157 Positive Quotes for Difficult Times to Lift You Up

Every line below carries the name of the person who said it — from classic authors and poets to modern voices — so you can share the positive quotes for difficult times that speaks to you with confidence. Save the ones you need, send one to a friend who is struggling, or return here whenever you need a reason to keep going.

Positive Quotes for Difficult Times: Hope in Dark Times

1. Once you choose hope, anything’s possible. — Christopher Reeve
2. The darkest hour has only sixty minutes. — Morris Mandel
3. Hope is a waking dream. — Aristotle
4. Storms make trees take deeper roots. — Dolly Parton
5. It always seems impossible until it’s done. — Nelson Mandela
6. Fall seven times, stand up eight. — Japanese proverb
7. When you’re going through hell, keep going. — Attributed to Winston Churchill
8. Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. — Thomas Edison
9. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. — Samuel Beckett
10. Courage is grace under pressure. — Ernest Hemingway
11. Courage is knowing what not to fear. — Plato
12. He spoke well who said that graves are the footprints of angels. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Strength Through Adversity

1. Death ends a life, not a relationship. — Mitch Albom
2. If God sends us on strong paths, we are provided strong shoes. — Corrie ten Boom
3. So, surely with hardship comes ease. — The Quran (94:6)
4. Allah does not burden a soul beyond that it can bear. — The Quran (2:286)
5. Do not lose heart nor grieve, for you will be superior if you are believers. — The Quran (3:139)
6. This too shall pass. — Persian proverb
7. The best way out is always through. — Robert Frost
8. All things must pass. — George Harrison
9. This is the time to be slow, lie low to the wall until the bitter weather passes. — John O’Donohue
10. Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. — Haruki Murakami
11. No feeling is final. — Rainer Maria Rilke
12. Because you are alive, everything is possible. — Thich Nhat Hanh

Resilience and Perseverance

1. Into each life some rain must fall. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
2. My head is bloody, but unbowed. — William Ernest Henley
3. You can stand me up at the gates of hell, but I won’t back down. — Tom Petty
4. I’m still standing, yeah yeah yeah. — Elton John
5. The show must go on. — Queen
6. Carry on my wayward son, there’ll be peace when you are done. — Kansas
7. I will survive. — Gloria Gaynor
8. Wherever you are, be there totally. — Eckhart Tolle
9. What you seek is seeking you. — Rumi
10. Believe you can and you’re halfway there. — Attributed to Theodore Roosevelt
11. Dwell in possibility. — Emily Dickinson
12. When they go low, we go high. — Michelle Obama

Courage to Keep Going

1. Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier. — Colin Powell
2. Get mad, then get over it. — Colin Powell
3. If not us, then who? If not now, then when? — John Lewis
4. And still, I rise. — Maya Angelou
5. Nothing will work unless you do. — Maya Angelou
6. Turn your wounds into wisdom. — Oprah Winfrey
7. Fall in love with your solitude. — Rupi Kaur
8. You will not always be strong, but you can always be brave. — Beau Taplin
9. When you get tired, learn to rest, not to quit. — Attributed to Banksy
10. Hope does not disappoint. — The Bible (Romans 5:5)
11. Stay hungry, stay foolish. — Steve Jobs

Comfort in Grief and Loss

1. Keep moving forward. — Walt Disney
2. Just keep swimming. — Finding Nemo
3. Peace begins with a smile. — Mother Teresa
4. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. — Attributed to Albert Einstein
5. I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. — Jack London
6. There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm. — Willa Cather
7. If we must die, let it not be like hogs hunted and penned in an inglorious spot. — Claude McKay
8. Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack, pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back! — Claude McKay
9. The soul that is within me no man can degrade. — Frederick Douglass
10. Character, not circumstances, makes the man. — Booker T. Washington
11. Where there is danger, the saving power also grows. — Friedrich Hölderlin

Faith During Hardship

1. Nothing will come of nothing. — William Shakespeare
2. Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides. — William Shakespeare
3. Present mirth hath present laughter; what’s to come is still unsure. — William Shakespeare
4. It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing. — Oriah Mountain Dreamer
5. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it. — Oriah Mountain Dreamer
6. Hope locates itself in the premises that we don’t know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act. — Rebecca Solnit
7. To go in the dark with a light is to know the light. — Wendell Berry
8. On the day when the weight deadens on your shoulders and you stumble, may the clay dance to balance you. — John O’Donohue
9. May the light of your soul guide you. — John O’Donohue
10. Love wins, love always wins. — Mitch Albom
11. Sometimes you cannot believe what you see, you have to believe what you feel. — Mitch Albom

This Too Shall Pass

1. “‘Sometimes,’ said Pooh, ‘the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.'” — A.A. Milne
2. When the Lord closes a door, somewhere He opens a window. — The Sound of Music
3. In a dark place we find ourselves, and a little more knowledge lights our way. — Yoda
4. won’t you celebrate with me what i have shaped into a kind of life? i had no model. — Lucille Clifton
5. may the tide that is entering even now the lip of our understanding carry you out beyond the face of fear. — Lucille Clifton
6. Remember the sky that you were born under, know each of the star’s stories. — Joy Harjo
7. Remember your birth, how your mother struggled to give you form and breath. — Joy Harjo
8. Get busy living, or get busy dying. — Stephen King
9. The road goes ever on and on. — J.R.R. Tolkien
10. Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is. — Yoda
11. Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future. — Yoda

Rising After Falling

1. You must unlearn what you have learned. — Yoda
2. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. — Yoda
3. Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose. — Yoda
4. You are your best thing. — Toni Morrison
5. Activism is the rent I pay for living on the planet. — Alice Walker
6. Don’t raise your voice, improve your argument. — Desmond Tutu
7. Your silence will not protect you. — Audre Lorde
8. Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible be found in us. — Pema Chödrön
9. The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them. — Elizabeth Gilbert
10. We can do hard things. — Glennon Doyle
11. Sometimes you can do everything right and things will still go wrong. The key is to never stop doing right. — Angie Thomas

Inner Strength

1. Real isn’t how you are made. It’s a thing that happens to you. — Margery Williams
2. You become. It takes a long time. — Margery Williams
3. And Max, the king of all wild things, was lonely and wanted to be where someone loved him best of all. — Maurice Sendak
4. Winners never quit, and quitters never win. — Vince Lombardi
5. Be here now. — Ram Dass
6. Let it be. — The Beatles
7. Never give up. — Attributed to Winston Churchill
8. Be not afraid. — Pope John Paul II
9. Fear not. — The Bible
10. Peace be with you. — The Bible
11. It is well with my soul. — Horatio Spafford

Encouragement for Today

1. Love never fails. — The Bible (1 Corinthians 13:8)
2. Rejoice always. — The Bible (1 Thessalonians 5:16)
3. Pray continually. — The Bible (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
4. Nothing endures but change. — Heraclitus
5. The only constant in life is change. — Attributed to Heraclitus
6. Change is never easy, but always possible. — Barack Obama
7. A change is gonna come. — Sam Cooke
8. My life closed twice before its close. — Emily Dickinson
9. After great pain, a formal feeling comes. — Emily Dickinson
10. I felt a funeral in my brain. — Emily Dickinson
11. Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him. — The Bible (Job 13:15)

Wisdom from Leaders

1. I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. — The Bible (Job 19:25)
2. After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. — The Bible (Job 42:10)
3. In darkness God’s truth shines most clear. — Corrie ten Boom
4. Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them. — The Bible (Joshua 1:6)
5. The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. — The Bible (Proverbs 18:10)
6. See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. — The Bible (Isaiah 49:16)
7. To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. — The Bible (Isaiah 61:3)
8. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. — The Bible (Jeremiah 29:13)
9. Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. — The Bible (Jeremiah 33:3)
10. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. — The Bible (2 Corinthians 4:16)
11. Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you. — The Bible (Hebrews 13:5)

Poets on Hard Times

1. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. — The Bible (John 14:27)
2. I will restore you to health and heal your wounds. — The Bible (Jeremiah 30:17)
3. The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. — The Bible (Isaiah 58:11)
4. What is the bravest thing you’ve ever said? asked the boy. ‘Help,’ said the horse. — Charlie Mackesy
5. Asking for help isn’t giving up. It’s refusing to give up. — Charlie Mackesy
6. Everyone is a bit scared. But we are less scared together. — Charlie Mackesy
7. What do you want to be when you grow up? ‘Kind,’ said the boy. — Charlie Mackesy
8. When the big things feel out of control, focus on what you love right under your nose. — Charlie Mackesy
9. This storm will pass. — Charlie Mackesy
10. One of our greatest freedoms is how we react to things. — Charlie Mackesy
11. Don’t measure your value by what you own. — Charlie Mackesy

Modern Voices of Hope

1. You are enough. — Charlie Mackesy
2. The greatest illusion is that life should be perfect. — Charlie Mackesy
3. If a man does not master his circumstances then he is bound to be mastered by them. — Amor Towles
4. Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. — Matt Haig
5. It is not the lives we regret not living that are the real problem. It is the regret itself. — Matt Haig
6. Smile, breathe, and go slowly. — Thich Nhat Hanh
7. Not all those who wander are lost. — J.R.R. Tolkien
8. Courage, dear heart. — C.S. Lewis
9. What you resist, persists. — Carl Jung
10. Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. — Alfred Adler
11. At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be done — then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago. — Frances Hodgson Burnett

Short Lines to Carry With You

1. Yes we can. — Barack Obama
2. We are the change that we seek. — Barack Obama
3. When you’ve worked hard, and done well, and walked through that doorway of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you. — Michelle Obama
4. What I want young women and girls to know is: You are powerful and your voice matters. — Kamala Harris
5. There will be people who say to you, ‘You are out of your lane.’ They are burdened by only having the capacity to see what has always been instead of what can be. — Kamala Harris
6. Strong people don’t need strong leaders. — Ella Baker
7. All great achievements require time. — Maya Angelou
8. If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities. — Maya Angelou
9. Choose to be optimistic, it feels better. — Dalai Lama
10. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson. — Dalai Lama
11. Wherever you go, there you are. — Jon Kabat-Zinn

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best positive quotes for difficult times?

The most comforting positive quotes for difficult times are the ones that acknowledge the pain while pointing toward hope — like “This too shall pass” (Persian proverb), “The best way out is always through” (Robert Frost), and “So, surely with hardship comes ease” (Quran 94:6). This collection gathers 157 such lines, each with its attribution.

How can quotes help during hard times?

Reading words from people who endured hardship and kept going can reduce the feeling of being alone. Psychologists note that hopeful language can shift perspective — which is why keeping a few positive quotes for difficult times saved on your phone can help on the worst days.

Who said ‘This too shall pass’?

“This too shall pass” is a Persian proverb, linked to a story about King Solomon’s ring. It has comforted people for centuries because it is true of both suffering and joy — neither lasts forever.

Can I share these quotes with a friend who is struggling?

Yes. Every one of these positive quotes for difficult times is meant to be shared — copy a line into a message, write it in a card, or send the article link. Sometimes one honest sentence helps more than a long speech.

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