70 Recovery Quotes That Will Give You Strength

By Maxime Lagacé

Maxime is the founder of WisdomQuotes. He has been collecting quotes since 2004. His goal? To help you develop a calm and peaceful mind. Learn more about him on his about page.

Top 10 Quotes – People, Abuse – Illness – Addiction – Positive – More… – Takeaways – Visual – Further Readings

You can recover.

I did it.

And I did it with quotes and good support from friends and family.

That’s why I’ve gathered 70 of the best recovery quotes.

And keep in mind:

Recovery is a matter of understanding and acceptance.

It’s not a race.

It’s your recovery.

On your terms.

It took me 10 years to heal from the loss of my girlfriend in 2004.

And that’s fine this way.

But the most important thing is this:

Whether you recover from a drug addiction, abuse, or illness, healing is always possible.

So I hope you’ll enjoy these quotes about recovery.

And finally, I hope you’ll be well, soon.

Top 10 Recovery Quotes

Recovery is not a race. It’s an understanding. Maxime Lagacé

If you trust yourself enough to know you can feel bad and recover, you will do just that. Iyanla Vanzant

The world breaks everyone, and afterward many are strong at the broken places. Ernest Hemingway

Rest, recover, renew, repeat. Courtney Carver

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

The most important thing about recovery is to pass the message on. Maurice Gibb

Recovery is not so much a dream at it is a plan. Carolyn Spring

Recovery is not about being right; it’s about allowing ourselves to be who we are and accepting others as they are. Melody Beattie

Recovery is hard. Staying in your disorder is Hell. Brittany Burgunder

Not until we are lost we begin to find ourselves. Henry David Thoreau

Recovery Quotes About People, Abuse

I pray you heal from things no one ever apologized for. Gabby Berstein

Choose people who are good for your mental health. Unknown

May you successfully recover from all friendships and relationships you had to move on from. Lalah Delia

Recovery is the restoration of something lost. Verbal abuse creates loss. It robs people of their sense of self, their confidence, happiness, self-esteem, self-awareness, serenity, ability to trust, peace of mind, and almost their minds. Patricia Evans

Turn yourwounds into wisdom. Oprah Winfrey

But I didn’t understand then. That I could hurt somebody so badly she would never recover. That a person can, just by living, damage another human being beyond repair. Haruki Murakami

Recovery is the ability to see things with clarity, freed from the drab blur of greatness or familiarity – from possessiveness. Philip Zaleski

Losing toxic people is a win. Fiona Smith

Recovery Quotes About About Illness (Mental And Physical)

Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery. J.K. Rowling

Workouts are energy. Food is medicine. Sleep is recovery. Dan Go

The concept of recovery is rooted in the simple yet profound realization that people who have been diagnosed with mental illness are human beings. Patricia Deegan

Recovery from the death of a loved one rarely looks like grand gestures and soaring moments of triumph. In fact, living well after loss more often looks like gradually giving ourselves and the people around us just a little more compassion, just a little more permission, and just a little more love every single day. Shelby Forsythia

We are all damaged goods in recovery. Charles H. Spurgeon

Recovery isn’t about wiping the board clean. Recovery is learning how to function around all of the scars and open wounds inside of us. J. Bree

A champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall. Serena Williams

Sleep for 8 hours, not 6. Read for 2 hours, not 4. Exercise for 1 hour, not 4. Deep work for 4 hours, not 10. You are a human, not a machine. Will Goto

Recovery is not negotiable. Make time to rest, rejuvenate, and recover now or make time to be sick, injured, and exhausted later. James Clear

Recovery is real. It’s not a luck-of-the-draw deal where you put your name in a hat and hope to be chosen. It’s a grueling, relentless, personal process that will push you beyond your limits over and over. Brittany Burgunder

Recovery is about progression, not perfection. Unknown

Related

Recovery Quotes About Addiction

Recovery begins from the darkest moment. John Major

One of the best protections against disappointment is to have a lot going on. Alain de Botton

Listening is the best medicine. Joshua Fields Millburn

Eventually the day comes when you take a good look at your life and notice that everything has changed. All the effort you put into pulling yourself out of a bad place has paid off. Life feels fresh, your mind feels healed and the tough parts of life no longer feel overwhelming. Yung Pueblo

Addiction is giving up everything for one thing. Recovery is giving up one thing for everything. Unknown

The past is entirely contained in your head. It is nowhere else. The present is all that exists and that is where you exist. Naval Ravikant

Recovery unfolds in three stages. The central task of the first stage is the establishment of safety. The central task of the second stage is remembrance and mourning. The central focus of the third stage is reconnection with ordinary life. Judith Lewis Herman

The first principle of recovery is the empowerment of the survivor. She must be the author and arbiter of her own recovery. Others may offer advice, support, assistance, affection, and care, but not cure. Judith Lewis Herman

Even recovery brings losses, more changes we must struggle to accept. Melody Beattie

Addiction denied is recovery delayed. Unknown

Positive Recovery Quotes

The only journey is the one within. Rainer Maria Rilke

Love finds us where we are, not where we were. Bob Goff

Work hard and push yourself, but do not neglect self-care, rest, and recovery. John Cena

Recovery is imminent and everything will fall into place. Gary Goodridge

Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations. Zig Ziglar

Take some time to rest and recover. You don’t always have to be so busy, pushing yourself so hard. Step back and take care of yourself. Those moments of self-care will add value, energy, purpose, and creativity to everything you do. Find a healthy balance and enjoy your life. Gary Goodridge

Destroy the idea that you have to be constantly working or grinding in order to be successful. Embrace the concept that rest, recovery, and reflection are essential parts of the progress towards a successful and ultimately happy life. Mel Robbins

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

In recovery, it’s all about putting one foot in front of the other. Jennifer Storm

Recovery begins with embracing our pain and taking the risk to share it with others. We do this by joining a group and talking about our pain. John Bradshaw

The spiritual journey, the path of recovery and personal growth, is a detoxification process in which we bring up and out the negative beliefs we have carried with us from the past and that now poison the present. Marianne Williamson

Healing doesn’t need to be grand to be worthwhile; it’s the littlest moments that make the biggest difference. Shelby Forsythia

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

By choosing recovery and risking to be real, we set the healthy boundaries that say, “I am in charge of my recovery and my life, and no one else on this Earth is.” Charles L. Whitfield

Recovery is not a gift from clinicians, but the responsibility of us all. We must become confident in our own ability to change our lives, we must give up being reliant on others doing everything for us. We must have the confidence to give up being ill so that we can start being recovered. Ronnie Coleman

Recovery can only take place within the context of relationships; it cannot occur in isolation. Judith Lewis Herman

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

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

More Great Quotes About Recovery

Recovery is an unbecoming. My healing has been a peeling away of costume after costume. Glennon Doyle Melton

I don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains. Anne Frank

We live in a world that celebrates work and activity, ignores renewal and recovery, and fails to recognize that both are necessary for sustained high performance. Jim Loehr

As time goes on, you’ll understand. What lasts, lasts; what doesn’t, doesn’t. Time solves most things. And what time can’t solve, you have to solve yourself. Haruki Murakami

That perfect job won’t bring you life fulfillment. That ideal relationship won’t rescue you from yourself. More friends won’t drown out the dullness. External solutions for internal problems don’t exist. Unknown

Some people won’t understand the high level of recuperation you need from your lived experiences. Self-care, to a lot of us, is more about recovery. Lalah Delia

The goal of spiritual practice is full recovery, and the only thing you need to recover from is a fractured sense of self. Marianne Williamson

Recovery is the urge, the wrestle, and the resurrection. Patricia Deegan

Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death. Anaïs Nin

Recovery is predicated on aligning your life with your values, and you aren’t going to be able to nalign anything until you know who you are. Devon Price

Recovery is taking all twelve steps… over and over and over and over. Toni Sorenson

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

Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future. Robert H. Schuller

Conclusion

The goal of recovery is not to become normal. The goal is to embrace the human vocation of becoming more deeply, more fully human. Patricia Deegan

Visual For Recovery

Notice a feeling. Give it time and love. Then move on.

Key Takeaways

Understand: Recovery is about understanding yourself and your circumstances. So meditate for at least 10 minutes daily. Journal every morning. Ask yourself questions like “How am I feeling today? Why am I feeling this way? How can I use this as a tool to become stronger? How can I live with more acceptance?”. Also, walk in nature. Get to know yourself. It’s the key to healing.
Share: You’ll recover better if you talk with people. So talk with people you love, with people you accept you, and with people who can listen to you. Being hurt is not a weakness. It’s a natural part of life. “A problem shared is a problem halved.”
Avoid toxic people: Sometimes you stumble upon toxic people. And they can hurt you badly. Avoid them like the plague. A better life starts with better relationships.
Stay positive: Keep in mind: recovery can start at any moment. It’s a decision. It can even start at rock bottom. So stay strong! You can heal.
Face reality: Healing and recovery happen only by facing reality, not by avoiding it. So the first step is awareness of the problem, the second is understanding and acceptance, and the final is transformation. You can do it. (mayoclinic.org)