There are only a handful of books that gained internet fame overnight. It Ends With Us is one such book. The BookTok and Bookstagram girlies loved it and I picked it up just to see if it lives up to the hype. Surprise, surprise! It didn’t. I hated it. However, there were a few It Ends With Us quotes that were impossible to ignore.
They captured heartbreak, strength, and the messy reality of love. It doesn’t matter whether you loved the book or, like me, weren’t completely sold; these sentences and quotes show why it became such a social media sensation. Here are 25 quotes from It Ends With Us that are beautiful, heartbreaking, and unforgettable.
- “You’re the most important part of my life, Lily. I want to be what brings you happiness. Not what causes you to hurt.” — Ryle Kincaid. Chapter 14, Page 191.
- “Just because someone hurts you doesn’t mean you can simply stop loving them. It’s not a person’s actions that hurt the most. It’s the love. If there was no love attached to the action, the pain would be a little easier to bear.” — Lily Bloom. Chapter 30, Page 321.
- “I love him. I still do and I always will. He was a huge wave that left a lot of imprints on my life, and I’ll feel the weight of that love until I die. I’ve accepted that.” — Lily Bloom. Chapter 17, Page 218.
- “You are my wife. I’m supposed to be the one who protects you from the monsters. I’m not supposed to be one.” — Ryle Kincaid. Chapter 20, Page 241.
- “You warned me. You said one time with you wouldn’t be enough. You said you were like a drug. But you failed to tell me you were the most addictive kind.” — Ryle Kincaid. Chapter 9, Page 123.
- “Maybe love isn’t something that comes full circle. It just ebbs and flows, in and out, just like the people in our lives.” — Lily Bloom. Chapter 17, Page 217.
- “I’m sure there’s more substance in the love between two adults than there is between two teenagers. There’s probably more maturity, more respect, more responsibility. But no matter how different the substance of a love might be at different ages in a person’s life, I know that love still has to weigh the same.” — Lily Bloom. Chapter 17, Page 210.
- “When life gets you down do you wanna know what you’ve gotta do? . . . Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.” — Lily Bloom. Chapter 11, Page 131.
- “I’ll keep pretending to swim, when really all I’m doing is floating. Barely keeping my head above water.” — Lily Bloom. Chapter 17, Page 217.
- “Atlas kept swimming, and look at him now. He swam all the way to the f Caribbean.” — Lily Bloom. Chapter 24, Page 274.
- “Lily, Atlas says just keep swimming. — Ellen DeGeneres” — Ellen DeGeneres. Chapter 16, Page 208.
- “All humans make mistakes. What determines a person’s character aren’t the mistakes we make. It’s how we take those mistakes and turn them into lessons rather than excuses.” — Lily Bloom. Chapter 14, Page 192.
- “But sometimes you can’t control where your mind goes. You just have to train it not to go there anymore.” — Lily Bloom. Chapter 2, Page 37.
- “I am a brave and bold businesswoman with zero f*s to give for men in scrubs.” — Lily Bloom. Chapter 5, Page 75.
- “Cycles exist because they are excruciating to break. It takes an astronomical amount of pain and courage to disrupt a familiar pattern. Sometimes it seems easier to just keep running in the same familiar circles, rather than facing the fear of jumping and possibly not landing on your feet.” — Lily Bloom. Chapter 35, Page 360.
- “It stops here. With me and you. It ends with us.” — Lily Bloom. Chapter 35, Page 361.
- “And as hard as this choice is, we break the pattern before the pattern breaks us.” — Lily Bloom. Chapter 35, Page 360.
- “Every incident chips away at your limit. Every time you choose to stay, it makes the next time that much harder to leave. Eventually, you lose sight of your limit altogether, because you start to think, ‘I’ve lasted five years now. What’s five more?’” — Jenny Bloom. Chapter 32, Page 335.
- “We all have a limit. What we’re willing to put up with before we break…with every incident…my limit was pushed a little more…The first time your father hit me, he was immediately sorry…The second time he hit me, he was even more sorry. The third time…it was a beating…But the fourth time, it was only a slap. And when that happened, I felt relieved. I remember thinking, ‘At least he didn’t beat me this time. This wasn’t so bad.’” — Jenny Bloom. Chapter 32, Page 335.
- “Shouldn’t there be more distaste in our mouths for the abusers than for those who continue to love the abusers?” — Lily Bloom. Chapter 25, Page 283.
- “People spend so much time wondering why the women don’t leave. Where are all the people who wonder why the men are even abusive? Isn’t that where the only blame should be placed?” — Lily Bloom: Chapter 24, Page 274.
- “In the future… if by some miracle you ever find yourself in the position to fall in love again… fall in love with me.” He presses his lips against my forehead. “You’re still my favorite person, Lily. Always will be.” — Atlas Corrigan. Chapter 28, Pages 309-310.
- “There is no such thing as bad people. We’re all just people who sometimes do bad things.” — Ryle Kincaid. Chapter 1, Page 17
- “No one is exclusively bad, nor is anyone exclusively good. Some are just forced to work harder at suppressing the bad.” — Lily Bloom Chapter 1, Page 17,
- “I feel like everyone fakes who they really are, when deep down we’re all equal amounts of screwed up. Some of us are just better at hiding it than others.” — Ryle Kincaid. Chapter 1, Page 16.
Through Ryle, Atlas, Lily, and other characters from the book, Colleen Hoover depicts the complexity of love, relationships, grief, and growth. These 25 quotes from It Ends With Us have made me ache and care for the characters despite not liking the book.
This shows the depth of Hoover’s writing. She made me care about those I could not relate with. That’s a testament to her ability to weave beautiful sentences. Plus, it is safe to say that this book has touched so many lives and continues to resonate with those around the world.
