Sometimes browsing inspirational sobriety quotes helps me re-center my focus and gives me strength with my recovery. So I created this list with the sincere hopes of helping others find peace in their addiction recovery.
The thing is, if I don’t have sobriety, I don’t have anything.
Matthew Perry
Without my sobriety, I found myself homeless and near death. I’d become a liar and a thief who hurt the people who loved me. Getting sober transformed me. Where would you be without your sobriety? What is your motivation for staying sober? Keep going. You’ve got this.
Short Inspirational Sobriety Quotes
Sometimes I write short inspirational sobriety quotes on notecards. So that I can hang them around the house to encourage me. Here are a handful of my favorites.
One step at a time. One day at a time. One hour at a time.
Unknown
You become what you believe.
Oprah
It does not matter how slowly you go, only that you do not stop.
Confucius
Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.
Zig Zagler
Don’t count the days. Make the days count.
Muhammad Ali
Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.
Babe Ruth
The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
Mark Twain
These next two quotes are exactly what you need to believe in who you are. You have the power. You’re in control. You’re in charge of writing your own story.
The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Nothing is impossible; the word itself says, ‘I’m possible!
Audrey Hepburn
Addiction Inspirational Sobriety Quotes
These addiction recovery quotes help you feel like you’re not alone. And you’re not, you know? There is strength in community and fellowship. Have you found your sober network yet?
Addiction is just a way of trying to get at something else. Something bigger. Call it transcendence if you want, but it’s a rat in a maze. We all want the same thing. We all have this hole. The thing you want offers relief, but it’s a trap.
Tess Callahan
One of my favorite inspirational sobriety quotes is this quote from an unknown author.
Addiction is the only prison where the locks are on the inside.
Unknown
Additions started out like magical pets, pocket monsters. They did extraordinary tricks, showed you things you hadn’t seen, were fun. But came, through some gradual dire alchemy, to make decisions for you. Eventually, they were making your most crucial life decisions. And they were less intelligent than goldfish.
William Gibson
Alcohol Recovery Quotes
This handful of addiction quotes deals with alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction. They make me smile. The truth in them is encouraging to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Even when it gets hard, recovery is easier than addiction.
I’ve never met an alcoholic in recovery who doesn’t believe that this is the best thing they have ever done.
Adam Clayton
I wanted a drink because I didn’t want to feel what I was feeling, and a voice within was telling me that I needed a drink. That I couldn’t bear it without it. But that voice is a liar. You can always bear the pain. It’ll hurt. It’ll burn like acid in an open wound. But you can stand it. And, as long as you can make yourself go on choosing the pain over the relief, you can keep going.
Lawrence Block
Ya think that the whiskey tastes good? Try a big cup of sobriety—now that is the good stuff!
Steven Tyler
I have not inquired at what period of time the use of intoxicating liquors commenced; nor is it important to know. It is sufficient that, to all of us who now inhabit the world, the practice of drinking them is just as old as the, world itself-that is, we have seen the one just as long as we have seen the other.
Abraham Lincoln
I don’t need alcohol to see the world in its depths, I carry the sun in me.
Lamine Pearlheart
Staying Sober Motivational Quotes
Robert Downey Jr. is one of my favorite actors in recovery. He is amazing in everything he says and does. His inspirational sobriety quotes are some of the recovery community’s favorites.
For me, I just happened to be in a situation the very last time and I said, You know what? I don’t think I can continue doing this. And I reached out for help, and I ran with it. You know? It’s really not that difficult to overcome these seemingly ghastly problems. What’s hard is to decide.
Robert Downey Jr.
I don’t drink these days. I am allergic to alcohol and narcotics. I break out in handcuffs.
Robert Downey Jr.
Recovery is hard. Regret is harder.
Brittany Burgunder
These next three quotes are great reminders that relapse is part of drug addiction recovery and to never stop going. Addiction requires relapse for many people.
You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.
Margaret Thatcher
Though no one can go back and make a brand new start. Anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.
Carl Bard
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.
Chinese Proverb
If you can quit for a day, you can quit for a lifetime.
Benjamin Alire Sáenz
People still question my sobriety, my commitment to the program, and that hurts. I take things day by day, and sometimes I take them minute by minute, but I honor my commitment to stay sober.
Tom Arnold
Sobriety Quotes
These inspirational quotes about getting sober are short, sweet, and to the accurate point.
Getting sober is a radically creative act.
Meredith Bell
Getting sober just exploded my life. Now I have a much clearer sense of myself and what I can and can’t do. I am more successful than I have ever been.
Jamie Lee Curtis
Recovery is something that you have to work on every single day and it’s something that doesn’t get a day off.
Demi Lovato
Also, these next inspirational sobriety quotes are incredible reminders to remain in the present. Also, they allow our past to motivate us to move forward in our addiction recovery. Deciding to stay sober creates a new life and is the best gift ever.
Often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.
Helen Killer
Don’t let the past steal your present.
Terri Guillemets
Sometimes we motivate ourselves by thinking of what we want to become. Sometimes we motivate ourselves by thinking about who we don’t ever want to be again.
Shane Niemeyer
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Best Recovery Quotes About Sobriety
Here is a collection of short inspirational quotes about recovery from addiction. Write them on some index cards and hang them to encourage your growth.
Recovery is about progression not perfection.
Unknown
Recovery didn’t open the gates of heaven and let me in. Recovery opened the gates of hell and let me out!
Unknown
Recovery is an acceptance that your life is in shambles, and you have to change.
Jamie Lee Curtis
One of the hardest things was learning that I was worth recovery.
Demi Lovato
You have to break down before you can breakthrough.
Marilyn Ferguson
Recovery is not for people who need it. It’s for people who want it.
Unknown
Inspirational Quotes Celebrating Sobriety
Lastly, these short inspirational quotes have been helpful in staying focused on one day at a time.
When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.
Henry Ford
Don’t pick up a drink or drug. One day at a time. It sounds so simple. It actually is simple. But it isn’t easy. It requires incredible support and fastidious structuring
Russell Brand
I approach sobriety with the same mentality I approached sports with. You’re going to put in the time. You’ve got to suit up, show up, and keep your eyes on the win.
Molly Bloom
Somebody once asked me how I define sobriety, and my response was liberation from dependence.
Leslie Jamison
When your past calls, don’t answer. It has nothing new to say.
Unknown
My identity shifted when I got into recovery. That’s who I am now, and it actually gives me greater pleasure to have that identity than to be a musician or anything else. Because it keeps me in a manageable size. It gives me a spiritual anchor.
Eric Clapton
Being in recovery has given me everything of value that I have in my life. Integrity, honesty, fearlessness, faith, a relationship with God, and most of all, gratitude.
Rob Lowe
Embracing sobriety is a wonderful gift and I hope these inspirational sobriety quotes fuel you as they do me? I’ve been heroin-free since 09-27-2013. What is your sobriety anniversary? Please share it with me in the comments. It will make my entire day! Thanks. Also, please hit that social share for me and spread healing to another recovering addict today. Thanks, you’re awesome!
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Elizabeth Ervin is the owner of Sober Healing. She is a freelance writer passionate about opioid recovery and has celebrated breaking free since 09-27-2013. She advocates for mental health awareness and encourages others to embrace healing, recovery, and Jesus.