If you’ve recognized you need to set limits with people in your life, these toxic people quotes will help you do just that.
We all have toxic people in our lives who can’t be avoided.
It could be a friend, family member, or coworker whom you just can’t stand.
Their toxicity manifests in a lot of different ways.
Maybe they are full of interpersonal issues, are needy and disrespectful, or maybe they try to manipulate and control you, and are extremely critical of themselves and other people.
Whatever the case, dealing with toxic people isn’t easy.
If you are often made uncomfortable by how those around you treat you, maybe it’s time to set and maintain personal boundaries.
Clear boundaries that will help ensure your relationships are mutually respectful, supportive and caring.
You deserve to be treated well.
It’s time to establish boundaries in your life for negative people, and these toxic people quotes are the necessary first step.
They will inspire you to set the limits for acceptable behavior from those around you and help you avoid getting too close to people who don’t have your best interests at heart.
Toxic people can only upset you if you let them upset you.
Recognize and distance yourself from their behavior.
And when interacting with them, focus on the positive.
Below is our collection of inspirational, wise, and thoughtful, toxic people quotes, toxic people sayings, and toxic people proverbs, collected from a variety of sources over the years.
Toxic People Quotes To Help You Develop Boundaries
1. “Toxic people will pollute everything around them. Don’t hesitate. Fumigate.” ― Mandy Hale
2. “It’s amazing how quickly things can turn around when you remove toxic people from your life.” — Robert Tew
3. “You create more space in your life when you turn your excess baggage to garbage.” ― Chinonye J. Chidolue
4. “Pay no attention to toxic words. What people say is often a reflection of themselves, not you.” ― Christian Baloga
5. “Letting go of toxic people in your life is a big step in loving yourself.” – Hussein Nishah
6. “Don’t let toxic people infect you with the fear of giving and receiving one of the most powerful forces in this world… LOVE!”― Yvonne Pierre
7. “Don’t let negative and toxic people rent space in your head. Raise the rent and kick them out.” — Robert Tew
8. “You lift your spirits by moving away from what upsets you. If the stove is hot, you can’t ask how to touch it but be happy about it.” ― Queen Tourmaline
9. “If a person finds negative people in his life, then he needs to mend his own nature than that of others, for his own basic grounding decides the level of acidic or toxicity surrounding him.” — Anuj Somany
10. “If it comes, let it come. If it goes, it’s ok, let it go. Let things come and go. Stay calm, don’t let anything disturb your peace, and carry on.” ― Germany Kent
Also, read these manipulation quotes to keep toxic people away.
Toxic people quotes to inspire healthy self-respect
11. “There’s folks you just don’t need. You’re better off without em. Your life is just a little better because they ain’t in it.” ― William Gay
12. “There are people who break you down by just being them. They need not do anything. Dissociate” ― Malebo Sephodi
13. “Every day you must unlearn the ways that hold you back. You must rid yourself of negativity, so you can learn to fly.” — Leon Brown
14. “We all have those toxic people around us that make our lives miserable… The day we take them out from our lives, we will all become better people; including them…” ― Rodolfo Peon
15. “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
16. “How you choose to feel today should not be dependent on others.” ― Anthon St. Maarten
17. “May you reach that level within, where you no longer allow your past or people with toxic intentions to negatively affect or condition you.” ― Lalah Delia
18. “Surround yourself with positive people who believe in your dreams, encourage your ideas, support your ambitions, and bring out the best in you.” — Roy Bennett
19. “Let negative people live their negative lives with their negative minds.”― Moosa Rahat
20. “Toxic people attach themselves like cinder blocks tied to your ankles, and then invite you for a swim in their poisoned waters.” ― John Mark Green
Quotes about toxic friends, family and relationships
21. “As you remove toxic people from your life, you free up space and emotional energy for positive, healthy relationships.” ― John Mark Green
If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of toxic relationships quotes that will remind you it’s time to make some big changes.
22. “I have found the best way to deal with a toxic person is to not respond in any other way than monotone voice and a businesslike manner.” ― Jen Grice
23. “Weeding out the harmful influences should become the norm not the exception.” ― Carlos Wallace
24. “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.
25. “We teach people how to treat us.” – Dr. Phil
26. “Sometimes it’s better to end something & try to start something new than imprison yourself in hoping for the impossible.” – Karen Salmansohn
27. “People appear like angels until you hear them speak. You must not rush to judge people by the color of their cloaks, but by the content of their words!” ― Israelmore Ayivor
28. “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too can become great.” — Mark Twain
29. “Look around you at the people you spend the most time with and realize that your life can’t rise any higher than your friendships.” ― Mandy Hale
30. “Stop letting people who do so little for you control so much of your mind, feelings, and emotions.” — Will Smith
Toxic people quotes to help you set and maintain boundaries
31. “When people pressure you to engage in negative decisions and actions, look at them boldly in the eyes and dare them to do good.” ― Edmond Mbiaka
32. “Don’t ever stop believing in your own transformation. It is still happening even on days you may not realize it or feel like it.” ― Lalah Delia
33. “Letting go means to come to the realization that some people are a part of your history, but not a part of your destiny.” — Dr. Steve Maraboli
For additional reading, be sure to also check out these letting go quotes for finally moving on.
34. “If a negative viewer looks at you with an ugly fiendish eye, find a way and pluck off his eyes, or better still, protect your good image.” ― Michael Bassey Johnson
35. “People inspire you, or they drain you. Pick them wisely.” — Hans F. Hasen
36. “Save your skin from the corrosive acids from the mouths of toxic people. Someone who just helped you to speak evil about another person can later help another person to speak evil about you.” ― Israelmore Ayivor
37. “I will not allow anyone to walk in my mind with dirty feet.” – Mahatma Gandhi
38. “Some people are in such utter darkness that they will burn you just to see a light. Try not to take it personally.” ― Kamand Kojouri
39. “We do not have to be mental health professionals to identify the traits of the possible sociopaths among us.” ― P.A. Speers
40. “These are the attributes of Bullshit people; they will…blur your imagination, take your endowments for a piece of debris, make you ridiculous, and most importantly, you got to send them to the recycle bin.” ― Michael Bassey Johnson
Toxic people quotes to help you deal with negativity
41. “Don’t let people get the best of you they can say what they want but don’t let that distract you from achieving your goals.” ― Alcurtis Turner
42. “Until you let go of all the toxic people in your life you will never be able to grow into your fullest potential. Let them go so you can grow.” – DLQ
43. “The friends who would forsake you for choosing to live a positive life, would also leave you if you find yourself going through some painful consequences due to some negative decisions and actions.” ― Edmond Mbiaka
44. “You cannot expect to live a positive life if you hang with negative people.” — Joel Osteen
45. “We don’t get to choose our family, but we can choose our friends. With courage, we can weed out narcissistic people. We can focus on those who do appreciate us, love us, and treat us with respect.” ― Dana Arcuri
46. “If they do it often, it isn’t a mistake; it’s just their behavior.” — Dr. Steve Maraboli
47. “My encouragement: delete the energy vampires from your life, clean out all complexity, build a team around you that frees you to fly, remove anything toxic, and cherish simplicity. Because that’s where genius lives.” — Robin S. Sharma
48. “Someone who smiles too much with you can sometime frown too much with you at your back.” ― Michael Bassey Johnson
49. “It is really exhausting to live in a dictatorship of ‘Me’, which is basically a tyranny of others.” ― Stefan Molyneux
50. “Let go of negative people. They only show up to share complaints, problems, disastrous stories, fear, and judgment on others. If somebody is looking for a bin to throw all their trash into, make sure it’s not in your mind.” – Dalai Lama
Toxic people quotes to enlighten you
51. “To be of good quality, you have to excuse yourself from the presence of shallow and callow minded individuals.”― Michael Bassey Johnson
52. “The best defence is to keep off the radar of negative people.”― Steven Redhead
53. “Negative people can only infest you with discouragements when they find you around… Just get lost and get saved!” ― Israelmore Ayivor
54. “Avoid negative people, for they are the greatest destroyers of self confidence and self-esteem. Surround yourself with people who bring out the best in you!” – Auliq Ice
55. “Stay away from negative people. They drain your energy like vampires suck out human’s blood. Hell. They’re the real ‘dementors’.”― Riza Prasetyaningsih
56. “People who try to bring you down everyday aren’t important in your life, so you better treat their opinions as such.” – Terry Mark
57. “Negativity will distracts you from your goals, so don’t entertain it.”
― Carlos Wallace
58. “Negative people need drama like oxygen. Stay positve, it will take their breath away.” – Unknown
59. “Beware of those around you who subtly sow the seeds of doubt.”
― Wayne Gerard Trotman
60. “If you attach to the negative behavior of others it brings you down to their level.” – Guru Singh
Toxic people quotes to help you break free
61. “Stack all the rocks you want, but if you don’t let go of the toxic people and behaviors in your life, nothing will change.” – Steve Maraboli
62. “You better go alone, than with negative people!” – Israelmore Ayivor
63. “There are many good seeds in you. Therefore you must avoid every bad soil in the world.” – Israelmore Ayivor
64. “Unhappy people can be very dangerous, don’t forget that.” – S.E. Lynes
65. “An oppressive nature is like inclement weather, surrounding others and crushing them down with its infectious gloom.” – Stewart Stafford
66. “Don’t confuse “familiar” with “acceptable”. Toxic relationships can fool you like that.” – Steve Maraboli
67. “They like you more when you don’t challenge them. They prefer to have an upper hand over you.” – Mitta Xinindlu
68. “Toxic people don’t like it when others see through them, so they’ll do all they can to make everyone else look like a monster.” – Nitya Prakash
69. “Handling toxic people is not an art, they will be the victim of their own toxicity.” – P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar
70. “Hanging around the small-minded eventually makes us small-minded. The plant only grows as big as the environment it’s in.” – Torron-Lee Dewar
71. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
72. “Keeping baggage from the past will leave no room for happiness in the future.” –
Wayne L. Misner
73. “Like arsenic, toxic people will slowly kill you. They kill your positive spirit and play with your mind and emotions. The only cure is to let them go.” — Denisse Lisseth
74. “Real love moves freely in both directions. Don’t waste your time on anything else.” — Cheryl Strayed
75. “Stay away from negative people. They have a problem for every solution.” – Albert Einstein
Other toxic people quotes and sayings
76. “Don’t settle for a relationship that won’t let you be yourself.” — Oprah Winfrey
77. “If you walked away from a toxic, negative, abusive, one-sided, dead-end low vibrational relationship or friendship — you won.” – Lalah Delia
78. “Love yourself first, and everything else falls into line.” — Lucille Ball
79. “Don’t waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
80. “Toxic people will make you feel like you’re holding a grudge. No, dude. That’s a boundary.” – Unknown
81. “Poisonous relationships can alter our perception. You can spend many years thinking you’re worthless. But you’re not worthless. You’re underappreciated.” – Steve Maraboli
82. “The less you respond to negative people, the more powerful your life will become.” – Unknown
83. “Yes, the people around us can be insensitive, narcissistic, toxic, and sometimes even abusive, but it is up to us to take that energy on or let it flow through us. No one is responsible for taking away our happiness but us.” – Aletheia Luna
84. “Never waste your time trying to explain yourself to people who are committed to misunderstanding you.” — Unknown
85. “The idea is quite simple, stay a light year away from people who make you feel less about yourself.” – Mohith Agadi
86. “Keeping bad company is like being in a germ-infested area. You never know what you’ll catch.” – Frank Sonnenberg
87. “Losing will not always amount to a loss, sometimes you have to lose those toxic relationships and bad habits to create a space for better things.” – Gift Gugu Mona
88. “When you notice someone does something toxic the first time, don’t wait for the second time before you address it.” – Shahida Arabi
89. “Toxic people create chaos, point fingers, shift blame and avoid taking responsibility.” – Dr. Anne Brown RNMS
90. “An entire sea of water can’t sink a ship unless it gets inside the ship. Similarly, the negativity of the world can’t put you down unless you allow it to get inside you.” — Goi Nasu
91. “Because at some point you have to realize that some people can stay in your heart but not in your life.” – Sandi Lynn
92. “Don’t let toxic people sabotage your happiness, ruin your positive attitude, contaminate your mind or destroy your self-confidence. Instead, surround yourself with generous, positive, and nurturing people who will lift you up.” — Farshad Asl
93. “Remember… whoever is trying to bring you down is already below you.” – Ziad K. Abdelnour
94. “The only relationships that exist are based on truth. Everything else is just a mutual and isolating delusion.” ― Stefan Molyneux
95. “The wrong person will give you less than what you’re worth but that doesn’t mean that you have to accept it.” — Sonya Parker
Setting boundaries with toxic people quotes
96. “‘No’ is a complete sentence.” -Anne Lamott
97. “When we fail to set boundaries and hold people accountable, we feel used and mistreated.” -Brene Brown
98. “Evaluating the benefits and drawbacks of any relationship is your responsibility. You do not have to passively accept what is brought to you. You can choose.” -Deborah Day
99. “If you live your life to please everyone else, you will continue to feel frustrated and powerless. This is because what others want may not be good for you. You are not being mean when you say NO to unreasonable demands or when you express your ideas, feelings, and opinions, even if they differ from those of others.” -Beverly Engel
100. “Whether they’re family or friends, manipulators are difficult to escape from. Give in to their demands and they’ll be happy enough, but if you develop a spine and start saying no, it will inevitably bring a fresh round of head games and emotional blackmail. You’ll notice that breaking free from someone else’s dominance will often result in them accusing you of being selfish. Yes, you’re selfish, because you’ve stopped doing what they want you to do for them. Wow. Can these people hear themselves?!” -Rosie Blythe
101. “Boundaries are, in simple terms, the recognition of personal space.” -Asa Don Brown
102. “About the expression “Hurt people, hurt people”.. Hurt people are not going to stop HURTING other people until they receive the memo that it is WRONG, (or if there are actual consequences for their behaviour.) Feeling sorry for them and understanding where they ‘came from’ is not helping to stop the cycle of abuse.” -Darlene Ouimet
103. “Having healthy boundaries not only requires being able to say “no”, but also being willing and able to enforce that “no” when necessary.” -Jessica Moore
104. “An educational strategy to help you maintain your clear boundaries is the JADE technique. JADE is an acronym and it stands for:
J = Justify: Don’t try to justify yourself to toxic people. It’s unproductive.
A = Argue: Do not waste your energy arguing with toxic people.
D = Defend: Don’t waste your breath trying to defend yourself to those who don’t care.
E = Explain: Never explain yourself, especially to those who discredit you.
The goal of the JADE technique is to take back your power. To stand up for yourself without needing to defend or explain yourself. It’s essential to not engage in this ridiculous mind-game with abusive people.” -Dana Arcuri
105. “Boundaries we set for our life are important, life-saving even. A lot of hurt comes from allowing others to guilt us into breaking them.” -Zara Hairston
Toxic People Quotes That Life Becomes Easier Without Them
106. “When being in a toxic relationship in life at times you may have to step outside yourself, to see yourself, so you can find yourself and love yourself again.” — Angel Moreira
107. “When being in a toxic relationship in life at times you may have to step outside yourself, to see yourself, so you can find yourself and love yourself again.” — Angel Moreira
108. “A lot of people who have experienced trauma at the hands of people they’ve trusted take responsibility, and that is what’s toxic.” — Hannah Gadsby
109. “Entitlement is an expression of conditional love. Nobody is ever entitled to your love. You always have a right to protect your mental, emotional, and physical well-being by removing yourself from toxic people and circumstances.” — Dr. Janice Anderson & Kiersten Anderson
110. “Never rely on another person to make you feel whole.” — Karen Salmansohn
111. “I’ve found the most tragic aspect of losing loved ones wasn’t the big boom of the fallout, but realizing later how much healthier I was without them.” — Maggie Young
112. “Love yourself enough to set boundaries. Your time and energy are precious. You get to choose how you use it. You teach people how to treat you by deciding what you will and won’t accept.” — Anna Taylor
113. “Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.” — Hermann Hesse
114. “When someone tells me ‘no,’ it doesn’t mean I can’t do it, it simply means I can’t do it with them.” — Karen E. Quinones Miller
115. “I think most people know when they’re in a toxic relationship – it requires an enormous amount of effort to keep it going, and you don’t get what you want from it.” — Joanna Coles
Toxic People Quotes That Will Make You Achieve More After Cutting Them Off
116. “If people keep stepping on you, wear a pointy hat.” ― Joyce Rachelle
117. “If you’ve been through trauma you don’t need more drama, so surround yourself with those who bring you peace.” ― Christy Ann Martine
118. “The presence of the person you hate is far more agonizing than the absence of the person you love.” ― Shon Mehta
119. “Negativity is toxic. If you get busy celebrating life you will have no time for it. If for some reason, you’re not entirely satisfied with your life, boss up and change your situation.” ― Germany Kent
120. “Stop complaining about toxic people. You have the chance now to be better and do something new. Don’t settle where you harbor feelings of loss and guilt. New doors can open for you if you are willing to move forward and drop the negative attitude.” ― Germany Kent
121. “When dealing with toxic people, they always choose distance over disrespect.” ― Germany Kent
122. “Just because someone is your family doesn’t mean you have to keep them around if they are toxic or abusive. Don’t let people guilt you.” ― Winnie Nantongo
123. “I love the sound of NOT hearing from some people.” ― Steve Maraboli
124. “In order to reach your highest potential, it is imperative that you remove all negative people from your life.” ― Germany Kent
125. “Removing toxic people (including Naysayers) from your life can repay you in scores of holistic wealth.” ― Keisha Blair
Which of these toxic people quotes was your favorite?
Sometimes you find yourself with a friend, family member, or a partner who is really difficult to get along with.
When you’re around them, you feel degraded or manipulated.
Dealing with such people is never easy so you should find ways to tune out the toxicity that can’t be avoided.
Don’t invest too much time or effort with toxic people.
They don’t deserve your mental energy.
Hopefully, the toxic people quotes above will help you deal with such negative people.
How did you find these toxic people quotes?
Do you have any other inspirational quotes to add to the list?
Let us know in the comment section below.
Also, don’t forget to share with your friends and followers.
September 25, 2022 2:52 PM EST
