For those seeking some of the best and most insightful betrayal quotes, you’re in the right place!
In this list, I cover some of the most iconic and wise betrayal quotes that are great for those who want to move away from toxic people, learn from lessons, and not to give second chances.
Side note: While I have tried my best to include all of the top sayings, proverbs, and quotes about betrayal, I may have missed some. If so, please share your favorite quote in the comments and I will be sure to include it in the list! 😃
83+ Eye-Opening Betrayal Quotes
1. “Betrayal is beautiful.” – Jean Genet
2. “Growth is betrayal.” – John Updike
3. “Silence betrays.” – L.M. Montgomery
4. “Friendship’s enemy is betrayal.” – Toba Beta
5. “Love never betrays. People do.” – Rohit Sharma
6. “True love is tested when betrayed.” – Toba Beta
7. “Betrayal is an inherent part of love.” – Ankit Mishra
8. “The real betrayal is forgetting yourself.” – Unknown
9. “Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.” – Arthur Miller
10. “Once a betrayer, always a betrayer.” – Petra Hermans
11. “Only those you trust can betray you.” – Terry Goodkind
12. “A friend who betrays you is an enemy.” – Gift Gugu Mona
13. “A secret is a betrayal waiting to happen.” – Charlie Fletcher
14. “Love often betrays, but a friend rarely does.” – Amit Kalantri
15. “Betrayal is common for men with no conscience.” – Toba Beta
16. “If you trust yourself, no one will ever betray you.” – Meir Ezra
17. “It’s only possible to betray where loyalty is due.” – Muriel Spark
18. “Prevail to betray me to unveil your evil.” – P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar
19. “The heart betrays the mind by thinking for itself.” – Ezinne Orjiako
20. “Even the people who betray you are part of the plan.” – Unknown
21. “Before someone betrayed you, you betrayed yourself.” – Meir Ezra
22. “Even as your body betrays you, your mind denies it.” – Sara Gruen
23. “Betrayal isn’t ridiculous. It’s the reason empires fall.” – Marisha Pessl
24. “He who trusts the world, the world betrays him.” – Ali Ibn Abi Talib AS
25. “Betray a friend, and you’ll often find you have ruined yourself.” – Aesop
26. “How shameful it is to hurt those who love us.” – Wayne Gerard Trotman
27. “A stab from a friend cuts deeper than a stab from a foe.” – Amit Kalantri
28. “By betraying yourself, you approve for others to betray you.” – Meir Ezra
29. “To write is your last resort when you’ve betrayed someone.” – Jean Genet
30. “If they do not even respect their own, they respect no one.” – Bobby Casto
31. “One day you will learn that love does not always betray you.” – Mary Balogh
32. “Betraying yourself is a gateway to harming your future self.” – Angel Moreira
33. “That’s the thing with betrayal, it’s always the people you love.” – Fatima Bhutto
34. “She would see it as a betrayal. Nothing more. Nothing less.” – Samantha Young
35. “You can’t betray yourself too often, or you become somebody else.” – Ed Harris
36. “Grownups expect betrayal. What they can’t stand to be is powerless.” – B.G. Harlen
37. “It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.” – Confucius
38. “Betrayal is the foundation of power. That’s how history advances.” – Hernán Ronsino
39. “When someone betrays you, it is a reflection of their character, not yours.” – Proverb
40. “For there to be betrayal, there would have to have been trusted first.” – Suzanne Collins
41. “While stabbing someone’s back, you recklessly expose your own.” – Matshona Dhliwayo
42. “Betrayals shatters illusions… It breaks your heart, but clears your vision.” – Steve Maraboli
43. “Betrayal is never easy to handle and there is no right way to accept it.” – Christine Feehan
44. “When we fail, our pride supports us, and when we succeed it betrays us.” – Charles Colton
45. “Just tell yourself a story that’ll satisfy you and pretend he told it.” – Catherynne M. Valente
46. “If I didn’t care so much, then being betrayed wouldn’t feel so painful.” –Â Brandon Sanderson
47. “Cheating only thrills those who cannot see the beauty in faithfulness.” – Michael Bassey Johnson
48. “Those who don’t know the value of loyalty can never appreciate the cost of betrayal.” – Unknown
49. “What a betrayal of life, of sense, to choose hate over love, suffering over happiness.” – Marty Rubin
50. “We don’t know anything about people, even those with whom we share everything.” – Elena Ferrante
51. “Shattered legs may heal in time, but some betrayals fester and poison the soul.” – George R.R. Martin
52. “We can depend on nobody in this world, and sometimes we even betray ourselves.” – Dean Cavanagh
53. “I wish the pain of betrayal was as easy to ignore as the red flags that forewarned of it.” – Steve Maraboli
54. “The point was to learn what it was we feared more: being misunderstood or being betrayed.” – Adam Levin
55. “The worst feeling in the world is knowing you’ve been used and lied to by someone you trusted.” – Proverb
55. “Our nemesis is time, against which we have a single ally, memory, and even it betrays us.” – Sam Tanenhaus
56. “Some people are willing to betray years of friendship just to get a little bit of the spotlight.” – Lauren Conrad
57. “The three most common killers of friendships are betrayal, distance, and growth.” – Mokokoma Mokhonoana
58. “Never give your ear to the hissing of snakes they are legless to stand on their own.” – Dr.P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar
59. “When you care about someone, you can’t just turn that off because you learn they betrayed you.” – Paula Stokes
60. “If you caught her with another man, you don’t need a second opinion, you need a final decision.” – Nitya Prakash
61. “If love is the most sacred bond between two people, then betrayal must be the ultimate sacrilege.” – Marty Rubin
62. “Teasing a person is to hide your weakness and betraying a person is to hide his strength.” – P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar
63. “Nothing hurts more than being disappointed by the single person you thought would never hurt you.” – Unknown
64. “I would rather my enemy’s sword pierce my heart then my friend’s dagger stab me in the back.” – Michele Bardsley
65. “If you’re betrayed, release disappointment at once. By that way, the bitterness has no time to take root.” – Toba Beta
66. “Sometimes the people closest to you betray you, and your home isn’t a place you can be happy anymore.” – Kristin Cast
67. “I used to advertise my loyalty and I don’t believe there is a single person I loved that I didn’t eventually betray.” – Albert Camus
68. “Betrayal is when your companion in a monkey hunt describes your head as being like that of a monkey.” – Vincent Okay Nwachukwu
69. “Betrayal was the ultimate weapon, for it left emotional destruction in its wake. And questions. Thousands of questions.” – Allison Lane
70. “The worst kind of hurt is betrayal because it means that someone will willing to hurt you just to make themselves feel better.” – Proverb
71. “It’s hard to trust somebody when the one person who you completely opened up to is the person who later completely betrayed you.” – Proverb
72. “Betrayal annihilates trust. The more trust there is, to begin with, and the more deception is involved, the more damage is done.” – Sandra Lee Dennis
73. “I’d rather meander through a pit of vipers than love one more person, but since I’m on the subject of snakes, we all know one, or are one.” – Donna Lynn Hope
74. “The worst pain in the world goes beyond the physical. Even further beyond any other emotional pain, one can feel. It is the betrayal of a friend.” – Heather Brewer
75. “Betrayal is so emotionally charged because the act of betrayal violates a couple’s core agreement the promise to care for each other and keep each other safe.” – Unknown
76. “Confession is not betrayal. What you say or do doesn’t matter; only feelings matter. If they could make me stop loving you-that would be the real betrayal.” – George Orwell
77. “There will be joys that quiver your leaves and betrayals that will sever your roots, poisoning the water you pull. These are the varying notes in the music of living.” – Kira Jane Buxton
78. “We are not wounded so deeply when betrayed by the things we hope for as when betrayed by things we try our best to despise. In such betrayal comes the dagger in the back.” – Yukio Mishima
79. “Cheating, betraying its easy, changing partner like clothes it’s easy that’s why people run there. Honesty is so difficult, only people with the power of self-respect do it.” – Mohammed Zaki Ansari
80. “So this was a betrayal. It was like being left alone in the desert at dusk without water or warmth. It left your mouth dry and will be broken. It sapped your tears and made you hollow.” – Anna Godbersen
Hopefully, these betrayal quotes have helped you to move on from a relationship or friend who may have betrayed you. Many of these quotes, sayings, and proverbs can help you to get perspective and see what is best for you.
To learn more about betrayal, how to overcome it, and avoid it, this article is a really great starting point!