The dissolution of a marriage is almost always an upsetting event, at the very least marked by disappointment and the loss of dreams and expectations.
In addition, there are legal, financial, parental, emotional, and practical challenges that require time, energy, and changes in responsibilities. It can take people years to regain equilibrium. Nevertheless, divorce serves an important function legally and emotionally.
Looking for the best divorce quotes? We’ve compiled a list of top 100 quotes and sayings.
Popular Divorce Quotes
“Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to divorce.” – Voltaire
“I don’t see divorce as a failure. I see it as the end to a story. In a story, everything has an end and a beginning.” – Olga Kurylenko
“Once you do embark upon the separation or divorce process, it is very important to remember three key things: Be kind, be reasonable, be brief. Remember that this person will no longer be your spouse, but he or she will continue to be your co-parent, family member, and perhaps business partner in certain assets or entities.” – Laura Wasser
“Divorce shreds the muscles of our hearts so that they will hardly beat without a struggle.” – E. Lockhart
“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 last, begun to.” – Helen Rowland
“Divorce is the one human tragedy that reduces everything to cash.” – Rita Mae Brown
“The divorce was the toughest thing in my life. It still hurts.” – Edd Byrnes
“I used to think that divorce meant failure, but now I see it more as a step along the path of self-realization and growth.” – Alana Stewart
“Divorce is a game played by lawyers.” – Cary Grant
“Divorce is just the most awful thing in the world.” – John Denver
“When I get married, it will be for life – divorce is not an option.” – Kelly Rowland
“Divorce is a declaration of independence with only two signers.” – Gerald F. Lieberman
“It’s a difficult journey when you’re going through a divorce, is it not, for anyone?” – David Cassidy
“Divorce is never a pleasant experience. You look upon it as a failure. But I learned to be a different person once we broke up. Sometimes you learn more from failure than you do from success.” – Michael Crawford
“Divorce is the psychological equivalent of a triple coronary bypass.” – Mary Kay Blakely
“I decided after my last divorce to marry myself.” – Nell Carter
“It’s a very sad thing to do, to divorce.” – Kristian Bush
“You can’t underestimate how traumatic divorce is for the children.” – Isla Fisher
“Divorce is something that I never dreamed would happen to me. But it did.” – Dick Van Dyke
“My parents’ divorce was very difficult. Divorce is essentially incredibly painful, but it’s also an essential part of life.” – Abi Morgan
“Most people divorce because one in the couple falls in love with someone else: it’s a common cause of divorce. I still think that it’s tinted – this is my opinion – with a veil of racism and American puritanism.” – Isabella Rossellini
“I have an incredible phobia of divorce.” – Tamron Hall
“Divorce is always terrible, but I haven’t met anyone who went through it and isn’t happier now.” – Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
“I think a lot of people think because I was getting the divorce, that was really the catalyst for gaining so much weight.” – Valerie Bertinelli
“Divorce is a by-product of the fact that maybe the nuclear unit is gone.” – Bob Geldof
“For a lot of people, divorce is an incredibly healthy move to make in your life.” – Adam Scott
“Divorce is probably as painful as death.” – William Shatner
“Divorce is one of the most financially traumatic things you can go through. Money spent on getting mad or getting even is money wasted.” – Richard Wagner
“Divorce these days is a religious vow, as if the proper offspring of marriage.” – Tertullian
“Divorce is hard and painful and complicated, and something you have to grow through.” – Sharon Stone
“Divorce is one of the key predictors of poverty for a child growing up in a home that’s broken.” – Mike Huckabee
“Divorce is one of the most destructive, emotionally traumatic experiences a human being can go through, no matter if you’re the instigator or the recipient. It’s hard, and it hurts, and it takes a long time to feel normal again.” – Emily V. Gordon
“During the first 10 years of my life, while my parents were married, I enjoyed a privileged upbringing. After their divorce, my life was difficult.” – Bianca Jagger
“Divorce was very sad, obviously, but now I’ve gotten over it.” – Natalie Imbruglia
“I was so devastated by my second divorce that I had a nervous breakdown.” – Jane Fonda
“Everyone knows that when you go through a divorce, it’s a really difficult time for both parties and you’ve all – you believe, you both believe, individually, that you’ve put your best into it.” – Heather Mills
“Divorce is, of course, difficult for a child. I didn’t go through it as my parents stayed together, but I have a lot of friends who did.” – Elizabeth Hurley
“Divorce is horrible. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. I don’t think it’s anything that’s ever completely resolved.” – Andie MacDowell
“I come from divorce. I’m only doing marriage once. It’s not a game for me.” – Shia LaBeouf
“Divorce in and of itself, and with children, is devastating.” – Robin Wright
“Anytime you go through a divorce, you’re completely lost. Whether you want to admit it or not, or whether you know it or not, you’re completely lost.” – Justin Hartley
“Yes, the divorce was difficult. It was difficult.” – Priscilla Presley
“Even with my divorce and with everything, I don’t need money.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger
“To get over my divorce, I got a prescription to live at the Playboy Mansion for a while.” – James Caan
“My mother always said don’t marry for money, divorce for money.” – Wendy Liebman
“I never imagined that divorce would be part of my life history or my family’s legacy. When people say that divorce can be more painful than death, I understand why. But like any great trial, God uses everything for good, if we allow Him to heal us.” – Kristin Armstrong
“Take this marriage thing seriously – it has to last all the way to the divorce.” – Roseanne Barr
“I had a pretty public divorce. They’re not easy – divorces – and it took me a long time to really get through.” – Nas
“One predictor for divorce is contempt, which to me is just another word for disrespect.” – Elizabeth Banks
“I lived a really wonderful life with this man and even after our divorce, it was incredible.” – Priscilla Presley
“After my divorce, painting took me out of panic mode and into a serene, calm place. I could absolutely lose myself.” – Jane Seymour
“I’d like to give divorce a good name.” – Geraldo Rivera
“Divorce is probably of nearly the same date as marriage. I believe, however, that marriage is some weeks the more ancient.” – Voltaire
“You can not divorce religious belief and public service. I’ve never detected any conflict between God’s will and my political duty. If you violate one, you violate the other.” – Jimmy Carter
“My divorce came to me as a complete surprise. That’s what happens when you haven’t been home in eighteen years.” – Lee Trevino
“Divorce: a resumption of diplomatic relations and rectification of boundaries.” – Ambrose Bierce
“Anybody who’s been through a divorce will tell you that at one point. they’ve thought murder. The line between thinking murder and doing murder isn’t that major.” – Oliver Stone
“I have learned that not diamonds but divorce lawyers are a girl’s best friend.” – Zsa Zsa Gabor
“Divorce is never a nice thing, but it’s very easy to take family for granted, and when there’s a divorce, you don’t take things for granted so much.” – Ivanka Trump
“Divorce isn’t just the person, it’s everything that goes with it – your kids, the adjustment, everything.” – Peter Andre
“I hardly said a word to my wife until I said ‘yes’ to divorce.” – John Milius
“Divorce can be tough when the woman is the breadwinner. But the Lord can make the dark light.” – Betty Wright
“Divorce is not the end of the world. It’s worse to stay in an unhealthy marriage. That’s a worse example for the children.” – Jerry Hall
“The best divorce is the kind where there are no children. That was my first divorce. You walk out the door and you never look back.” – Nora Ephron
“I’ll tell you what divorce hasn’t taught me. It didn’t teach me not to get married again.” – Salman Rushdie
“Divorce is brutal and horrible and… you have to actively work to get your life back on track.” – Jane Kaczmarek
“I have a very wonderful separation-divorce. It’s a divorce – but it’s a weird one.” – Chris Martin
“The seeds of divorce are often sown and the problems of children begin when Mother works outside the home.” – Ezra Taft Benson
“My popularity has to do with the divorce between modern art, where everything is obscure, and the viewer who often feels he needs a professor to tell them whether it’s good or not. I believe a painting has to talk directly to the viewer, with composition, color and design, without a professor to explain it.” – Fernando Botero
“Divorce can be crazy. Man, if you’re happy… Love is a beast, man. Hold on. Be prepared for any way it may go, and be honest.” – Nas
“Well, after the divorce, I went home and turned all the lights on!” – Larry David
“There is far too much of divorce, wherein hearts are broken, and sometimes lives are destroyed.” – Gordon B. Hinckley
“I never thought in my life, I never really thought I would get married. I watched my parents go through a divorce, and I thought, like, this is just not something people are supposed to do.” – Ashton Kutcher
“Divorce is so common and accepted in America that beating myself up over it may sound ridiculous. But I was raised to believe that divorce wasn’t an option; to me, divorce equaled failure. I wasn’t able to change that equation until I found myself in the right relationship.” – Trisha Yearwood
“My parents’ divorce made an important change in my life. It affected me.” – Rafael Nadal
“Very few people can truly divorce themselves from what they feel emotionally and sexually.” – Boy George
“During the divorce process, I lived alone and tended to get extremely down on myself.” – Buzz Aldrin
“The possibility of divorce renders both marriage partners stricter in their observance of the duties they owe to each other. Divorces help to improve morals and to increase the population.” – Denis Diderot
“Marriage made more sense when it was indissoluble. It’s the woman trying to cope with the strains of a one-parent family who will suffer most from the relaxation of the divorce laws.” – Germaine Greer
“Nothing makes a girl feel as unsexy as divorce.” – Emily V. Gordon
“For anyone going through a divorce or any other painful challenge, the first and most important recommendation I can make is to find some kind of spiritual and emotional support.” – Alana Stewart
“Nick has said he would divorce me if I got Botox.” – Megan Mullally
“In my experience, divorce takes you out for about 10 years, but you hear people talk about it lightly. The same with depression. You only have to have one good breakdown before you realize you need help. It’s pretty frightening.” – Julia Cameron
“Obviously, you go through a lot of emotional turmoil in a divorce.” – David Byrne
“I’m for gay marriage, because I’m for gay divorce.” – Melissa Etheridge
“Getting a divorce is always horrible because you feel you’ve failed. Everyone hates to give up on a marriage. You think your family’s broken up.” – Jerry Hall
“The two most painful things in my life are arthritis and divorce.” – Donna McKechnie
“Divorce in a young-adult novel means what being orphaned meant in a fairy tale: vulnerability, danger, unwanted independence.” – Caitlin Flanagan
“Sometimes divorce is better than marriage.” – Sumner Redstone
“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.” – Jennifer Weiner
“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.” – Robert Anderson
“Divorce doesn’t fit my cookie-cutter image.” – Lindsey Vonn
“Establishing a friendship after divorce takes great effort and a lot of swallowing of your pride and ego.” – Yolanda Hadid
“I didn’t want a divorce but had to because of circumstance.” – Sarah Ferguson
“Let me be serious: divorce is a sacred institution between a man and a woman who hate each other. God wanted Adam to pay alimony to Eve, not Steve.” – Lewis Black
“When people divorce, it’s always such a tragedy. At the same time, if people stay together it can be even worse.” – Monica Bellucci
“A divorce is like an amputation: you survive it, but there’s less of you.” – Margaret Atwood
“Divorce was miserable, as it always is, and we divorce for the same reasons we marry.” – Donald Hall
“So we fell asleep holding hands. If married couples got to do this all the time, shit if I could understand how there were ever divorces, or even fights.” – John Barnes
“The snag about marriage is, it isn´t worth the divorce.” – Suzanne Finnamore
“Nobody wants to go through divorce, especially when there’s young children involved.” – Lindsay Davenport
“You can’t go through a divorce and then get back together.” – Peter Andre
“The decision to divorce myself from the business side unexpectedly blew up in my face. The creative freedom I thought I was getting turned out to be anything but.” – Joseph Abboud
“I don’t see any reason for marriage when there is divorce.” – Catherine Deneuve
“I had a really good childhood up until I was nine, then a classic case of divorce really affected me.” – Kurt Cobain
“Divorce is fairly common these days, and I think many times people disregard the emotional impact that divorce has on a couple and a family, because it happens so frequently.” – Steve Carell
“There’s nothing good about divorce.” – Val Kilmer
“Divorce is not easy, but if you genuinely put your kids first, that dictates the civility you should show each other. What example are you otherwise?” – Dawn French
“I think the key for a child to do well in a divorce is, very simply, you have to be honest with them.” – Dale Archer
“Lies don’t end relationships the truth does.” – Shannon L. Alder