This human experience is a journey, marked with highs and lows and much in-between. Along the way, we all experience difficulties, like loss, grief, illness, and injury (both physical and emotional). In the midst of these challenges, we will seek solace - and there are a number of places we might find it.
Healing quotes are one source of solace we turn to. Why? Because words are powerful, and the right words act as soothing nectar for the soul.
Though quotes about healing will not solve our challenges, they can provide comfort, inspiration, and strength during difficult times. They can remind us that even when things feel heavy or dark, there is a way through. They may remind us of our resilience, help us trust the process, and unlock the deep wisdom and courage that lives within us.
May the following quotes for healing and strength support you during difficult moments. Lean into the ones that speak to something deep, loving, and wise within you.
Quotes for Healing and Strength
- "The wound is where the light enters you." - Rumi
- "Our sorrows and wounds are healed only when we touch them with compassion." - Jack Kornfield
- "We are stronger, gentler, more resilient, and more beautiful than any of us imagine." - Mark Nepo
- "The soul always knows how to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind." - Caroline Myss
- "Healing is the return of the memory of wholeness." - Deepak Chopra
- "Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it." - Rumi
- “When we encounter difficult times in our lives, often our initial strategy is to simply run away. But we find that our troubles follow us. Paradoxically, one of the best ways to heal is to turn toward that which is injured within us.” - Jack Kornfield
- "The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world." - Marianne Williamson
- "Every step taken in mindfulness brings us one step closer to healing ourselves and the planet." - Thich Nhat Hanh
- “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” - Jon Kabat-Zinn
- “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
- "Within you, there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself." - Hermann Hesse
- “Each of us has a unique part to play in the healing of the world.” - Marianne Williamson
- "Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars." - Khalil Gibran
- "You are the sky. Everything else is just the weather." - Pema Chödrön
- “When someone says to us, as Thich Nhat Hanh suggests, ‘Darling, I care about your suffering,’ a deep healing begins.” - Tara Brach
- “We need the compassion and the courage to change the conditions that support our suffering. Those conditions are things like ignorance, bitterness, negligence, clinging, and holding on.” - Sharon Salzberg
- “Empathy has no script. There is no right way or wrong way to do it. It’s simply listening, holding space, withholding judgment, emotionally connecting, and communicating that incredibly healing message of ‘You’re not alone.’” - Brené Brown
- “The most important healing – realising who you are. The healing on the outer level is fine, but it's not the essence of healing.” - Eckhart Tolle
- “To heal is to touch with love that which was previously touched by fear.” - Stephen Levine
- "The cure for pain is in the pain." - Rumi
- "Scars show us where we have been, they don't dictate where we are going." - David Rossi
- “We run from grief because loss scares us, yet our hearts reach toward grief because the broken parts want to mend.” - Brené Brown
- “Silence is a place of great power and great healing." - Rachel Naomi Remen
- "What happens when people open their hearts? They get better." - Haruki Murakami
- “And so I wait. I wait for time to heal the pain and raise me to my feet once again - so that I can start a new path, my own path, the one that will make me whole again.” - Jack Canfield
- "With even a little spiritual practice we have already discovered the need for healing, for stopping the war, for training ourselves to be present.” - Jack Kornfield
- “I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.” - Maya Angelou
- “When we open our hearts to what is, it generates a level of warmth that helps heal our wounds.” - Kristin Neff
- “When we create peace and harmony and balance in our minds, we will find it in our lives.” - Louise Hay
- "To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead, you relax and float." - Alan Watts
- "You have within you, right now, everything you need to deal with whatever the world can throw at you." - Brian Tracy
- "You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength." - Marcus Aurelius
- “Coming to terms with the fear of death is conducive to healing, positive personality transformation, and consciousness evolution.” - Stanislav Grof
- “Some people see scars, and it is wounding they remember. To me they are proof of the fact that there is healing.” - Linda Hogan
- “We do not heal the past by dwelling there; we heal the past by living fully in the present.” - Marianne Williamson
- “Our body and mind have the capacity to heal themselves if we allow them to rest. Stopping, calming, and resting are preconditions for healing.” - Thich Nhat Hanh
- “A good half of the art of living is resilience.” - Alain de Botton
- “You've been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn't worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.” - Louise Hay
- “What drains your spirit drains your body. What fuels your spirit fuels your body.” - Caroline Myss
- “Compassion is not at all weak. It is the strength that arises out of seeing the true nature of suffering in the world. Compassion allows us to bear witness to that suffering, whether it is in ourselves or others, without fear; it allows us to name injustice without hesitation, and to act strongly, with all the skill at our disposal.” - Sharon Salzberg
- "Healing is a coming to terms with things as they are, rather than struggling to force them to be as they once were, or as we would like them to be, to feel secure or to have what we sometimes think of as our own way." - Jon Kabat-Zinn
- “Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.” - Rachel Carson
- “Our bodies communicate to us clearly and specifically, if we are willing to listen.” - Shakti Gawain
- “Healing takes courage, and we all have courage, even if we have to dig a little to find it.” - Tori Amos
- “Healing does not mean going back to the way things were before, but rather allowing what is now to move us closer to God.” - Ram Dass
- “Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” - Helen Keller
- “By far the strongest poison to the human spirit is the inability to forgive oneself or another person. Forgiveness is no longer an option but a necessity for healing.” - Caroline Myss
- "Someone I once loved gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this, too, was a gift." - Mary Oliver
- "The human capacity for burden is like bamboo – far more flexible than you'd ever believe at first glance." - Jodi Picoult
- “Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.” Pema Chödrön
- “The words of kindness are more healing to a drooping heart than balm or honey.” - Sarah Fielding
- "Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." - Victor Frankl
- "All healing is first a healing of the heart." - Carl Townsend
- "Eventually you will come to understand that love heals everything, and love is all there is." - Gary Zukav
- “The essential message of my life is that all of us have the capacity to attract to ourselves what seems to be missing in our lives. Whether it's a healing, a relationship, a promotion, or whatever form of abundance you want to manifest in your life, you have much more power to be able to manifest it than you might think.” - Wayne Dyer
- “The wonderful paradox about the truth of suffering is that the more we open to it and understand it, the lighter and freer our mind becomes.” - Joseph Goldstein
- “Painful feelings are, by their very nature, temporary. They will weaken over time as long as we don't prolong or amplify them through resistance or avoidance. The only way to eventually free ourselves from debilitating pain, therefore, is to be with it as it is. The only way out is through.” - Kristin Neff
- “A moment of self-compassion can change your entire day. A string of such moments can change the course of your life.” - Chris Germer
- “Healing yourself is connected with healing others.” - Yoko Ono
Summing Up: The Power of Healing Quotes
Take a moment to note which of the wise words above is your favorite healing quote. Know that your favorite may change from moment to moment, and that’s natural. At any moment, you can choose which quotes on healing you lean into for support.
You can use these healing words in a number of ways. For example, you can:
- Write them on the cover of your notebook or at the top of today’s journal entry
- Write them on a piece of paper and hang them where you’ll see them throughout the day
- Use them as creative inspiration, painting them onto canvas (or any other preferred artistic medium) to hang in your living space
- Meditate on those that uplift you as you begin or end your day
Healing quotes are not a substitute for professional help when dealing with any physical, emotional, or mental health challenges. If you’re struggling, reach out to a professional for support.
With that said, as we move through our day-to-day experience, we can call on our favorite quotes about healing to find inspiration, comfort, and strength. Hold close the ones that uplift you. Let them be your compass, reminding you that healing is possible.
