105 Infidelity Forgiveness Quotes to Help You Heal & Move On

Dealing with infidelity can be one of the most painful experiences in life. It’s a terrible betrayal that can shake your trust and self-esteem. Whether you’re facing a cheating spouse or partner, the hurt runs deep. So to help, I’ve compiled 105 infidelity forgiveness quotes.

Healing from infidelity takes a long time. There’s no such thing as a quick fix, even if you’re a good person. But forgiveness can be a powerful tool in the healing process, especially during this difficult time.

These forgiveness quotes aim to help you on your journey. They offer wisdom, comfort, and hope for those on the receiving end of infidelity for the first time. From dealing with a cheating husband to finding your own way forward as a married woman, these words can guide you.

Remember, forgiveness doesn’t mean forgetting or excusing the betrayal. It’s about finding peace and moving on, even when it feels like the hardest thing you’ve ever done. The importance of forgiveness can’t be overstated in rebuilding a healthy relationship or healing your own low self-esteem.

Whether you choose to rebuild your relationship or start a new beginning, these quotes can light your path. They remind us that forgiveness isn’t about a lack of love, but about self-love and growth.

Let’s explore the power of forgiveness and healing together, one step at a time.

Infidelity Forgiveness Quotes

  1. “Forgiveness is the ultimate antidote to heartbreak” – Anonymous
  2. “Healing begins when the pain is acknowledged.” – Anonymous
  3. “Trust is like a mirror. Once broken, you can glue the pieces back together, but the cracks will always show.” – Anonymous
  4. “Apology is a symphony with movements of remorse, change, and a commitment to never replay the discordant notes of betrayal.” – Anonymous
  5. “Sometimes the people we love do things that hurt us the most. It’s not okay, but we have to find a way to move forward.” – Anonymous
  6. “Trust takes years to build, seconds to break, and forever to repair.” – Anonymous
  7. “You can’t just change what’s happened, but you can change what you do next.” – Anonymous
  8. “Healing is an art. It takes time, it takes practice, and it takes love.” – Anonymous
  9. “The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injustice.” – Marcus Aurelius
  10. “Forgiving is easy, trusting again is virtually impossible.” – Anonymous
  11. “Trust, once shattered, can be rebuilt. The echoes of its restoration resound in the commitment to change.” – Anonymous
  12. “Building bridges after betrayal requires laying foundations of understanding and walking across together, hand in hand.” – Anonymous
  13. “Shadows of the past linger, but they fade when replaced by the light of commitment, understanding, and love.” – Anonymous
  14. “Apologies are not just spoken; they’re carved in the stone of actions and lasting change.” – Anonymous
  15. “Second chances compose a symphony of hope, but both partners must learn the notes of change and commitment.” – Anonymous
  16. “Betrayal dissects the anatomy of trust, exposing vulnerabilities we never knew existed.” – Anonymous
  17. “From the ashes of betrayal rises the phoenix of self-discovery, resilient and renewed.” – Anonymous
  18. “Betrayal is a storm that rages within. Taming it requires acknowledging the tempest and finding calm in self-love.” – Anonymous
  19. “Forgiveness is a fragrance that blooms when the soil of understanding is watered with empathy.” – Anonymous
  20. “After the storm of infidelity, navigating the aftermath requires a compass of self-reflection and open communication.” – Anonymous
  21. “Healing after betrayal is like mending a broken heart — a slow, deliberate process that requires time and self-compassion.” – Anonymous
  22. “Emotional wounds run deeper than any scar. Healing begins when we acknowledge the pain.” – Anonymous
  23. “Sometimes your heart needs more time to accept what your mind already knows.” – Anonymous
  24. “Feelings are much like waves, we can’t stop them from coming, but we can choose which ones to surf.” – Jonatan Mårtensson
  25. “Life is about trusting your feelings and taking chances, losing and finding happiness, appreciating the memories, learning from the past, and realizing people change.” – Atul Purohit
  26. “Your value doesn’t decrease based on someone’s inability to see your worth.” – Anonymous
  27. “On particularly rough days when I’m sure I can’t possibly endure, I like to remind myself that my track record for getting through bad days so far is 100% … and that’s pretty good.” – Anonymous
  28. “You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.” – Anonymous
  29. “Pain is certain, suffering is optional.” – Anonymous
  30. “Infidelity is mentally, emotionally, and physically painful to the betrayed spouse. Be gentle with yourself as you heal.” – Dr. Karen Finn
  31. “You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly.” – Sam Keen
  32. “Healing doesn’t mean the damage never existed. It means the damage no longer controls our lives.” – Anonymous
  33. “Forget enough to get over it. Remember enough so it doesn’t happen again.” – Anonymous
  34. “Falling down is part of life. Getting back up is living.” – Anonymous
  35. “Every test in our life makes us bitter or better. Every problem comes to break us or make us. The choice is ours whether we become victim or victor.” – Anonymous
  36. “A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking because her trust is not on the branch but on her own wings.” – Anonymous
  37. “The best apology is changed behavior.” – Anonymous
  38. “Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a constant attitude.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
  39. “Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.” – Nelson Mandela
  40. “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
  41. “Forgiveness means it finally becomes unimportant that you hit back. You’re done. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you want to have lunch with the person. If you keep hitting back, you stay trapped in the nightmare…” – Anne Lamott
  42. “The present is endlessly overwhelmed and devoured by the past. Forgiveness frees the forgiver. It extracts the forgiver from someone else’s nightmare.” – Lance Morrow
  43. “Listen. Slide the weight from your shoulders and move forward. You are afraid you might forget, but you never will. You will forgive and remember.” – Barbara Kingsolver
  44. “We don’t forgive people because they deserve it. We forgive them because they need it-because we need it.” – Bree Despain
  45. “Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hatred. It is a power that breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness.” – Corrie Ten Boom
  46. “As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.” – Nelson Mandela
  47. “When we think we have been hurt by someone in the past, we build up defenses to ourselves from being hurt in the future. So, the fearful past causes a fearful future, and the past and future become one. We cannot love when we feel fear…. When we release the fearful past and forgive everyone, we will experience total love and oneness with all.” – Gerald G. Jampolsky
  48. “Forgiveness is not about forgetting. It is about letting go of another person’s throat.” – William Paul Young
  49. “Forgiveness is not something you do for someone else; it’s something you do for yourself. To forgive is not to condone, it is to refuse to continue feeling bad about an injury.” – Jim Beaver
  50. “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” – Rumi
  51. “The emotion that can break your heart is sometimes the very one that heals it…” – Nicholas Sparks
  52. “As my sufferings mounted, I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation – either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
  53. “This life is for loving, learning, smiling, caring, forgiving, laughing, hugging, helping, dancing, wondering, healing, and even more loving. I choose to live life this way. I want to live my life in such a way that when I get out of bed in the morning, the devil says, ‘aw shit, he’s up!” – Steve Maraboli
  54. “On the girl’s brown legs there were many small white scars. I was thinking, do those scars cover the whole of you, like the stars and the moons on your dress? I thought that would be pretty too, and I ask you right here please to agree with me that a scar is never ugly. That is what the scar makers want us to think. But you and I, we must make an agreement to defy them. We must see all scars as beauty. Okay? This will be our secret. Because take it from me, a scar does not form on the dying. A scar means, I survived.” – Chris Cleave
  55. “In a futile attempt to erase our past, we deprive the community of our healing gift. If we conceal our wounds out of fear and shame, our inner darkness can neither be illuminated nor become a light for others.” – Brennan Manning
  56. “You don’t need another Human Being to make your life complete, but let’s be honest. Having your wounds kissed by someone who doesn’t see them as disasters in your soul, but cracks to put their love into, Is the most calming thing in this World.” – Emery Allen
  57. “It is our wounds that create in us a desire to reach for miracles. The fulfillment of such miracles depends on whether we let our wounds pull us down or lift us up towards our dreams.” – Jocelyn Soriano
  58. “My scars remind me that I did indeed survive my deepest wounds. That in itself is an accomplishment. And they bring to mind something else, too. They remind me that the damage life has inflicted on me has, in many places, left me stronger and more resilient. What hurt me in the past has actually made me better equipped to face the present.” – Steve Goodier
  59. “The sun shall always rise upon a new day and there shall always be a rose garden within me. Yes, there is a part of me that is broken, but my broken soil gives way to my wild roses.” – C. JoyBell C.
  60. “If you want to forget something or someone, never hate it, or never hate him/her. Everything and everyone that you hate is engraved upon your heart; if you want to let go of something, if you want to forget, you cannot hate.” – C. JoyBell C.
  61. “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
  62. “Letting go means to come to the realization that some people are a part of your history, but not a part of your destiny.” – Steve Maraboli
  63. “Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great strength. However, there are times when it takes much more strength to know when to let go and then do it.” – Ann Landers
  64. “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
  65. “There ain’t no way you can hold onto something that wants to go, you understand? You can only love what you got while you got it.” – Kate DiCamillo
  66. “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
  67. “Sometimes it takes a heartbreak to shake us awake & help us see we are worth so much more than we’re settling for.” – Mandy Hale
  68. “If you didn’t love him, this never would have happened. But you did. And accepting that love and everything that followed it is part of letting it go.” – Sarah Dessen
  69. “For there are two kinds of forgiveness in the world: the one you practice because everything is all right, and what went before is mended. The other kind of forgiveness you practice because someone needs desperately to be forgiven, or because you need just as badly to forgive them, for a heart can grab hold of old wounds and go sour as milk over them.” – Catherynne M. Valente
  70. “Life becomes easier when you learn to accept an apology you never got.” – Robert Brault
  71. “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” – Mahatma Gandhi
  72. “Betrayal was what I felt, my heart broken not just by a guy I was in love with, but also by, as I once believed, a true friend.” – Danka V.
  73. “That was how dishonesty and betrayal started, not in big lies but in small secrets.” – Amy Tan
  74. “Cheating was easy, but impossible to take back.” – Dean Osborne
  75. “Sometimes you can be touched by God, but not healed. Often when this happens, he is using your pain for a greater purpose.” – Shannon L. Alder
  76. “Trust, once lost, could not be easily found. Not in a year, perhaps not even in a lifetime.” – J.E.B. Spredemann
  77. “You didn’t just cheat on me; you cheated on us. You didn’t just break my heart; you broke our future.” – Steve Maraboli
  78. “If you’re betrayed, release disappointment at once. By that way, the bitterness has no time to take root.” – Toba Beta
  79. “Stop asking me to trust you while I’m still coughing up water from the last time you let me drown.” – Anonymous
  80. “Things come apart so easily when they have been held together by lies.” – Dorothy Allison
  81. “The truly scary thing about undiscovered lies is that they have a greater capacity to diminish us than exposed ones.” – Cheryl Hughes
  82. “You can compensate for all of your vices except betrayal. Nothing you do can ever compensate for the pain caused by betrayal.” – Sarvesh Jain
  83. “Physical infidelity is the signal, the notice given, that all fidelities are undermined.” – Katherine Anne Porter
  84. “It takes two to tango but just one dance with the devil to bring the house down.” – Jason Versey
  85. “Betrayal is all about those small secrets you keep away from your partner.” – Anonymous
  86. “Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.” – Paul Boese
  87. “The first to apologize is the bravest. The first to forgive is the strongest. The first to forget is the happiest.” – Anonymous
  88. “Forgive others, not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace.” – Jonathan Lockwood Huie
  89. “To err is human, to forgive, divine.” – Alexander Pope
  90. “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
  91. “Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.” – Mark Twain
  92. “Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself.” – Tony Robbins
  93. “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” – Mahatma Gandhi
  94. “Forgiveness is not always easy. At times, it feels more painful than the wound we suffered, to forgive the one that inflicted it. And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness.” – Marianne Williamson
  95. “The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world.” – Marianne Williamson
  96. “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” – Jesus Christ
  97. “Forgive them, even when they are not sorry.” – Jesus Christ
  98. “The art of life is the art of avoiding pain; and he is the best pilot, who steers clearest of the rocks and shoals with which it is beset.” – C. JoyBell C.
  99. “You will find that it is necessary to let things go; simply for the reason that they are heavy.” – C. JoyBell C.
  100. “Grudges are for those who insist that they are owed something; forgiveness, however, is for those who are substantial enough to move on.” – Shannon L. Alder
  101. “Forgiveness is a choice, but it is not an option.” – Shannon L. Alder
  102. “Forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn’t know before you learned it.” – Shannon L. Alder
  103. “Be the one who nurtures and builds. Be the one who has an understanding and a forgiving heart one who looks for the best in people. Leave people better than you found them.” – Roy T. Bennett
  104. “The past is a place of reference, not a place of residence; the past is a place of learning, not a place of living.” – Roy T. Bennett
  105. “Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.” – Roy T. Bennett

Final Thoughts

Healing from infidelity is a journey, not a destination. It takes a long time, and that’s okay. These quotes show that many people, even those who consider themselves a good person, have walked this difficult path before. You’re not alone in your pain or your struggle to forgive, whether you’re a married woman or experiencing this for the first time.

Remember, forgiveness is for you, not the cheating spouse. It’s about freeing yourself from anger and hurt, and it’s often the hardest thing you’ll ever do. This doesn’t mean you have to stay in the relationship or that forgiveness is the only way forward.

Whether you’re dealing with a cheating husband or an unfaithful partner who was once your best friend, take your time to heal. There’s no rush and no “right” way to feel during this difficult time. Trust your own process and don’t let anyone pressure you.

These infidelity quotes highlight the power of forgiveness and its importance in building healthy relationships. But they also show it’s one of the hardest things you’ll ever do, especially if you’re struggling with low self-esteem. Be patient with yourself and remember that healing isn’t linear.

In the end, forgiveness can lead to a new beginning. It might be in your current relationship or on your own. Either way, you can find happiness again. Forgiveness doesn’t mean there was a lack of love, but rather an abundance of self-love and growth.

Remember, you’re strong enough to get through this. Your worth isn’t defined by someone else’s actions or by your relationship status. Keep moving forward, one day at a time, and trust in your ability to heal and grow from this experience.

man with lipstick on his collar getting caught by his wife coming home late

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the top infidelity causes?

One prime cause of infidelity is feeling neglected or unloved. This can happen in both good and bad marriages.

Another reason is poor communication. When partners stop talking, they might look for connection elsewhere. Sometimes, it’s about wanting something new or exciting. This doesn’t make someone a bad person, but it can lead to bad choices.

Low self-esteem can also play a role. Some people cheat to feel better about themselves. It’s not the right way to boost confidence, but it happens.

In some cases, addiction or mental health issues are behind infidelity. These problems need professional help. Technology, like easy access to dating apps and text messages, has made cheating easier too.

Remember, understanding the causes doesn’t excuse the behavior. But it can be the first step towards healing. Whether you’re a good woman dealing with a partner’s infidelity or considering forgiveness, knowing why it happened can help you move forward.

a SAD COUPLE reading the bible together

What does the Bible say about infidelity?

The Bible has a lot to say about infidelity. It’s clear that God views it as a serious sin. There are many Bible verses that speak against cheating on your spouse.

In the Ten Commandments, one rule is “You shall not commit adultery.” This shows how important faithfulness is to God. The Bible also talks about the pain infidelity causes. It can hurt little children and break up families.

But the Bible isn’t just about pointing out sin. It also offers hope through forgiveness. Christ Jesus taught about God’s steadfast love and mercy. He showed kindness even to those who had made big mistakes.

The Bible encourages forgiveness, even for hard things like infidelity. It doesn’t mean you have to stay in bad marriages. But it does say that forgiving can help heal negative feelings.

Remember, forgiveness doesn’t mean what happened was okay. It’s about letting go of anger and moving forward. The Holy Spirit can help with this process, guiding you toward healing and peace.