Lately, I have been battling depression more than usual. I know it is partly due to the extraordinary circumstances I am in right now, but it is also due to all those years of not facing my own issues. For many people who suffer from depression, the situation is usually the same.
Beating depression is not an easy thing. On good days, you get up and have hope that things will get better. On bad days, you feel like it’s a constant uphill climb.
Related: Beat Depression With These Natural Treatments
Coming from one who is in the same boat as you may be, here are some quotes to beat depression. I’m not saying they’re going to beat depression forever. They may even sound trite (everything seems trite when you’re in a rut), or they may seem useless. Trust me on this: keep reading and reading and reading.
You’ll get out of that rut, and you’ll find that strength inside you. They may just be quotes, but words have a powerful effect if you imbibe them and believe that there is always hope, even if it doesn’t seem like it at the moment.
1. “Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them — every day begin the task anew.” ~Saint Francis de Sales
2. “Self-pity gets you nowhere. One must have the adventurous daring to accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world: making the most of one’s best.” ~Harry Emerson Fosdick
3. “At least three times every day take a moment and ask yourself: What is really important? Have the wisdom and the courage to build your life around your answer.” ~Lee Jampolsky
4. “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” ~John Wooden
5. “Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” ~Helen Keller
6. “Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh
7. “You were born with potential. You were born with goodness and trust. You were born with ideals and dreams. You were born with greatness. You were born with wings. You are not meant for crawling, so don’t. You have wings. Learn to use them and fly.” ~Rumi
8. “If you’re going through Hell, keep going.” ~Winston Churchill
9. “Never react emotionally to criticism. Analyze yourself to determine whether it is justified. If it is, correct yourself. Otherwise, go on about your business.” ~Norman Vincent Peale
10. “Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” ~St. Francis of Assisi
11. “If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today.” ~E. Joseph Cossman
12. “Depression is a prison where you are both the suffering prisoner and the cruel jailer.” ~Dorothy Rowe
13. “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. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.” ~Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
14. “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” ~C.S. Lewis
15. “Noble deeds and hot baths are the best cures for depression.” ~Dodie Smith
Here’s something more to help: 5 Unusual Ways to Beat Depression
Read essay about the causes of depression on Academichelp.net: get much more writing samples for free!
If you can beat your “depression” with a few quotes (or a 1000 quotes!) then you don’t have depression my friend.
Don’t get me wrong … I love these quotes and they do have a place when we are feeling down, beaten, worried, stressed, feeling like absolute sh*t, (or, dare I say it, “depressed” in the way the word is so loosely and incorrectly used these days). But those things in themselves are not Depression any more than a shortness of breath is Asthma.
Depression is an illness. It is state of the BRAIN, not a state of the mind. The resultant (and widely varying) states of mind (and body) are symptoms, not the cause. Quotes and affirmations may help with some symptoms, but will not “beat depression” any more than they will beat diabetes.
I accept your article is written in goodwill, but it is actually “misinformation” for anyone seeking to understand about true depression. On behalf of all sufferers of true depression I implore the world to understand that depression is not such simplistic an illness that we can talk ourselves out of (or into for that matter).
Thanks for this great post & quotes! I will find places to put some of them, so I can see them and try to take heed everyday! Love your blog! Hope you’re feeling on the up very soon! 🙂
Thank you!
Happened upon this site today, to see the post about quotes beating depression. And I myself am fighting depression and have been for months. My case is exactly as you stated yourself. There are good days, and there are bad days. It is nice to know I am not alone.
This is the quote I use the most.
“Believe more deeply. Hold you face up to the light, even though for the moment you do not see.” -Bill. W.
Undergoing therapy for depression myself, I know what you mean. These quotes are meant to help, as a supplement. Thanks for pointing out that this might be misconstrued as treating depression as simplistic, but that is definitely not the case.
I’m glad you dropped by. Chin up!
You’re welcome!
Thanks for dropping by and your kind words. 🙂