Some days, you feel like you have nothing left. You are tired. You are worn down. You are not sure how much more you can take.
Those are the days that matter most. Not because they are easy, but because you are still here. You are still trying. That alone says something about you.
Strength is not about never falling apart. It is about putting yourself back together when you do. Resilience is not a gift that some people get and others do not. It is something you build, one hard day at a time.
These 90 quotes about strength and resilience are here for the moments when you need a reminder. You have gotten through hard things before. You will get through this too.
Short Strength Quotes
Sometimes a few words are all you need. These short strength quotes cut straight to the point.
"Fall seven times, stand up eight."
— Japanese Proverb
"You are stronger than you think."
— Anonymous
"Tough times never last, but tough people do."
— Robert H. Schuller
"Be strong. You never know who you are inspiring."
— Anonymous
"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls."
— Khalil Gibran
"The human capacity for burden is like bamboo — far more flexible than you'd ever believe at first glance."
— Jodi Picoult
"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will."
— Mahatma Gandhi
"You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice."
— Bob Marley
"Where there is no struggle, there is no strength."
— Oprah Winfrey
"Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength."
— Saint Francis de Sales
"Endure and persist. This pain will turn to your good."
— Ovid
"Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it."
— Nelson Mandela
"The gem cannot be polished without friction."
— Chinese Proverb
"A river cuts through rock not because of its power, but its persistence."
— James N. Watkins
"The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places."
— Ernest Hemingway
"Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever."
— Lance Armstrong
"That which does not kill us makes us stronger."
— Friedrich Nietzsche
"Keep going. Your hardest times often lead to the greatest moments of your life."
— Roy T. Bennett
"Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands — and then eat just one of the pieces."
— Judith Viorst
"You were given this life because you are strong enough to live it."
— Anonymous
Quotes for Tough Times
These resilience quotes are for the moments when you feel like the weight is too heavy. They remind you that hard is not the same as impossible.
"I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it."
— Maya Angelou
"The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived."
— Robert Jordan
"Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life."
— J.K. Rowling
"It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up."
— Vince Lombardi
"A good half of the art of living is resilience."
— Alain de Botton
"Persistence and resilience only come from having been given the chance to work through difficult problems."
— Gever Tulley
"Life doesn't get easier or more forgiving; we get stronger and more resilient."
— Steve Maraboli
"She was a girl who knew how to be happy even when she was sad."
— Marilyn Monroe
"Turn your wounds into wisdom."
— Oprah Winfrey
"You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it."
— Margaret Thatcher
"The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."
— Nelson Mandela
"Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit."
— Napoleon Hill
"Resilience is knowing that you are the only one that has the power and the responsibility to pick yourself up."
— Mary Holloway
"Do not judge me by my success. Judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again."
— Nelson Mandela
"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
"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened."
— Helen Keller
"Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it."
— Helen Keller
"If you're going through hell, keep going."
— Winston Churchill
"Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny."
— C.S. Lewis
"In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity."
— Albert Einstein
Inner Strength Quotes
The strength that carries you through the hardest days is already inside you. These inner strength quotes are here to remind you of that.
"Knowing what must be done does away with fear."
— Rosa Parks
"You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength."
— Marcus Aurelius
"The most beautiful people I've known are those who have known trials, have known struggles, have known loss, and have found their way out of the depths."
— Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
"Believe you can and you're halfway there."
— Theodore Roosevelt
"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves."
— Edmund Hillary
"The only way out is through."
— Robert Frost
"Strength comes from struggle. When you learn to see your struggles as opportunities to become stronger, better, wiser, the frustration and the pain of them becomes easier to bear."
— Sheryl Sandberg
"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face."
— Eleanor Roosevelt
"Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations."
— Zig Ziglar
"Promise me you'll always remember: you're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."
— A.A. Milne
"My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style."
— Maya Angelou
"Once you choose hope, anything's possible."
— Christopher Reeve
"Don't wish it were easier. Wish you were better."
— Jim Rohn
"You don't drown by falling in the water. You drown by staying there."
— Ed Cole
"Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise."
— Victor Hugo
Quotes After Hard Times
When you have been through something hard, it changes you. These quotes are about what comes after. About the person you become on the other side of pain. Take a look at our healing category for more words that help you keep moving forward.
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any."
— Alice Walker
"Sometimes you don't realize your own strength until you come face to face with your greatest weakness."
— Susan Gale
"Every setback is a setup for a comeback."
— Joel Osteen
"When we tackle obstacles, we find hidden reserves of courage and resilience we did not know we had."
— Nelson Mandela
"Scars are not injuries. A scar is a healing. After injury, a scar is what makes you whole."
— China Mieville
"Out of difficulties grow miracles."
— Jean de la Bruyere
"Storms make trees take deeper roots."
— Dolly Parton
"A diamond is just a piece of coal that did well under pressure."
— Anonymous
"The pain you feel today will be the strength you feel tomorrow."
— Anonymous
"Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way."
— Satchel Paige
"You are not the darkness you endured. You are the light that refused to surrender."
— John Mark Green
"I know what I'm capable of. I am a lioness. I have claws and I will use them."
— Kiera Cass
"The human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to it."
— C.C. Scott
"You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them."
— Maya Angelou
Famous Strength Quotes
These famous strength quotes come from people who lived through wars, prison, grief, illness, and loss. They found a way through. So can you.
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."
— Winston Churchill
"Do not pray for an easy life. Pray for the strength to endure a difficult one."
— Bruce Lee
"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."
— Charles Darwin
"I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship."
— Louisa May Alcott
"It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop."
— Confucius
"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."
— Thomas Edison
"I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear."
— Rosa Parks
"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less."
— Marie Curie
"I am not afraid. I was born to do this."
— Joan of Arc
"We are not born strong or weak. Strength is built. Every day. With every choice."
— Anonymous
"She stood in the storm, and when the wind did not blow her away, she adjusted her sails."
— Elizabeth Edwards
"I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart: I am, I am, I am."
— Sylvia Plath
"Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves."
— Marie Curie
"When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on."
— Theodore Roosevelt
"I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then."
— Lewis Carroll
"My strength did not come from lifting weights. My strength came from lifting myself up every time I was knocked down."
— Bob Moore
"He who has a why to live can bear almost any how."
— Friedrich Nietzsche
"I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become."
— Carl Jung
"Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly."
— Anonymous
"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
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good quote about inner strength?
One of the most well-known quotes about inner strength comes from Helen Keller: "Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it." It reminds you that struggle and strength always live side by side.
What are some short strength quotes?
Short strength quotes include: "Fall seven times, stand up eight" (Japanese proverb), "You are stronger than you think" (anonymous), and "That which does not kill us makes us stronger" (Friedrich Nietzsche). These short quotes are easy to remember when you need them most.
What is the difference between strength and resilience?
Strength is the ability to push through a hard moment. Resilience is the ability to bounce back after it. You need both. Strength gets you through the storm. Resilience is what helps you rebuild after it passes.
How can quotes about strength help you in hard times?
Reading quotes about strength during hard times gives you a quick shift in perspective. They remind you that others have faced hard things and kept going. That reminder can be enough to help you take one more step forward.
Hard times do not last. But the person you become while going through them — that person stays with you.
Every time you choose to keep going, you add to your strength. Every hard thing you survive makes the next one a little more manageable. Not because the world gets easier, but because you get better at facing it.
You are building something right now. In the middle of the hard parts, in the tired mornings, in the moments where you are not sure you can do it. You are building a version of yourself that is stronger than the one who started.
Keep going. You are more capable than you know.