If you drop something and it breaks, it'll never be the same. No matter how much Elmer's glue you use, you cannot restore something to the way it once was. I remember when I was younger I broke one of my grandmother's angel figures. To this day you can still see the crack in her weeping face where I tried gluing it back together. In a way, it made her much more aesthetic than she once was. Kind of like she was once broken, but now she's trying to hold it together.
I try to imagine a broken heart the same. It breaks. Someone breaks it. We die a little inside. We glue it back together, even though the cracks are still visible. We let it get a little stronger. Then we shield it.
In this day and age I've noticed broken hearts are a little more prevalent. I find this true because no one takes each other serious anymore. People my age care more about who they are going home with at night than actually loving. Maybe this is a coping method from having your heart shattered so many times? I don't really know.
Having a broken heart does not necessarily mean we have to stop loving or giving it to others who deserve it. Many times we push people who want to love us away because we are afraid of adding another crack to our collection. Yes, we may have trust issues now and do not want to commit, but if we let that stand in the way we will never experience real love. I'm sure we all need to realize that we will break hearts as many times as ours has been broken and that is OK.
Loving someone with an injured heart definitely is not impossible. This relationship will just require more patience than the previous ones. You'll have a harder time than most new couples. Instead of having cute date nights, you'll go through periods of silence and will have to chisel away at a wall that was built way before you.
There will be times where you'll feel like you're the problem, but trust me you're not. Your significant other isn't used to what is being introduced to him/her. They are used to feeling unwanted, useless and replaceable because of their ex. They are not used to showing emotion and communicating. They are not used to being themselves in front of you and opening up. Keep chiseling, though, it's worth it.
When they give you a chance, see it as your biggest accomplishment. You are someone that has come into their life and they have trusted yo enough to try again. Even though they have been hurt before, they see you as someone worth being hurt again for. They have seen something inside of you that has given them that tiny amount of hope. That truly says something about you. There are still going to be rough patches because trust must be built up again. The ability to love must be built up again. They are going to be worth every moment, though. Just hold on and be patient.