Some days all we need is a hug, a simple, healing gesture that can bring warmth, comfort, and reassurance when life feels difficult or lonely. For those of us who aren’t huggers, though, there are other ways to nurture ourselves: Listening to soothing music, taking a relaxing bath, or engaging in creative pursuits can also help bring some much-needed relief and peace.
There’s also much solace to be found in the written word. Words have the power to uplift and hold us. They can remind us we’re not alone while offering reassurance, wisdom, and perspective, providing a gentle literary embrace when we need it most. If you’re in need of comfort, read through this selection of quotes and take heart in knowing you are seen and heard, even if it doesn’t feel like it right now.
A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.Christopher Reeve
It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.Vince Lombardi
You are your possibilities. If you know that, you can do anything.Oprah Winfrey
Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.Martin Luther King Jr.
To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.Oscar Wilde
There are darknesses in life, and there are lights; you are one of the lights.Bram Stoker
A hug is like a boomerang — you get it back right away.Bil Keane
It is often the small steps, not the giant leaps, that bring about the most lasting change.Queen Elizabeth II
Courage is only an accumulation of small steps.György Konrád
Courage can be contagious, and hope can take on a life of its own.Michelle Obama
A depressing and difficult passage has prefaced every new page I have turned in life.Charlotte Brontë
Remember never to say that you are alone, for you are not alone.Epictetus
Here; you've been carrying that alone for a long time. Let me carry it with you awhile.Julie Berry
Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.Anonymous
Sometimes the right hug from the right person at the exact right time makes all the wrong in the world disappear.Sarah Ockler
Heavy hearts, like heavy clouds in the sky, are best relieved by the letting of a little water.Antoine Rivarol
Never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it, till it come to have a separate and integral interest.Henry David Thoreau
Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place.Lance Armstrong
Sometimes it’s OK if the only thing you did today was breathe.Yumi Sakugawa
The Sun himself is weak when he first rises, and gathers strength and courage as the day gets on.Charles Dickens
Tough times never last, but tough people do!Robert H. Schuller
There isn’t always an explanation for everything.Ernest Hemingway
I have learned that there is more power in a good strong hug than in a thousand meaningful words.Ann Hood
Confronting our feelings and giving them appropriate expression always takes strength, not weakness.Fred Rogers
Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.Joseph Campbell
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