105 Betrayal Quotes to Help You Cope With the Hurt and Move On

Betrayal.

It can shatter your heart. Pull you down into a gloomy state of mind. Make you frigid and bitter.

In today's essay I’d like to provide timeless knowledge to help you cope with it. 105 of the greatest and most devastating betrayal quotes.

To assist you digest what's transpired in a relationship of yours and to move on from that terrible scenario.

And if you want even more timeless and useful inspiration then check out this article with quotes on coping with broken trust and this one full with quotations on regret (and letting go of it) (and letting go of it).

“To me, the thing that is worse than death is treachery. You see, I could envision death, but I could not comprehend betrayal.”

— Malcolm X

The worst suffering in the world extends beyond the body. Even way beyond any other emotional suffering one may experience. That is the betrayal of a friend.”

— Heather Brewer

“I used to publicize my loyalty and I don't think there is a single person I loved that I didn't ultimately betray.”

— Albert Camus

“‘It was a mistake,' you said. But the awful thing was, it seemed like the fault was mine, for trusting you.”

— David Levithan

“It's especially hard to handle being stabbed in the back close to home. There's always a sense of betrayal when individuals of your own group reject you.”

— Catharine MacKinnon

“Familial betrayal is, to me, the most terrible sort - because if you can't trust your family to love you and protect you, who can you truly trust?”

— Alexandra Bracken

“The hardest part about treachery is that it never comes from your enemies.”

– Unknown

“It's hard to discern who has your back, from who has it long enough simply to stab you in it…”

— Nicole Richie

“I’m not sobbing because of you; you’re not worth it. I’m sobbing because my fantasy of who you were was broken by the reality of who you are.”

— Steve Maraboli

“I'm not entirely sure why. But… should you cease loving someone simply because they betray you? I don't think so. That's what makes the betrayal sting so deeply — grief, frustration, anger… and I still loved her. I still do.”

— Brandon Sanderson

“There is no bigger gift than a family hand that raises you from a fall; yet there is no lower curse than a family hand that hits you while you're down.”

— Wes Fessler

“I could never hurt him enough to make his treachery stop hurting. And it aches, in every area of my body.”

— Veronica Roth

“A person reared in a healthy family is able to live a strong and independent life; someone from an unhappy family is plagued with dread and self-doubt.”

— Christina Enevoldsen

“Only those you trust may betray you.”

— Terry Goodkind

“That's the thing with trust. It's like shattered glass. You can put everything back together, but the fissures are always visible–like wounds that never entirely heal.”

— Hope Collier

“The moment of betrayal is the worst, the time when you know without any question that you've been betrayed: that some other human being has wished you that much evil.”

— Margaret Atwood

“Sometimes the people closest to you betray you, and your home isn't a place you can be happy anymore.”

— Kristin Cast

”Pleasure which must be had at the price of another’s misery, can never be such as a worthy intellect may truly pleasure in.”

— Samuel Johnson

Insightful Betrayal Quotes

“Everyone experiences at least one awful betrayal in their lives. It's what unifies us. The challenge is not to let that undermine your faith in people when that occurs. Don't let them steal it from you.”

— Sherrilyn Kenyon

“There are only truly a handful tales to tell in the end, and betrayal and the failure of love is one of those wonderful ones to tell.”

— Sean Lennon

“You may be fooled if you trust too much, but you will live in misery if you don't trust enough.”

— Frank Crane

You educate me now how terrible you've been—mean and dishonest. Why did you dislike me? Why did you betray your own heart, Cathy? I have not one word of comfort.”

— Emily Brontë

“Betrayal is one of my worst worries . Betrayal occurs on many different levels all the time , and there is no worse feeling than finding someone you believed you could trust has gone against you.”

— Katie Lee

“Nothing hurts more than being disappointed by the one person you believed would never harm you.”

– Unknown

“Naturally, when one takes forward steps, there may be individuals who perceive it as a betrayal of their aims and interests.”

— Louis Farrakhan

“If people could go inside a person who has been betrayed by the love of their life and know the misery it produces, no one who is human would have it in their heart to bring someone that much sorrow and heartache.”

– Unknown

“A betrayal in a family is considerably more traumatic than a betrayal among friends, or even lovers.”

— Ari Aster

“If someone betrays you once, it's their fault. If they betray you twice, it's your fault.”

— Eleanor Roosevelt

“Whoever is careless with the truth in minor issues cannot be trusted with significant ones.”

- Albert Einstein

“You want to think that there's one connection in life that's beyond treachery. A connection that's beyond that type of pain. And there isn't.”

— Caleb Carr

“One of the toughest lessons in life is letting go.

Whether it's guilt,anger,love,loss or betrayal.

Change is never easy.

We struggle to cling on and we fight to let go.

If you've been wounded till it crushes your soul into pieces,your viewpoint in life will absolutely alter, and no one and nothing in this world could ever pain you again.”

— Mareez Reyes

“Shattered legs may mend in time, but certain betrayals persist and poison the soul.”

— George R.R. Martin

“Sometimes sometimes the ones you love hurt you the hardest. It's best to keep silent because, if your love wasn't enough… Do you believe your remarks will matter?”

– Unknown

“To discern the good from the evil, examine a man or woman's history of acts, not their record of intentions.”

— Suzy Kassem

“Betraying someone once might be a mistake. Betraying someone twice is a choice.”

— Garima Soni

“Love and marriage are fantastic settings in which to put a character. We are more inclined to risk our principles and ideals when in love. Betrayal brings wonderful insights into a character as well.”

— Anita Shreve

“An insincere and bad friend is more to be dreaded than a dangerous beast; a wild beast may injure your body, but an evil friend will damage your mind.”

- Buddha

“The fact that so many successful politicians are such flagrant liars is not just a commentary on them, it is also a reflection on us. When the public desire the unattainable, only liars can satisfy.”

— Thomas Sowell

“Broken individuals lead to broken hearts. That's why it's so crucial to recover from one relationship before beginning another.”

— Mandy Hale

“I set it down as a fact that if all men understood what others think about them, there would not be four friends in the world.”

— Blaise Pascal

“Be extremely cautious of who you discuss your concern with, remember that not every friend that smiles at you is your closest friend.”

— Kemmy Nola

“Some individuals are prepared to violate years of friendship simply to obtain a tiny piece of the spotlight.”

— Lauren Conrad

”All trust implies vulnerability and danger, and nothing would qualify as trust if there were no potential of betrayal.”

— Robert C. Solomon

“You need a lot of things in any business, but one of the important ones is trust. When you lose trust and you feel betrayed, and it's not a question of judgment.”

— Arthur Blank

“There's a lot of foolish males out there that feel like makeup is a violation of the truth, and that is so comical to me.”

- Katya Zamolodchikova

Betrayal Quotes to Help You Move on From a Backstabbing Friend

“If you're deceived, release disappointment at immediately. By that method, the bitterness has no time to take root.”

- Toba Beta

“Cutting individuals out of my life does not mean I detest them, it simply means I respect me.”

– Unknown

“Betrayal may be tremendously terrible, but it's up to you how much that anguish scars you permanently.”

— Emily V. Gordon

“Actions not only speak louder than words, they are more harder to fake.”

– Unknown

“Every time your heart is crushed, a gateway opens up to a world full of fresh beginnings, new opportunities.”

— Patti Roberts

“Sometimes, instead of being upset, you can look upon betrayal as a gift . That makes it that much simpler to sweep it up and dump it out with the rest of the garbage. And why is that you ask? Since rubbish begins to stink… and when it does, it has no more worth in your life.”

— Donna Schoenrock

“I think if you want to be trusted, you have to trust first. If you do that, you will be betrayed occasionally. Yet the benefit of engendering trust is higher than the cost of being violated sometimes.”

— Mark Leslie

“When someone betrays your trust don’t feel dumb for trusting them. You didn’t do anything wrong they’re simply an untrustworthy person.”

— Sonya Parker

“We have all been deceived at one time or another. Yet we must go on. For time waits for no woman or man.”

– Unknown

“I don't detest liars. I simply trash them, because they disrespect themselves in the first place.”

- Revaz Eristavi

“When individuals cheat in any field, they weaken themselves — they endanger their own self-esteem and their connections with others by eroding the faith they have in their capacity to achieve and in their ability to be true.”

— Cheryl Hughes

“Betrayal is never easy to endure and there is no appropriate way to accept it.”

— Christine Feehan

”He who tosses away a friend is as awful as someone who throws away his life.”

– Sophocles

“Betrayal, in all forms, is awful. It may make you go mad. Yet we all have options on how to cope with it. Should we simply go away or stay?”

— Anne Curtis

”False friends are like our shadow, sticking near to us while we walk in the brightness, but departing us when we pass into the shade.”

— Christian Nevell Bovee

“Some individuals are in such total darkness that they would burn you only to glimpse a light. Try not to take it personally.”

- Kamand Kojouri

”The blades of treachery and drama cut deep and hurt… yet they also cut away the junk and expose your actual friends.”

— Steve Maraboli

“You don't lose friends because true friends can never be lost. You lose those posing as friends, and you're better for it.”

— Mandy Hale

”Betray a friend and you’ll frequently discover you have damaged yourself.”

– Aesop

“You can either give negativity control over your life or you can choose pleasure instead.”

— Anais Nin

“If you spend your time wishing someone would suffer the repercussions for what they did to your heart, then you're enabling them to injure you a second time in your mind.”

— Shannon L. Alder

“A genuine friend is one who walks in while the rest of the world walks out.”

— Walter Winchell

“Life is too short for phony butter or false people.”

— Karen Salmansohn

“Always seek less tumultuous skies. Hurt. Fly above it. Betrayal. Fly above it. Anger. Fly above it. You are the one who is piloting the plane.”

— Marianne Williamson

“I was never one to meticulously pick up shattered parts and glue things together again and persuade myself that the restored whole was as good as new. What is broken is broken, and I'd rather remember it as it was at its finest than restore it and see the shattered parts as long as I lived.”

— Margaret Mitchell

You may also find these ungrateful quotes useful.

Short Betrayal Quotes

“Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.”

— Arthur Miller

“A stab from a friend wounds deeper than a stab from a foe.”

— Amit Kalantri

“An honest opponent is better than a phony friend.”

— Greek Proverb

“Even when your body betrays you, your mind rejects it.”

— Sara Gruen

“A poisonous family is far worse than a terrible relationship.”

— Rohan Chouhan

“Some of the most toxic individuals come masquerading as friends.”

– Unknown

“Betrayal is, of course, not a failure of trust but a failure of trustworthiness.”

— Russell Hardin

“Have the guts to trust love one more time and always one more time.”

— Maya Angelou

“Your emotions matter. Just as much as everyone else's.”

– Unknown

“Even sorrow and treachery may bring us awakening.”

- Buddha

“Betrayal is the worst… and the key to getting beyond it is to discover what lead up to it in the first place.”

— Charles J. Orlando

“Betrayal is like death: you never believe it would happen to you.”

— Marty Rubin

“Sometimes, simply emotions is what you appear to be composed of. Let it be and you'll soon chill off.”

– Unknown

“When your ears hear one thing, but your eyes see another…use your brain.”

— Frank Sonnenberg

“For there to be betrayal, there would have to have been trust first.”

— Suzanne Collins

“When you betray someone else, you also betray yourself.”

— Isaac Bashevis Singer

“Trying to make sense of insane will only drive you crazy. Let it go.”

— Karen Salmansohn

“A moment comes when silence is betrayal.”

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

Short and Powerful Betrayal Quotes

“Do you know what love is? I'll tell you: it is anything you can still betray.”

— John le Carré

“We have to mistrust each other. That is our sole safeguard against betrayal.”

— Tennessee Williams

“Just because you loved a phony person does not imply your love was not real.”

- Steph Feels

“I'm not unhappy that you lied to me, I'm furious because from now on I can't trust you.”

— Friedrich Nietzsche

“There is always a lesson of a lifetime to learn in every betrayal.”

— Edmond Mbiaka

“I didn't stop loving you. That was the thing. Especially after what you did.”

– Unknown

“They say family's first, yet family is the first to cause you hurt.”

— Chrisper Malamsha

“I wish the agony of betrayal was as simple to ignore as the red signs that foretold of it.”

— Steve Maraboli

“Self interest determines loyalty or betrayal.”

— James Cook

“Liars frequently set their own traps.”

– Aesop

“People lie, cheat and abuse one another and then wonder why they're unhappy.”

— Marty Rubin

“Betraying oneself is a pathway to injuring your future self.”

— Angel Moreira

“Find yourself buddies that will say garbage to your face but stick up for you behind your back.”

— Dan Go

“I have never heard a more filthy display of treachery and deceit.”

— Lucien Bouchard

“It is simpler to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.”

— William Blake

“Stab the body and it heals, but hurt the heart and the wound lasts a lifetime.”

— Mineko Iwasaki

If you find these betrayal quotes useful then share them with a friend or a family member who may need them right now on social media or by email.

Want even more inspiration and useful advice? Check out this article with quotations on coping with haters and also this these two on managing liars and false relatives.