50 Trap Quotes To Get You Unstuck

These trap quotes will have you evaluating your beliefs on success, life, love, and money.

Share some of your favorite trap quotes with us in the comment section below.

What is a trap? The definition is going to vary depending on who you ask.

To some, a trap is a place to be ensnared or captured.

For others, it is the idea of knowing better but falling victim to a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Still, for others, it means a place to hustle and work so they can improve their quality of life.

Whatever your definition, these trap quotes will speak to you.

There are many traps in life. Social traps, economic traps, health traps, and relationship traps.

We are all vulnerable to something on our life journey. Believing otherwise can be a trap.

British American physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson once shared that “Only people blinded by ideology fall into the trap of believing in their own infallibility.”

Check out these trap quotes for more inspiration.

Check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily inspiration.

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Trap Quotes for Instagram

1. “A waffle is like a pancake with a syrup trap.” — Mitch Hedberg

You will also enjoy our article on Grease quotes.

2. “I never wanted to grow up. It really is a trap.” — Tierra Whack

3. “The trap had a ghastly perfection” ― Stephen King, The Gunslinger

4. “Knowing where the trap is—that’s the first step in evading it.” ― Frank Herbert, Dune

5. “Belief traps or frees us.” ― Rachel Naomi Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories that Heal

6. “Clear out your thoughts, don’t believe everything you think,it might be a trap within” ― Napz Cherub Pellazo

7. “A trap is only a trap if you don’t know about it. If you know about it, it’s a challenge.” ― China Miéville, King Rat

8. “The feeling of being both trapped and free at the same time is the most mind twisting feeling of all.” ― Melody Lee, Moon Gypsy

9. “But difficult situations and wrong choices conspire to trap us in hopelessness.” ― Judah Smith, Jesus Is: Find a New Way to Be Human

10. “Just because you escape one trap, doesn’t mean you will escape the next.” ― Leigh Bardugo, The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic

Trap quotes about life and success

11. “The maze that ends in the trap is life.” ― Skender Nitaj

12. “I didn’t want to fall into the trap of complacency.” — Taj Mahal

13. “The greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity or power, but self-rejection.” — Henri Nouwen

14. “Man is the only kind of varmint that sets his own trap, baits it, then steps in it.” — John Steinbeck

15. “Only people blinded by ideology fall into the trap of believing in their own infallibility.” — Freeman Dyson

16. “Be ready to pay the price of your dreams. Free cheese can only be found in a mousetrap.” ― Paulo Coelho

17. “Security is a complicated idea and one with an immense potential to trap us – that was one lesson I learnt from my father.” — John Lanchester

18. “The trap of instant gratification is one of the greatest traps of humanity in modern times.” ― Monjyoti Bhattacharyya, A Relentless Pursuit of the Truth

19. “We are slowly killing ourselves by thinking about everything. Think. Think. Think. You can never trust the human mind, anyway. It’s a death trap.” — Anthony Hopkins

20. “Don’t rely on previous valiance to carry you over to the next day. This traps you in the past. Every day can be the best day of your life. Your best days are ahead of you.” ― Richie Norton

Trap quotes about love and relationships

21. “Marriage is obsolete and a trap.” — Catherine Deneuve

22. “Was there ever a trap to match the trap of love?” — Stephen King

23. “Looks can be deceiving but let’s not fall into the looks trap.” ― Fatima Faisal

24. “Love is a trap. When it appears, we see only its light, not its shadows.” — Paulo Coelho

25. “Love came and went as often as the tide. Feelings changed. He never wanted to fall into that trap. Why allow himself to fall for something as frail as love?” — Kelly Moran

26. “Love is an excuse to put up with the shit that you shouldn’t. That’s how it gets you. It throws off the scales so that things that should weigh heavily don’t seem to. It’s a crock. A trap.” — Sarah Dessen

27. “Men know the damage a few words can do to girls’ hearts, and, idiots that we are, we swoon away and fall into the trap, excited because at last a man has set one for us.” — Gregoire Delacourt

28. “Not trust. There is none. Not honesty. Honesty is a farce. And definitely not love. Love was the greatest ruse of all. Designed to trap and enslave and ultimately destroy.” — Elisabeth Naughton

29. “You shoulda known the entirety of the trap, a**hole. Love means eventual pain. Victory means eventual defeat. Grace means eventual slovenliness. There’s no way out… you see, you understand?” — Charles Bukowski

30. “The trap is when you start to pay attention to that stuff and care, because in six months, they’re going to be looking at someone else. You know how fickle everyone is. They love it, then they hate it, then they love it. So I’m going to enjoy it because it could be over at any minute.” — Ellen Pompeo

Things and careers that trap us quotes

31. “Being a writer is a poverty trap. I mean, it’s a terrible profession.” — Pat Barker

32. “A city that out distances man’s walking powers is a trap for man.” — Arnold J. Toynbee

33. “I do everything I think possible or acceptable to escape from this trap.” — Jacques Derrida

34. “I hate the term ‘work-life balance.’ I think it’s a setup, and it’s trap for all of us.” — Ruth Porat

35. “Hollywood is so governed by the ego, and I never wanted to fall into that trap.” — Kimberly Elise

36. “The real purpose of books is to trap the mind into doing its own thinking.” — Christopher Morley

37. “Writing is an amazing place to hide, to go into the rabbit hole, and pull the trap door down over your head.” — Ann Patchett

38. “Modeling is a great beginning, but it’s also a kind of trap if you have any ambition or a mind that needs to be stimulated.” — Maud Adams

39. “It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking our careers will come to a standstill, or worse, crash and burn if we aren’t social media butterflies.” — M. J. Rose

40. “I quit drinking because I thought somewhere I had fallen in that trap of addiction, and the only way to get out of it was to acknowledge it to myself.” — Pooja Bhatt

Trap quotes about money, investment, and business

41. “You can’t get into the trap of paying for customer acquisition.” — Aileen Lee

42. “There is no such thing as a value trap. There are investing mistakes.” — Mohnish Pabrai

43. “A lot of times you can fall into the trap of expecting too much before things actually happen.” — Baron Davis

44. “It takes some discipline and hard work, but relying on credit when things go wrong is a trap.” — Dave Ramsey

45. “Too often, the public can fall into the trap of investing when stock prices are rising, not dropping.” — Kelly Evans

46. “A positive, beaming smile is the trap that catches customers.” ― Utibe Samuel Mbom, The Event Usher’s Handbook

47. “Ultimately, multiple livelihood opportunities alone can insulate farmers in rainfed areas from the debt trap.” — M. S. Swaminathan

48. “Economists have allowed themselves to walk into a trap where we say we can forecast, but no serious economist thinks we can.” — Tim Harford

49. “Humility is the true key to success. Successful people lose their way at times. They often embrace and overindulge from the fruits of success. Humility halts this arrogance and self-indulging trap. Humble people share the credit and wealth, remaining focused and hungry to continue the journey of success.” — Rick Pitino

50. “Debt is a trap, especially student debt, which is enormous, far larger than credit card debt. It’s a trap for the rest of your life because the laws are designed so that you can’t get out of it. If a business, say, gets in too much debt, it can declare bankruptcy, but individuals can almost never be relieved of student debt through bankruptcy.” — Noam Chomsky

What can we do about these traps?

Most of us are people who are trying to live a good life.

We may not have to worry about having a literal bear trap ensnare us and clamp our legs.

However, there are many other traps in life we can fall victim to.

Sometimes we can get caught up and trapped in our own belief systems or perceptions.

Other times ideas we have about ourselves, which may or may not be true, can cause us to stumble and feel trapped.

As the Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija points out, it is possible for us to get “wrapped up in reacting to one’s own reputation, which can be a kind of trap.”

Experience makes life special.

As we continue on our journey of learning and growing, inevitably, we will come across certain traps.

It is up to us to have the vision to see these traps for what they are and create solutions that work for us in a meaningful way.