46 Saddest Lost Love Quotes for the Broken-Hearted

Sometimes a well-placed quote helps you make sense of your feelings. If you’re heartbroken, these lost love quotes will help you process your loss. 

Whoever said, “It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all,” may not really have had their heart broken at all. That’s one of the lost love quotes that makes little sense.

When you lose someone you love, whether from a bad fight, separation, tragedy, or any other reason, nothing compares to the pain.

There are really no words to describe it, much less escape it.

All you can do is feel it, let it wash over you wave after wave, until the time comes when you can truly bring yourself to move on again. [Read: Broken heart syndrome: Can a heart actually break or is it drama?]

With lost love comes the pain of separation and the fear of goodbye. There’s also the torment of regret, the immense pain of heartbreak, and the helplessness you feel when you lose your life’s love.

Lost love quotes to inspire and heal

If you’re feeling down because of lost love, may one of these lost love quotes will inspire you or help you cope. [Read: The real reason why love hurts when it goes bad]

Separation and goodbye

Separation of any kind feels terrible, because it’s not something you want, but something you just have to deal with. It’s worse than a breakup because you’re always left with what-ifs that can haunt you forever.

1. “Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.” – Kahlil Gibran

2. “This is not a goodbye, my darling, this is a thank you. Thank you for coming into my life and giving me joy, thank you for loving me and receiving my love in return. Thank you for the memories I will cherish forever. But most of all, thank you for showing me that there will come a time when I can eventually let you go.” – Nicholas Sparks, Message in a Bottle

3. “Then I said goodnight and tucked you away inside a place called Nostalgia, where you’ll always remain unspoiled, somewhere between my lungs that used to breathe ocean air and my belly that fluttered with hope.” – Victoria Erickson

4. “When it’s gone, you’ll know what a gift love was. You’ll suffer like this. So go back and fight to keep it.” – Ian McEwan, Enduring Love [Read: How to get over a heartbreak: The 9 step guide to mend your heart]

5. “Maybe it’s time to let him go. Find someone who truly appreciates you. That person is out there.” – Summer Felix, Lost and ProFound

6. “Giving up doesn’t always mean you are weak; sometimes it means that you are strong enough to let go.” – Anonymous

7. “Just because we don’t talk doesn’t mean I don’t think about you. I’m just trying to distance myself because I know I can’t have you.”- Wiz Khalifa

8. “We loved with a love that was more than love.” – Edgar Allan Poe [Read: 10 ways to love more and hurt less in relationships]

9. “One of the hardest lessons in life is letting go. Whether it’s guilt, anger, love, loss or betrayal. Change is never easy. We fight to hold on and we fight to let go.” – Unknown

10. “To meet, to know, to love—and then to part, Is the sad tale of many a heart.” – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

11. “There is a time for departure even when there’s no certain place to go.” – Tennessee Williams

12. “Is love supposed to last throughout all time, or is it like trains changing at random stops? If I loved her, how could I leave her?” – Jeff Melvoin

13. “Sometimes you just need to run away just to see who will come after you.” – Lisa Brooks [Read: Lost love stories – My immortal love]

Lost love quotes for regret

Regret the breakup? Regret dating someone? Or do you regret the love you experienced? Whatever the kind of regret, these lost love quotes can help you cope with the pain of regret.

14. “When you loved someone and had to let them go, there will always be that small part of yourself that whispers, “What was it that you wanted and why didn’t you fight for it?” – Shannon L. Alder

15.“Sadly enough, the most painful goodbyes are the ones that are left unsaid and never explained.” – Jonathan Harnisch, Freak

16. “You realize how much you love someone once that someone is gone… gone forever, and you are filled with regret and sadness.” – Ama H. Vanniarachchy

17. “You’ll always be my favorite ‘What if.'” – Unknown

18. “I never knew until that moment how bad it could hurt to lose something you never really had.” – Wonder Years

19. “Suddenly she realized that what she was regretting was not the lost past but the lost future, not what had not been but what would never be.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald [Read: Moving on! 9 Upbeat songs to get over your lost love]

20. “Looking back, I have this to regret, that too often when I loved, I did not say so.” – David Grayson

21. “A person can be in love with someone forever till the end of time. But if that person doesn’t tell or show the feelings of love, it will be just another person living a dream, lost of true love.” – Anonymous

22. “I made sure to do everything correctly and ensured to make you happy in every way I could. But one thing I did not make sure of was that you would leave me. That is something I was not prepared for.” – Leah Jones

23. “I wonder if I could take back every ‘I love you’ ever said to you, would I do it?” – Faraaz Kazi

24. “There are so many people to fall in love with but I chose to fall for you. That was the biggest mistake of my life, but I know that like all difficult things come to an end, even this will and you will return back someday.” – Ava Benson [Read: 30 most romantic love quotes from books and literature]

For heartbreak

A broken heart is one of the worst feelings you can ever experience. But if you want to heal it, use these lost love quotes to find closure and start the healing process.

25 .“A broken heart is just the growing pains necessary so that you can love more completely when the real thing comes along.” – J.S.B. Morse, Now and at the Hour of Our Death

26. “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.” – Betty Smith, A Tree Grown is Brooklyn

27. “‘I met someone.’ And the leaves fell from the trees, landing to float in the calm black waters.” – Lesley Walton

28. “They say what doesn’t kill you makes u stronger… but truth is sometimes it does kill you, it kills a part of you then it makes you stronger.” – Tilicia Haridat [Read: 10 steps to reignite the lost spark in a relationship]

29. “Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world, which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime, and falling in at night. I miss you like hell.” – Edna St. Vincent Millay

30. “The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too.” – Ernest Hemingway, Men Without

31. “You were home and I don’t know how to not go home.” – Leo Christopher

32. “There can be no great love without great pain.” – Anonymous

33. “There is no pain equal to that which two lovers can inflict in one another.” – Cyril Connolly

34. “The saddest thing in the world, is loving someone who used to love you.” – Anonymous [Read: When the love is gone: 15 Gestures to bring back the love]

35. “Pleasure of love lasts but a moment. Pain of love lasts a lifetime.” – Bette Davis

36. “Some people come into our lives, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same.” – Anonymous

[Read: All the quotes you’ll ever need while going through a breakup]

Lost love quotes for unrequited love

One-sided love is one of the worst kinds of love there is, because you love someone so much, and yet, the other person doesn’t care, or doesn’t even know at all. We can’t say what’s worse, but hopefully, these quotes can help you heal.

37. “Though lovers be lost, love shall not; And death shall have no dominion.” – Dylan Thomas

38. “I knew I would hate my best memory because it would prove that people could fake love or that love could end or worst of all, love was not powerful enough to change a life.” – Mona Simpson

39. “When you run out of love, it’s really hard to understand whether you have lost your heart or your heart has lost you…” – Munia Khan

40. “Lost love is still love. It takes a different form.” – Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet in Heaven [Read: What is unrequited love and how to deal with it]

41. “You’ll finally realize the importance of the spark of that diamond once you lost it.” – RSCruz

42. “Let no one who loves be unhappy… even love unreturned has its rainbow.” – James Matthew Barrie

43. “Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart.” – Washington Irving

44. “It is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.” – Alfred Lord Tennnyson

45.”I didn’t lose you. You lost me. You’ll search for me inside of everyone you’re with and I won’t be found.” – R.H.Sin

46. “Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of withering, of tarnishing.” – Anais Nin

[Read: 55 funny quotes about love and all its complications]

While these sad lost love quotes may make you even sadder, they may also help you cope. After all, you sometimes have to fully feel the pain to be able to finally let it go. And remember, time heals all wounds. No matter how bad it feels now, it will be over soon. Be good to yourself and never lose hope even if you lost your love—you may one day find love again.