Everyone has days when they feel like the world is against them. When their spirits dwindle and optimism fades, quotes can often provide solace, comfort, and a little bit of humor. This article collects a series of quotes to help readers navigate those awful days, inspiring them to push through while occasionally indulging in the necessary escape of expressing their despondency. From finding courage amidst chaos to empathetic acknowledgment of suffering, these quotes are grouped under ten different themes, each with its own sub-title. Each quote serves as a gentle reminder that dark days are a part of life, but they too shall pass.
Quotes for Courage on Awful Days
"Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don't have the strength." – Theodore Roosevelt
"Even the darkest night will end, and the sun will rise." – Victor Hugo
"When you're at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on." – Franklin D. Roosevelt
"The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity." – Seneca
"This too shall pass. It might pass like a kidney stone, but it will pass." – Unknown
"Courage doesn't happen when you have all the answers. It happens when you are ready to face the questions you have been avoiding." – Shannon L. Alder
"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face." – Eleanor Roosevelt
"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear." – Mark Twain
"When you come out of the storm, you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what the storm is all about." – Haruki Murakami
"In the midst of chaos, there's also opportunity." – Sun Tzu
"The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cry. I prefer to laugh. Crying gives me a headache." – Marjorie Pay Hinckley
"Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself." – Charles de Gaulle
Funny Quotes for Awful Days
"I'm not saying I'm always right, but I'm never wrong when it comes to my bad days." – Unknown
"Some days, you eat salads and go to the gym. Other days, you eat cupcakes and refuse to put on pants. It's called balance." – Unknown
"Don't worry, better days are coming. They are called Friday, Saturday, and Sunday." – Unknown
"If you think you're having a bad day, just remember you could be a bird flying into a clean window." – Unknown
"Life happens. Coffee helps." – Unknown
"When nothing is going right, go left." – Unknown
"I've had a perfectly wonderful awful day, but this wasn't it." – Groucho Marx
"The only time I set the bar low is for limbo." – Unknown
"I'm trying to be better today, but I'm exhausted from having such a bad day yesterday." – Unknown
"I have mood swings. I have waves. I get very dark and very happy. Just like my awful days.” – Unknown
"It’s a good day to have a bad day." – Fergie
"If you're going to have a bad day, at least do a good job of it." – Unknown
Inspirational Quotes for Awful Days
"Nothing is impossible. The word itself says 'I'm possible!'" – Audrey Hepburn
"Keep your face always toward the sunshine—and shadows will fall behind you." – Walt Whitman
"In the middle of a difficulty lies opportunity." – Albert Einstein
"The best way to predict the future is to create it." – Peter Drucker
"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can." – Arthur Ashe
"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today." – Franklin D. Roosevelt
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts." – Winston Churchill
"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream." – C.S. Lewis
"It always seems impossible until it’s done." – Nelson Mandela
"Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you'll be able to see further." – Thomas Carlyle
"There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind." – C.S. Lewis
"Life goes on. Whether you choose to move on and take a chance in the unknown, or stay behind, locked in the past, thinking of what could have been." – Unknown
Quotes on Resilience During Awful Days
"Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it's less good than the one you had before." – Elizabeth Edwards
"You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice." – Bob Marley
"The human capacity for burden is like bamboo – far more flexible than you'd ever believe at first glance." – Jodi Picoult
"Resilience is not about overcoming, it’s about becoming." – Sherri Mandell
"Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient." – Steve Maraboli
"You are not what happened to you, you are what you choose to become after it." – Unknown
"The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived." – Robert Jordan
"Tough times don't last; tough people do." – Robert H. Schuller
"Resilience means you experience, you feel, you fail, you hurt. You fall. But, you keep going." – Yasmin Mogahed
"Fall seven times, stand up eight." – Japanese Proverb
"Turn your wounds into wisdom." – Oprah Winfrey
"Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny." – C.S. Lewis
Quotes for Reflection on Awful Days
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." – Mark Twain
"Life is not always a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well." – Jack London
"Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out." – John Wooden
"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves." – Carl Jung
"The unexamined life is not worth living." – Socrates
"We do not learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience." – John Dewey
"It is in the quiet crucible of your personal, private sufferings that your noblest dreams are born and God's greatest gifts are given in compensation for what you’ve been through." – Wintley Phipps
"Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes." – Carl Jung
"Life can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forward." – Søren Kierkegaard
"The only journey is the one within." – Rainer Maria Rilke
"The quieter you become, the more you can hear." – Ram Dass
"You'll never be able to see the big picture when your focus is on the small details." – Unknown
Quotes About Letting Go of Awful Days
"Letting go doesn’t mean you forget the person completely. It just means you find a way of surviving without them." – Unknown
"Sometimes people hold on too tight to the past, because they refuse to embrace the future." – Unknown
"Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die." – Buddha
"Let it hurt. Let it bleed. Let it heal. And let it go." – Nikita Gill
"When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be." – Lao Tzu
"Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go." – Hermann Hesse
"Every exit is an entry somewhere else." – Tom Stoppard
"If you're brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new hello." – Paulo Coelho
"Giving up doesn’t always mean you are weak; sometimes it means you are strong enough to let go." – Unknown
"Take a deep breath, and just let it go." – Unknown
"The only real battle in life is between hanging on and letting go." – Shannon L. Alder
"Letting go is bravery and moving on is courage." – Unknown
Quotes to Distract Yourself From Awful Days
"Dance first. Think later. It's the natural order." – Samuel Beckett
"Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." – Berthold Auerbach
"The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things." – Henry Ward Beecher
"Joy is not in things; it is in us." – Richard Wagner
"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can." – Arthur Ashe
"Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough." – Emily Dickinson
"The best portion of a good man's life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love." – William Wordsworth
"Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants." – Epictetus
"To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others." – Albert Camus
"Sweet is the joy that follows a sudden sorrow." – Unknown
"We need much less than we think we need." – Maya Angelou
"Taking time to do nothing often brings everything into perspective." – Doe Zantamata
Quotes to Validate Awful Feelings
"Pain is real. But so is hope." – Unknown
"Sometimes it takes a good fall to really know where you stand." – Hayley Williams
"Not until we are lost, do we begin to understand ourselves." – Henry David Thoreau
"Suffering is but another name for the teaching of experience." – Horace
"The struggle alone pleases us, not the victory." – Blaise Pascal
"Embrace the glorious mess that you are." – Elizabeth Gilbert
"Life isn't finding shelter in the storm. It's about learning to dance in the rain." – Sherrilyn Kenyon
"The very purpose of our life is happiness, which is sustained by hope." – Dalai Lama
"You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it." – Margaret Thatcher
"Your pain is changing you into something beautiful." – Unknown
"What feels like the end is often the beginning." – Unknown
"Sadness flies away on the wings of time." – Jean de La Fontaine
Quotes for Comforting Awful Days
"Be soft. Don’t let the world make you hard. Don’t let pain make you hate." – Iain Thomas
"The best way out is always through." – Robert Frost
"No matter how you feel, get up, dress up, show up, and never give up." – Regina Brett
"Maybe not today, tomorrow, or even in a month, but eventually things will turn up. The pieces will fit together, and everything will work out okay." – Unknown
"Soar, eat ether, see what has never been seen; depart, be lost, but climb." – Hilda Doolittle
"If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere." – Frank A. Clark
"Everything is going to be okay, maybe not today, but eventually." – Unknown
"Sometimes the best thing you can do is not think, not wonder, and not stress about it. Just breathe and believe everything will turn out for the best." – Unknown
"Life changes very quickly, in a very positive way, if you let it." – Lindsey Vonn
"Hope is the only thing stronger than fear." – Suzanne Collins
"If the wind will not serve, take to the oars." – Latin Proverb
"The perfect time for everything you love is now." – Unknown
Encouraging Quotes for Making a Fresh Start After Awful Days
"It’s never too late to be what you might have been." – George Eliot
"You are never too old to set a new goal or dream a new dream." – C.S. Lewis
"Your current circumstances don’t determine where you can go, they merely determine where you start." – Nido Qubein
"The beginning is the most important part of the work." – Plato
"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does." – William James
"The magic in new beginnings is truly the most powerful of them all." – Josiyah Martin
"You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one." – Unknown
"Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step." – Martin Luther King Jr.
"New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings." – Lao Tzu
"The only impossible journey is the one you never begin." – Tony Robbins
"It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop." – Confucius
"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." – Walt Disney
Final words
As the curtain falls on an awful day, it's imperative to embrace the power of words that resonate with us and remind us of our strength, resilience, humor, and potential for fresh beginnings. These quotes serve as both companions and tools for navigating the most challenging of days, offering solace and guidance. In life’s chaotic theater, the storms may rage, yet the enduring wisdom and hope embedded in these quotes can offer a lifeline—an anchor in the tempest. Remember to breathe deeply, reflect on the journey, and let these guiding words help you find peace and a renewed sense of purpose. As you face more days of varying shades, carry with you the ability to transform your experiences through the magic of words, for even the darkest days contain opportunities for growth and renewal. Embrace these quotes and let them inspire you to see beyond the challenges and into the horizon of possibilities that awaits.