This post contains some of the best hurt people hurt people quotes.
Why Do Hurt People Hurt People?
People who were hurt in relationships and don’t heal their wounds will become protective against pain.
To protect themselves from getting hurt again, hurt people will use defense mechanisms that eventually isolate them further from others but also hurt other people.
For instance, to avoid abandonment, hurt people may avoid emotional intimacy or avoid being in a relationship altogether.
Hurt People Hurt People Quotes
1. “Hurt people hurt people. That’s how pain patterns gets passed on, generation after generation after generation. Break the chain today. Meet anger with sympathy, contempt with compassion, cruelty with kindness. Greet grimaces with smiles. Forgive and forget about finding fault. Love is the weapon of the future.” ― Yehuda Berg
2. “If you never heal from what hurt you, you’ll bleed on people who didn’t cut you.” – Unknown
3. “All healing is first a healing of the heart.” – Carl Townsend
4. “Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” – Helen Keller
5. “Anger, resentment and jealousy doesn’t change the heart of others– it only changes yours.” ― Shannon Alder
6. “Awareness is the first step in healing.” – Dean Ornish
7. “Before hurting others, feel the pain you will inflict on others.” ― Debasish Mridha
8. “Eventually you will come to understand that love heals everything, and love is all there is.” – Gary Zukav
Related: Why Is Trauma Therapy So Hard? (+Best Trauma Healing Exercises To Support Your Recovery)
9. “Every step taken in mindfulness brings us one step closer to healing ourselves and the planet.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
10. “Everybody has losses – it’s unavoidable in life. Sharing our pain is very healing.” – Isabel Allende
11. “Everybody is aware of physical and emotional pain, but that doesn’t stop some people from inflicting it on others.” ― Shon Mehta
12. “Feelings are much like waves, we can’t stop them from coming but we can choose which ones to surf.” – Jonatan Martensson
13. “Harsh words can cause more wounds than sticks and stones.” ― Dada J.P. Vaswani
14. “Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn’t you – all of the expectations, all of the beliefs – and becoming who you are.” – Rachel Naomi Remen
15. “Healing requires from us to stop struggling, but to enjoy life more and endure it less.” – Darina Stoyanova
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16. “Healing takes courage, and we all have courage, even if we have to dig a little to find it.” – Tori Amos
17. “Healing yourself is connected with healing others.” – Yoko Ono
18. “Hearts are breakable,” Isabelle said. “And I think even when you heal, you’re never what you were before”.” ― Cassandra Clare
19. “How ignorant can you be to hurt another person? You cannot hurt someone else without hurting yourself first.” ― Debasish Mridha
20. “If love is your only option, then how can you hurt others?” ― Debasish Mridha
21. “If you make someone suffer today, without any doubt, you will be punished by your conscience. Don’t hurt anyone in any way or form.” ― Debasish Mridha
22. “Intentions aside, we’re all capable of hurting people.” ― Melanie A. Smith
23. “It has been said, ‘time heals all wounds.’ I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone.”― Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy
Related: Top 10 Signs Of Toxic Shame In A Person (+Best 20 Healing Shame Exercises)
24. “Just like there’s always time for pain, there’s always time for healing.” ― Jennifer Brown
25. “Love one another and help others to rise to the higher levels, simply by pouring out love. Love is infectious and the greatest healing energy.” – Sai Baba
26. “Never think of hurting anyone else, if you do, you are already hurting yourself.” ― Debasish Mridha
27. “Part of the healing process is sharing with other people who care.” – Jerry Cantrell
28. “Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real.” ― Cormac McCarthy
29. “The place of true healing is a fierce place. It’s a giant place. It’s a place of monstrous beauty and endless dark and glimmering light. And you have to work really, really, really hard to get there, but you can do it.” – Cheryl Strayed
30. “The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world.” – Marianne Williamson
Related: How To Break Generational Trauma? 5 Steps To Release Trauma & End Self-Sabotage
31. “There are so many ways to heal. Arrogance may have a place in technology, but not in healing. I need to get out of my own way if I am to heal.” – Anne Wilson Schaef
32. “There is something beautiful about all scars of whatever nature. A scar means the hurt is over, the wound is closed and healed, done with.” – Harry Crews
33. “To me, forgiveness is the cornerstone of healing.” – Sylvia Fraser
34. “What happens when people open their hearts?” “They get better.” ― Haruki Murakami
35. “The thought caused me a good deal of grief. What a terrible thing it is to wound someone you really care for – and to do it so unconsciously.” ― Haruki Murakami
Related: How To Break The Cycle Of Abuse? Top 10 Powerful Strategies To Stop Being An Abusive Person
36. “Accepting an apology never erases the past nor changes the hurtful event, but it opens both parties to forgiveness, the possibility of restitution, and the healing ability to release those angry feelings so that you both may move forward in peace.” – Kelly Browne
37. “Remember that anger is an intense emotion, as are hurt feelings, and when someone gets to that deeply anguished place, they need time to process and move it out of their body. It is also entirely possible that they may not be able to let their anger go, thereby ending the relationship with you. Rather than forcing, pushing, or begging a person to respond to you, give them the space to calm down. When they are ready to speak to you, keep these points in mind to help facilitate the needed mutual respect and compassion between you.” – Kelly Browne
38. “Communicating your feelings is essential and has the power to resolve any issues or misunderstandings. You can look at both sides of a situation and decide if you want to continue the relationship. If you choose to end it because it is unhealthy for you, do so. Never worry about hurting someone’s feelings if they have caused you verbal, mental, or physical abuse; your mental well-being and personal safety come first.” – Kelly Browne
39. “Anytime there has been a misunderstanding in a relationship that creates hurt feelings, it may often provide an opportunity to learn something about yourself or your partner or shed light on what needs to be strengthened between you two.” – Kelly Browne
40. “No matter how much you want to be friends with someone, if they consistently don’t make plans or don’t respond to your calls, emails, or texts, it might be that they no longer wish to continue the relationship, or they might view the friendship differently than you do. While you might have hurt feelings because the person you thought was your friend doesn’t reciprocate, you have to accept it. You can’t control someone else’s feelings.” – Kelly Browne
41. “Putting hurtful words out into the universe, hoping the person might see and react to them, doesn’t do you any good but sends more ill will your way.” – Kelly Browne
42. “Deeply hurtful moments as a child may define us if we choose to let them.” – Kelly Browne
43. “Mistakes will happen, fights will occur, and feelings will be hurt, but this is how we learn to do it better, and forgiveness is part of the package.” – Kelly Browne
44. “When someone hurts us, forgiveness means giving up our right to hurt that person back. On the other hand, unforgiveness produces immediate bitterness and spiritual barrenness now, and, ultimately, it leads to a host of other destructive consequences.” – Harold Vaughan
45. “Relationships are the very crucible of life. They are among the most difficult yet enjoyable experiences we have. It is impossible to escape relationships. Because all of us are sinful by nature as well as by choice, it is only a matter of time before each relationship encounters a challenge. At times, we are deliberately offended. Other times, we are hurt and disappointed by the failure of the other party to meet our expectations.” – Harold Vaughan
46. “A bitter person is someone who has been hurt. Someone has wounded him, neglected him, abused him, rejected him, slighted him, or cheated him—or, at least, he feels these hurts have happened to him. Rather than admitting the hurt and going to others to settle the matter, he harbors the hurt. Like a poison injected into the body, bitterness is a poison of the soul. The longer it stays, the more deeply entrenched it becomes, and the more it permeates the entire life.” – Harold Vaughan
47. “Unresolved bitterness eventually leads to wrath, the next phase in this deadly spiral. Wrath, an interesting word, has the idea of heat connected to it. Wrath is that slow burn inside. It is an inward seething against the offender, a smoldering resentment.” – Harold Vaughan
48. “Wrath is the fire set by the initial hurt that was never resolved. It is akin to tossing rags into a trash can, setting them aflame, and placing the can in a closed closet. The rags burn slowly but surely.” – Harold Vaughan
49. “We often withhold forgiveness for reasons other than pride. One reason is selfishness. We have been hurt. We didn’t deserve that unfair treatment. Things didn’t go as we had planned.” – Harold Vaughan
50. “Some experiences hurt so badly that many dread bringing up those painful emotions. This is especially true when some have tried to simply ignore those memories or bury them by denial.” – Harold Vaughan