Inspirational Quotes About Strength: 60 Words to Get You Through Hard Times

You’re in the middle of something hard right now. Maybe it’s a loss, a failure, a disappointment, or just the grinding weight of life feeling heavier than you can carry. You’re searching for something—anything—to help you keep going when giving up feels easier.

Words have power, especially in dark moments. The right quote at the right time can shift your perspective just enough to take the next step. It can remind you of truths you’ve forgotten. It can give language to feelings you couldn’t articulate. It can be the lifeline you didn’t know you needed.

These sixty quotes about strength aren’t just pretty words to scroll past. They’re reminders from people who survived their own hard times and emerged stronger. They’re truths about resilience, courage, and the human capacity to endure and overcome. They’re proof that you’re not the first person to struggle, and you won’t be the last—but you can be one who makes it through.

Whether you’re facing grief, heartbreak, failure, illness, betrayal, or just the accumulated weight of too many hard days, there’s a quote here that will speak to exactly what you need to hear right now.

Save the ones that resonate. Return to them when strength feels impossible. Let these words remind you that you are stronger than you know, braver than you feel, and more capable than you believe.

Why Strength Quotes Work in Hard Times

Dr. James Pennebaker’s research at the University of Texas shows that reading meaningful words activates multiple brain areas simultaneously—emotion processing, memory, and meaning-making centers all light up. When you read a quote that resonates, it’s not just intellectual understanding—it’s an emotional and neurological experience.

Psychology studies show that inspirational quotes work because they:

Normalize struggle (you’re not alone)
Provide new perspectives (reframing)
Offer hope (others survived, so can you)
Give language to complex feelings
Create mental anchors to return to

In difficult moments, your brain gets stuck in negative loops. A powerful quote can interrupt that loop and redirect your thinking toward resilience instead of despair.

These aren’t magical solutions. They won’t fix what’s broken or erase what hurts. But they can give you the strength to take the next step, and sometimes that’s all you need.

The 60 Quotes About Strength

On Surviving and Enduring (1-15)

“You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” — A.A. Milne
“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.” — Ernest Hemingway
“You’ve survived 100% of your worst days. You’re doing great.” — Unknown
“Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” — J.K. Rowling
“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
“The human capacity for burden is like bamboo—far more flexible than you’d ever believe at first glance.” — Jodi Picoult
“Tough times never last, but tough people do.” — Robert H. Schuller
“Sometimes you don’t realize your own strength until you come face to face with your greatest weakness.” — Susan Gale
“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” — Margaret Thatcher
“The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.” — Robert Jordan
“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” — Kelly Clarkson
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
“The struggle you’re in today is developing the strength you need for tomorrow.” — Robert Tew
“When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what the storm is all about.” — Haruki Murakami
“Hard times don’t create heroes. It is during the hard times when the hero within us is revealed.” — Bob Riley

On Finding Inner Strength (16-30)

“Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t.” — Rikki Rogers
“You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice.” — Bob Marley
“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.'” — Mary Anne Radmacher
“The only way out is through.” — Robert Frost
“Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” — Christopher Robin
“Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.” — Oprah Winfrey
“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger
“You are confined only by the walls you build yourself.” — Andrew Murphy
“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” — Nelson Mandela
“I am not what happened to me. I am what I choose to become.” — Carl Jung
“Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass but learning to dance in the rain.” — Vivian Greene
“Turn your wounds into wisdom.” — Oprah Winfrey
“Fall seven times, stand up eight.” — Japanese Proverb
“Out of difficulties grow miracles.” — Jean de La Bruyère
“The comeback is always stronger than the setback.” — Unknown

On Courage and Bravery (31-45)

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Being brave isn’t the absence of fear. Being brave is having that fear but finding a way through it.” — Bear Grylls
“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
“Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway.” — John Wayne
“The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” — Nelson Mandela
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” — Anaïs Nin
“Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.” — Mark Twain
“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” — E.E. Cummings
“Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace.” — Victor Hugo
“You can choose courage or you can choose comfort, but you cannot choose both.” — Brené Brown
“Everything you want is on the other side of fear.” — Jack Canfield
“Be strong enough to stand alone, smart enough to know when you need help, and brave enough to ask for it.” — Ziad K. Abdelnour
“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” — Winston Churchill
“The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom is courage.” — Thucydides

On Resilience and Persistence (46-60)

“Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it’s less good than the one you had before.” — Elizabeth Edwards
“The human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to it.” — C.C. Scott
“Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” — Nelson Mandela
“It’s your reaction to adversity, not adversity itself that determines how your life’s story will develop.” — Dieter F. Uchtdorf
“Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.” — Thomas Carlyle
“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” — Helen Keller
“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.” — Charles R. Swindoll
“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations.” — Unknown
“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” — Rumi
“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” — Henry Ford
“Stars can’t shine without darkness.” — Unknown
“A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever.” — Lance Armstrong
“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” — Robert Frost

Real Stories: When Quotes Provided Strength

Sarah’s Story: Surviving Grief

Sarah, 38, lost her husband suddenly at 36. “The grief was unbearable,” she said. “I couldn’t see how I’d survive each day.” A friend sent her quote #3: “You’ve survived 100% of your worst days. You’re doing great.”

“That quote became my mantra,” Sarah explained. “When I woke up crushed by grief, I’d think: ‘I survived yesterday. I can survive today.’ I stopped trying to survive forever—I just survived one day at a time. Two years later, I’m not just surviving anymore. But that quote got me through the days when survival was the only goal. It reminded me I was stronger than I felt.”

Marcus’s Story: Rebuilding After Failure

Marcus, 41, lost his business and filed for bankruptcy. “I felt like a complete failure,” he said. “I couldn’t see how I’d ever recover.” He came across quote #4: “Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”

“That quote reframed everything,” Marcus explained. “My failure wasn’t the end—it was the beginning. I was at rock bottom, which meant I had a solid foundation to rebuild on. I knew what didn’t work. I knew my mistakes. That knowledge became my foundation. Three years later, I rebuilt a better business. That quote shifted me from viewing failure as an ending to viewing it as a foundation.”

Jennifer’s Story: Finding Courage

Jennifer, 29, stayed in an abusive relationship for years, paralyzed by fear. She kept quote #31 in her phone: “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.”

“I read that quote every day for six months before I finally left,” Jennifer said. “It taught me I didn’t have to stop being scared—I just had to decide that my safety was more important than my fear. The day I left, I was terrified. But my freedom was more important than my fear. That quote gave me permission to be brave while scared. It saved my life.”

How to Use These Quotes Effectively

Create a Strength File: Screenshot or write down the 5-10 quotes that resonate most deeply. Save them somewhere easily accessible—phone photos, journal, notes app. Return to them when strength feels impossible.

Morning and Night Anchors: Read one strength quote each morning to prime your day and each night to remind yourself you survived. Bookend your day with reminders of resilience.

Share Them Forward: When someone you know is struggling, don’t just say “hang in there.” Send them the specific quote that speaks to their situation. Sometimes the right words from someone else carry more weight.

Write Them Visibly: Put your favorite quotes on sticky notes around your space—bathroom mirror, car dashboard, computer monitor. Let them interrupt negative thought spirals.

Create a Strength Journal: Write one quote per page. Below each quote, write about a time you demonstrated that kind of strength. Build evidence of your resilience.

Memorize Your Top Three: Choose three quotes that speak to your current struggle. Memorize them. They’ll be there when you need them most, even without your phone.

Matching Quotes to Different Struggles

For Grief and Loss: Quotes 1-15 (surviving and enduring) For Self-Doubt: Quotes 16-30 (finding inner strength) For Fear and Anxiety: Quotes 31-45 (courage and bravery) For Setbacks and Failures: Quotes 46-60 (resilience and persistence)

Different struggles need different words. Return to this list and find the quotes that speak to exactly what you’re facing right now.

When Words Aren’t Enough

These quotes are powerful, but they’re not magic. If you’re in crisis, if you’re thinking about harming yourself, if you’re overwhelmed to the point of not functioning—words alone aren’t enough. You need human support.

Crisis Resources:

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988
Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741
SAMHSA National Helpline: 1-800-662-HELP (4357)

Quotes can inspire strength, but sometimes you need more than inspiration. You need intervention. You need professional help. You need community. Reach out. That’s not weakness—that’s wisdom.

The Compounding Effect of Daily Strength

Reading these quotes once might give you a momentary boost. Reading them daily for months will transform how you handle adversity.

Each time you return to these words, you’re reinforcing neural pathways of resilience. You’re training your brain to default to strength instead of despair. You’re building mental muscle memory of persistence.

Over time, you’ll internalize these truths. They’ll become part of how you think, not just words you read. You’ll face hard times and these principles will surface automatically: “I’ve survived before. This is temporary. I’m stronger than I feel. I can get through this.”

That’s the power of repeatedly exposing yourself to wisdom about strength. It stops being external inspiration and becomes internal identity.

Your Strength Is Already There

Here’s the truth these sixty quotes are all pointing toward: the strength you need is already inside you. You’ve always had it. These words aren’t creating strength—they’re reminding you of strength you’ve always possessed but temporarily forgotten.

Every hard thing you’ve survived proved you were strong enough. Every time you got back up after falling proved your resilience. Every moment you chose hope over despair proved your courage.

You are made of every difficult thing you’ve ever survived. Those experiences didn’t break you—they built you. The strength you’re searching for outside yourself has been inside you all along.

These quotes are mirrors, not magic. They’re reflecting your own strength back to you when you can’t see it yourself.

Right now, scroll back through these sixty quotes. Find the one that makes your chest tighten, your eyes water, or your breath catch. That’s your quote. That’s the truth you need to hear right now.

Save it. Return to it. Let it remind you of what you already are but temporarily forgot: strong, resilient, and capable of surviving this.

You’ve made it through every hard day so far. You’ll make it through this one too.

Keep going. You’re stronger than you know.

20 Additional Strength Quotes

“Anyone can give up; it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone would expect you to fall apart, now that’s true strength.” — Unknown
“Strength is not about how much you can handle before you break. It’s about how much you can handle after you break.” — Unknown
“The only thing standing between you and your goal is the story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.” — Jordan Belfort
“Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.” — Helen Keller
“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” — Albert Einstein
“Sometimes the people around you won’t understand your journey. They don’t need to, it’s not for them.” — Joubert Botha
“You didn’t come this far to only come this far.” — Unknown
“Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.” — Napoleon Hill
“When you feel like quitting, think about why you started.” — Unknown
“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” — Theodore Roosevelt
“The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” — Steve Jobs
“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.” — Louisa May Alcott
“The best way out is always through.” — Robert Frost
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” — Wayne Gretzky
“It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” — Aristotle
“Challenges are what make life interesting. Overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” — Joshua J. Marine
“Sometimes you face difficulties not because you’re doing something wrong, but because you’re doing something right.” — Unknown
“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Picture This

It’s six months from today. You’re facing another difficult moment, but something is different this time. You’re not collapsing under the weight. You’re not spiraling into despair. You’re standing strong.

You think back to six months ago when you read these sixty quotes while struggling through one of the hardest periods of your life. You remember feeling like you couldn’t survive another day.

But you did survive. You survived that day and every day since. And somewhere along the way, you started doing more than surviving—you started building strength.

You saved five quotes that spoke to you. You read them every morning and every night. You returned to them on the worst days. You let them anchor you when everything else felt unmoored.

Slowly, imperceptibly, those words changed you. Not because they were magic, but because they reminded you of truths you needed to hear repeatedly: You are strong. You are resilient. You can survive hard things. You have before, and you will again.

Now, six months later, facing this new challenge, one of those quotes surfaces in your mind automatically. You don’t even have to look it up anymore—it’s part of how you think now.

“Fall seven times, stand up eight.”

You smile because that’s exactly what you’ve done. You’ve fallen. You’ve gotten back up. Repeatedly. And each time you stood up, you were a little stronger than before.

The person struggling six months ago couldn’t imagine being the person you are now—someone who faces hard times with resilience instead of despair, with courage instead of fear, with strength instead of surrender.

That transformation didn’t happen overnight. It happened through 180 mornings of reading strength quotes, through 180 nights of reminding yourself you survived another day, through 180 choices to keep going when quitting felt easier.

You built your strength one day, one quote, one choice at a time.

And the person you’ll be six months from now will be even stronger because of how you’re showing up today.

Your strength is building. These quotes are part of that construction.

Which quote will you build on first?

Share This Article

Someone you know is in the middle of their hardest time right now. They’re questioning whether they can make it through. They need these sixty reminders that they’re stronger than they feel.

Share this article with them. Send them the specific quote that speaks to what they’re facing. Post it for everyone who needs words of strength today.

Your share might be the lifeline someone needs. The right quote at the right moment can be the difference between giving up and keeping going.

Who needs these words today?

Share it with them now.

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Let’s create a world where people remember their strength in hard times. It starts with you sharing these words.

Disclaimer

This article is provided for informational and inspirational purposes only. The quotes included are attributed to their respective authors based on publicly available information and common attribution. While we have made efforts to ensure accuracy, some quotes may have uncertain or disputed origins.

These quotes are meant to provide perspective, inspiration, and encouragement during difficult times. They are not substitutes for professional mental health care, medical treatment, therapy, or crisis intervention.

If you are in crisis, experiencing thoughts of self-harm or suicide, or dealing with severe mental health challenges, please seek immediate help from qualified professionals. Contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988, the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, or call 911.

Individual responses to inspirational content vary significantly. While many people find comfort and strength in quotes during difficult times, they are not guaranteed to provide relief or solutions to serious problems.

The real-life examples shared in this article are composites based on common experiences and are used for illustrative purposes. They represent typical patterns but are not specific individuals.

Words can inspire and encourage, but they work best when combined with professional support, healthy coping strategies, strong relationships, and appropriate treatment when needed. Quotes are tools for encouragement, not replacements for comprehensive care.

If you’re struggling, please reach out for help. You deserve support from qualified professionals who can provide appropriate care for your specific situation.

By reading this article, you acknowledge that inspiration and encouragement are valuable but not sufficient for addressing serious mental health, medical, or crisis situations. The author and publisher of this article are released from any liability related to the use or application of the information contained herein.

You are stronger than you think. And sometimes, being strong means asking for help.