Best Mental Health Quotes

We believe staying mentally healthy is a critical part of our overall health. If you're facing a mental health challenge, you are not alone!

We're adding inspirational mental health quotes we find across the internet and beyond so that you can get a little bit more inspiration, hope, and joy in your day.

If you are in need of immediate assistance, please dial 911 or the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1 (800) 273-8255

Inspirational Mental Health Quotes

Do you need some inspiration? These inspirational mental health quotes should help!

“If you can’t fly, run. If you can’t run, walk. If you can’t walk, crawl, but by all means, keep moving.”
—Martin Luther King, Jr.

“It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.”
— Aristotle

“I am bent, but not broken. I am scarred, but not disfigured. I am sad, but not hopeless. I am tired, but not powerless. I am angry, but not bitter. I am depressed, but not giving up.”
— Unknown

“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.”
— Jimmy Dean

"Here is the test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished. If you're alive, it isn't.
— Richard Bach

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls, the most massive characters are seared with scars."
— Khalil Gibran

Positive Mental Health Quotes

Retraining your mind to be positive is tremendously helpful for your mental health. These positive mental health quotes should help!

“Don’t believe everything you think.”
— Unknown

“Your illness is not your identity. Your chemistry is not your character.”
— Pastor Rick Warren

“Recovery is not one and done. It is a lifelong journey that takes place one day, one step at a time.”
— Unknown

“You can’t control everything. Sometimes you just need to relax and have faith that things will work out. Let go a little and just let life happen.”
— Kody Keplinger

“Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”
— Albus Dumbledore

"What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality."
— Plutarch

Mental Health Quotes for More Strength

Here are some mental health quotes for more strength:

"In the middle of winter I at last discovered that there was in me an invincible summer.”
— Albert Camus

“Mental health… is not a destination but a process. It’s about how you drive, not where you’re going.”
— Noam Shpancer

“Emotional pain is not something that should be hidden away and never spoken about. There is truth in your pain, there is growth in your pain, but only if it’s first brought out into the open.”
— Steven Aitchison

"Your present circumstances don't determine where you can go, they merely determine where you start."
— Nido Qubein

Encouraging Mental Health Quotes

We all could use more encouragement. Here are some encouraging mental health quotes:

"Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, I’m not going to make it, but you laugh inside — remembering all the times you’ve felt that way.”
— Charles Bukowski

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
— Frederick Douglas

“There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t.”
— John Green

“You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”
— Buddha

Short Mental Health Quotes

For those who want mental health quotes short and sweet:

“Tough times never last, but tough people do!”
— Robert Schuller

“Be patient and tough; some day this pain will be useful to you.”
— Ovid

“There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in”
― Leonard Cohen

“I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship.”
— Amy March, from Little Women

“Change what you can, manage what you can’t.”
― Raymond McCauley

“There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t.”
— John Green

Famous Mental Health Quotes

Below are some famous mental health quotes:

“If you’re going through hell, keep going.”
— Winston Churchill

“Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves”
― Henry David Thoreau

“The best way out is always through.”
— Robert Frost

"It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light."
— Aristotle Onassis

"Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise."
— Victor Hugo

"The sun himself is weak when he first rises, and gathers strength and courage as the day gets on."
— Charles Dickens.

Celebrity Mental Health Quotes

If you need some motivation, celebrities sometimes offer nuggets of wisdom. Here are some celebrity mental health quotes:

“The advice I’d give to somebody that’s silently struggling is, you don’t have to live that way. You don’t have to struggle in silence. You can be un-silent. You can live well with a mental health condition, as long as you open up to somebody about it, because it’s really important you share your experience with people so that you can get the help that you need.”
— Demi Lovato

“What mental health needs is more sunlight, more candor, and more unashamed conversation.”
— Glenn Close

“What I love about therapy is that they’ll tell you what your blind spots are. Although that’s uncomfortable and painful, it gives you something to work with.”
— Pink

“I found that with depression, one of the most important things you can realize is that you’re not alone. You’re not the first to go through it, you’re not gonna be the last to go through it,”
— Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

“The experience I have had is that once you start talking about [experiencing a mental health struggle], you realize that actually you’re part of quite a big club.”
— Prince Harry

“Promise me you’ll always remember — you’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”
— Christopher Robin from Winnie the Pooh

“If you have been brutally broken but still have the courage to be gentle to other living beings, then you’re a badass with a heart of an angel.”
— Keanu Reeves

“Part of my identity is saying no to things I don’t want to do… I check in with myself throughout the day and I say, ‘Do I really want to do this?’ and if the answer is no, then I don’t do it. And you shouldn’t either.”
— Lady Gaga

“There isn’t anybody out there who doesn’t have a mental health issue, whether it’s depression, anxiety, or how to cope with relationships. Having OCD is not an embarrassment anymore – for me. Just know that there is help and your life could be better if you go out and seek the help.”
— Howie Mandel

"You're only given a spark of madness. You mustn't lose it."
- Robin Williams

“If you are broken, you do not have to stay broken.”
—Selena Gomez

“Mental health is just as important as… physical health and deserves the same quality of support.”
—  Kate Middleton

Mental Health Quotes from Literature

Some of the best literature includes some of the best mental health quotes. Here are some mental health quotes from literature:

"No need to hurry, no need to sparkle, no need to be anybody but oneself."
— Virginia Woolf

"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another."
— Charles Dickens

"Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful."
- Mary Shelley

"I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship."
— Louisa May Alcott

"If clouds are blocking the sun, there will always be a silver lining that reminds me to keep on trying."
— Matthew Quick, The Silver Linings Playbook

"I shan't be lonely now. I was lonely; I was afraid. But the emptiness and the darkness are gone; when I turn back into myself now I'm like a child going at night into a room where there's always a light."
— Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence

"I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart. I am, I am, I am."
— Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

"I will not say do not weep, for not all tears are an evil."
— J.R.R. Tolkien, Return of the King

"There have been times, lately, when I dearly wished that I could change the past. Well, I can't, but I can change the present, so that when it becomes the past it will turn out to be a past worth having."
― Sir Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

"A fighter can be a winner, but that doesn't make a winner a fighter."
― Mark Zusak, Fighting Ruben Wolfe

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."
― Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

"God made the world just as much for me as for any one else."
― Oscar Wilde, De Profundis

"The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places."
―Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

"We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken."
― John Green, Looking for Alaska

"It takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart.
― Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay

"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live."
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

"Make not your thoughts your prisons."
― William Shakespeare, Anthony and Cleopatra

"You still have a lot of time to make yourself be what you want. There's still lots of good in the world."
— S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders

"Do not let the hero in your soul parish, in lonely frustration, for the life you deserved but never have been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won. It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours."
― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

"Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul."
― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

"I have been bent and broken, but — I hope — into a better shape."
— Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Mental Health Awareness Quotes

Mental health awareness is a huge passion of ours. Here are some mental health awareness quotes:

"Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary."
— Fred Rogers

"What mental health needs is more sunlight, more candor, and more unashamed conversation."
— Glenn Close

"If we start being honest about our pain, our anger, and our shortcomings instead of pretending they don’t exist, then maybe we’ll leave the world a better place than we found it."
— Russell Wilson

"Nobody can save you but yourself, and you’re worth saving. It’s a war not easily won, but if anything is worth winning then this is it."
— Charles Bukowski

"You don’t have to be positive all the time. It’s perfectly okay to feel sad, angry, annoyed, frustrated, scared and anxious. Having feelings doesn’t make you a negative person. It makes you human."
— Lori Dschene

"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."
— Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

"Healing takes time, and asking for help is a courageous step."
— Mariska Hargitay

"Give yourself a break. Stop beating yourself up! Everyone makes mistakes, has setbacks and failures. You don’t come with a book on how to get it right all the time."
— Les Brown

"I found that with depression, one of the most important things you can realize is that you’re not alone. You’re not the first to go through it, you’re not gonna be the last to go through it,"
— Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson

"I’ve seen people go from the darkest moments in their lives to living a happy, fulfilling life. You can do it too. I believe in you. You are not a burden. You will NEVER BE a burden."
— Sophie Turner

"There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t."
— John Green

"You are not your illness. You have an individual story to tell. You have a name, a history, a personality. Staying yourself is part of the battle."
— Julian Seifter

"Life doesn’t make any sense without interdependence. We need each other, and the sooner we learn that, the better for us all."
— Erik Erikson

"Mental health problems don’t define who you are. They are something you experience. You walk in the rain and you feel the rain, but, importantly, you are not the rain."
— Matt Haig

"I knew well enough that one could fracture one’s legs and arms and recover afterward, but I did not know that you could fracture the brain in your head and recover from that too."
— Vincent Van Gogh

"I say that publicly because I think it’s really important to take the stigma away from mental health… My brain and my heart are really important to me. I don’t know why I wouldn’t seek help to have those things be as healthy as my teeth. I go to the dentist. So why wouldn’t I go to a shrink?"
— Kerry Washington

Mental Health Therapist Quotes

We are always on the look out for quotes from mental health professionals. Here are some mental health therapist quotes:

“No amount of support or generosity justifies someone treating you badly. This includes parents.”
— Sarah Crosby

“‘Positive vibes only’ isn’t a thing. Humans have a wide range of emotions and that’s OK.”
— Molly Bahr, LMHC

“What if you moved through the world as if you were easy to be loved? Because I promise you, you are easy to love.”
- Sonalee Rashatwar, LCSW

“Just because no one else can heal or do your inner work for you doesn’t mean you can, should, or need to do it alone.”
— Lisa Olivera

Deep breathing is our nervous system’s love language.”
— Dr. Lauren Fogel Mersy

“There is no mind over matter. Mind is matter. You don’t get over an illness by not talking about it. It isn’t weak to ask for help. It isn’t weak to want to survive. It isn’t a character flaw to experience bad things.”
— Matt Haig

“It’s okay to miss an old way of coping.”
— Jordan Pickell

“You’re not someone who could have had a great life but no longer can. You’re someone who still has time to live a great life. You’re not someone who used to have potential but wasted it. You’re someone who had setbacks, but can and will bounce back. You still have as much potential as always. You can still do amazing things.”
— Emma Notemma

“As soon as we realize that it’s not our job to be perfect, everything gets easier and more honest and more true. And in my experience, it tends to work better.”
— Adam

“Common happiness myths: 1. Happiness is the natural state for all human beings. 2. If you’re not happy, you’re defective. 3. To create a better life, we must get rid of negative feelings. 4. You should be able to control what you think and feel.”
— Molly Bahr

“There is grief in change. Be careful not to mistake grief as a sign you’re doing the wrong thing.”
— Lisa Olivera

“The pain of the past exists nowhere except inside of you. That doesn’t mean it’s not real, it does mean only you can heal it, and you can.”
— Elwing Gonzalez

“Start listening to the way you talk to yourself. These interactions will tell you how well you know yourself, how much you respect yourself, and what boundaries you are lacking."
— Sara Kuberic

“The world doesn’t always know what to do with people who don’t recover from illness. We like stories that have a clear beginning and ending. Even if you don’t fully heal or ‘get better’, you can be loved and appreciated for exactly who you are now. It’s enough.”
— Whitney Goodman

“As you reflect back on the previous weeks, months or year, look for moments you can celebrate too. There will be some, even if you have to look a little harder.”
— Emily Coxhead

“Pay careful attention to anything you try to hide.”
— Gretchen Rubin

Thanks for reading our list of the best mental health quotes! Do you have any other quotes we're missing? We'd love to add them to our list!