100 Quotes To Help You Let Go And Move On
by Team Scary Mommy
Originally Published: Jan. 17, 2020
Toa Heftiba/Unsplash
Growth can't come without progress, and progress can't come if you're stuck in the past. But we all need a little nudge sometimes to put us on the path to our future. Think about it: During the times in your life you've felt trapped, can you recall someone giving you words of encouragement? Most of us can. Sometimes the wisdom comes from family members, other times it comes from friends and, hey, occasionally you might even get the inspiration you need from a total stranger. Where the nudge comes from isn't really important as long as it gets you out of your rut.
Sadly, breakups and broken hearts are sometimes part of the path to finding love. Did you know most breakups happen on Mondays? But do you know what's stranger than people breaking up on certain days of the week? The amount of time it takes for someone to realize they like you, which is about four minutes. The point is, mending a broken heart is not an easy task. Moving on takes a lot of willpower and inner strength, so allow these quotes below to lead you down a path of peace. (And remember, there are plenty of fish in the sea!)
Let the following sayings and quotes about moving on help propel you forward. Whether you're recovering from grief, a failure, or heartache — let these thoughtful words lead you to your next step.
RELATED: 100+ Monday Motivation Quotes To Get Rid Of The Sunday Scaries
Quotes About Moving on From Relationship and Being Happy
1. "He nods, as if to acknowledge that endings are almost always a little sad, even when there is something to look forward to on the other side." — Emily Giffin, Love the One You're With
2. "Holding on is believing that there's a past; letting go is knowing that there's a future." — Daphne Rose Kingma
3. "It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things." — Theodore Roosevelt
4. "My heart might be bruised, but it will recover and become capable of seeing the beauty of life once more. It's happened before, it will happen again, I'm sure. When someone leaves, it's because someone else is about to arrive — I'll find love again." — Paulo Coelho
5. "A very wise man once told me that you can't look back — you just have to put the past behind you, and find something better in your future." — Jodi Picoult, Salem Falls
6. "The only thing a person can ever really do is keep moving forward. Take that big leap forward without hesitation, without once looking back. Simply forget the past and forge toward the future." — Alyson Noel
7. "The great courageous act that we must all do, is to have the courage to step out of our history and past so that we can live our dreams." — Oprah Winfrey
8. "Thank God I found the good in goodbye." — Beyoncé
Moving on From Relationships Quotes
1. "You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space." — Johnny Cash
2. "Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair." — Edmund Burke
3. "You can spend minutes, hours, days, weeks, or even months over-analyzing a situation; trying to put the pieces together, justifying what could've, would've happened… or you can just leave the pieces on the floor and move on." — Tupac Shakur
4. "Now the wren has gone to roost, and the sky is turnin' gold/And like the sky my soul is also turnin'/Turnin' from the past, at last, and all I've left behind." — Ray Lamontagne, "God Willin' & the Creek Don't Rise"
5. "In three words, I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It goes on." — Robert Frost
6. "Life moves on and so should we." — Spencer Johnson
7. "But part of surviving is being able to move on." — Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds
8. "Every day is a new day, and you'll never be able to find happiness if you don't move on." — Carrie Underwood
9. "The truth is, unless you let go unless you forgive yourself unless you forgive the situation unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot move forward." — Steve Maraboli
10. "I realize there's something incredibly honest about trees in winter, how they're experts at letting things." — Jeffrey McDaniel
11. "You will evolve past certain people. Let yourself." — Mandy Hale
12. "Feeling sorry for ourselves is the most useless waste of energy on the planet. It does absolutely no good. We can't let our circumstances or what others do or don't do control us. We can decide to be happy, regardless." — Joyce Meyer
13. "Nothing in the universe can stop you from letting go and starting over." — Guy Finley
14. "Pain will leave you when you let go." — Jeremy Aldana
15. "Time heals griefs and quarrels, for we change and are no longer the same persons. Neither the offender nor the offended are any more themselves." — Blaise Pascal
16. "Accept yourself, love yourself, and keep moving forward. If you want to fly, you have to give up what weighs you down." — Roy T. Bennett
17. "When it comes to love and loss, acceptance is never easy. We can't make someone see all we have to give, make them love us, or make them change. All we can do is move on and stop wasting time." — April Mae Monterrosa
18. "Don't brood. Get on with living and loving. You don't have forever." — Leo Buscaglia
19. "We are healed from suffering only by experiencing it to the full." — Marcel Proust
20. "That's all you can do in this world, no matter how strong the current beats against you, or how heavy your burden, or how tragic your love story. You keep going." — Robyn Schneider
21. "Don't dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer." — Denis Waitley
22. "Letting go doesn't mean that you don't care about someone anymore. It's just realizing that the only person you really have control over is yourself." — Deborah Reber
23. "I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes, so live not in your yesterdays, nor just for tomorrow, but in the here and now. Keep moving and forget the post-mortems. And remember, no one can get the jump on the future." — Carl Sandburg
24. "Even though you may want to move forward in your life, you may have one foot on the brakes. In order to be free, we must learn how to let go. Release the hurt. Release the fear. Refuse to entertain your old pain. The energy it takes to hang onto the past is holding you back from a new life. What is it you would let go of today?" — Mary Manin Morrissey
25. "Take those chances and you can achieve greatness, whereas if you go conservative, you'll never know. I truly believe what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Even if you fail, learning and moving on is sometimes the best thing." — Danica Patrick
26. "It happens to everyone as they grow up. You find out who you are and what you want, and then you realize that people you've known forever don't see things the way you do. So, you keep the wonderful memories, but find yourself moving on." — Nicholas Sparks
27. "We leave something of ourselves behind when we leave a place, we stay there, even though we go away. And there are things in us that we can find again only by going back there." — Pascal Mercier
28. "What surrounds us we endure better for giving it a name — and moving on." — Emil Cioran
29. "By forgetting the past and by throwing myself into other interests, I forget to worry." — Jack Dempsey
30. "If I kept saying it; if I kept reaching out. My accident really taught me just one thing: the only way to go on is to go on. To say 'I can do this' even when you know you can't." — Stephen King
32. "We all have life storms, and when we get the rough times and we recover from them, we should celebrate that we got through it. No matter how bad it may seem, there's always something beautiful that you can find." — Mattie Stepanek
33. " You need to have faith in yourself. Be brave and take risks. You don't have to have it all figured out to move forward." — Roy T. Bennett
34. "Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life and repeat to yourself, the most comforting words of all; this, too, shall pass." — Ann Landers
35. "Change has to come for life to struggle forward." — Helen Hollick
37. "Everyone can relate to love, hurt, pain, learning how to forgive, needing to get over, needing the power of God in their life." — Tyler Perry
38. "If I look back, I am lost." — George R.R. Martin
39. "Who can't relate to the idea of leaving one chapter behind and moving on to the next?" — Mike Shinoda
40. "Moving on is a simple thing — what it leaves behind is hard." — Dave Mustaine
41. "You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down." — Mary Pickford
42. "Grudges are for those who insist that they are owed something; forgiveness, however, is for those who are substantial enough to move on." — Criss Jami
42. "I've always believed that if you don't stay moving, they will throw dirt on you." — Paul Anka
43. "I demolish my bridges behind me… then there is no choice but to move forward." — Fridtjof Nansen
44. "To help yourself, you must be yourself. Be the best that you can be. When you make a mistake, learn from it, pick yourself up, and move on." — Dave Pelzer
45. "Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can't build on it; it's only good for wallowing in." — Katherine Mansfield
47. "I mean, don't forget the earth's about five thousand million years old, at least. Who can afford to live in the past?" — Harold Pinter
48. "The most difficult aspect of moving on is accepting that the other person already did." — Faraaz Kazi
49. "Laughter, and the broader category of humor, are key elements in helping us go on with our life after a loss." — Allen Klein
50. "I will continue my path, but I will keep a memory always." — Rosie Thomas
51. "Bad things do happen — how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have: life itself." — Walter Anderson
52. "All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move." — Benjamin Franklin
53. "We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." — Walt Disney
54. "Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy." — Dale Carnegie
55. "My dear, we do not move on from grief; we move through it." — Michelle Muriel, Water Lily Dance
56. "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." — Dr. Seuss
57. "The art of letting go hasn't been a graceful one." — K.Y. Robinson
58. "The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be the beginning." — Ivy Baker Priest
59. "I that the best way to do things is to constantly move forward and to never doubt anything and keep moving forward, if you make a mistake say you made a mistake." — John Frusciante
60. "If I just keep putting one foot in front of the other, it stands to reason that I'm going to get there." — Rachel Joyce
61. "Transformation in the world happens when people are healed and start investing in other people." — Michael W. Smith
62. "Sometimes you can't let go of the past without facing it again." — Gail Tsukiyama, The Samurai's Garden
63. "There's a grace period where being a mess is charming and interesting, and then I think when you hit around 27, it stops being charming and interesting, and it starts being kind of pathological, and you have to find a new way of life. Otherwise, you're going to be in a place where the rest of your peers have been moving on, and you're stuck." — Greta Gerwig
64. "Rehashing the past wouldn't change anything. Time to move forward." — Zena Wynn
65. "I am pretty embroiled in moving on and moving forward with the music." — Andy Summers
66. "If it comes as a constant surprise each and every time something unexpected occurs, you're not only going to be miserable whenever you attempt something big, you're going to have a much harder time accepting it and moving on to attempts two, three, and four." — Ryan Holiday
67. "Sooner or later, we've all got to let go of our past." — Dan Brown
68. "In my life, I have made the occasional catastrophic choice, and it's just a case of moving on and learning from it." — James Nesbitt
69. "Your heart's strength is measured by how hard it holds on. Your self-worth and faith is measured by finally letting go. However, your peace is measured by how long you don't look back." — Shannon L. Alder
70. "You just keep moving forward and doing what you do and hope that it resonates with people. And if it doesn't, you just keep moving on until you find a project that does." — Octavia Spencer
71. "If it doesn't agree with your spirit, let it go." — Germany Kent
72. "Many of us are experiencing a phase of change, shedding outdated patterns and liberating ourselves from the old by moving on to the new." — Shari Arison
73. "Because you simply cannot draw these things out forever. At some point, you just pull off the Band-Aid and it hurts, but then it's over and you're relieved." — John Green
74. "Grief is never something you get over. You don't wake up one morning and say, 'I've conquered that; now I'm moving on.' It's something that walks beside you every day. And if you can learn how to manage it and honor the person that you miss, you can take something that is incredibly sad and have some form of positivity." — Terri Irwin
75. "Memory looks back in order to move forward." — Marty Rubin
76. "Part of growing up is just taking what you learn from that and moving on and taking it to heart." — Beverley Mitchell
77. "You must make a decision that you are going to move on. It won't happen automatically. You will have to rise up and say, 'I don't care how hard this is, I don't care how disappointed I am, I'm not going to let this get the best of me. I'm moving on with my life." — Joel Osteen
78. "Moving on is not closure. It's not neat, and it's not about turning the page. It is about moving on, but it doesn't mean that you've left something behind." — Thomas Gibson
79. "I have learned that if you must leave a place that you have lived in and loved and where all your yesteryears are buried deep, leave it any way except a slow way, leave it the fastest way you can. Never turn back and never believe that an hour you remember is a better hour because it is dead. Passed years seem safe ones, vanquished ones, while the future lives in a cloud, formidable from a distance." — West with the Night
80. "The problem is that when we speak of plan Bs, we already negate the possibility of moving on with plan A." — Isaac Herzog
81. "The strange thing about living somewhere for a couple of years and then moving on and not returning is that those locations become ghosts of themselves in your mind." — Sarah Pinborough
82. "And perhaps there is a limit to the grieving that the human heart can do. As when one adds salt to a tumbler of water, there comes a point where simply no more will be absorbed." — Sarah Waters, The Little Stranger
83. "To be bitter is to attribute intent and personality to the formless, infinite, unchanging, and unchangeable void. We drift on a chartless, resistless sea. Let us sing when we can and forget the rest." — H. P. Lovecraft
84. "Letting go. Everyone talks about it like it's the easiest thing. Unfurl your fingers one by one until your hand is open. But my hand has been clenched into a fist for three years now; it's frozen shut." — Gayle Forman, Where She Went
85. "Don't go through life; grow through life." — Eric Butterworth
86. "The greatest win is walking away and choosing not to engage in drama and toxic energy at all." — Lalah Delia
87. "Man maintains his balance, poise, and sense of security only as he is moving forward." — Maxwell Maltz
88. "Everybody has talent, it's just a matter of moving around until you've discovered what it is." — George Lucas
89. "Change is a great and horrible thing, and people love it or hate it at the same time. Without change, however, you just don't move." — Marc Jacobs
90. "You can love someone deeply, but somehow not always do the right thing by them. People have flaws. We get so much wrong. Maybe if you try to understand him as a human being with faults then you can move forward." — Lisa Heathfield, Paper Butterflies
91. "You can't start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one." — Anonymous
what's up next
A Mom Took Her Adorable Toddler On A Dream Target Shopping Spree
too funny
A Dad Has Found The Perfect Hack For Watching Sports Without Waking The Baby
Hey Ready for more?
Sign up for Scary Mommy's daily newsletter for more stories from the trenches.
This article was originally published on Jan. 17, 2020
FertilityAdoptionsurrogacy
Pregnancy tipsPregnancy lossBaby namesDeliveryPostpartum
InfantsToddlers & preschoolersElementary yearsTweens & teens
relationshipsnewsfashion & beautyhealth & wellnessentertainment
Amplifying Our Voicesfoodhomeshopping
Live.Work.ThriveMadge the VagMomsplainedI am Scary MommyBand of MothersScary Mommy Confessional