If you’re struggling with an addiction, no one needs to tell you it’s tough – you’re living it day in and day out. There may be times that you could benefit from a few motivating words, however, to remind you that you’re not alone and that recovery is really possible. Moreover, here are 50 sobriety quotes, each intended to shine a little light when life looks bleak.
Sobriety Quotes
“Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.” – C.S. Lewis
“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson“Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.” – C.S. Lewis
“It’s a great advantage not to drink among hard-drinking people.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
“When you quit drinking you stop waiting.” – Caroline Knapp“It’s a great advantage not to drink among hard-drinking people.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
“To sober up seems to many like making life “so serious,” as if seriousness precluded joy, warmth, spontaneity, and fun. But there can be a delusional, blind quality to non-sober festivities. To have our eyes open soberly with all our senses and memory intact allows some of the most rewarding, soul-nourishing, and long-lasting pleasures possible.” – Alexandra Katehakis
“Now I’m sober and I realize, I didn’t drink to escape the world, I drank to escape myself” – Phil Volatile“To sober up seems to many like making life “so serious,” as if seriousness precluded joy, warmth, spontaneity, and fun. But there can be a delusional, blind quality to non-sober festivities. To have our eyes open soberly with all our senses and memory intact allows some of the most rewarding, soul-nourishing, and long-lasting pleasures possible.” – Alexandra Katehakis
“Someone who is trying to be sober is often trying to work out deeper emotional issues and is attempting to undo years of habitual behavior. When you reduce recovery to just abstinence, it simplifies what is really a much more complex issue.” – Sasha Bronner
“Hit the bottom and get back up; or hit the bottle and stay down.” – Anthony Liccione
“Sometimes you’ve just got to give yourself what you wish someone else would give you.” – Dr. Phil
“I lived to be forgotten because I’d forgotten how to live” – Joseph Meyering Sr
“Getting sober is a radically creative act.” – Meredith Bell
“Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.” – Søren Kierkegaard
“It’s so exhausting, so mentally and emotionally draining when you care about a drug addict and they never miss an opportunity to disappoint, manipulate or hurt you.” – Oliver Markus Malloy
“We are products of our past, but we don’t have to be prisoners of it.” – Rick Warren
“By seeking and blundering we learn.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“A teachable spirit and a humbleness to admit your ignorance or your mistake will save you a lot of pain. However, if you’re a person who knows it all, then you’ve got a lot of heavy-hearted experiences coming your way.” – Ron Carpenter Jr.
“Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.” – J.R.R. Tolkien
“To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.” – Søren Kierkegaard
“You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.” – William Faulkner
“Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.” – Ernest Hemingway
“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.” – Carol Burnett
“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” – Charles R. Swindoll
“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius
“If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.” – H. G. Wells
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” – Thomas A. Edison
“To begin, begin.” – William Wordsworth
“Quality is not an act, it is a habit.” – Aristotle
“My main focus in sobriety has been to replace fear with faith or love.” – Steve-O
“Gollum [from Lord of the Rings] is entirely based on the notion of addiction. The way that the ring pervades him, makes him craving, lustful, depletes him physically, psychologically and mentally.” – Andy Serkis
“Addiction isn’t about substance – you aren’t addicted to the substance, you are addicted to the alteration of mood that the substance brings.” – Susan Cheever
“Since beginning my work in areas like addiction, for example, I have seen time and time again that the roots of poor mental health in adulthood are almost always present in unresolved childhood challenges.” – Kate Middleton
“It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.” – Tony Robbins
“In a time of destruction, create something.” – Maxine Hong Kingston
“This is where it all begins. Everything starts here, today.” – David Nicholls
“With self-discipline most anything is possible.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe
“Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
“From a small seed, a mighty trunk may grow.” – Aeschylus
“The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering.” – Ben Okri
“You change your life by changing your heart.” – Max Lucado
“We can change our lives. We can do, have, and be exactly what we wish.” – Tony Robbins
“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” – Pele
“Rise above sectional interests and private ambitions… Pass from matter to spirit. Matter is diversity; spirit is light, life and unity.” – Muhammad Iqbal
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” – Helen Keller
“Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.” – William James
“For me, it’s not necessarily interesting to play a strong, fearless woman. It’s interesting to play a woman who is terrified and then overcomes that fear. It’s about the journey. Courage is not the absence of fear, it’s overcoming it.” – Natalie Dormer
“The measure of a man is what he does with power.” – Plato
“There is a fine balance between honoring the past and losing yourself in it. For example, you can acknowledge and learn from mistakes you made, and then move on and refocus on the now. It is called forgiving yourself.” – Eckhart Tolle
“A man who as a physical being is always turned toward the outside, thinking that his happiness lies outside him, finally turns inward and discovers that the source is within him.” – Søren Kierkegaard
Treatment for Drug and Alcohol Addiction
If you or someone you know is struggling with an addiction to drugs or alcohol, you should seek help immediately. We offer comprehensive, evidence-based treatment in the form of counseling, behavioral therapy, and group support. Our programs are offered in inpatient, partial hospitalization, and outpatient formats. Our professional medical and mental health staff specialize in addiction and give clients the tools they need to succeed at recovery and maintain sobriety and wellness for the rest of their lives. Recovery from addiction is a lifelong process, but you don’t have to do it alone – we can help.