50 Broken Marriage Quotes That Will Help You Save Your Marriage

By Stephanie Kirby

Writer, Entrepreneur and Inspirational quote curator

Published July 3, 2023

If you are struggling in marriage, these broken marriage quotes will speak to how you can save the marriage.

A broken marriage is a marriage that has experienced unhealthy issues and needs to be repaired to have a chance for it to continue.

Here are some signs of a broken marriage:

The marriage partners do not want to spend time with each other.
One or both parties have done things that have broken the vows of the marriage.
Arguing all of the time or not at all – While too much arguing is unhealthy, a lack of caring at all can lead to no arguments if neither party cares.
One or both partners are overly critical of the other.
There is little to no sex in the marriage.

There are many other signs of a broken marriage, so if you’re struggling and don’t see your challenge above, know this is not an exhaustive list.

Regardless of your issues, if you are experiencing a broken marriage, you should seek help immediately.

Read these broken marriage quotes to see if these quotes apply to your marriage.

Top Broken Marriage Quotes

Here are some top quotes about love and marriage.

1. “We repeat what we don’t repair.” – John Gottman

2. “True love bears all, endures all, and triumphs.” — Dada Vaswani

3. “True love is selfless. It is prepared to sacrifice.” — Sadhu Vawani

4. “A happy marriage is a union of two forgivers.” — Ruth Bell Graham

5. “The course of true love never did run smooth.” — William Shakespeare

6. “A good marriage isn’t something you find; it’s something you make.” — Gary L. Thomas

7. “The greatest thing you can do for your children is love your spouse.” — Stephen Covey

8. “Every couple is only one righteous decision away from a great marriage.” — Gil Stieglitz

9. “Placing blame in marriage is like saying, ‘Your side of the boat is sinking.’” — Hank Smith

10. “Marriage has no guarantees. If that is what you want, go buy a car battery.” — Erma Bombeck

Encouragement for a Broken Marriage Quotes

If your marriage is struggling, these quotes can encourage you to fight for it.

11. “A good marriage requires falling in love many times with the same person.” — Mignon McLaughlin

12. “More marriages might survive if partners realize the better comes after the worst.” — Doug Larson

13. “Love is not a weakness. It is strong. Only the sacrament of marriage can contain it.” — Boris Pasternak

14. “It is better to get married with the mindset that you are going to give rather than get.” — Paul Silway

15. “You’ll never experience the joy and tenderness of a lifelong love unless you fight for it.” — Chris Fabry

16. “A long marriage is two people trying to dance a duet and two solos at the same time.” — Anne Taylor Fleming

17. “You don’t love someone because they’re perfect; you love them in spite of the fact that they’re not.” — Jodi Picoult

18. “Happy marriages begin when we marry the ones we love, and they blossom when we love the ones we marry.” — Tom Mullen

19. “Compatibility doesn’t determine the fate of a marriage; how you deal with the incompatibilities does.” — Abhijit Naskar

20. “True love does not only encompass the things that make you feel good, it also holds you to a standard of accountability.” — Monica Johnson

Repairing a Broken Marriage Quotes

These quotes provide tips on mending and healing a marriage.

21. “Laughter is the closest distance between two people.” — Victor Borge

22. “The path to marital bliss is to begin each day with a kiss.” — Matshona Dhliwayo

23. “Make it your goal to create a marriage that feels like the safest place on earth.” — Greg Smalley

24. “The truest form of love is how you behave toward someone, not how you feel about them.” — Steve Hall

25. “It is not lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

26. “The health of your marriage tomorrow will be determined by the decisions you make today.” — Andy Stanley

27. “Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave.” — Martin Luther

28. “Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone. It has to be made like bread, remade all the time, made new.” — Ursula K. Le. Guin

29. “Always strive to give your spouse the very best of yourself, not what’s left over after you gave your best to everyone else.” — Dave Willis

30. “A strong marriage requires two people who choose to love each other even on those days when they struggle to like each other.” — Dave Willis

Broken Marriage Quotes About Commitment

True love requires daily choice and commitment, as shown by these quotes.

31. “Without commitment, you cannot have depth in anything, whether it’s a relationship, a business, or a hobby.” — Neil Strauss

32. “Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward.” — C.S. Lewis

33. “A great marriage is not when the perfect couple comes together. It is when an imperfect couple learns to enjoy their differences.” — Dave Meurer

34. “Marriage is not a bed of roses, but it has its beautiful roses; neither is it a walk in the park, but you can have a memorable walk.” — Kemi Esho

35. “Real love has little to do with falling. It’s a climb up the rocky face of a mountain, hard work, and most people are too selfish or too scared to bother.” — Stacey Jay

36. “I think long-lasting, healthy relationships are more important than the idea of marriage. At the root of every successful marriage is a strong partnership.” – Carson Daly

37. “The relationship between commitment and doubt is by no means an antagonistic one. Commitment is healthiest when it is not without doubt but in spite of doubt.” — Rollo May

38. “We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.” —Frederick Keonig

39. “Real love isn’t just a euphoric, spontaneous feeling—it’s a deliberate choice—a plan to love each other for better and worse, richer and poorer, in sickness and in health.” — Seth Adam Smith

40. “The difference between an ordinary marriage and an extraordinary marriage is in giving just a little ‘extra’ every day, as often as possible, for as long as we both shall live.” — Fawn Weaver

More Broken Marriage Quotes to Inspire You to Work It Out

Here are some additional quotes to encourage you to keep working on your relationship.

41. “So many people spend far too much time focused on the wedding day instead of the actual marriage itself.” – Sope Agbelusi

42. “Some people get married because of what they hope to receive rather than what they want to give. This is a recipe for disaster.” – Wayne Gerard Trotman

43. “True love—that is, deep, abiding love that is impervious to emotional whims or fancy—is a choice. It’s a constant commitment to a person regardless of the present circumstances.” — Mark Manson

44. “True love doesn’t happen right away; it’s an ever-growing process. It develops after you’ve gone through many ups and downs when you’ve suffered together, cried together, laughed together.” — Ricardo Montalban

45. “No one can dance with a partner and not touch each other’s raw spots. We must know what these sensitive, raw spots are and be able to speak about them in a way that pulls our partner closer to us.” ― Sue Johnson

46. “I can forgive, but I cannot forget, is only another way of saying, I will not forgive. Forgiveness ought to be like a canceled note – torn in two and burned up so that it never can be shown against one.” – Henry Ward Beecher

47. “Love consists in giving without getting in return; in giving what is not owed, what is not due the other. That’s why true love is never based, as associations for utility or pleasure are, on a fair exchange.” — Mortimer Adler

48. “This may seem frivolous at first but actually has value—the choice to love is not a feeling; it is n action. Once you truly understand such concept, you will also understand that is no such thing as ‘wrong time.’” — Efrat Cybulkiewicz

49. “True love is not a strong, fiery, impetuous passion. It is, on the contrary, an element calm and deep. It looks beyond mere externals and is attracted by qualities alone. It is wise discriminating, and its devotion is real and abiding.” — Ellen G. White

50. “If we commit ourselves to one person for life, this is not, as many people think, a rejection of freedom; rather, it demands the courage to move into all the risks of freedom, and the risk of love, which is permanent; into that love which is not possession but participation.” — Madeleine L’Engle