50 Unrequited Love Quotes About This Complicated Matter

We hope you find some of your new favorite unrequited love quotes as you read through this article. Please leave a comment at the end, we would love to know what you think.

Unrequited love can be one of the most painful, profound, and inspirational things humans go through—as you will see in these unrequited love quotes.

Most of us can relate to and share our own story of unrequited love.

Some of these unrequited love quotes are funny because people try to express their feelings with a sense of humor. However, unrequited love is incredibly sad.

That moment when you realize that the love you have for someone is not reciprocated or understood by the person you love can be devastating.

That pain you feel at that moment can be a transformative experience that helps you discover a new sense of self.

While many of the best stories and movies portray unrequited love, which hits us all in the feels—it is important to recognize that unrequited love is not really love.

Keep reading through these unrequited love quotes to learn more about the causes of unrequited love and how you can cope with this feeling.

Funny unrequited love quotes

1. “There’s so many other things to write about than unrequited love.” — Lucinda Williams

2. “Unrequited love is like hitting your head against a wall that isn’t there.” — Shannon Wheeler

3. “Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love.” — Charles M. Schulz

4. “What an unrequited love it is, this thirst! But is it love, when it is unrequited?” — Eleanor Catton

5. “Unrequited love is all right in books and things, but in real life, it completely sucks.” ― Meg Cabot

6. “On the streets, unrequited love and death go together almost as often as in Shakespeare.” — Scott Turow

7. “Unrequited love is so boring. Weeping under a blue-black sky is for suckers or maniacs.” ― Alice Hoffman

8. “There’s something funny about unrequited love—I suppose it’s because we can all identify with it.” — Charles Schulz

9. “It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.” — Gabriel García Márquez

10. “When unrequited love is the most expensive thing on the menu, sometimes you settle for the daily special.” ― Miranda Kenneally

You will also enjoy our article on infatuated quotes.

Thought-provoking unrequited love quotes

11. “People do incredible things for love, particularly for unrequited love.” — Daniel Radcliffe

12. “I think one of the most poignant things is unrequited love and loneliness.” — Wilbur Smith

13. “Unrequited love differs from mutual love, just like delusion differs from the truth.” — George Sand

14. “Love unrequited is violent. He loves you so much that he’s turned it into hate.” — Lauren DeStefano

15. “Unrequited love is a ridiculous state, and it makes those in it behave ridiculously.” ― Cassandra Clare

16. “If you don’t receive love from the ones who are meant to love you, you will never stop looking for it.” ― Robert Goolrick

17. “Unrequited love does not die; it’s only beaten down to a secret place where it hides, curled and wounded.” ― Ellie Newmark

18. “We will cooperate with whoever is best… as long as they choose us as well. It cannot be merely unrequited love.” — Lu Guanqiu

19. “The most confused you will ever get is when you try to convince your heart and spirit of something your mind knows is a lie.” ― Shannon L. Alder

20. “Unrequited love stories have much more impact on the audiences. If ‘Romeo and Juliet’ had been happily married and had kids and dogs, I don’t think it would have been a classic.” — Shefali Shah

Short unrequited love quotes

21. “How timid and frail is unrequited love?” — Dok Mi

22. “I experienced unrequited love early.” — Jane Hamilton

23. “Unrequited love is always a great thing.” — Neil LaBute

24. “I know what it’s like to be in unrequited love.” — Courtney Act

25. “I’m the absolute queen bee of unrequited love.” — Iris Murdoch

26. “How do you make yourself not like someone?” — Louise Rennison

27. “I write about unrequited love in a very optimistic way.” — Christine McVie

28. “Unrequited love is the infinite curse of a lonely heart.” ― Christina Westover

29. “Winter is much like unrequited love; cold and merciless.” ― Kellie Elmore

30. “Problems can be fixed. But unrequited love is a tragedy.” — Suzanne Harper

Sad unrequited love quotes

31. “I sometimes think there is nothing more painful than love denied.” — Cassandra Clare

32. “Unfortunately, loving someone doesn’t obligate them to love you back.” — J. Matthew Nespoli

33. “The one you love and the one who loves you are never, ever the same person.” ― Chuck Palahniuk

34. “The worst feeling is falling for someone and knowing that they won’t be there to catch you.” — Rashida Rowe

35. “Unrequited love was, at that period of my life, the only kind I seemed to be capable of feeling.” — Margaret Atwood

36. “I’ve decided to take this unrequited love, and quietly put it away in a corner of my heart as a bittersweet page of my youth.” — Shuu Maiko

37. “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

38. “You like someone who can’t like you back because unrequited love can be survived in a way that once-requited love cannot.” — John Green

39. “When I talk about unrequited love, most of you probably think about romantic love, but there are many other kinds of love that are not adequately returned if they are returned at all.” — Rosamund Lupton

40. “You know, unrequited love is very difficult? It’s not just having this one-sided love of someone who’s far away. Being close, talking daily, liking a guy who’s constantly near me is harder than it would be under different circumstances.” — Park So Hee

Inspirational unrequited love quotes

41. “Stop giving energy to the things you don’t want.” — Wayne Dyer

42. “Powerful women always interpret hostility as unrequited love.” — Tina Brown

43. “Unrequited love is not an affront to man but raises him.” ― Alexander Pushkin

44. “Maybe one day you’ll understand that hearts don’t intend to break other hearts.” — Marisa Donnelly

45. “I am sleeping with unreciprocated love, while the arms of hope wrap around me.” ― Faith Herndon

46. “Let no one who loves be called altogether unhappy. Even love unreturned has its rainbow.” — J.M. Barrie

47. “Sometimes life sends us people who don’t love us enough, to remind us of what we’re worthy of.” — Mandy Hale

48. “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

49. “Because by immortalizing the pain of my unrequited love I am letting you go. This is me moving on the only way I know how.” — Theresa Mariz

50. “An act of love that fails is just as much a part of the divine life as an act of love that succeeds, for love is measured by fullness, not by reception.” — Harold Lokes

What is unrequited love?

Most of the time, when we have these feelings, they are toward someone that we don’t know all that well. We have this idolized version of this person and we are more than likely infatuated with the idea of who they could be to us.

Couple’s therapist Alicia Munoz explains that often unrequited love happens when “We remain caught up in a simplified ‘love’ drama that absolves us of the need to embrace ourselves with both our positive and negative aspects—or to embrace another person with all of their positive and negative aspects. Instead, we come to view another person as our holy grail.”

This is why unrequited love can be a chance to develop your sense of self. What qualities do you see in this person that you want to emulate? Do you think that you are lacking qualities that they look for in a partner? Are these things you want for yourself?

If the answer to that is yes, then this is the opportunity for you to become the person you want to date. If you are attracted to someone who is successful, then question what you think success looks like to you. How can you reach your own definition of success?

If this person is always with a certain type of partner, and you can’t imagine enjoying the things that they do, then there is probably a reason your love is unreturned. For instance, if the man of your dreams is dating the kind of girl who always gets her nails done and looks like she stepped off a magazine, while you are happy being a tomboy, then this is not the man for you.

There is nothing wrong with the type of girl he dates or with you! Different strokes for different folks and all. It just means that you need to do one of two things: acknowledge that there is a part of you that wants to be like the girls you see him with, or that you are truly happy the way you are.

Either of these options is good growth! If you want to be more ‘girly,’ then do it! Enjoy and learn about that new side of yourself. If you don’t want that at all, then revel in the fact that you are who you are. You are perfect for you. And eventually, you will find a love that understands that.

Share your stories of unrequited love with us in the comment section below!