Betrayal.
It can break your heart. Drag you down into a depressed state of mind. Make you cold and bitter.
In today’s post I’d like to share timeless wisdom to help you deal with that. 105 of the best and most powerful betrayal quotes.
To help you process what’s happened in a relationship of yours and to move on from that tough situation.
And if you want even more timeless and helpful inspiration then check out this post with quotes on dealing with broken trust and this one filled with quotes on regret (and letting go of it).
Relatable Betrayal Quotes
“To me, the thing that is worse than death is betrayal. You see, I could conceive death, but I could not conceive betrayal.”
– Malcolm X
The worst pain in the world goes beyond the physical. Even further beyond any other emotional pain one can feel. It is the betrayal of a friend.”
– Heather Brewer
“I used to advertise my loyalty and I don’t believe there is a single person I loved that I didn’t eventually betray.”
– Albert Camus
“‘It was a mistake,’ you said. But the cruel thing was, it felt like the mistake was mine, for trusting you.”
– David Levithan
“It’s particularly hard to take being stabbed in the back close to home. There’s always a feeling of betrayal when people of your own group oppose you.”
– Catharine MacKinnon
“Familial betrayal is, to me, the most heartbreaking kind – because if you can’t trust your family to love you and protect you, who can you really trust?”
– Alexandra Bracken
“The saddest thing about betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies.”
– Unknown
“It’s hard to tell who has your back, from who has it long enough just to stab you in it…”
– Nicole Richie
“I’m not crying because of you; you’re not worth it. I’m crying because my delusion of who you were was shattered by the truth of who you are.”
– Steve Maraboli
“I’m not really sure why. But… do you stop loving someone just because they betray you? I don’t think so. That’s what makes the betrayal hurt so much – pain, frustration, anger… and I still loved her. I still do.”
– Brandon Sanderson
“There is no greater blessing than a family hand that lifts you from a fall; but there is no lower curse than a family hand that strikes you when you’re down.”
– Wes Fessler
“I could never hurt him enough to make his betrayal stop hurting. And it hurts, in every part of my body.”
– Veronica Roth
“A person raised in a healthy family is equipped to live a confident and independent life; someone from an unhealthy family is filled with fear and self-doubt.”
– Christina Enevoldsen
“Only those you trust can betray you.”
– Terry Goodkind
“That’s the thing about trust. It’s like broken glass. You can put it back together, but the cracks are always visible–like scars that never fully heal.”
– Hope Collier
“The moment of betrayal is the worst, the moment when you know beyond any doubt 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 enjoyed at the expense of another’s pain, can never be such as a worthy mind can fully delight in.”
– Samuel Johnson
Insightful Betrayal Quotes
“Everyone suffers at least one bad betrayal in their lifetime. It’s what unites us. The trick is not to let it destroy your trust in others when that happens. Don’t let them take that from you.”
– Sherrilyn Kenyon
“There are only really a few stories to tell in the end, and betrayal and the failure of love is one of those good stories to tell.”
– Sean Lennon
“You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you don’t trust enough.”
– Frank Crane
You teach me now how cruel you’ve been—cruel and false. Why did you despise me? Why did you betray your own heart, Cathy? I have not one word of comfort.”
– Emily Brontë
“Betrayal is one of my biggest fears . Betrayal happens on many different levels all the time , and there is no worse feeling than realizing someone you thought you could trust has gone against you.”
– Katie Lee
“Nothing hurts more than being disappointed by the single person you thought would never hurt you.”
– Unknown
“Naturally, when one makes progressive steps, there may be some who see it as a betrayal of their goals and interests.”
– Louis Farrakhan
“If people could step inside a person who has been betrayed by the love of their life and feel the agony it causes, no one who is human would have it in their heart to cause someone that much pain and heartache.”
– Unknown
“A betrayal in a family is much more devastating 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 small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.”
– Albert Einstein
“You want to believe that there’s one relationship in life that’s beyond betrayal. A relationship that’s beyond that kind of hurt. And there isn’t.”
– Caleb Carr
“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.If you’ve been hurt until it breaks your soul into pieces,your perspective in life will definitely change, and no one and nothing in this world could ever hurt you again.”
– Mareez Reyes
“Shattered legs may heal in time, but some betrayals fester and poison the soul.”
– George R.R. Martin
“Sometimes when the people you love hurt you the most. It’s better to stay quiet because, if your love wasn’t enough… Do you think your words will matter?”
– Unknown
“To know the good from the bad, study a man or woman’s history of actions, not their record of intentions.”
– Suzy Kassem
“Betraying someone once can be a mistake. Betraying someone twice is a choice.”
– Garima Soni
“Love and marriage are wonderful arenas in which to place a character. We are most likely to risk our morals and beliefs while in love. Betrayal gives tremendous insights into a character as well.”
– Anita Shreve
“An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind.”
– Buddha
“The fact that so many successful politicians are such shameless liars is not only a reflection on them, it is also a reflection on us. When the people want the impossible, only liars can satisfy.”
– Thomas Sowell
“Broken people lead to broken hearts. That’s why it’s so important to heal from one relationship before starting another.”
– Mandy Hale
“I lay it down as a fact that if all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world.”
– Blaise Pascal
“Be very careful of who you share your problem with, remember that not every friend that smiles at you is your best friend.”
– Kemmy Nola
“Some people are willing to betray years of friendship just to get a little bit of the spotlight.”
– Lauren Conrad
”All trust involves vulnerability and risk, and nothing would count as trust if there were no possibility of betrayal.”
– Robert C. Solomon
“You need a lot of things in any organization, but one of the critical things is trust. When you lose trust and you feel betrayed, and it’s not a matter of judgment.”
– Arthur Blank
“There’s a lot of stupid men out there who feel like makeup is a betrayal of the truth, and that is so funny to me.”
– Katya Zamolodchikova
Betrayal Quotes to Help You Move on From a Backstabbing Friend
“If you’re betrayed, release disappointment at once. By that way, the bitterness has no time to take root.”
– Toba Beta
“Cutting people out of my life does not mean I hate them, it simply means I respect me.”
– Unknown
“Betrayal can be extremely painful, but it’s up to you how much that pain damages you permanently.”
– Emily V. Gordon
“Actions not only speak louder than words, they are more difficult to fake.”
– Unknown
“Every time your heart is broken, a doorway cracks open to a world full of new beginnings, new opportunities.”
– Patti Roberts
“Sometimes, instead of being hurt, you should look at betrayal as a gift . It makes it that much easier to sweep it up and toss it out with the rest of the trash. And why is that you ask? Because trash starts to stink… and when it does, it has no more value in your life.”
– Donna Schoenrock
“I believe if you want to be trusted, you have to trust first. If you do that, you will be betrayed sometimes. But the value of engendering trust is greater than the cost of being betrayed sometimes.”
– Mark Leslie
“When someone breaks your trust don’t feel stupid for trusting them. You didn’t do anything wrong they’re just an untrustworthy person.”
– Sonya Parker
“We have all felt betrayed at one point or another. But we must move on. Because time waits for no woman or man.”
– Unknown
“I don’t hate liars. I just disrespect them, because they disrespect themselves in the first place.”
– Revaz Eristavi
“When people cheat in any arena, they diminish themselves – they threaten their own self-esteem and their relationships with others by undermining the trust they have in their ability to succeed and in their ability to be true.”
– Cheryl Hughes
“Betrayal is never easy to handle and there is no right way to accept it.”
– Christine Feehan
”He who throws away a friend is as bad as he who throws away his life.”
– Sophocles
“Betrayal, in all forms, is painful. It can make you go crazy. But we all have choices on how to deal with it. Do we just go away or stay?”
– Anne Curtis
”False friends are like our shadow, keeping close to us while we walk in the sunshine, but leaving us when we cross into the shade.”
– Christian Nevell Bovee
“Some people are in such utter darkness that they will burn you just to see a light. Try not to take it personally.”
– Kamand Kojouri
”The knives of betrayal and drama cut deep and hurt… but they also trim away the nonsense and reveal your true friends.”
– Steve Maraboli
“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
”Betray a friend and you’ll often find you have ruined yourself.”
– Aesop
“You can either give negativity power over your life or you can choose happiness instead.”
– Anais Nin
“If you spend your time hoping someone will suffer the consequences for what they did to your heart, then you’re allowing them to hurt you a second time in your mind.”
– Shannon L. Alder
“A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.”
– Walter Winchell
“Life is too short for fake butter or fake people.”
– Karen Salmansohn
“Always seek less turbulent skies. Hurt. Fly above it. Betrayal. Fly above it. Anger. Fly above it. You are the one who is flying the plane.”
– Marianne Williamson
“I was never one to patiently pick up broken fragments and glue them together again and tell myself that the mended whole was as good as new. What is broken is broken, and I’d rather remember it as it was at its best than mend it and see the broken pieces as long as I lived.”
– Margaret Mitchell
You may also find these ungrateful quotes helpful.
Short Betrayal Quotes
“Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.”
– Arthur Miller
“A stab from a friend cuts deeper than a stab from a foe.”
– Amit Kalantri
“An honest enemy is better than a false friend.”
– Greek Proverb
“Even as your body betrays you, your mind denies it.”
– Sara Gruen
“A toxic family is even worse than a toxic relationship.”
– Rohan Chouhan
“Some of the most poisonous people come disguised as friends.”
– Unknown
“Betrayal is, of course, not a failure of trust but a failure of trustworthiness.”
– Russell Hardin
“Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.”
– Maya Angelou
“Your feelings matter. Just as much as anyone else’s.”
– Unknown
“Even loss and betrayal can bring us awakening.”
– Buddha
“Betrayal is the worst… and the key to moving past it is to identify what led up to it in the first place.”
– Charles J. Orlando
“Betrayal is like death: you never think it will happen to you.”
– Marty Rubin
“Sometimes, only feelings is what you seem to be made of. Let it be and you’ll soon cool 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 somebody else, you also betray yourself.”
– Isaac Bashevis Singer
“Trying to make sense of crazy will simply drive you crazy. Let it go.”
– Karen Salmansohn
“A time comes when silence is betrayal.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Quick and Powerful Betrayal Quotes
“Do you know what love is? I’ll tell you: it is whatever you can still betray.”
– John le Carré
“We have to distrust each other. It is our only defense against betrayal.”
– Tennessee Williams
“Just because you loved a fake person does not mean your love was not real.”
– Steph Feels
“I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe 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. Even after what you did.”
– Unknown
“They say family’s first, but family is the first to get you hurt.”
– Chrisper Malamsha
“I wish the pain of betrayal was as easy to ignore as the red flags that forewarned of it.”
– Steve Maraboli
“Self interest determines loyalty or betrayal.”
– James Cook
“Liars often set their own traps.”
– Aesop
“People lie, cheat and bully one another and then wonder why they’re unhappy.”
– Marty Rubin
“Betraying yourself is a gateway to harming your future self.”
– Angel Moreira
“Find yourself friends who will talk shit to your face but stand up for you behind your back.”
– Dan Go
“I have never known a more vulgar expression of betrayal and deceit.”
– Lucien Bouchard
“It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.”
– William Blake
“Stab the body and it heals, but injure the heart and the wound lasts a lifetime.”
– Mineko Iwasaki
If you found these betrayal quotes helpful then share them with a friend or a family member that may need them right now on social media or via email.
Want even more inspiration and helpful advice? Check out this post with quotes on dealing with haters and also this these two on handling liars and fake family.