Inspirational Quotations on Relationships

To know when to go away and when to come closer is the key to any lasting relationship.
—Domenico Cieri (b.1954) Mexican Author, Aphorist

Relationships based on obligation lack dignity.
—Wayne Dyer (1940–2015) American Self-Help Author

Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That’s why it’s a comfort to go hand in hand.
—Emily Kimbrough (1899–1989) American Author, Journalist

The bonds that unite another person to our self exist only in our mind.
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922) French Novelist

When people are like each other they tend to like each other.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur

Soul-mates are people who bring out the best in you. They are not perfect but are always perfect for you.
—Unknown

Sticks and stones are hard on bones.
Aimed with angry art,
Words can sting like anything
But silence breaks the heart.
—Phyllis McGinley (1905–78) American Children’s Writer, Poet, Children’s Books Author

I like her because she smiles at me and means it.
—Anonymous

One can find women who have never had one love affair, but it is rare indeed to find any who have had only one.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer

You cannot be lonely if you like the person you’re alone with.
—Wayne Dyer (1940–2015) American Self-Help Author

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 (b.1954) American TV Personality

You don’t develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.
—Barbara De Angelis (b.1951) American Self-Help Author

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922) French Novelist

There is no substitute for the comfort supplied by the utterly taken-for-granted relationship.
—Iris Murdoch (1919–99) British Novelist, Playwright, Philosopher

It is explained that all relationships require a little give and take. This is untrue. Any partnership demands that we give and give and give and at the last, as we flop into our graves exhausted, we are told that we didn’t give enough.
—Quentin Crisp (1908–99) English Actor, Artist, Raconteur

Treasure your relationships, not your possessions.
—Anthony J. D’Angelo

Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue, a wonderful living side by side can grow, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole against the sky.
—Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian Poet

It takes two men to make a brother.
—Israel Zangwill (1864–1926) English Playwright, Novelist, Zionist Activist

Surely there must be some way to find a husband or, for that matter, merely an escort, without sacrificing one’s privacy, self-respect, and interior decorating scheme. For example, men could be imported from the developing countries, many parts of which are suffering from a man excess, at least in relation to local food supply.
—Barbara Ehrenreich (1941–2022) American Social Critic, Essayist

Sometimes you have to get to know someone really well to realize you’re really strangers.
—Mary Tyler Moore (1936–2017) American Actress, Producer, Advocate

Kindness and intelligence don’t always deliver us from the pitfalls and traps: there are always failures of love, of will, of imagination. There is no way to take the danger out of human relationships.
—Barbara Grizzuti Harrison (1934–2002) American Writer, Essayist, Critic

We are never more discontented with others than when we are discontented with ourselves.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (1821–81) Swiss Moral Philosopher, Poet, Critic

In the coldest February, as in every other month in every other year, the best thing to hold on to in this world is each other.
—Linda Ellerbee (b.1944) American Journalist

Relationships are the hallmark of the mature person.
—Brian Tracy (b.1944) American Author, Motivational Speaker

One of the oldest human needs is having someone to wonder where you are when you don’t come home at night.
—Margaret Mead (1901–78) American Anthropologist, Social Psychologist

The thing that’s between us is fascination, and the fascination resides in our being alike. Whether you’re a man or a woman, the fascination resides in finding out that we’re alike.
—Marguerite Duras (1914–96) French Novelist, Playwright

Shared joy is double joy; shared sorrow is half a sorrow.
—Swedish Proverb

You must go to bed with friends or whores, where money makes up the difference in beauty or desire.
—W. H. Auden (1907–73) British-born American Poet, Dramatist

Unsociable humors are contracted in solitude, which will, in the end, not fail of corrupting the understanding as well as the manners, and of utterly disqualifying a man for the satisfactions and duties of life. Men must be taken as they are, and we neither make them or ourselves better by flying from or quarreling with them.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman

If fame were based on kindness instead of popularity, on understanding and not on worldwide attention, you would be the biggest celebrity on earth. And to my heart, you already are.
—Anonymous