Quotes of Encouragement: For Healing, Hard Times, & Inspiration​

By Kelsey Schultz, Ph.D. Candidate
​Reviewed by Tchiki Davis, M.A., Ph.D.
Quotes of encouragement are a great way to help you express your support for the people you care about when the right words are eluding you.​
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Encouragement is an important part of our social lives (Wong, 2015). We may encourage our friends and family to pursue their dreams, persist in the face of challenges, and maintain hope during hard times. We might also encourage our teammates, coworkers, or peers to be the best they can be.

Though our hearts may be in the right place, we sometimes struggle to find the right words to express our support. ​
You, like me, likely find this situation extraordinarily frustrating. We want to help inspire the people we care about, but just can’t articulate our sentiment effectively. Quotes of encouragement are a great solution to this problem. I’ve assembled some powerful quotes of encouragement that could be exactly what you are hoping to find.
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Quotes of Encouragement for a Friend​

  • "You make a choice: continue living your life feeling muddled in this abyss of self-misunderstanding, or you find your identity independent of it. You draw your own box.” – Duchess Meghan
  • "I just want you to know that if you are out there and you are being really hard on yourself right now for something that has happened ... it's normal. That is what is going to happen to you in life. No one gets through unscathed. We are all going to have a few scratches on us. Please be kind to yourselves and stand up for yourself, please." – Taylor Swift
  • “She remembered who she was and the game changed.” – Lalah Delia

Inspirational Quotes of Encouragement​

  • "When you have a dream, you've got to grab it and never let go." – Carol Burnett
  • "There is nothing impossible to they who will try." – Alexander the Great
  • "The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot." – Michael Altshuler
  • "Be courageous. Challenge orthodoxy. Stand up for what you believe in. When you are in your rocking chair talking to your grandchildren many years from now, be sure you have a good story to tell." – Amal Clooney

Quotes of Encouragement in Hard Times

  • “There are moments when troubles enter our lives and we can do nothing to avoid them. But they are there for a reason. Only when we have overcome them will we understand why they were there.” – Paulo Coelho
  • “I think that little by little I'll be able to solve my problems and survive.” – Frida Kahlo
  • “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill
  • “Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I’ll show you someone who has overcome adversity.” – Lou Holtz
  • “Hard times don’t create heroes. It is during the hard times when the ‘hero’ within us is revealed.” – Bob Riley
  • “Tough times never last, but tough people do.” – Robert H Schuller
  • “We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.” – Chuck Swindoll
  • “It is only in our darkest hours that we may discover the true strength of the brilliant light within ourselves that can never, ever, be dimmed.” – Doe Zantamata

Quotes of Encouragement for Teachers

  • “Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report written on birds that he'd had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books about birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, "Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.” – Anne Lamott
  • “Teaching is the greatest act of optimism.” – Colleen Wilcox
  • “What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul.” – Joseph Addison
  • “Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace.” – Confucius
  • “If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn’t need motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around.” – Jim Rohn
  • “The dream begins, most of the time, with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you on to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called truth.” – Dan Rather

Quotes of Encouragement for Healing

  • "Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity." – Hippocrates
  • "Healing takes courage, and we all have courage, even if we have to dig a little to find it." – Tori Amos
  • "Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn't you – all of the expectations, all of the beliefs – and becoming who you are." – Rachel Naomi Remen
  • "It's when we start working together that the real healing takes place." – David Hume
  • "Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it." – Helen Keller
  • "The place of true healing is a fierce place. It's a giant place. It's a place of monstrous beauty and endless dark and glimmering light. And you have to work really, really, really hard to get there, but you can do it." – Cheryl Strayed
  • "Every step taken in mindfulness brings us one step closer to healing ourselves and the planet." – Thich Nhat Hanh

Quotes of Encouragement After Loss​

  • "The times you lived through, the people you shared those times with; Nothing brings it all to life like an old mix tape. It does a better job of storing up memories than actual brain tissue can do. Every mix tape tells a story. Put them together, and they can add up to the story of a life." – Rob Sheffield
  • "To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die." – Thomas Campbell
  • "At the blueness of the skies and in the warmth of summer, we remember them." – Sylvan Kamens & Rabbi Jack Reimer
  • "There are no happy endings. Endings are the saddest part, so just give me a happy middle and a very happy start." – Shel Silverstein
  • "Should you shield the valleys from the windstorms, you would never see the beauty of their canyons." – Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
  • "Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touches some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there." – Ray Bradbury
  • "Grief does not change you, Hazel. It reveals you.” – John Green
  • “The darker the night, the brighter the stars, the deeper the grief, the closer is God!” – Fyodor Dostoevsky
  • “Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heals them.” – Leo Tolstoy
  • “Deep grief sometimes is almost like a specific location, a coordinate on a map of time. When you are standing in that forest of sorrow, you cannot imagine that you could ever find your way to a better place. But if someone can assure you that they themselves have stood in that same place, and now have moved on, sometimes this will bring hope.” – Elizabeth Gilbert

Quotes of Encouragement for a New Job

  • "Don't let the fear of striking out hold you back." – Babe Ruth
  • "If we all did the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves." – Thomas Edison
  • "Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day-in and day-out." – Robert Collier
  • "Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible." – Francis of Assisi
  • "The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle." – Steve Jobs
  • "There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living." – Nelson Mandela
  • "Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning." – Gloria Steinem
  • "Whatever you are, be a good one." – Abraham Lincoln

Quotes of Encouragement for Mothers

  • “There is no way to be the perfect mother but a million ways to be a good one.” – Jill Churchill
  • “Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws.” – Barbara Kingsolver
  • “A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.” – Washington Irving
  • "Being a mother is learning about strengths you didn’t know you had, and dealing with fears you didn’t know existed.” – Linda Wooten
  • “Having kids – the responsibility of rearing good, kind, ethical, responsible human beings – is the biggest job anyone can embark on.” – Maria Shriver
  • “I believe the choice to become a mother is the choice to become one of the greatest spiritual teachers there is.” – Oprah Winfrey
  • “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” – Ann Lamont

Quotes of Encouragement for Love

  • "The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves." – Victor Hugo
  • "The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart." – Helen Keller
  • "Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage." – Lao-Tzu
  • "So, I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you." – Pablo Coelho
  • “You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.” – Gautama Buddha
  • “You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.” – Henry Drummond
  • “One of the most important things you can do on this earth is to let people know they are not alone.” – Shannon L. Alder

Quotes of Encouragement During Illness

  • “You either get bitter or you get better. It’s that simple. You either take what has been dealt to you and allow it to make you a better person or you allow it to tear you down. The choice does not belong to fate, it belongs to you.” – Josh Shipp
  • “She made broken look beautiful and strong look invincible. She walked with the universe on her shoulders and made it look like a pair of wings.” – Ariana Dancu
  • “Sometimes you will be in control of your illness and other times you’ll sink into despair, and that’s OK! Freak out, forgive yourself, and try again tomorrow.” – Kelly Hemingway
  • “Behind every chronic illness is just a person trying to find their way in the world. We want to find love and be loved and be happy just like you. We want to be successful and do something that matters. We’re just dealing with unwanted limitations in our hero’s journey.” – Glenn Schweitzer
  • “Sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step of your life. Tip toe if you must, but take a step.” – Naeem Callaway
  • “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
  • "Keep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you." – Walt Whitman

Articles Related to Quotes of Encouragement​

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Books Related to Quotes of Encouragement​

If you’d like to keep learning more, here are a few books that you might be interested in.

Final Thoughts on Quotes of Encouragement​

The human situation comes with endless challenges, and we all could use a little support from time to time. Whether we are lacking inspiration ourselves, or we are trying to help restore the optimism of a dear friend, quotes of encouragement are often an effective means of articulating our desire to see those around us succeed. For more quotes of encouragement, check out this video:​

Video: 25 Encouragement Quotes To Lift Your Spirits | Encouragement Quotes​

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