33 Quotes to Keep You Sober Every Day

This blog post was one of the hardest I have written yet; it also is my favorite. When I decided to turn my back on drugs, I filled my life with positivity. Every single day I read dozens of inspirational quotes.
There were nights when that is literally all I did for hours. It sounds strange, but searching for the perfect quote distracted me from thinking about my addiction. On my bathroom mirror there are several paper messages spread along the edges, and my Facebook page has welcomed positive quotes as a regular visiting friend; they are with me in the morning, online, where I eat breakfast, and beside me when I sleep. In the hardest moments, the precious words kept me going and focused on the end goal. Now that I am fully recovered, the inspirational quotes are still a part of my life. They remind me of what I have already accomplished and of the great things that still lie ahead for me. Narrowing down my favorite quotes was a challenge and is why this blog post was so difficult for me. There are many that I love for reasons beyond their words. My beginning list contained well over a hundred, but I wanted to have a neat and short list that only represented the best; so here are 33 quotes to keep you sober every day.
1. What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
2. When you’re going through hell, keep going.
– Winston Churchill
3. Believe you can and you’re half way there.
– Theodore Roosevelt
4. The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind.
– William James
5. If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can’t, you’re right.
– Mary Kay Ash
6. Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure. The way you think about a fact may defeat you before you ever do anything about it. You are overcome by the fact because you think you are.
– Norman Vincent Peale
7. A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.
– Harry Truman
8. Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.
– Brian Tracy
9. We tend to live up to our expectations.
– Earl Nightingale
10. Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
– Winston Churchill
11. I will persist until I succeed. Always will I take another step. If that is of no avail I will take another, and yet another. In truth, one step at a time is not too difficult…. I know that small attempts, repeated, will complete any undertaking.
– Og Mandino
12. Even if happiness forgets you a little bit, never completely forget about it.
– Jacques Prévert.
13. Courage is doing what you’re afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you’re scared.
– Eddie Rickenbacker
14. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.
-Reinhold Niebuhr
15. Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
16. Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass… It’s about learning how to dance in the rain.
– Vivian Greene
17. Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.
– William James
18. Everyone has a fair turn to be as great as he pleases.
– Jeremy Collier
19. I am always more interested in what I am about to do than what I have already done.
– Rachel Carson
20. When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.
– Lao Tzu
21. To change who you are, change who you think you are.
– Jonathan Lockwood Huie
22. Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
– Mark Twain
23. If you aren’t in the moment, you are either looking forward to uncertainty, or back to pain and regret.
– Jim Carrey
24. Even from the darkest night, songs of beauty can be born.
– Mary Anne Radmacher
25. People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
– Maya Angelou
26. Call a plant beautiful, and it becomes a flower. Call it ugly, and it becomes a weed.
– Jonathan Lockwood Huie
27. Hard times don’t create heroes. It is during the hard times when the “hero” within us is revealed.
– Bob Riley
28. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
29. Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.
– Raymond Lindquist
30. Those who believe they can do something and those who believe they can’t are both right.
– Henry Ford
31. The great and glorious masterpiece of man is to know how to live to purpose.
– Michel de Montaigne
32. A goal is a dream with a deadline.
– Napoleon Hill
33. Whatever you want in life, start today. Not tomorrow – today. Let it be a small beginning – a tiny beginning. Your happiness depends on starting today – every day.
– Jonathan Lockwood Huie
By Michelle Conway
Photo by: Tammy Strobel (Flickr)