58 Mental Health Quotes To Encourage and Inspire

Mental health is an important part of life for everyone, and it can affect every part of our everyday life. Mental health is our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. Mental health affects how we interact with others, how we handle stress, and how we make choices.

Making mental health a priority and looking after it can help an individual's ability to enjoy and make the most out of life. Mental health is beneficial for our overall health, an example being that depression can increase the chance of various physical health problems. Much of improving mental health is based around balance of our everyday activities and responsibilities. Our mental health can be affected by many things, including external stresses, depression, and anxiety.

Mental Health Quotes

We have compiled a list of favourite quotes about mental health. These mental health quotes have been chosen to motivate, encourage, and inspire us to make good mental health a priority. Hopefully one of these quotes will resonate with your own mental health journey. The list includes quotes from key people who have a link to mental health.

1. “You don’t have to control your thoughts. You just have to stop letting them control you.” — Dan Millman

2. “The humanity we all share is more important than the mental illnesses we may not” ― Elyn R. Saks

3. “I found that with depression, one of the most important things you can realize is that you’re not alone. You’re not the first to go through it, you’re not gonna be the last to go through it,” — Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

4. “Two things can be true. You can love your family and have deep wounds as a result of your family experiences.” — Nedra Glover Tawwab

5. “Life doesn’t make any sense without interdependence. We need each other, and the sooner we learn that, the better for us all.”  — Erik Erikson

6. “Take your time healing, as long as you want. Nobody else knows what you’ve been through. How could they know how long it will take to heal you?” — Abertoli

7. “The experience I have had is that once you start talking about [experiencing a mental health struggle], you realize that actually you’re part of quite a big club.” — Prince Harry

8. “Part of my identity is saying no to things I don’t want to do… I check in with myself throughout the day and I say, ‘Do I really want to do this?’ and if the answer is no, then I don’t do it. And you shouldn’t either.” — Lady Gaga

9. “Take a deep breath to remember you are the child who lived through survival mode and the empowered adult who chose their healing.” — Dr. Nicole LePera

10. “In any given moment, we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety.” — Abraham Maslow

11. “Anxiety is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.” — Arthur Somers Roche

12. “It’s my experience that people are a lot more sympathetic if they can see you hurting, and for the millionth time in my life I wish for measles or smallpox or some other easily understood disease just to make it easier on me and also on them.” ― Jennifer Niven

13. “Crazy isn’t being broken or swallowing a dark secret. It’s you or me amplified. If you ever told a lie and enjoyed it. If you ever wished you could be a child forever.” ― Susanna Kaysen

14. “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” — Fredrick Douglass

15. “Good humor is a tonic for mind and body. It is the best antidote for anxiety and depression. It is a business asset. It attracts and keeps friends. It lightens human burdens. It is the direct route to serenity and contentment.” — Grenville Kleiser

16. “Sometimes self care is exercise and eating right. Sometimes it’s spending time with loved ones or taking a nap. And sometimes it’s watching an entire season of TV in one weekend while you lounge around in your pajamas. Whatever soothes your soul.” — Nanea Hoffman 

17. “The gentlest reminder: You might not need to read another self-help book, attend another training, or bookmark another Instagram post as much as you need to listen to, trust, and practice what you already know. What if the answer you’re looking for is actually within you already?” — Lisa Olivera

18. “Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary.” - Fred Rogers

19. “The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.” - Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

20. “When you come out of the grips of a depression there is an incredible relief, but not one you feel allowed to celebrate. Instead, the feeling of victory is replaced with anxiety that it will happen again, and with shame and vulnerability when you see how your illness affected your family, your work, everything left untouched while you struggled to survive. We come back to life thinner, paler, weaker … but as survivors. Survivors who don’t get pats on the back from coworkers who congratulate them on making it. Survivors who wake to more work than before because their friends and family are exhausted from helping them fight a battle they may not even understand. I hope to one day see a sea of people all wearing silver ribbons as a sign that they understand the secret battle, and as a celebration of the victories made each day as we individually pull ourselves up out of our foxholes to see our scars heal, and to remember what the sun looks like.” ― Jenny Lawson

21. “What does your anxiety do? It does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, but it empties today of its strength. It does not make you escape the evil; it makes you unfit to cope with it if it comes.” ― Raymond L. Cramer

22.  “Be confused, it’s where you begin to learn new things. Be broken, it’s where you begin to heal. Be frustrated, it’s where you start to make more authentic decisions. Be sad, because if we are brave enough we can hear our heart’s wisdom through it. Be whatever you are right now. No more hinding. You are worthy, always.” - S.C. Lourie

23. “…if you rely solely on medication to manage depression or anxiety, for example, you have done nothing to train the mind, so that when you come off the medication, you are just as vulnerable to a relapse as though you had never taken the medication.” — Daniel Goleman

24. “There isn’t anybody out there who doesn’t have a mental health issue, whether it’s depression, anxiety, or how to cope with relationships. Having OCD is not an embarrassment anymore – for me. Just know that there is help and your life could be better if you go out and seek the help.” — Howie Mandel

25. “One small crack does not mean that you are broken, it means that you were put to the test and you didn’t fall apart.” — Linda Poindexter

26. “Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, I’m not going to make it, but you laugh inside — remembering all the times you’ve felt that way.” — Charles Bukowski

27. “You don’t have to be positive all the time. It’s perfectly okay to feel sad, angry, annoyed, frustrated, scared and anxious. Having feelings doesn’t make you a negative person. It makes you human.” — Lori Deschene

28. “I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship.” — Amy March, from Little Women

29. I cannot stand the words “Get over it”. All of us are under such pressure to put our problems in the past tense. Slow down. Don’t allow other to hurry your healing. It is a process, one that may take years, occasionally, even a lifetime – and that’s OK.” -  Beau Taplin

30. “I was with someone recently who asked: ‘Well, don’t you think that if you do too much therapy it will take away your artistic process?’ And I told them: ‘The biggest lie that we’ve ever been sold is that we as artists have to stay in pain to create.'” — Katy Perry

31. “Being vulnerable is actually a strength and not a weakness — that’s why more and more mental health is such an important thing to talk about. It’s the same as being physically sick. And when you keep all those things inside, when you bottle them up, it makes you ill.” — Cara Delevingne

32. “I say that publicly because I think it’s really important to take the stigma away from mental health… My brain and my heart are really important to me. I don’t know why I wouldn’t seek help to have those things be as healthy as my teeth. I go to the dentist. So why wouldn’t I go to a shrink?” — Kerry Washington

33. “Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” — Albus Dumbledore from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

34. “There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t.” ― John Green

35. “Tough times never last, but tough people do!” — Robert Schuller

36. “Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” — Albus Dumbledore from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

37. “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” — Winston Churchill

38. “She is beautiful piece of broken pottery, put back together by her own hands. And a critical world judges her cracks while missing the beauty of how she made herself whole again.” - J.M. Storm

39. “Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves” ― Henry David Thoreau

40. “The advice I’d give to somebody that’s silently struggling is, you don’t have to live that way. You don’t have to struggle in silence. You can be un-silent. You can live well with a mental health condition, as long as you open up to somebody about it, because it’s really important you share your experience with people so that you can get the help that you need.” — Demi Lovato

41. “The humanity we all share is more important than the mental illnesses we may not” ― Elyn R. Saks

42. Give yourself a break. Stop beating yourself up!. Everyone makes mistakes, has setbacks and failures. You don’t come with a book on how to get it right all the time. You will fail sometimes, not because you planned to, but simply because you’re human. Failure is a part of creating a great life.” - Les Brown

43. “Sometimes the people around you won’t understand your journey. They don’t need to, it’s not for them.” — Joubert Botha

44. “She overcame everything that was meant to destroy her.” - Sylvester McNutt

45. “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” — Kahlil Gibran

46. “Recovery is not one and done. It is a lifelong journey that takes place one day, one step at a time.” — Unknown

47. “I keep moving ahead, as always, knowing deep down inside that I am a good person and that I am worthy of a good life.” ― Jonathan Harnisch

48. “I understand your pain. Trust me, I do. I’ve seen people go from the darkest moments in their lives to living a happy, fulfilling life. You can do it too. I believe in you. You are not a burden. You will NEVER BE a burden.” — Sophie Turner

49. “You are the one thing in this world, above all other things, that you must never give up on. When I was in middle school, I was struggling with severe anxiety and depression and the help and support I received from my family and a therapist saved my life. Asking for help is the first step. You are more precious to this world than you’ll ever know.” — Lili Reinhart

50. “Often it’s the deepest pain which empowers you to grow into your highest self.” - Karen Salmansohn

51. “Self-care is how you take your power back.” — Lalah Delia

52. “Let your story go. Allow yourself to be present with who you are right now.” – Russ Kyle

53. “My dark days made me strong. Or maybe I already was strong, and they made me prove it.” — Emery Lord

54. “You can’t control everything. Sometimes you just need to relax and have faith that things will work out. Let go a little and just let life happen.” — Kody Keplinger

55. “Your illness is not your identity. Your chemistry is not your character.” — Rick Warren

56. “Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” — Albus Dumbledore

57. “Emotional pain is not something that should be hidden away and never spoken about. There is truth in your pain, there is growth in your pain, but only if it’s first brought out into the open.” — Steven Aitchison

58. “You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” — Buddha