If you’re on your journey of recovery or know someone who is, share these addiction quotes with them to show your support.
Many of life’s experiences are quite exhilarating, igniting that feeling of wanting more. Oftentimes, these things are positive and fulfilling, whereas others can be more harmful and depleting. To have an addiction is to be consumed by a strong force that you must battle with every day.
If you’re wondering if feeling hopeful as you read these quotes is a mistake, it isn’t. How do we know?
It is not easy to jump into recovery – but every step toward it is something to be proud of. If you or a loved one is struggling with any addiction, there is a way out.
Use these quotes on addiction to help you persevere through the darkness, and find motivation through your journey.
Addiction quotes about recovery and healing
1. “I avoid looking forward or backward, and try to keep looking upward.” – Charlotte Brontë
Addiction Quotes on looking upwards
2. “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt
Addiction Quotes on self belief
3. “Sometimes you’ve just got to give yourself what you wish someone else would give you.” – Dr. Phil
Addiction Quotes on pushing yourself
4. “Don’t let the past steal your present.” – Terri Guillemets
Addiction Quotes about the present
5. “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.” – Russel Brand
Addiction Quotes about mentality
6. “Experience is not what happens to you, it is what you do with what happens to you.” – Aldous Huxley
Addiction Quotes to uplift you
7. “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily.” – Zig Ziglar
Addiction Quotes to motivate you
8. “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.” – Albert Einstein
Addiction Quotes to keep you moving
9. “The best way out is always through.” – Robert Frost
Addiction Quotes on the best way out
10. “Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.” – C.S. Lewis
Addiction Quotes on destiny
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Addiction quotes to inspire and motivate you
11. “Sometimes we motivate ourselves by thinking of what we want to become. Sometimes we motivate ourselves by thinking about who we don’t ever want to be again.” – Shane Niemeyer
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Addiction Quotes to keep you going
12. “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Addiction Quotes to help you rise
13. “I understood, through rehab, things about creating characters. I understood that creating whole people means knowing where we come from, how we can make a mistake and how we overcome things to make ourselves stronger.” – Samuel L. Jackson
Addiction Quotes on being understood
14. “When everything seems like an uphill struggle, just think of the view from the top.” – Unknown
Addiction Quotes to inspire you
15. “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
Addiction Quotes on putting your life together
16. “Change your behaviors and your feelings will follow.” – Susan McManhon
Addiction Quotes on changing your behaviors
17. “All the suffering, stress, and addiction comes from not realizing you already are what you are looking for.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
Addiction Quotes about stress
18. “The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Addiction Quotes on becoming the person you want
19. “You can come out of the furnace of trouble two ways: if you let it consume you, you come out a cinder; but there is a kind of metal which refuses to be consumed, and comes out a star.” – Jean Church
Addiction Quotes on never giving out
20. “Patience and the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown.” – Chinese proverb
Addiction Quotes on being patient
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Recovery and addiction quotes to empower you
21. “Obstacles are those frightening things that become visible when we take our eyes off our goals.” – Henry Ford
Addiction Quotes on obstacles
22. “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” – Alice Walker
Addiction Quotes to empower you
23. “No other road, no other way, no day but today.” – Jonathan Larson
Addiction Quotes to help you find your way
24. “Believe more deeply. Hold your face up to the light, even though for the moment you do not see.” – Bill Wilson
Addiction Quotes about tough times
25. “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
Addiction Quotes that will change how you think
26. “It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.” – Lou Holtz
Addiction Quotes on carrying your load
27. “As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world… as in being able to remake ourselves.” – Mahatma Gandhi
Addiction Quotes on remaking yourself
28. “Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.” – Zig Ziglar
Addiction Quotes to give you direction
29. “Fall seven times, stand up eight.” – Japanese proverb
Addiction Quotes and proverbs
30. “I think that the power is 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.
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Addiction Quotes to give you confidence
Recovery and addiction quotes to help you see the brighter side
31. “Recovery is not a race. You don’t have to feel guilty if it takes you longer than you thought it would.” – Unknown
32. “Either you run the day, or the day runs you.” – Jim Rohn
33. “Of course motivation is not permanent. But then, neither is bathing; but it is something you should do on a regular basis.” – Zig Ziglar
34. “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney
35. “I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear.” – Rosa Parks
36. “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
37. “The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.” – Bishop W.C. Magee
38. “Understanding the difference between healthy striving and perfectionism is critical to laying down the shield and picking up your life.” – Brené Brown
39. “Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections, but instantly set about remedying them – every day, begin the task anew.” – Saint Francis de Sales
40. “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” – Yogi Berra
Addiction quotes to help you achieve it
41. “The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.” – Jordan Belfort
42. “The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.” – Arthur C. Clarke
43. “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” – Babe Ruth
44. “Keep steadily before you the fact that all true success depends at last upon yourself.” – Theodore T. Hunger
45. “Happiness is where we find it, but rarely where we seek it.” – J. Petit Senn
46. “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
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47. “The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” – Confucius
48. “Opportunities multiply as they are seized.” – Sun Tzu
49. “Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.” – Wayne W. Dyer
50. “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” – Jimmy Dean
Recovery and addiction quotes to make you strong
51. “We’re all addicted to something that takes away the pain.”― Boys Like Girls
52. “Recovery is taking all twelve steps…over and over and over and over…”― Toni Sorenson
53. “We should be open to change to ensure that our addiction to life always remains under check.”― Dr Prem Jagyasi
54. “One thing you must realize is that: you either kill your addiction or your addiction will eventually kill you.”― Oche Otorkpa
55. “There are people who are addicted to sadness the way others are addicted to coffee or cigarettes.”― Marty Rubin
56. “Addiction denied is recovery delayed.”― Mokokoma Mokhonoana
57. “It’s okay to bleed on someone who didn’t cut you. Don’t wait until you’re scarred over to ask for help. Healing starts when the wound is still new.”― Toni Sorenson
58. “Just because something is familiar, doesn’t mean it’s safe. And just because something feels safe, doesn’t mean it’s good for you.”― Brittany Burgunder
59. “The Power to redefine your life and purpose is in your hands, use it effectively like a wise person.”― Oche Otorkpa
60. “If today is your past come tomorrow, then make your past your future of today.”― Darrel Loyd
61. “Addiction brings apathy. Break the apathy, and you break the addiction.”― Mango Wodzak
62. “Addiction is a repeated temporary…stilling. I am concerned with peace…not mere relief.”― Edward Albee
63. “Your addiction is not you, but it feels like you because you’ve spent so much intimate time together.”― Toni Sorenson
64. “Too much of a good thing is toxic.”― Aysha Taryam
65. “Your addiction to daily distraction denies you of effectiveness.”― Bernard Kelvin Clive
Recovery and addiction quotes to elevate your perspective
66. “Recovery is hard. Regret is harder.”– Brittany Burgunder
67. “Every worth act is difficult. Ascent is always difficult. Descent is easy and often slippery.” — Mahatma Gandhi
68. “Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient.”– Steve Maraboli
69. “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” — Henry Ford
70. “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”– Friedrich Nietzsche
71. “Remember just because you hit bottom doesn’t mean you have to stay there.” — Robert Downey Jr.
72. “Rising from the ashes, I am born again, powerful, exultant, majestic through all the pain.” – Shannon Perry
73. “I guess the worst day I have had was when I had to stand up in rehab in front of my wife and daughter and say, ‘Hi, my name is Sam, and I am an addict.” — Samuel J. Jackson
74. “No matter how dark the night may get, your light will never burn out.”– Jeanette LeBlanc
75. “Recovery is an acceptance that your life is in shambles, and you have to change it.” — James Lee Curtis
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Recovery and addiction quotes to brighten your day
76. “You can’t defeat the darkness by keeping it caged inside of you.”– Seth Adam Smith
77. “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” — Margaret Thatcher
78. “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.”– Ernest Hemingway
79. “If you can quit for a day, you can quit for a lifetime.” — Benjamin Alire Sáenz
80. “Change must start from the individual. And the individual must want and feel ready to make such change.”– Efrat Cybulkiewicz
81. “Recovery is something you have to work on every single day, and it’s something that doesn’t get a day off.” — Demi Lovato
82. “An over-indulgence of anything, even something as pure as water, can intoxicate.”– Criss Jami
83. “I used drugs to feel better. I quit drugs to be better.” — Unknown
84. “You feel your strength in the experience of pain.”– Jim Morrison
85. “Recovery is not for people who need it. It’s for people who want it.” — Unknown
Recovery and addiction quotes to uplift you
86. “Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” – George Addair
87. “Courage isn’t having the strength to go on – it’s going on when you don’t have strength.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
88. “We need never be hopeless because we can never be irreparably broken.” – John Green
89. “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” – Dr. Seuss
90. “Though nobody can go back and make a new beginning, anyone can start over and make a new ending.” – Chico Xavier
91. “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius
92. “The diamond cannot be polished without friction, nor the person perfected without trials.” – Chinese proverb
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93. “Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
94. “You have to break down before you can break through.” – Marilyn Ferguson
95. “People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.” – George Bernard Shaw
Recovery and addiction quotes to inspire you to live your life productively and actively
96. “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
97. “Alcoholism is above all a disease of denial.”– David Stafford
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98. “Someone once told me, ‘I heard you finally got rid of your addiction.’ I smiled and said, ‘No, addiction doesn’t work like that. Once you have it, you will always have it. I just choose not to feed it.”– Anonymous
99. “Recovery isn’t always easy, but it certainly beats the alternative.”– Anonymous
100. “Before you can break out of prison, you must realise you are locked up.”– Anonymous
101. “Change your behaviours and your feelings will follow.”– Susan McManhon
102. “We may think there is willpower involved, but more likely “¦ change is due to want power. Wanting the new addiction more than the old one. Wanting the new me in preference to the person I am now.”– George Sheehan
103. “You are not weak for struggling. You are strong for continuing to fight.”– Anonymous
104. “One of the hardest things was learning that I was worth recovery.”– Demi Lovato
105. “Every day is a new day. No need to dwell on the past. Look straight ahead.”– Saint Charlotte
Recovery and addiction quotes to shine a light
106. “Where there is life there is hope.”– Ron Grover
107. “If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.”– Vincent Van Gogh
108. “Nobody stays recovered unless the life they have created is more rewarding and satisfying than the one they left behind.”– Anne Fletcher
109. “The goal isn’t to be sober. The goal is to love yourself so much that you don’t need to drink.”– Anonymous
110. “Even in the midst of devastation, something within us always points the way to freedom.”– Sharon Salzberg
111. “Recovery is about progression, not perfection.”– Anonymous
112. “You must do the things you think you cannot do.”– Eleanor Roosevelt
113. “Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”– J.K. Rowling
114. “If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome.”– Michael Jordan
115. “What is addiction really? It’s a sign, a signal, a symptom of distress. It’s a language that tells about a plight that must be understood.”—Alice Miller
Recovery and addiction quotes to inspire you today
116. “Not the world, not what’s outside of us, but what we hold inside traps us. We may not be responsible for the world that created our minds, but we can take responsibility for the mind with which we create our world.” – Gabor Maté
117. “Until you find out what you are running from, you will never figure out where you are going.” – Joseph A, Meyering Sr
118. “We either win or we learn. So take the fuck-ups as new ways of getting good information about yourself.” – Faith G. Harper
119. “Our wounds are often the openings into the best and most beautiful part of us.” – David Richo
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120. “We must dig deep inside our inner person and find that child who may have laid dormant for some time.” – Asa Don Brown
121. “The issue of addiction has spread like wildfire and it is affecting every corner of this globe.” – Asa Don Brown
122. “Addicts are addicted to their drugs, and their families are addicted to hope.” – Fredrik Backman
123. “Life should be lived daily despite the obstacles we may face.” – Asa Don Brown
124. “Each of us has a unique part to play in the healing of the world.” – Marianne Williamson
125. “Addiction is a battle between love and hate. My therapist was right about that.” – Garry Crystal
Addiction quotes that will inspire you to maintain sobriety
126. “Addiction is an adaptation. It’s not you–it’s the cage you live in.” — Johann Hari
127. “Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.” — Vince Lombardi
128. “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” — Nelson Mandela
129. “Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street.” — Zig Ziglar
130. “Quitting smoking is easy. I’ve done it a hundred times.” — Mark Twain
131. “Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.” — Mahatma Gandhi
132. “The priority of any addict is to anesthetize the pain of living to ease the passage of day with some purchased relief.” — Russell Brand
133. “Addiction is just a way of trying to get at something else. Something bigger. Call it transcendence if you want, but it’s a rat in a maze.” — Tess Callahan
134. “Drugs are a waste of time. They destroy your memory and your self-respect and everything that goes along with your self-esteem.” — Kurt Cobain
135. “The initial journey towards sobriety is a delicate balance between insight into one’s desire for escape and abstinence from one’s addiction.” — Debra L. Kaplan
More recovery and addiction quotes
136. “The worst part about anything that’s self-destructive is that it’s so intimate. You become so close with your addictions and illnesses that leaving them behind is like killing the part of yourself that taught you how to survive.” – Lacey L.
137. “I have come to believe that caring for myself is not self-indulgent. Caring for myself is an act of survival.” – Audre Lorde
138. “She goes from one addiction to another. All are ways for her to not feel her feelings.” – Ellen Burstyn
139. “Sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step of your life. Tiptoe if you must, but take the step.” – Naeem Callaway
140. “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
141. “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.” – Mark Twain
142. Drugs take you to hell, disguised as heaven.” – Donald Lyn Frost
143. “If you know someone who tries to drown their sorrows, you might tell them that sorrows know how to swim.” – Ann Landers
144. “Addiction is the only prison where the locks are on the inside.” — Unknown
145. “If I had to offer up a one-sentence definition of addiction, I’d call it a form of mourning for the irrecoverable glories of the first time.” – Ann Marlowe