75 Recovery Quotes To Inspire Hope and Healing

Recovering is one of the bravest things a person can do. Whether it's overcoming addiction, healing from a physical injury or finding strength after heartbreak, recovery is a path that requires resilience and self-compassion. Recovery quotes can empower and lift someone’s spirits—all through the power of a few words. These recovery quotes do just that, offering inspiration for anyone facing the road back to themselves.

Recovery is a deeply personal journey, marked by resilience, growth and hope. Yes, there's pain in recovery, but it's also well worth celebrating the resilience that grows through it. Setbacks and hardships are part of the journey, but so are triumphs and progress—no matter how small.

Looking for inspiration for yourself? Ready to support someone else on their recovery journey? These recovery quotes offer hope and positivity to help carry anyone through tough times. They encourage us to keep going, believe in better days ahead and trust in our inner strength. Recovery is not always easy, but it is always possible.

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75 Recovery Quotes

1. "Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out." –Robert Collier

2. "Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will." –Mahatma Gandhi

3. "Amazing how we can light tomorrow with today." –Elizabeth Barrett Browning

4. "Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny." –C.S. Lewis

5. "It always seems impossible until it's done." –Nelson Mandela 

6. "Recovery is something that you have to work on every single day and it’s something that it doesn’t get a day off." –Demi Lovato

7. "Understanding the difference between healthy striving and perfectionism is critical to laying down the shield and picking up your life." –Brené Brown

8. "If things go wrong, don't go with them." –Roger Babson

9. "The best way out is always through." –Robert Frost

10. "Recovery is an acceptance that your life is in shambles, and you have to change it." –Jamie Lee Curtis

11. "Though no one can go back and make a brand-new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand-new ending." –Carl Bard

12. "Recovery is about progress, not perfection." –Unknown

13. "Don’t let the past steal your present." –Cherríe Moraga

14. "Courage isn’t having the strength to go on – it is going on when you don’t have strength." –Napoleon Bonaparte

15. "I think that the power is in the principle. The principle of moving forward, as though you have the confidence to move forward, eventually gives you confidence when you look back and see what you’ve done." –Robert Downey Jr.

16. "Sometimes you’ve just got to give yourself what you wish someone else would give you." –Dr. Phil McGraw

17. "The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones." –Confucius

18. "If you have made mistakes, there is always another chance for you. You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down." –Mary Pickford

19. "When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it." –Henry Ford

20. "If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep walking." –Buddhist Proverb

21. "Recovery is not a race. You don’t have to feel guilty if it takes you longer than you thought it would." –Unknown

22. "The road to recovery will not always be easy, but I will take it one day at a time focusing on the moments I've dreamed about for so long." –Amanda Lindhout

23. "I can't change what happened, so the focus needs to go toward healing and coming back stronger than ever." –Carli Lloyd

24. "Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life." –J.K. Rowling

25. "Recovery begins from the darkest moment." –John Major

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Addiction Recovery Quotes

26. "If you can quit for a day, you can quit for a lifetime." –Benjamin Alire Sáenz

27. "What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself." –Hecato

28. "The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are." –J.P. Morgan

29. "Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over what you don’t." –Steve Maraboli

30. "These feelings, no matter how painful, are part of living. Today, we are alive—not anesthetized, not sedated, not passed out. Take control of your feelings and through action, you can change. Today, as every day of sober living, we have a choice." –Ann D. Clark

31. "All the suffering, stress and addiction comes from not realizing you already are what you are looking for." –Jon Kabat-Zinn

32. "When was the last time you woke up and wished you’d had just one more drink the night before? I have never regretted not drinking. Say this to yourself, and you’ll get through anything." –Meredith Bell

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33. "One of the hardest things was learning that I was worth recovery." –Demi Lovato

34. "Addictions…started out like magical pets, pocket monsters. They did extraordinary tricks, showed you things you hadn’t seen and were fun. But came, through some gradual dire alchemy, to make decisions for you. Eventually, they were making your most crucial life decisions. And they were…less intelligent than goldfish." –William Gibson

35. "We may think there is willpower involved, but more likely ” change is due to wanting power. Wanting the new addiction more than the old one. Wanting the new me in preference to the person I am now." –George Sheehan

36. "My addiction does not define who I am or who I will be!" –Lisa Renee Barnes Lampros

37. "I really mean when I say my biggest fear in early recovery was that I would never have fun again. The beautiful truth is that recovery has given me freedom and the confidence to go out in the world and leave my own mark." –Tom Stoddart

38. "Addiction, at its worst, is akin to having Stockholm Syndrome. You’re like a hostage who has developed an irrational affection for your captor. They can abuse you, torture you, even threaten to kill you, and you’ll remain inexplicably and disturbingly loyal." –Anne Clendening

39. "Asking for help is really the beginning of any sort of recovery process." –Marc Maron

40. "Recovery is not simple abstinence. It’s about healing the brain, remembering how to feel, learning how to make good decisions, becoming the kind of person who can engage in healthy relationships, cultivating the willingness to accept help from others, daring to be honest and opening up to doing." –Debra Ja

41. "Addiction is an adaptation. It’s not you–it’s the cage you live in." –Johann Hari

42. "When I got sober, I thought giving up was saying goodbye to all the fun and all the sparkle, and it turned out to be just the opposite. That’s when the sparkle started for me." –Mary Karr

43. "Getting sober is a radically creative act." –Meredith Bell

44. "At first, addiction is maintained by pleasure, but the intensity of the pleasure gradually diminishes and addiction is then maintained by the avoidance of pain." –Frank Tallis

45. "I have come to believe that caring for myself is not self-indulgent. Caring for myself is an act of survival." –Audre Lord

46. "In order to love who you are, you cannot hate the experiences that shaped you." –Andrea Dykstra

47. "Sometimes when in a dark place you think you’ve been buried, when actually you’ve been planted." –Christine Caine

48. "Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars." –Khalil Gibran

49. "We don’t even know how strong we are until we are forced to bring that hidden strength forward." –Isabel Allende

50. "Somebody once asked me how I define sobriety, and my response was 'liberation from dependence'." –Leslie Jamison

Speedy Recovery Quotes

51. "Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity." –Hippocrates

52. "Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome." –Arthur Ashe

53. "The process of change requires unlearning. It requires breaking the habit of the old self and reinventing a new self." –Joe Dispenza

54. "The only time success comes before work is in the dictionary." –Vince Lombardi

55. "It’s never too late to be what you might have been." –George Eliot

56. "Stay afraid, but do it anyway. What's important is the action. You don't have to wait to be confident. Just do it and eventually, the confidence will follow." –Carrie Fisher

57. "Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up." –Anne Lamott

58. "Trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit." –Moliere

59. "Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning." –Benjamin Franklin

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60. "Long-term consistency trumps short-term intensity." –Bruce Lee

61. "If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time." –Steve Jobs

62. "All great achievements require time." –Maya Angelou

63. "The fact that you woke up this morning is proof that this day has already been predetermined in your favor." –Russ Kyle

64. "Relax. Breathe. It takes time, but there is a great joy to be had in moments of every day. Just remember, you’re learning new steps, a new dance." –Lisa Frederiksen

65. "In the end, some of your greatest pains become your greatest strengths." –Drew Barrymore

66. "Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending." –Carl Bard

67. "Be not afraid of growing slowly; be afraid only of standing still." –Chinese Proverb

68. "Perfectionism is the enemy of progress." –Winston Churchill

69. "Even superheroes need to rest." –Unknown

70. "Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it." –Charles R. Swendoll

71. "There is one consolation in being sick, and that is the possibility that you may recover to a better state than you were ever in before." –Henry David Thoreau

72. "I may not be there yet, but I’m closer than I was yesterday." –Anonymous

73. "One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again." –Abraham Maslow

74. "There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something tomorrow."  Orison Swett Marden

75. "Some days are better, some days are worse. Look for the blessing instead of the curse. Be positive, stay strong, and get enough rest. You can't do it all, but you can do your best." –Doe Zantamata

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