72 Quotes About Letting Go

In life, letting go can often be one of the most challenging yet liberating experiences. Whether it's moving on from past relationships, shedding outdated beliefs, or releasing the grip on control, the act of letting go invites growth, healing, and transformation. To aid you on this journey, we've gathered a collection of the top 72 quotes that encapsulate the essence of letting go. These words of wisdom, coming from diverse voices and perspectives, offer guidance and inspiration, helping you to embrace change and find peace within the process. Dive in and let these powerful quotes accompany you on your path to newfound freedom and self-discovery.

1. “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

2. “Some birds are not meant to be caged, that's all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild. So you let them go, or when you open the cage to feed them they somehow fly out past you. And the part of you that knows it was wrong to imprison them in the first place rejoices, but still, the place where you live is that much more drab and empty for their departure.” - Stephen King

3. “The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.” - Gerald G. Jampolsky

4. “When we think we have been hurt by someone in the past, we build up defenses to protect 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

5. “...you fix what you can fix and you let the rest go. If there ain't nothin to be done about it it aint even a problem. It's just a aggravation.” - Cormac McCarthy

6. “No matter how much suffering you went through, you never wanted to let go of those memories.” - Haruki Murakami

7. “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

8. “Renew, release, let go. Yesterday’s gone. There’s nothing you can do to bring it back. You can’t “should’ve” done something. You can only DO something. Renew yourself. Release that attachment. Today is a new day!” - Steve Maraboli

9. “The beautiful journey of today can only begin when we learn to let go of yesterday.” - Steve Maraboli

10. “A grateful mindset can set you free from the prison of disempowerment and the shackles of misery.” - Steve Maraboli

11. “Are you going to allow the world around you to change while you remain stagnant? Make this the time you throw away old habits that have hindered your happiness and success and finally allow your greatest self to flourish.” - Steve Maraboli

12. “It is important that we forgive ourselves for making mistakes. We need to learn from our errors and move on.” - Steve Maraboli

13. “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

14. “I demolish my bridges behind me...then there is no choice but to move forward” - Fridtjof Nansen

15. “So I placed my heart under lock and key To take some time, and take care of me But I turn around and you're standing here” - Deborah Cox

16. “how can he love me then not? He went,he ran. And I cannot bring him back. Yet I left the door metaphorically wide open, hoping he'd come back and bang on it proclaiming, "I want to be here with you. Always." Soon I'm going to have to shutit. For my safety and my sanity. Let go. I don't want to. Won't letting go be just that - letting go? Giving up? Admitting failure? Admitting that it is really, truly over?” - Freya North

17. “Three months ago, if you asked me, I would have told you that if you really loved someone, you’d let them go. But now I look at you, and I dreamed about Maggie, and I see that I’ve been wrong. If you really love someone, Allie, I think you have to take them back.” - Jodi Picoult

18. “Even on my weakest daysI get a little bit stronger” - Sara Evans

19. “Know that everything is in perfect order whether you understand it or not.” - Valery Satterwhite

20. “Nothing ever happens like you imagine it will… but then again, if you don’t imagine, nothing ever happens at all. Imagining isn’t perfect. You can’t get all the way inside someone else… But imagining being someone else, or the world being something else, is the only way in. It is the machine that kills the fascists” - John Green

21. “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.

22. “I've been burdened with blame trapped in the past for too long, I'm moving on” - Rascal Flatts

23. “So go, girl. We should have been one person all along, not two.” - Dorothy Baker

24. “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

25. “Love is forgiving, accepting, moving on, embracing, and all encompassing. And if you’re not doing that for yourself, you cannot do that with anyone else.” - Steve Maraboli

26. “What if you could pick one day of your life, and everything would stop changing, every day would be similar and comparable to that one day, you'd always have the same people with you? If you could do that, would you do it? Would you pick that day and make that choice? We crave for things to stop changing, we wish that things would never change. But if we got what we wanted, there are so many things that are better, that we would never, ever know about. Sure, things would stay the same as that one wonderful day, but then there would be nothing else out there, ever. So can you remember the very first day when everything really did begin to change? Is there a thing that can remind you? Mine is a blue rose, and that's when everything began to change because that's the day I began to believe in things I never believed in before; the day I found three blue roses. Think about your first day of change, can you remember all the new heights you've soared since that day? All the new people? All the better things and times? Would you throw all of that time away? I wouldn't. Instead, I want to finally accept all the things that I couldn't change, which led to me being right here, right now. Maybe we all carry around inside us one day we wish we could keep forever, something we wished never did change. It's time to let go of that day, and soar.” - C. JoyBell C.

27. “I just wanted to tell you that I understand if you go. It’s okay if you have to leave us. It’s okay if you want to stop fighting.” - Gayle Forman

28. “Being different is a revolving door in your life where secure people enter and insecure exit.” - Shannon L. Alder

29. “We are not meant to die merely in order to be dead. God could not want that for the creatures to whom He has given the breath of life. We die in order to live.” - Elisabeth Elliot

30. “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

31. “The rose has toldIn one simplicityThat never lifeRelinquishes a bloomBut to bestowAn ancient confidence.” - Nathalia Crane

32. “One of the most beneficial and valuable gifts we can give to ourselves in this life: is allowing ourselves to be surprised! It is okay if life surprises you. Its a good thing!” - C. JoyBell C.

33. “When someone you love says goodbye you can stare long and hard at the door they closed and forget to see all the doors God has open in front of you.” - Shannon Alder

34. “Thank God I found the GOOD in goodbye” - Beyoncé Knowles

35. “When you leave,weary of me,without a word I shall gently let you go.” - Kim Sowol

36. “You'll never be able to let him go. You'll always feel wrong about being with me.” - Suzanne Collins

37. “Sometimes you have to stop trying to control everything and let life happen the way it's supposed to, Tess. Even if it's not exactly the way you wanted.But what if it's not even a little like you wanted?Then you deal with it and keep going.” - Lord, Cynthia

38. “Make New Year's goals. Dig within, and discover what you would like to have happen in your life this year. This helps you do your part. It is an affirmation that you're interested in fully living life in the year to come. Goals give us direction. They put a powerful force into play on a universal, conscious, and subconscious level. Goals give our life direction.What would you like to have happen in your life this year? What would you like to do, to accomplish? What good would you like to attract into your life? What particular areas of growth would you like to have happen to you? What blocks, or character defects, would you like to have removed?What would you like to attain? Little things and big things? Where would you like to go? What would you like to have happen in friendship and love? What would you like to have happen in your family life?What problems would you like to see solved? What decisions would you like to make? What would you like to happen in your career?Write it down. Take a piece of paper, a few hours of your time, and write it all down - as an affirmation of you, your life, and your ability to choose. Then let it go. The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals.” - Melody Beattie

39. “Forgiveness is the one gift you don't give to others. Rather, it is the gift you give yourself, so you can finally be free.” - Shannon Alder

40. “Let go of certainty. The opposite isn't uncertainty. It's openness, curiosity and a willingness to embrace paradox, rather than choose up sides. The ultimate challenge is to accept ourselves exactly as we are, but never stop trying to learn and grow.” - Tony Schwartz

41. “We can't be afraid of change. You may feel very secure in the pond that you are in, but if you never venture out of it, you will never know that there is such a thing as an ocean, a sea. Holding onto something that is good for you now, may be the very reason why you don't have something better.” - C. JoyBell C.

42. “You will find that it is necessary to let things go; simply for the reason that they are heavy. So let them go, let go of them. I tie no weights to my ankles.” - C. JoyBell C.

43. “Well, I just get as close as I can to a happy ending, then I shut the door behind me and move on.” - James Goss

44. “The truth was, he now belonged only to my past, and it was time I begin to accept it, as much as it hurt to do so.” - Tammara Webber

45. “The seasons tell us, everything in organic life tells us, that there is no holding on; still, we try to do just that. Sometimes, though, we learn the kind of wisdom that celebrates the open hand.” - Elizabeth Berg

46. “I didn’t treat my girl like she was mineYeah, I thought I didn’t need her at the timeBut I changed my way of thinkin’ when she leftYeah, I finally learned my lesson, but I learned it by myself” - Hunter Hayes

47. “Spiritual growth involves giving up the stories of your past so the universe can write a new one.” - Marianne Williamson

48. “Si ce que tu as trouvé est fait de matière pure, cela ne pourrira jamais. Et tu pourras y revenir un jour. Si ce n’est qu’un instant de lumière, comme l’explosion d’une étoile, alors tu ne retrouveras rien à ton retour. Mais tu auras vu une explosion de lumière. Et cela seul aura déjà valu la peine d’être vécu.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

49. “No matter what you say, or how much you talk, someone isn’t really forgiven until you can stand beside them without wanting to slap them in the face.” - Alan Heathcock

50. “I don't understand women that call themselves a "bitch". It doesn't empower a woman. Rather, it reveals to everyone that you were deeply hurt at one time. Because of the pain your still carrying, you will continue to hurt anyone that reminds you of those moments when you let your guard down and were fooled. Sadly, it sends a clear message to the observant that you are still hurt. If only women would realize that "we all" have moments of stupidity then they would stop comparing themselves to the masses.” - Shannon L. Alder

51. “I could simply kill you now, get it over with, who would know the difference? I could easily kick you in, stove you under, for all those times, mean on gin, you rammed words into my belly. (p. 52)” - Barbara Blatner

52. “Neither alive nor dead; No one lets up, No one wins.” - Dejan Stojanovic

53. “A cynical modification of letting go doesn't bring forgiveness, it's when, once you forgive, will you be able to let go.” - Anthony Liccione

54. “I realized how hard it that must have been, how much hurt when you know the only way to help someone is to give him distance. So I let him go.” - Katie Kacvinsky

55. “He cried that night for all that he had lost, but he would say it taught him a valuable lesson: that holding on to things "will only break your heart.” - Mitch Albom

56. “It's not a case of the glass being half full or half empty; more that we tipped a whole half-pint into an empty pint pot. I had to see how much was there, though, and now I know.” - Nick Hornby

57. “Don’t hang onto anything too tightly – all things must change and you have to allow room for them to grow and blossom.” - Rachael Bermingham

58. “Peace of mind arrives the moment you come to peace with the contents of your mind.” - Rasheed Ogunlaru

59. “If they don't walk away, we have to walk away, and sometimes we do it crying.” - Donna Lynn Hope

60. “I love you, and I want you to be happy, I want you to have the life you deserve. And if that means … if that means I have to stand here and watch you walk away, then I’ll do it. I won’t be happy about it. It’ll break my heart. But … if that’s what you really need, then we’re done.” - Charles Sheehan-Miles

61. “Closing The CycleOne always has to know when a stage comes to an end. If we insist on staying longer than the necessary time, we lose the happiness and the meaning of the other stages we have to go through. Closing cycles, shutting doors, ending chapters - whatever name we give it, what matters is to leave in the past the moments of life that have finished.Did you lose your job? Has a loving relationship come to an end? Did you leave your parents' house? Gone to live abroad? Has a long-lasting friendship ended all of a sudden?You can spend a long time wondering why this has happened. You can tell yourself you won't take another step until you find out why certain things that were so important and so solid in your life have turned into dust, just like that. But such an attitude will be awfully stressing for everyone involved: your parents, your husband or wife, your friends, your children, your sister, everyone will be finishing chapters, turning over new leaves, getting on with life, and they will all feel bad seeing you at a standstill.None of us can be in the present and the past at the same time, not even when we try to understand the things that happen to us. What has passed will not return: we cannot for ever be children, late adolescents, sons that feel guilt or rancor towards our parents, lovers who day and night relive an affair with someone who has gone away and has not the least intention of coming back.Things pass, and the best we can do is to let them really go away. That is why it is so important (however painful it may be!) to destroy souvenirs, move, give lots of things away to orphanages, sell or donate the books you have at home. Everything in this visible world is a manifestation of the invisible world, of what is going on in our hearts - and getting rid of certain memories also means making some room for other memories to take their place.Let things go. Release them. Detach yourself from them. Nobody plays this life with marked cards, so sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. Do not expect anything in return, do not expect your efforts to be appreciated, your genius to be discovered, your love to be understood. Stop turning on your emotional television to watch the same program over and over again, the one that shows how much you suffered from a certain loss: that is only poisoning you, nothing else.Nothing is more dangerous than not accepting love relationships that are broken off, work that is promised but there is no starting date, decisions that are always put off waiting for the "ideal moment." Before a new chapter is begun, the old one has to be finished: tell yourself that what has passed will never come back. Remember that there was a time when you could live without that thing or that person - nothing is irreplaceable, a habit is not a need. This may sound so obvious, it may even be difficult, but it is very important.Closing cycles. Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because that no longer fits your life. Shut the door, change the record, clean the house, shake off the dust. Stop being who you were, and change into who you are.” - Paulo Coelho

62. “It's effortless to let go of self-absorbed people. It's challenging to let go of someone you care about and it's exceedingly difficult to let go of an ideal and a belief in someone because what exacerbates the disappointment of finding out they weren't who they presented themselves to be, is the betrayal of it.” - Donna Lynn Hope

63. “She had hope in her heart but after a while, with each step forward, hope stepped back. And for the first time in months, the first time ever, she began to weep, and as she did she knew that with the retreat of hope her heart had finally caught up with her head. And as each tear spilled over she let them go, she was letting go.” - Donna Lynn Hope

64. “People give up on each other long before they give up on themselves, and they do that, too.” - Donna Lynn Hope

65. “Why are you sad?" Baby asked."Because some day you'll fly higher than high, and the blue will fill your eyes, and maybe you'll forget to come down," said Wishmoley.Baby snuggled next to him. "I'll never forget," she said.” - Julia Hubery Mary McQuillam

66. “One day," she told us, "you'll have to leave here and go out into the big world out there and earn your living like everyone else. To do that you need to learn. The more you learn now, the more interesting your life will be.” - Michael Morpurgo

67. “We would do ourselves a tremendous favor by letting go of the people who poison our spirit.” - Steve Maraboli

68. “Life moves forward. The old leaves wither, die and fall away, and the new growth extends forward into the light.” - Bryant McGill

69. “Every relationship that has hit a crossroads has asked, “What is it that you want from me?” - Shannon L. Alder

70. “I hold my finger up to his lips. He flicks his eyes down to look at it."You're absolved," I tell him.He brings his eyes back up to mine. There's no fucking way he knows what that word means. That's a word I dream someone will say to me.So I put it in his language. "You're free.” - Hannah Moskowitz

71. “I know what you are. I've always known from the beginning, Kushiel's Chosen. It is folly, to make claim on one whom the gods have marked for their own. And unlike the others, I am no fool, to grasp at that which burns to the touch. What you have given..." she raised one hand, palm upward, the garnet seal dangling at her wrist, "... I hold in an open hand.” - Jacqueline Carey

72. “This is a story about survival.Letting go and learning to let in. Getting along and moving on. The truth about life.The things left unsaid...” - Nadège Richards