50 One-Sided Friendship Quotes For Balanced Bonds

By Clifton Sankofa

School Leader, Language Arts Expert & Master Quote Curator

Published January 27, 2023

Take a moment to check out our insightful one-sided relationship quotes.

Our quotes about one-sided friendships will help you discern if you are in an authentic friendship.

What is a one-sided relationship?

A one-sided friendship is a relationship where one side benefits and the other does not.

One-sided relationships are unhealthy and are unlikely to last long.

Authentic friendships are based on mutual effort, love, and energy.

A one-sided friendship slants the relationship to favor one party over the other.

Here are some signs that you may be experiencing a one-sided relationship:

They put you down.
You feel angry or bothered after talking to them.
They only respond when it is convenient for them.

Communication matters in all relationships

Open communication is vital to any relationship, and one way to know you are in a one-sided relationship is by analyzing the communication between you two.

Friends are reliable, so if you make plans and have them canceled all of the time, you may have to reevaluate your friendship.

If this person only calls when they need something or if you find you get one-word responses via text, you may be entering one-sided friendship territory.

Friends check in on each other, see if assistance is needed, listen and share insight.

One-sided friends may talk about their problems a lot, but they rarely take the time to listen to what you are going through.

A healthy friendship means finding balance

A healthy life is about balance, and finding the right people to befriend means finding people who give and take, not just take and take.

For more great content, check out our one-sided friendship quotes below.

The best short one-sided friendship quotes with life lessons

These quotes give us some clarity on the lessons we learn from experiencing a one-sided friendship.

1. “Friends are proved by adversity.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero

2. “I‘m going back to my parrot head friends.” — Jimmy Buffett

3. “An honest answer is the sign of true friendship.” — E.W. Howe

4. “If the feelings are mutual, the effort will be equal” — Steve Maraboli

5. “But for the moment, I really just need some space.” — Margo T. Rose

6. “The worst solitude is to be destitute of sincere friendship” — Sir. Francis Bacon

7. “I’m controversial. My friends either dislike me or hate me.” — Oscar Levant

8. “Things change. And friends leave. Life doesn’t stop for anybody”. — Stephen Chbosky

9. “The most called-upon prerequisite of a friend is an accessible ear.” — Maya Angelou

10. “Friendship between two women is always a plot against another one.” — Alphonse Karr

Wise one-sided friendship quotes for keeping a balanced life

Part of keeping a balanced life is balancing our friendships. Maintaining strong connections with those who treat us well is essential to a balanced friendship.

11. “Sometimes, your circle decreases in size, but increases in value.” — Anonymous

12. “Not only one-sided love but one-sided friendships also do exists.” — Rupali Negi

13. “A one-sided friendship brings exhaustion, and there’s no one deserves to be sucked dry.” — Euginia Herlihy

14. “Friendships should not be one-sided. Because one of the two people will be left feeling empty.” — Shanita Rogers

15. “One-sided friendship and two-sided love always give you a lot of pain, nothing more than that!” — S. Pandey

16. “No relationship in this world ever remains warm and close unless good effort is made on both sides to keep it so.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

17. “We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and private: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship.” — C.S. Lewis

18. “Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.” — Oprah Winfrey

19. “Could you be nostalgic for a friendship that wasn’t over yet, or did the fact that you were nostalgic mean that it already was?” — Brit Bennett

20. “It takes two givers to keep a friendship strong. One-sided friendship can’t last long. Be grateful for the true friends on the journey.” — Matt Brown

Enlightening one-sided friendship quotes

At a certain point, all one-sided friendships run their course; at that point, we need to move on.

21. “Cultivation requires input from willing participants.” — T.F. Hodge

22. “Perhaps, that is the way of friends, to love one another for their imperfections, not despite them.” — Scott Wilbanks

23. “Watering artificial flowers will not make them grow. Stop pouring your energy into one-sided relationships.” — John Mark Green

24. “You don’t lose friends because real friends can never be lost. You lose people masquerading as friends, and you’re better for it.” — Mandy Hale

25. “One sure way to lose another woman’s friendship is to try to improve her flower arrangements.” — Marcelene Cox

26. “One way to tell if you’re really comfortable with a person is if you can be quiet together sometimes and not feel awkward.” — Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

27. “Any relationship (friend, romantic, or business) that’s one-sided isn’t one; it’s a one-way street headed in one direction, nowhere. — T.F. Hodge

28. “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

29. “Taking friendships for granted is one of the surest ways of ending them. Unless nourished, they tend to wither and die.” — Alice Hegan Rice

30. “Our deepest fear is going space crazy through loneliness. The only thing that helps me keep my slender grip on reality is the friendship I have with my collection of singing potatoes.” — Holly, Red Dwarf

One-sided friendship quotes about life

We cannot afford to engage in friendships that deplete our energy.

31. “One-sided friendships never last.” — Anonymous

32. “There’s friendship when you do for each other. It’s like marriage- it’s two-sided.” — John Wooden

33. “A one-sided friendship is like having a car that only goes in one direction; eventually, it will drive itself away from you.” — Anonymous

34. “Sometimes one of them thinks they’re really close, closer than they are. And the other doesn’t feel that way.” — Andrew Sean Greer

35. “Friendship is two-sided. It isn’t a friend just because someone’s doing something nice for you. That’s a nice person.” — John Wooden

36. “Unless we earnestly desire its continuance, we should never start a friendship any more than we would a love affair.” — Alice Hegan Rice

37. “If you don’t feel obligated to say something brilliant or funny or surprising or cool. You can just be together. You can just be.” — Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

38. “Taking friendships for granted is one of the surest ways of ending them. Unless nourished, they tend to wither and die.” — Alice Hegan Rice

39. “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

40. “It’s just that, you know how it is in some relationships, how one of them is a little more in love. Well, it’s like that with friendships.” — Andrew Sean Greer

Disappointing one-sided relationship quotes to help us grow

When we acknowledge a one-sided relationship, we can choose to balance it or move on.

41. “One-sided friendships can leave you confused and hurt.” — Crystal Raypole, Healthline

42. “You can’t keep on investing in a person, getting no returns.” — Hanan Parvez, Psych Mechanics

43. “One-sided friendships can be built on foundations of loneliness, insecurity, and anxiety.” — Lucy Smith, A Conscious Rethink

44. “Being the only one to try to maintain a friendship sucks and is exhausting.” — Jillian Baker, The Odyssey

45. “Your friend says they care, but their consistent disinterest loudly suggests otherwise.” — Crystal Raypole, Healthline

46. “Friendship is supposed to be a two-way street where both parties have equal rights and equal obligations” — Nato Lagidze, IdeaPod

47. “If a friendship is off-balance, one person takes up too much space, and the other person takes up too little.” — Perri O. Blumberg, Women’s Health

48. “Simple things like cutting you off, blowing off what you have to say, talking over you, and so on, are all signs of a one-sided friendship.” — Sarah Regan, MBG Relationships

49. “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

50. “The one-sided friendship: It was all the game of priority, it was an unbalanced friendship, where it was you above everything for me, and it was I below anything for you, and now we broke to the state, where, everything, anything, and nothing sounded similar” — Piyushkuhad

One-sided relationships drain our energy

Our lives are finite, meaning we get a certain amount of energy.

Can any of us honestly say we have any energy to spare?

Even if you feel full of energy and life, that does not mean you want to spend your time giving your energy to those who do not appreciate it.

One-sided relationships can be frustrating, but we have to take accountability for our part in the relationship.

For a one-sided relationship to manifest, both parties have to agree to exchange energy.

If we sense our friendship is not appreciated or the other party does not value our time, we must address the imbalance or move on from the relationship.

It may take time before we notice the imbalance.

However, once we make the distinction that the relationship is not even the ball is in our court to make a choice.