Knowing me and my affinity for words, it should come as no great surprise that the quotes of other people have always played a big part in my life. I’ve collected them, filled notebooks and blogs, written them on my body… Sometimes you can’t put exactly what you’re feeling – or the encouragement you need to hear – into words but fortunately, those words are often already out there. So I thought I’d post some of the quotes that have helped me in the hope that they might help you too.

When I started pulling these together, I realised just how many I’ve collected in the past few years alone. I have more than five thousand saved on a Tumblr blog, for example. So this may become a series. These quotes are ones that have encouraged me and motivated and there is a distinct memory attached to each one, a time in my life where I saw it and it spurred me on in a way nothing else had been able to. So these ones are pretty special.

“Do it or don’t do it – you will regret both.” – Søren Kierkegaard

“The bravest thing I ever did was continuing my life when I wanted to die.” – Juliette Lewis

“The poison leaves bit by bit, not all at one. Be patient. You are healing.” – Yasmin Mogahed

“Recovery does not mean losing what makes being you special. Recovery means losing what makes being you painful.” – Unknown

“Take a shower, wash off the day. Drink a glass of water. Make the room dark. Lie down and close your eyes. Notice the silence. Notice your heart. Still beating. Still fighting. You made it, after all. You made it another day. And you can make it one more. You’re doing just fine.” – Charlotte Eriksson

“Let it hurt. Let it bleed. Let it heal. And let it go.” – Nikita Gill

“How much can you change and get away with it, before you turn into someone else, before it’s some kind of murder?” – Richard Siken

“Start now. Start where you are. Start with fear. Start with pain. Start with doubt. Start with hands shaking. Start with voice trembling, but start. Start and don’t stop. Start where you are, with what you have. Just… start.” – Ijeoma Umebinyuo

“It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are.” – E. E. Cummings

“I closed the box and put it in a closet. There is no real way to deal with everything we lose.” – Joan Didion

“What happens when people open their hearts? They get better.” – Haruki Murakami

“But if these years have taught me anything it is this: you can never run away. Not ever. The only way out is in.” – Junot Díaz

“There is so much stubborn hope in the human heart.” – Albert Camus

“Thinking is my fighting.” – Virginia Woolf

“Every time we attend a therapy session, take our prescribed medication, get out of bed, shower, eat a healthy meal, spend time with other people, exercise, or ask for help, we are fighting. Each step in recovery is an act of defiance toward our mental illness leading us to hope.” – Michelle Stepp

“I must endure, and endure, and still endure.” – Tennessee Williams

“You are not going nowhere just because you haven’t arrived at your final destination.” – Taylor Swift

“What did you do today?

Existed quietly within myself.

What will you do tomorrow.

Exist with some degree of force.” – Trista Mateer

“Hang on. It gets easier, and then it gets okay, and then it feels like freedom.” – Taylor Swift

“You are not what happened to you. You are what you chose to become after what happened to you.” – Selena Gomez

“Life is tough, my darling, but so are you.” – Stephanie Bennett-Henry

“I rise from my worst disasters, I turn, I change.” – Virginia Woolf

“My life has changed, and I’m changing with it.” – Sophie Kinsella

“You know who’s going to give you everything? Yourself.” – Diane Von Furstenberg

“Be as fearless as the women whose stories you have applauded.” – Hillary Clinton

“I can’t abandon

the person I used to be

so I carry her.” – Unknown

“Today, just like yesterday, I woke up, picked up my pen and notebook and kept on writing.” – Laura Jane Grace

“I’ve had the wind knocked out of me, but never the hurricane.” – Jeffrey McDaniel

I’m always adding to my collection so if you guys have any quotes that have inspired you, please let me know. We could probably all do with a little more inspiration in our lives.