apart, you’d stop suffering when they did.”
~ Looking For Alaska by John Green
Source: Amazon
6. “Angry, and half in love with her, and tremendously sorry, I turned away.”
~ The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
7. “It’s important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go. Otherwise, you are left with words you should have said but never did, and your heart is heavy with remorse.”
~ The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Source: Amazon
8. “I know that’s what people say – you’ll get over it. I’d say it too. But I know it’s not true. Oh, you’ll be happy again, never fear. But you won’t forget. Every time you fall in love it will be because something in the man reminds you of him.”
~ A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Source: Amazon
9. “I want somehow to get away with you into a world where words like that – categories like that – won’t exist. Where we shall be simply two human beings who love each other, who are the whole of life to each other; and nothing else on earth will matter.”
~ The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Source: Amazon
10. “Let’s see where this leads us, this adventure with the thrum of the music and the blizzard of stagy snow, and happy tears freezing to diamonds. Let’s go, let’s go, hurry towards the happy ending. Let’s go together toward something extraordinary, and I start making plans, thinking we would get that far.”
~Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler
Source: Amazon
11. “Human beings want to know too much abut each other, and that’s why there are so many lies.”
~ Forever by Pete Hamill
Source: Amazon
12. “You’ll learn, honey. Love can be the best thing in life. And it can be the worst. The absolute worst.”
~The Books of Abarat by Clive Barker
Source: Amazon
Which books are your proverbial consolatory bowl of ice cream?
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Featured image via Kevin MD
