Is there anything worse than loving someone when they don’t love you back?
I submit that there is not. Nothing is worse than an unrequited love. You might get “put in the friend zone.” Or maybe you just get straight up rejected by your crush. Either way, it feels like a bag of bricks have fallen on your chest.
Don’t worry though. We got your back.
This is a curated sub-category. Check out our full collection of love quotes.
Thou art to me a delicious torment. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sometimes life sends us people who don’t love us enough, to remind us of what we’re worthy of.Mandy Hale
I broke my own heart loving you.Unknown
I miss someone who isn’t mine to miss. I dream about someone who isn’t mine to dream about. I love someone, who isn’t mine to love.Unknown
I know someday you’ll have a beautiful life, I know you’ll be a star in somebody else’s sky, but why can’t it be mine?Pearl Jam
The worst feeling is falling for someone and knowing that they wont be there to catch you.Rashida Rowe
Sometimes you never realize how much you like someone, until you watch them liking someone else. Unknown
Technically, I’m single. But my heart is taken by someone I can’t call my own. Wiz Khalifa
Although you may not love me, although you may not care. If you shall ever need me, you know that I’ll be there. Your love may all be taken, your heart may not be free, but when your heart is broken, you can always lean on me. I’ll never stop loving you, I know because I tried. All the oceans in the world, can’t hold the tears I’ve cried.Unknown
Sometimes you have to move on without certain people. If they’re meant to be in your life, they’ll catch up.Mandy Hale
I never knew until that moment how bad it could hurt to lose something you never really had.The Wonder Years
I heard what you said. I’m not the silly romantic you think. I don’t want the heavens or the shooting stars. I don’t want gemstones or gold. I have those things already. I want…a steady hand. A kind soul. I want to fall asleep, and wake, knowing my heart is safe. I want to love, and be loved.Shana Abe
The worst way to miss someone is to be sitting right beside them knowing you can’t have them.Unknown
One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can’t utter.James Earl Jones
Unrequited love is always a great thing.Neil LaBute
When you give someone your whole heart and he doesn’t want it, you cannot take it back. It’s gone forever.Sylvia Plath
Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart.Washington Irving
The worst thing: to give yourself away in exchange for not enough love.Joyce Carol Oates
Unrequited love’s a bore.Lorenz Hart
I know I am but summer to your heart, And not the full four seasons of the year.Edna St. Vincent Millay
The one you love and the one who loves you are never, ever the same person.Chuck Palahniuk
Some say that the hardest thing to do is to tell someone that you love them, but I think it’s accepting that they don’t love you back.Bernajoy Taripe
Love is a great poet, its resources are inexhaustible, but if the end it has in view is not obtained, it feels weary and remains silent.Giacomo Casanova
Unrequited love is the infinite curse of a lonely heart.Christina Westover
People do incredible things for love, particularly for unrequited love.Daniel Radcliffe
Look after my heart – I’ve left it with you.Stephenie Meyer
Let no one who loves be called unhappy. Even love unreturned has its rainbow.J. M. Barrie
I think one of the most poignant things is unrequited love and loneliness.Wilbur Smith
It hurts to love someone and not be loved in return.But what is more painful is to love someone and never find the courage to let that person know how you feel.Unknown
Every broken heart has screamed at one time or another: “Why can’t you see who I truly am?”Shannon L. Alder
Everyday I tell myself I need to get over you, But every night I find myself thinking about how much I want you back.Hussein Nishah
Without you in my arms, I feel an emptiness in my soul. I find myself searching the crowds for your face – I know it’s an impossibility, but I cannot help myself.Nicholas Sparks
Love that remains longest in your heart is the one that is not returned.Unknown
I want him to see the flowers in my eyes and hear the songs in my hands.Francesca Lia Block
I long for you in a manner that you’ll never know. I need you in a manner that you’ll never do. I miss you in a manner that you’ll never feel. I love you in a manner that you never will.Unknown
In real life, love has to be possible. Even if it is not returned right away, love can only survive when the hope exists that you will be able to win over the person you desire.Paulo Coelho
If I love you this much, and I’m not the one for you, then the one for you will be everything I am; and everything I’m not.Unknown
Sometimes no matter how many eyelashes or dandelion seeds you blow, no matter how much of your heart you tear out and slap on your sleeve, it just ain’t gonna happen.Melissa Jensen
One is never too old to yearn.Italian Proverb
Bonus Clip!
For all you hopeless romantics, here is one of the best scenes about loving someone who just can’t love you the same way: