102 Recovery And Healing Quotes

In life's journey, we often encounter moments that test our resilience and strength. Whether it's overcoming personal challenges, healing from emotional wounds, or finding the courage to start anew, recovery and healing are integral parts of our growth and well-being. Sometimes, a few words of wisdom can provide the encouragement and insight we need to keep moving forward. In this blog post, we've curated a collection of the top 102 recovery and healing quotes that offer inspiration, comfort, and hope. Let these powerful words guide you on your path to healing and remind you of the strength you possess within.

1. “I think that little by little I'll be able to solve my problems and survive.” - Frida Kahlo

2. “You were sick, but now you're well again, and there's work to do.” - Kurt Vonnegut

3. “In truth, Serenus, I have for a long time been silently asking myself to what I should liken such a condition of mind, and I can find nothing that so closely approaches it as the state of those who, after being released from a long and serious illness, are sometimes touched with fits of fever and slight disorders, and, freed from the last traces of them, are nevertheless disquieted with mistrust, and, though now quite well, stretch out their wrist to a physician and complain unjustly of any trace of heat in their body. It is not, Serenus, that these are not quite well in body, but that they are not quite used to being well; just as even a tranquil sea will show some ripple, particularly when it has just subsided after a storm. What you need, therefore, is not any of those harsher measures which we have already left behind, the necessity of opposing yourself at this point, of being angry with yourself at that, of sternly urging yourself on at another, but that which comes last -confidence in yourself and the belief that you are on the right path, and have not been led astray by the many cross- tracks of those who are roaming in every direction, some of whom are wandering very near the path itself. But what you desire is something great and supreme and very near to being a god - to be unshaken. ” - seneca

4. “The question is not how to get cured, but how to live.” - Joseph Conrad

5. “Scars are not injuries, Tanner Sack. A scar is a healing. After injury, a scar is what makes you whole.” - China Miéville

6. “Karl Marx: "Religion is the opiate of the masses."Carrie Fisher: "I did masses of opiates religiously.” - Carrie Fisher

7. “Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed down-stairs one step at a time.” - Mark Twain

8. “it's not how far you fall, but how high you bounce that counts.” - Zig Ziglar

9. “All humans at some time experience injustice, assault, disqualification, invasion and betrayal. No person is completely shielded. We need not trace our family trees very far back or study for long what life was like for our forbears to uncover humanity's abusiveness. The inherited scars of our multigenerational families exist in our family systems as we know them today. The abuse of the past often exists as the shame of today, and the shame is perpetuated through our patterns of interaction.” - Merle A. Fossum

10. “You can get the monkey off your back, but the circus never leaves town” - Anne Lamott

11. “I am angry that I starved my brain and that I sat shivering in my bed at night instead of dancing or reading poetry or eating ice cream or kissing a boy...” - Laurie Halse Anderson

12. “I'm learning how to taste everything. ” - Laurie Halse Anderson

13. “Everything is, the way it is, for a reason. Or it isn't. Or neither. Or both. It's so hard to tell. It's so hard to tell you're a mile away by the Luke in your eye.” - Alistair McHarg

14. “A fine glass vase goes from treasure to trash, the moment it is broken. Fortunately, something else happens to you and me. Pick up your pieces. Then, help me gather mine.” - Vera Nazarian

15. “Whether I or anyone else accepted the concept of alcoholism as a disease didn't matter; what mattered was that when treated as a disease, those who suffered from it were most likely to recover.” - Craig Ferguson

16. “I found the prospect daunting, but somehow comforting, too, because the counselors insisted it could be done, and, after all, many of them were recovering alcoholics themselves.” - Craig Ferguson

17. “The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creatures that cannot.” - Mark Twain

18. “You were born a child of light’s wonderful secret— you return to the beauty you have always been.” - Aberjhani

19. “Another page turns on the calendar, April now, not March..........I am spinning the silk threads of my story, weaving the fabric of my world...I spun out of control. Eating was hard. Breathing was hard. Living was hardest.I wanted to swallow the bitter seeds of forgetfulness...Somehow, I dragged myself out of the dark and asked for help.I spin and weave and knit my words and visions until a life starts to take shape.There is no magic cure, no making it all go away forever. There are only small steps upward; an easier day, an unexpected laugh, a mirror that doesn't matter anymore.I am thawing.” - Laurie Halse Anderson

20. “A single day is enough to make us a little larger or, another time, a little smaller.” - Paul Klee

21. “I know now that we never get over great losses; we absorb them, and they carve us into different, often kinder, creatures.” - Gail Caldwell

22. “Hope in the beginning feels like such a violation of the loss, and yet without it we couldn't survive.” - Gail Caldwell

23. “And when you crush an apple with your teeth, say to it in your heart:Your seeds shall live in my body,And the buds of your tomorrow shall blossom in my heart,And your fragrance shall be my breath,And together we shall rejoice through all the seasons.” - Khalil Gibran

24. “Forgiveness is giving up the hope that the past could have been any different.” - Oprah Winfrey

25. “I swear, with Chloe Bear once again as my witness...That my problems and failures will not stop me, nor will they dictate who I am.That I will continue to be my own person.That life is too short, and I will live every day as the best person I can be.That I will grow and that I will change.That I will smile and hold my head high.That this is a new start and a new day.That I will allow myself to cry or sit by myself when I need to.That I will find things to really smile about.” - Stephen Emond

26. “Love taught me to die with dignity that I might come forth anew in splendor. Born once of flesh, then again of fire, I was reborn a third time to the sound of my name humming haikus in heaven’s mouth.” - Aberjhani

27. “She needed to recover. His father had died in January; it was only the end of May. They needed to stick to the routine they'd established during the intervening months. in that way, their life would return to its original shape, like a spring stretched in bad times but contracting eventually into happiness. That the world could come permanently unsprung had never occurred to him.” - David Wroblewski

28. “I believe in recovery, and as a role model I have the responsibility to let young people know that you can make a mistake and come back from it.” - Ann Richards

29. “We must be content to grow slowly. Most of us will still barely be at the beginning of our recovery by the time we die. But that is better than killing ourselves pretending to be healthy.” - Simon Tugwell

30. “If you desire healing,let yourself fall illlet yourself fall ill.” - Rumi

31. “First Embody the Emptiness of SilenceNext Embody the Fullness of Honesty & LoveThus Be HeavenSage Hope (Omid Mankoo) SH...” - Omid Mankoo

32. “One day at a time, sweet Jesus. Whoever wrote that one hadn’t a clue. A day is a fuckin’ eternity” - Roddy Doyle

33. “Recovery feels like shit. It didn't feel like I was doing something good; it felt like I was giving up. It feels like having to learn how to walk all over again.” - Portia De Rossi

34. “I am a work in progress.” - Violet Yates

35. “A lot of people who find out about the things I do immediately figure I'm just a pathetic "druggie" with nothing to say that is worth hearing. They talk endless bull shit of "recovery!" They make it sound like some amazing discovery...don't they know I'm far too busy trying to recover me?” - Ashly Lorenzana

36. “He still heard his mother's voice--"Davey"--rise like whisper-dust from unseen corners in the house, but it was no longer the only voice he heard. His ears were also filled with the voices of others--his father and Primrose and Refrigerator John and his grandmother. Of course, all of their words for a thousand years could not fill the hole left by his mother, but they could raise a loving fence around it so he didn't keep falling in.” - Jerry Spinelli

37. “Listen to God with a broken heart. He is not only the doctor who mends it, but also the father who wipes away the tears.” - Criss Jami

38. “It is not true that everyone is special. It is true that everyone was once special and still possesses the ability to recover it.” - Criss Jami

39. “The power of hope! Even a lack of ambition can, for a time, pay off as a necessary facet, as long as hope outweighs it.” - Criss Jami

40. “A lot of things are inherent in life -change, birth, death, aging, illness, accidents, calamities, and losses of all kinds- but these events don't have to be the cause of ongoing suffering. Yes, these events cause grief and sadness, but grief and sadness pass, like everything else, and are replaced with other experiences. The ego, however, clings to negative thoughts and feelings and, as a result, magnifies, intensifies, and sustains those emotions while the ego overlooks the subtle feelings of joy, gratitude, excitement, adventure, love, and peace that come from Essence. If we dwelt on these positive states as much as we generally dwell on our negative thoughts and painful emotions, our lives would be transformed.” - Gina Lake

41. “Public truth telling is a form of recovery, especially when combined with social action. Sharing traumatic experiences with others enables victims to reconstruct repressed memory, mourn loss, and master helplessness, which is trauma's essential insult. And, by facilitating reconnection to ordinary life, the public testimony helps survivors restore basic trust in a just world and overcome feelings of isolation. But the talking cure is predicated on the existence of a community willing to bear witness. 'Recovery can take place only within the context of relationships,' write Judith Herman. 'It cannot occur in isolation.” - Lawrence N. Powell

42. “Oh what a wonderful soul so bright inside you. Got power to heal the sun’s broken heart, power to restore the moon’s vision too.” - Aberjhani

43. “Given love and opportunity, every child and adult can recover. All who know this and have the capacity to help others should assist as they can.” - Dallin H. Oaks

44. “A bridge of silver wings stretches from the dead ashes of an unforgiving nightmareto the jeweled vision of a life started anew.” - Aberjhani

45. “We can be redeemed only to the extent to which we see ourselves.” - Martin Buber

46. “We take action when we have the honesty to admit that things are still broken, despite our best efforts otherwise. We take action when we hold ourselves continually open to new techniques, remaining resolutely receptive to new sources of support and new feeds of information. We take action when we are willing, in each new moment, to try again.” - Shannon Cutts

47. “Real hope combined with real action has always pulled me through difficult times. Real hope combined with doing nothing has never pulled me through.” - Jenni Schaefer

48. “Amy [Winehouse] increasingly became defined by her addiction. Our media though is more interested in tragedy than talent, so the ink began to defect from praising her gift to chronicling her downfall. The destructive personal relationships, the blood soaked ballet slippers, the aborted shows, that YouTube madness with the baby mice. In the public perception this ephemeral tittle-tattle replaced her timeless talent. This and her manner in our occasional meetings brought home to me the severity of her condition. Addiction is a serious disease; it will end with jail, mental institutions, or death.” - Russell Brand

49. “We've been there and come back. When you fall in the pit, people are supposed to help you up. But you have to get up on your own. We'll take your arms, but you have to get your legs underneath you and stand.” - Bucky Sinister

50. “Just as others pray daily, you should think to yourself daily about what you can do to be closer to this Ideal Image. Think: "What can I do today to make my life better?" "What can I do to become more like my Ideal Image?” - Bucky Sinister

51. “They got drunk and high on a regular basis, but this is a vestige of youth that you either quit while you're young or you become an addict if you don't die. If you are the Old Guy In The Punk House, move out. You have a substance abuse problem.” - Bucky Sinister

52. “Your best days are ahead of you. The movie starts when the guy gets sober and puts his life back together; it doesn't end there.” - Bucky Sinister

53. “The good news, however, is that, also contrary to popular belief, full and lasting recovery from an eating disorder is possible.” - Lynn Crilly

54. “Guilt is a destructive and ultimately pointless emotion” - Lynn Crilly

55. “One of the greatest evils is the foolishness of a good man. For the giving man to withhold helping someone in order to first assure personal fortification is not selfish, but to elude needless self-destruction; martyrdom is only practical when the thought is to die, else a good man faces the consequence of digging a hole from which he cannot escape, and truly helps no one in the long run.” - Mike Norton

56. “Love, Mercy, and Grace, sisters all, attend your wounds of silence and hope.” - Aberjhani

57. “I am evolving from being an animal,' he said. 'But it is going very, very slowly. Sometime I try to cry and laugh like other people, just to see if it feels like anything. Yet tears don't come. Laughter doesn't come.” - Blaine Harden

58. “Childhood trauma does not come in one single package.” - Asa Don Brown

59. “Trauma does not have to occur by abuse alone...” - Asa Don Brown

60. “Resiliency is the essence of a global positive framework...” - Asa Don Brown

61. “Everywhere we shine death and life burn into something new…” - Aberjhani

62. “Un-winged and naked, sorrow surrenders its crown to a throne called grace.” - Aberjhani

63. “One of the most dangerous myths surrounding eating disorders is that they are a life sentence.” - Lynn Crilly

64. “Anorexia cannot be cured by treating the physical symptoms alone; it is the mind which must be treated.” - Lynn Crilly

65. “The test we must set for ourselves is not to march alone but to march in such a way that others will wish to join us.” - Hubert Humphrey

66. “I felt empty and sad for years, and for a long, long time, alcohol worked. I’d drink, and all the sadness would go away. Not only did the sadness go away, but I was fantastic. I was beautiful, funny, I had a great figure, and I could do math. But at some point, the booze stopped working. That’s when drinking started sucking. Every time I drank, I could feel pieces of me leaving. I continued to drink until there was nothing left. Just emptiness.” - Dina Kucera

67. “History dressed up in the glow of love’s kiss turned grief into beauty.” - Aberjhani

68. “Gratitude isn't a tool to manipulate the universe or God. It's a way to acknowledge our faith that everything happens for a reason even if we don't know what that reason is. ~Melody Beattie, 52 Weeks of Conscious Contact, pg. 34.” - Melody Beattie

69. “Like Sylvia Plath, Natalie Jeanne Champagne invites you so close to the pain and agony of her life of mental illness and addiction, which leaves you gasping from shock and laughing moments later: this is both the beauty and unique nature of her storytelling. With brilliance and courage, the author's brave and candid chronicle travels where no other memoir about mental illness and addiction has gone before. The Third Sunrise is an incredible triumph and Natalie Jeanne Champagne is without a doubt the most important new voice in this genre.” - Andy Behrman

70. “An intensely gripping narrative...expertly crafted and totally addictive...a must read!” - Maggie Reese

71. “And the way you lost your temper!" went on Wallis enthusiastically. "Oh, Mr. Allan, it was beautiful! You haven't been more than to say snarly since the accident! It was so like the way you used to throw hair-brushes--” - Margaret Widdemer

72. “My brother trolled recovery and support groups, searching for women with dependency issues, the way I frequented bookstores with the hope of finding a well-adjusted, intelligent woman. Between us, his record was more stellar, his sin more reprehensible; though, knowing my brother, he slept soundly through the night without ever experiencing the slightest remorse.” - Richard J. O'Brien

73. “This rose of pearl-coated infinity transformsthe diseased slums of a broken heartinto a palace made of psalms and gold.” - Aberjhani

74. “What hell condemned, let heaven now heal.” - Aberjhani

75. “But it is hazardous and, I believe, counterproductive to become frozen in time by an obsession with past wrongs and errors.” - George McGovern

76. “Then came the healing time, hearts started to shine, soul felt so fine, oh what a freeing time it was.” - Aberjhani

77. “Alcoholism or addiction is a disease because it fits the definition of disease. It is progressive and chronic, and left untreated, it will kill.” - Irene Tomkinson

78. “Somewhere in the distance I hear the bucket clatter to the floor. I plunge the knife into his head, again and again. His arms lash out blindly, getting in the way. Blood mixes with water cascading to the floor. Meathead staggers to his feet, pulling off his shirt, trying to peel away the agony, but his skin comes away with it, leaving a raw, red mess. There’s a shrill alarm and the sound of pounding feet. I hurl the knife through the bars at the window. A blur of dark faces converge in my vision, fists and feet, punching and kicking. Meathead’s mates are yanking me off, trying to hurt me. Screws come rushing and soon they’re everywhere as I’m half-carried, half-dragged along the corridor. ‘Blimey,’ a thought comes from somewhere in all the chaos, ‘I’ve only been out a day and already I’m heading straight back down the chokey!’ The last thing I see, as a screaming Meathead is hurried to the hospital, is my cellmate in the middle of the crowd peering worriedly after me. Course he’s worried! The stinky bastard is wondering where his next bit of scag is coming from!” - Harry Shaw

79. “Searching for a mind long lost I found it shaping colors and history near the cliffs of your heart.” - Aberjhani

80. “When the sum of our faith and humility is sufficient, it reaches a type of spiritual critical mass and hope is fostered and grows. A willing heart emerges which generates the ability for us to submit to the process of recovery.” - Roger Stark

81. “The winds of tribulation blow out some men's candles of commitment.(Maxwell) Our job in recovery is to protect our candle from those winds.” - Roger Stark

82. “Compulsive behavior occurs when the urge to act out is greater than our will to say no. Recovery then, is the process of reversing that equation.” - Roger Stark

83. “Every great tragedy forms a fertile soil in which a great recovery can take root and blossom...but only if you plant the seeds.” - Steve Maraboli

84. “Then the long nights, that were also days, in the hospital. And the long blanks, that were also nights. Needles, and angled glass rods to suck water through. Needles, and curious enamel wedges slid under your middle. Needles, and - needles and needles and needles. Like swarms of persistent mosquitoes with unbreakable drills. The way a pincushion feels, if it could feel. Or the target of a porcupine. Or a case of not just momentary but permanently endured static electricity after you scuff across a woolen rug and then put your finger on a light switch. Even food was a needle - a jab into a vein...("For The Rest Of Her Life")” - Cornell Woolrich

85. “Waiting to be 'better' is the wrong approach. It's learning to live with it.” - Marian Keyes

86. “I almost wish I had cancer. Then I’d either beat it or die from it. But my disease, even if successfully treated, will never go away. And it might not kill me. But it will hang over me like the blade of a guillotine; more threatening inert than if the blade suddenly slips and mercifully turns out my lights. This is my war to end all wars.” - William Cope Moyers

87. “Spurred by Amy’s death I’ve tried to salvage unwilling victims from the mayhem of the internal storm and am always, always just pulled inside myself.” - Russell Brand

88. “What was so painful about Amy’s death is that I know that there is something I could have done. I could have passed on to her the solution that was freely given to me. Don’t pick up a drink or drug, one day at a time. It sounds so simple; it actually is simple but it isn’t easy; it requires incredible support and fastidious structuring.” - Russell Brand

89. “The mentality and behavior of drug addicts and alcoholics is wholly irrational until you understand that they are completely powerless over their addiction and unless they have structured help, they have no hope.” - Russell Brand

90. “Underlying the attack on psychotherapy, I believe, is a recognition of the potential power of any relationship of witnessing. The consulting room is a privileged space dedicated to memory. Within that space, survivors gain the freedom to know and tell their stories. Even the most private and confidential disclosure of past abuses increases the likelihood of eventual public disclosure. And public disclosure is something that perpetrators are determined to prevent. As in the case of more overtly political crimes, perpetrators will fight tenaciously to ensure that their abuses remain unseen, unacknowledged, and consigned to oblivion. The dialectic of trauma is playing itself out once again. It is worth remembering that this is not the first time in history that those who have listened closely to trauma survivors have been subject to challenge. Nor will it be the last. In the past few years, many clinicians have had to learn to deal with the same tactics of harassment and intimidation that grassroots advocates for women, children and other oppressed groups have long endured. We, the bystanders, have had to look within ourselves to find some small portion of the courage that victims of violence must muster every day. Some attacks have been downright silly; many have been quite ugly. Though frightening, these attacks are an implicit tribute to the power of the healing relationship. They remind us that creating a protected space where survivors can speak their truth is an act of liberation. They remind us that bearing witness, even within the confines of that sanctuary, is an act of solidarity. They remind us also that moral neutrality in the conflict between victim and perpetrator is not an option. Like all other bystanders, therapists are sometimes forced to take sides. Those who stand with the victim will inevitably have to face the perpetrator's unmasked fury. For many of us, there can be no greater honor. p.246 - 247Judith Lewis Herman, M.D. February, 1997” - Judith Lewis Herman

91. “…is methodical abuse, often using indoctrination, aimed at breaking the will of another human being. In a 1989 report, the Ritual Abuse Task Force of the L.A. County Commission for Women defined ritual abuse as: “Ritual Abuse usually involves repeated abuse over an extended period of time. The physical abuse is severe, sometimes including torture and killing. The sexual abuse is usually painful,humiliating, intended as a means of gaining dominance over the victim.The psychological abuse is devastating and involves the use of ritual indoctrination. It includes mind control techniques which convey to the victim a profound terror of the cult members …most victims are in a state of terror, mind control and dissociation” (Pg. 35-36)” - Chrystine Oksana

92. “Those who support such survivors of abuse often find it difficult to hear the reality of those survivors' lives and experience and are often unsupported themselves. Rather than being supported, workers are often ridiculed, castigated or accused of being gullible or of giving the survivor false memories. Many workers work in isolation and a climate of hostility and are unable to talk about the work they do.Yes, despite all the odds, survivors of ritual abuse are beginning to speak out about their experiences, and some people, mainly in voluntary organisations, are beginning to listen to them and support them.[Published 2001]” - Laurie Matthew

93. “In a nutshell, the process they [abusers in a ritual abuse group] use on survivors is designed to:break the will and personality of the person until they become as nothing... with no will of their own...no identity...then they... rebuild the person & shape their will in order to...try and make the person one of them...thus gaining powerIf abusers hold all the power, becoming one of them can, for some, be the only means of survival. However, this doesn't always work, instead survivors often find ways of regaining their own power and fighting back.” - Laurie Matthew

94. “Political prisoners describe:- extreme physical and emotional torture- distortion of language, truth, meaning and reality- sham killings- begin repeatedly taken to the point of death or threatened with death- being forced to witness abusive acts on others- being forced to make impossible "choices"- boundaries smashed i.e. by the use of forced nakedness, shame, embarrassment- hoaxes, 'set ups', testing and tricks- being forced to hurt othersRitual abuse survivors often describe much the same things.” - Laurie Matthew

95. “In some counties, there is an actual named crime of ritual abuse and there too, there have been convictions.” - Laurie Matthew

96. “Do not wait and hope to be discovered...make yourself so you cannot be denied!” - Jamie McCall

97. “Why couldn’t I find one action that would make the need to binge automatically disappear? Because there is no magic action to make that horrible prebinge feeling go away. The cool thing is that we are designed so that the feeling will pass through us on its own—in time. All we have to do is sit there and feel what is going on inside of us. We must experience the feelings. To help us deal with the feelings, we can call someone on our support team. We can also express the feelings by focusing on our breath or even hitting a pillow. The important thing to remember is that no matter how terrible, feelings do pass. It takes patience and trust—not food . . .” - Jenni Schaefer

98. “To stay in recovery, you must be responsible for finding your own motivation. Remember, motivation may not be easy to come by at first. It will probably be a very small, timid part inside of you. When you find it, let that part be in charge. Let the minority rule and lead you to a life you never dreamed was possible” - Jenni Schaefer

99. “I wrote in my journal about how good I felt when I was not living under Ed’s control. Then, when I really felt like giving up, I read these pages and realized that I was striving for in recovery was a real possibility. I thought about these experiences and used them as encouragement to keep moving forward. Even one minute of freedom was proof that I was getting better. At first, these times were few and far between. Now, these moments are connected; they are my life” - Jenni Schaefer

100. “Just because you may live your life in recovery, surely doesn't mean the PARTY IS OVER, Nope!, it just means you can remember what you DID LAST NIGHT!".LOL” - Catherine Townsend-Lyon

101. “Why do prostitutes when they get straight always try and get so prim? It's like long-repressed librarian-ambitions come flooding out.” - David Foster Wallace

102. “Only love can neutralize shame.” - Omar Manejwala