Top 40 Addiction Recovery Quotes from Icarus

Get Our Favorite Inspirational Words to Celebrate Sobriety

Addiction recovery is one of the most difficult battles any human being could ever face. It’s essentially a never-ending war spent wrestling with substance, wrestling with demons – and worst of all, wrestling with yourself. Despite the struggles along the recovery journey, the reward on the other side is much sweeter – a life without the shackles of drug or alcohol addiction – and a chance to find yourself again and look forward to new beginnings.

If there’s one thing that’s promised on the recovery journey – it’s that wading through the darkness of drug and alcohol addiction, looking for the light at the end of the tunnel – there will be bumps in the roads. There are times when those roadblocks seem too intense to shoulder and you feel like giving up.

It’s times like those when the power of words can inspire even the most downtrodden soul to pick themselves up by the bootstraps and limp it across the finish line. Words can prepare ordinary people to do extraordinary things. If it’s a particular quote or talk from someone that touches your soul, it reminds you that all the pain is temporary, and your life is worth recovery.

Keep reading to get our ‘Top 40’ addiction recovery quotes (with a few bonus quotes as well) and remember that Icarus Behavioral Health in Nevada is here at any time to provide a safe and comfortable setting that can help you get a firm footing and on a path to lasting sobriety!

Addiction Recovery Quotes

If you’ve ever been to an addiction treatment center or recovery organization, you’ve probably seen posters with quotes all over the place. They’re not just hanging for decoration. Some addiction recovery quotes might seem cheesy or cliche – but there’s that one person in addiction treatment who needed to hear or see those words and it completely turns their day, week, or even month around.

Addiction recovery quotes can come in many forms – some have a touch of humor – some are riddled with raw truth – and some remind you of a firey coach at halftime of a football game. Regardless of what lights that fire inside you, addiction recovery and inspiring quotes have been forever entangled, reminding you that you can write a brand new ending.

Inspirational Words for Any Leg of the Recovery Journey

Whether you’re in early recovery, or you’re in the late stages – or maybe you’ve got a few years under your belt – when the world pushes you down, remember that your greatest glory comes right after the fall.

Keep moving forward – you’re making one of the most positive crucial life decisions and you’re doing great – soon you’ll have a solid foundation – and this is just a way for the world to test you.

Without further ado, these are our ‘Top 40″ quotes for recovering addicts, people struggling with behavioral health issues, or anybody who just needs a little help moving forward. Hopefully, you’ll find some inspiration in at least one of these recovery quotes and they help you on your lifelong journey to be the best version of yourself.

Each set of motivational quotes is separated into a different category that we felt was most fitting.

The Best Motivational Quotes On Addiction and Recovery

If there’s any group of people that has an affinity for addiction and recovery – it’s celebrities. Many celebrities enter the industry already bound by chains of addiction. Others find the pressure or temptations of the industry and suddenly they’ve developed a new addiction they’ve never experienced.

Regardless of the situation, celebrities typically have a tough time trying to overcome things. When an alcohol or drug addict has access to virtually unlimited sums of money – it usually doesn’t bode well for your determination and willpower.

The following celebrities, however, remain in recovery despite the pressures and maintain the confidence to move forward. These are the best celebrity quotes on addiction.

Inspirational Quotes from Celebrities On Drug and Alcohol Addiction

1. “If it wasn’t for that rehab center, I probably wouldn’t have been here. In terms of recovery, it has been very important for me to be a part of a recovery community, and to actively be around my people because they understand me. They get it.” – Macklemore
2. “It is 10 years since I used drugs or alcohol and my life has improved immeasurably. I have a job, a house, a cat, good friendships, and, generally, a bright outlook… The price of this is constant vigilance because the disease of addiction is not rational.” – Russell Brand
3. “My recovery from drug addiction is the single greatest accomplishment of my life… but it takes work — hard, painful work — but the help is there, in every town and career, drug/drink freed members of society, from every single walk and talk of life to help and guide.” – Jamie Lee Curtis
4. “I realized that I only had two choices: I was either going to die or I was going to live, and which one did I want to do? And then I said those words, ‘I’ll get help,’ or, ‘I need help. I’ll get help.’ And my life turned around. Ridiculous for a human being to take 16 years to say, ‘I need help.’” – Sir Elton John
5. “I understood, through rehab, things about creating characters. I understood that creating whole people means knowing where we come from, how we can make a mistake, and how we overcome things to make ourselves stronger.” – Samuel L. Jackson
6. “One of the hardest things was learning that I was worth recovery.” – Demi Lovato
7. ‘Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life’ – JK Rowlings

Inspirational Quotes About Alcohol Recovery

Recovering from alcohol is an uphill struggle – especially when you’re going through withdrawal and a drink takes away all the pain. These motivational words may help during times of great physical pain, in addition to the ongoing process of mental healing.

1. “That’s the problem with drinking, I thought, as I poured myself a drink. If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good happens you drink to celebrate; and if nothing happens you drink to make something happen. ” – Charles Bukowski
2. “The goal isn’t to be sober. The goal is to love yourself so much that you don’t need to drink.”
3. “If you’re not moving away from a drink, then you’re moving closer to it”
4. “Every recovery from alcoholism began with one sober hour”
5. “If you can quit for a day, you can quit for a lifetime.” ― Benjamin Alire Sáenz 

6. “For all the alcoholics and addicts out there, you are loved, stopped being so stubborn and come in from the cold. Wherever you are, there is a brighter light in your sight. Move towards it every day, and keep moving towards it. Even the worst and strongest addiction is a choice—a choice not to fight, to give up, to indulge the impulse, or instead to accept the hands offered you to help, even from strangers, even from the state.

Don’t hate those who gave up on you, it wasn’t their fault, you just wore them down. Show them they were wrong about you. Your troubles are meant to mold you into something better, not destroy you, so FIGHT! Another day comes for the better if you’re standing in the right spot for it to hit you. Find the right spot and stay there until it does.” – Dave Pryor

Anonymous Recovery Quotes About Strength and Perseverance

Sometimes it’s difficult to be both the addict and the motivator. There can be discomfort that comes with abstaining from your drug of choice – but ultimately, you’re the only person that your success and failure rests on.

Sometimes you just need that boost of strength and perseverance when the world pushes you down. Hopefully one of these quotes will remind you of the extraordinary destiny you have waiting for you, and all the factors that make the struggle worth it.

1. “Even though you may not be in the place you have wished for, you are still on the way. Don’t give up on your dreams when you have come this far.”
2. Don’t let an obstacle set you back. There are ways around or through anything that happens to you that don’t include the use of alcohol or drugs.
3. No matter how bad it was in the past, your better days are waiting for you. Enjoy them in your new, sober light.
4. Not all battles are won the very first time they are fought. Stay strong and prepare for the days that are harder while embracing the easier days.
5. It’s easy to give up when you have failed in the past. But wouldn’t it be amazing to look back and relish in your great triumph?
6. Recovery is not an easy task. It takes courage, heart, and determination. You have that in you and so much more.
7. Always stay strong no matter what happens today. Every day is a new beginning with worlds of possibilities in front of you.
8. Be strong when you are faced with your past demons. You’ve conquered them before, and you can face them again.
9. As you move forward in recovery, don’t forget the person you once were when you were using. Sometimes that is all we need to stay sober.
10. You either give up and let the day ruin you, or you fight and come out victorious in the end. The choice is yours.

Uplifting Recovery Quotes to Help Make a Brand New Beginning

Starting fresh is a major theme of recovery – and that’s what the following motivational quotes are all about.

Seeking (and achieving) a new beginning is one of the most crucial life decisions you can make – but it usually ends with an extraordinary destiny.

1. “You can’t go back and make a new start, but you can start right now and make a brand new ending.” –James R. Sherman
2. “When the past calls, let it go to voice mail. Believe me, it has nothing new to say.”
3. “It’s not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it’s not possible to find it elsewhere.”
4. “You can’t go back and make a new start, but you can start right now and make a brand new ending.”
5. “You can start anew at any given moment. Life is just the passage of time and it’s up to you to pass it as you please.” – Charlotte Eriksson
6. “No, this is not the beginning of a new chapter in my life; this is the beginning of a new book! That first book is already closed, ended, and tossed into the seas; this new book is newly opened, has just begun!”– C. Joybell
7. “Even the greatest was once a beginner. Don’t be afraid to take that first step.” – Muhammad Ali
8. “The chief beauty about time is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoiled, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your life. You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose.” – Arnold Bennett
9. “Starting over is an acceptance of a past we can’t change, an unrelenting conviction that the future can be different, and the stubborn wisdom to use the past to make the future what the past was not.” – Craig D. Lounsbrough

Classic Motivational Quotes from Across the Ages

For the final section, these are some of the most classic motivational quotes. They may not necessarily be directly centered around alcohol or drug addiction – but still extremely powerful and uplifting nonetheless.

These can get you moving in the right direction and remind you that it’s the small efforts that lead to the biggest victories.

1. “Courage isn’t having the strength to go on – it’s going on when you don’t have strength.” ~Napoleon Bonaparte
2. “Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power.” ~Jim Morrison
3. “The diamond cannot be polished without friction, nor the person perfected without trials.” ~Chinese proverb
4. “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” ~Babe Ruth
5. “Fall seven times and stand up eight.” ~Japanese proverb
6. “I don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.” ~Anne Frank
7. “Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future.” ~Robert H. Schuller
8. “We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken.” ~John Green
9. “God sends the dawn that we might see the might-have-beens that still might be.” ~Robert Brault
10. “Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” ~George Addair

Can Inspirational Quotes Really Help You Remain Sober?

Words are some of the most powerful elements in life. Words and sounds create frequencies and energies – we harmonize and align ourselves with these frequencies and energies – and they begin to manifest. If you’ve ever researched the law of attraction or read material on the power of positivity – this is the same concept.

You become what you think and speak – this is why it’s so important to refrain from being negative during life’s important moments. If you want something bad enough, you can often speak (and affirm) it into existence.

The mind is a powerful tool, in many ways, it’s the most powerful tool your body has. Anything your mind can fathom – you can create. If you can see it, you can make it a reality. Speak it, believe it, achieve it.

Get Motivated and Find Your Recovery Wings at Icarus!

If you need a little extra confidence to move forward, our programs at Icarus Behavioral Health Nevada can provide you with the additional boost of confidence, education, and awareness that you need. Whether this is your first time in recovery or if you’ve tried several times – our program is centered around various behavioral health and evidence-based approaches with proven holistic rehab approaches incorporated as well.

We place heavy emphasis on an individualized treatment plan that addresses the underlying causes of addiction and helps promote lasting recovery. Contact us today about one of our programs at Icarus in Nevada – our admissions team is standing by to help get you into our treatment facility right away!