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30 Quotes About Divorce to Help You Move On

As Gloria Gaynor said, you will survive.

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It's an unhappy time when a marriage ends, but sometimes it needs to happen in order to move on to better things. If you're in the midst of going through a divorce, heed these words from people who have been there already.

1

Alain de Botton

Quotes About Divorce
Betsy Farrell

Those who divorce aren't necessarily the most unhappy, just those neatly able to believe their misery is caused by one other person.

2

Bette Davis

Quotes About Divorce
Betsy Farrell

I’d marry again if I found a man who had $15 million and would sign over half of it to me before the marriage and guarantee he’d be dead in a year.

RELATED: 41 Inspirational Quotes for When Your Mood Could Use a Boost

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3

Amy Bloom

Quotes About Divorce
Betsy Farrell

Every couple has the same five arguments in their lifetime, which is really just the one, over and over, until people die or divorce. What it is depends on who you are and what your parents did to you

4

Margaret Atwood

Quotes About Divorce
Betsy Farrell

A divorce is like an amputation: you survive it, but there's less of you.

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5

Helen Rowland

Quotes About Divorce
Betsy Farrell

When two people decide to get a divorce, it isn’t a sign that they ‘don’t understand’ one another, but a sign that they have, at least, begun to.

6

Ellen Goodman

Quotes About Divorce
Betsy Farrell

You can fire your secretary, divorce your spouse, abandon your children. But they remain your co-authors forever.

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7

Andre Dubus III

divorce quotes
Betsy Farrell

Years later I would hear my father say the divorce had left him dating his children. That still meant picking us up every Sunday for a matinee and, if he had the money, an early dinner.

8

Mary Kay Blakely

Quotes About Divorce
Betsy Farrell

Divorce is the psychological equivalent of a triple coronary bypass.

RELATED: 12 Smart Ways to Make Dating After Divorce Easier, According to Therapists

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9

Jennifer Weiner

Quotes About Divorce
Betsy Farrell

Divorce isn't such a tragedy. A tragedy's staying in an unhappy marriage, teaching your children the wrong things about love. Nobody ever died of divorce.

10

Hedy Lamarr

Quotes About Divorce
Betsy Farrell

The ceremony took six minutes. The marriage lasted about the same amount of time though we didn't get a divorce for almost a year.

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11

Gerald F. Lieberman

Quotes About Divorce
Betsy Farrell

Divorce is a declaration of independence with only two signers.

12

Nora Ephron

Quotes About Divorce
Betsy Farrell

For a long time, the fact that I was divorced was the most important thing about me. And now it's not. Now the most important thing about me is that I'm old.

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13

Lee Radziwill

Quotes About Divorce
Betsy Farrell

Divorce is a 50-50 thing, and it can be a number of petty things that finally drive you out of your mind.

RELATED: Everything You Need to Know About Dating and Single Motherhood

14

Johnny Carson

Quotes About Divorce
Betsy Farrell

The difference between a divorce and a legal separation is that a legal separation gives a husband time to hide his money.

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15

Robert Anderson

Quotes About Divorce
Betsy Farrell

In every marriage more than a week old, there are grounds for divorce. The trick is to find and continue to find grounds for marriage.

16

Judy Blundell

Quotes About Divorce
Betsy Farrell

Now she knew what divorce really was: Sharing decisions with a person you would run down on the street.

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17

Rachel Wolchin

Quotes About Divorce
Betsy Farrell

I used to hope that you'd bring me flowers. Now I plant my own.

RELATED: 8 Ways Divorce Makes You a Better Person

18

Margaret Trudeau

Quotes About Divorce
Betsy Farrell

It takes two to destroy a marriage.

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19

Mignon McLaughlin

Quotes About Divorce
Betsy Farrell

If you made a list of reasons why any couple got married, and another list of the reasons for their divorce, you'd have a hell of a lot of overlapping.

20

Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Quotes About Divorce
Betsy Farrell

Immediately after a divorce or a breakup, your mind whispers that there are plenty more fish in the sea, while your heart shouts that there is only one: whoever-you-just-divorced-or-broke-up-with.

Headshot of Marisa LaScala
Marisa LaScala
Senior Parenting & Relationships Editor

Marisa (she/her) has covered all things parenting, from the postpartum period through the empty nest, for Good Housekeeping since 2018; previously, she wrote about parents and families at Parents and Working Mother. She lives with her toy-collecting husband and daughter in Brooklyn, where she can be found helping out her team at bar trivia or posting about movies on Twitter and Bluesky. 

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