We believe in the power of words. We believe that, in dark moments, the words of others can help us remember these moments don’t last. That better days are ahead. They can inspire us to keep up our fight, and to help others do the same.
We asked our community what quotes helped them through dark moments.
Here are some of their responses:
1. “There’s no shame in having to fight every day, but fighting every day, and presumably, if you’re still alive to hear these words or read this interview, then you are winning your war. You’re here. You might not win every battle. There are going to be some really tough days. There might be several tough times in any given single day, but hopefully, this will help somebody to think, ‘This isn’t easy; it is a fight, but I’m going to keep fighting.’” — Jared Padalecki (via Fane Foster)
2. “These mountains that you are carrying, you were only supposed to climb.” — Najwa Zebian (via Jamie Payne)
3. “Take a shower, wash off the day. Drink a glass of water. Make the room dark. Lie down and close your eyes. Notice the silence. Notice your heart. Still beating. Still fighting. You made it, after all. You made it, another day. And you can make it one more. You’re doing just fine.” — Charlotte Eriksson (via Summer Sines)
4. “Frodo: I can’t do this Sam.
Sam: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going, because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Two Towers” (via Tracey Lynn Clay)
5. “To all who walk the dark path, and to those who walk in the sunshine but hold out a hand in the darkness to travel beside us: Brighter days are coming. Clearer sight will arrive. And you will arrive too. No, it might not be forever. The bright moments might be for a few days at a time, but hold on for those days. Those days are worth the dark.” — Jenny Lawson, “Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things” (via Kim Morand)
6. “I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.” — Henry David Thoreau (via Tori Marie Links)
7. “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” — Confucius (via Gabrielle Joly)
8. “We are all that girl on the bathroom floor. Rock bottom just means crisis. It is not the end. Life does not evict us from anything unless it’s inviting us to something better.” Glennon Doyle Melton (via Tiffany Anderson)
9. ”Hope is the feeling you have that the feeling you have isn’t permanent.” — Jean Kerr (via Mary Catherine Karcich)
10. “You are on the floor crying, and you have been on the floor crying for days. And that is you being brave. That is you getting through it as best you know how. No one else can decide what your tough looks like.” — Clementine von Radics (via Susannah Frawley)
11. “At the end of the day, the fact that we have the courage to still be standing is reason enough to celebrate.” — Meredith Grey, Grey’s Anatomy (via Jennifer Wise)
12.“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.” — Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (via April Eifler)
13. “Stand. Face the world with open hands and tears, and these tired body’s spirit perseveres remembering these wounds will heal and you are not alone in this.” — Flyleaf (via Aimee Oldham)
14. “Always remember you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think and loved more than you know.” — Christopher Robin, A.A. Milne (via Lexie Murray)
15. “To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson (via Samantha Joy Meo)
16. “Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”— Albus Dumbledore, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” J.K. Rowling (via Sandi DiMarco)
17. “If you were born with the weakness to fall, you were born with the strength to rise.” — Rupi Kaur (via Danielle Lowe)
18. “There are far, far better things ahead than anything we leave behind.” — C. S. Lewis (via Paige Alyssa)
19. ”We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” — Oscar Wilde, “Lady Windermere’s Fan” (via JJ Lewis)
20. “You are imperfect, you are wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging.” — Brené Brown (via Alix Lahuec)
21. “In 900 years of time and space, I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t important.” — Doctor Who (via Tatiana Cronk)