Quotes

Quotes That Inspire Hope and Healing

Anger

“Anger is not only inevitable, but it is necessary. For in its place is indifference, the worst of all human qualities.” – Chinese Proverb

“Anger simply shows that something in you is hurt, some wound is there.” – Osho

“Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” – Buddha

“The insanity in holding back my anger is that I am evidently more willing to risk destroying me than destroying a relationship.”  – Hugh Prather in I Touch the Earth, the Earth Touches Me

Attitude

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” – Dr. Seuss

“Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Do what you can, with what you have, 
where you are.” 
- Theodore Roosevelt

“Faith is the daring of the soul to go farther than it can see.” ~ William Newton Clarke

“For what you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are.” – C.S. Lewis

“I am not completely sure how this has happened, but it has been through my journey into mortality, into contemplating where I have been and where I am going, that I have learned the simplest and most profound lesson of all: all of us, you and I, can have more than one life–the one which we have lived to this moment, and the one that we can live from this moment on. And it is a wonderful lesson: the weight of the past and the fear of the future can be trumped by embracing all that the present has to offer. This is not hiding or denying what has happened or what is to come. Rather it is pausing and welcoming into our lives everything that surrounds us now in a way that past and future lose their grip upon us.” ~ Dr. Piehler

“I believe the single most significant decision I can make on a day-to-day basis is my choice of attitude. It is more important than my past, my education, my bankroll, my successes or failures, fame or pain, what people think of me or say about me, my circumstances, or my position. Attitude keeps me going or cripples my progress. It alone fuels my fire or assaults my hope.” ~ Charles Swindoll

“Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” – Hans Christian Anderson

“Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.” – 
Helen Keller

“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” – Mother Teresa

“Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.” – Mother Teresa

“Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you.” – Mother Teresa

“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” – John C. Maxwell

“There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.” – Albert Einstein

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” 

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Unless we form the habit of going to the Bible in bright moments as well as in trouble, we cannot fully respond to its consolations because we lack equilibrium between light and darkness.” – 
Helen Keller

Compassion

“A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal.” ~ Steve Maraboli

“Compassion and nonviolence help us to see the enemy’s point of view, to hear their questions, to know their assessment of ourselves. For from their point of view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers and sisters who are called the opposition.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into the places of pain. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.” – Henri Nouwen

“Listen with compassion. Speak with grace.” – Amy Carroll

“I do not ask the wounded person how he feels; I myself become the wounded person.” – Walt Whitman

“I would rather make mistakes in kindness and compassion than work miracles in unkindness and hardness.“ ~ Mother Teresa

“Instead of putting others in their place, put yourself in their place.” – Amish Proverb

“It ill becomes us to invoke in our daily prayers the blessings of God, the Compassionate, if we in turn will not practice elementary compassion toward our fellow creatures.” – Mohandas Gandhi

“Remember there’s no such thing as a
 small act of kindness. Every act 
creates a ripple with no logical end.”
 – Scott Adams

“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

“The value of compassion cannot be over-emphasized. Anyone can criticize. It takes a true believer to be compassionate. No greater burden can be borne by an individual than to know no one cares or understands.” ~ Arthur H. Stainback

“There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief…and unspeakable love.” – Washington Irving

“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.“ ~ Leo Buscaglio

“With compassion, we see benevolently our own human condition and the condition of our fellow beings. We drop prejudice. We withhold judgment.” ~ Christina Baldwin

Courage

“Confronting our feelings and giving them appropriate expression always takes strength, not weakness. It takes strength to acknowledge our anger, and sometimes more strength yet to curb the aggressive urges anger may bring and to channel them into nonviolent outlets. It takes strength to face our sadness and to grieve and to let our grief and our anger flow in tears when they need to. It takes strength to talk about our feelings and to reach out for help and comfort when we need it.” ~ The World According to Mister Rogers

“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.” – Mary Anne Radmacher

“Courage is doing what you are afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you’re scared.” – Eddie Rickenbacher

“Courage is like love; it must have hope for nourishment.“ ~ Napolean Bonaparte

“Courage is grace under pressure.” – Ernest Hemingway

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.” – Mark Twain

“Courage means not allowing your limitations to eclipse God’s possibilities.” ~ Christine Caine

“Courage, the original definition of courage, when it first came into the English language — it’s from the Latin word cor, meaning heart — and the original definition was to tell the story of who you are with your whole heart.” – Brene Brown

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” ~ Nelson Mandela

“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea 
that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you’re licked 
before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. 
You rarely win, but sometimes you do.” 

- Atticus Finch in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” – Corrie Ten Boom

“The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.” – Robert Green Ingersoll

“You are not here by accident. God has summoned you here. He has something in your heart that He is shaping that you are in the process of birthing. Don’t shrink back. The world needs what you have to bring to the table. Step up. We are counting on you. There is more at stake than you could possibly imagine.” – Michael Hyatt (“She Speaks” conference)

Faith

“Faith is not the belief that God will do what you want. It is the belief that God will do what is right.” – Max Lucado

“Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

“Faith is the bird that sings when the dawn is still dark.” ~Rabindranath Tagore

“It takes more faith to fall apart with Jesus than to stay strong enough to stop it from happening.” – Bonnie Gray

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” – Corrie ten Boom

“The situations that will stretch your faith most will be those times when life falls apart and God is nowhere to be found. This happened to Job.” – Rick Warren

Fear

“Do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain.”  – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Fear cuts deeper than swords.” ~ George R. R. Martin

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” ~ Nelson Mandela

“Saw a little girl touch a big bug and shout, ‘I conquered my fear! YES!’ and calmly walk away. I was inspired.” – Nathan Fillion

“The presence of fear does not mean you have no faith. Fear visits everyone. But make your fear a visitor and not a resident.” ~ Max Lucado

Forgiveness

“Forgiveness is not about forgetting. It is about letting go of another person’s throat……Forgiveness does not create a relationship. Unless people speak the truth about what they have done and change their mind and behavior, a relationship of trust is not possible. When you forgive someone you certainly release them from judgment, but without true change, no real relationship can be established………Forgiveness in no way requires that you trust the one you forgive. But should they finally confess and repent, you will discover a miracle in your own heart that allows you to reach out and begin to build between you a bridge of reconciliation………Forgiveness does not excuse anything………You may have to declare your forgiveness a hundred times the first day and the second day, but the third day will be less and each day after, until one day you will realize that you have forgiven completely. And then one day you will pray for his wholeness……” ~ Wm. Paul Young, The Shack

“Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

“Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.” ~ Mark Twain

“When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free.” ~ Katherine Ponder

Gratitude

“A mindset of gratitude lifts the veil of bitterness and allows you to see beauty and possibility.” ~ Steve Maraboli

“A thankful mind-set does not entail a denial of reality with its plethora of problems. Instead, it rejoices in Me, your Savior, in the midst of trials and tribulations.” ~ Sarah Young

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” ~ Robert Brault

“Giving thanks is that: making the canyon of pain into a megaphone to proclaim the ultimate goodness of God when Satan and all the world would sneer at us to recant.” ~ Ann Voskamp

“Gratitude doesn’t change the scenery. It merely washes clean the glass you look through so you can clearly see the colors.” ~ Richelle E. Goodrich

“God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say ‘thank you?’“ ~ William Arthur Ward

“Gratitude’s not a natural posture. The prince of darkness is ultimately a spoiled ingrate, and I’ve spent most of my life as kin to the fist-shaker.”~ Ann Voskamp

“If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.” – Rabbi Harold Kushner

“Some people grumble that roses have thorns; I am grateful that thorns have roses.” ~ Alphonse Karr

“The bud of a rose is just as beautiful as the full bloom. Appreciate what you have at the moment.” ~ Anonymous

“The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy.” – Henri Nouwen

“The more grateful I am, the more beauty I see.“ ~ Mary Davis

“To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything He has given us – and He has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense graces from Him.” ~ Thomas Merton

“We give thanks to God not because of how we feel but because of who He is.” ~ Ann Voskamp

“When I give thanks for the seemingly microscopic, I make a place for God to grow within me.” ~ Ann Voskamp

“When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.” – G.K. Chesterton

Grieving

“It’s okay to cry. Giving in to the tears is terrifying, like free-falling to earth without a parachute. But it’s vital to our wellbeing as we process the deep anguish.” – Lynda Cheldelin Fell

“Tears have a wisdom all their own. They come when a person has relaxed enough to let go and to work through his sorrow. They are the natural bleeding of an emotional wound, carrying the poison out of the system. Here lies the road to recovery.” – F. Alexander Magoun

“Tears water our growth.” – William Shakespeare

Healing

“For me, singing sad songs often has a way of healing a situation. It gets the hurt out in the open into the light, out of the darkness.” – Reba McEntire

“God doesn’t sweep the broken up into a dustpan and discard it. In order to reach the broken in our world, God Himself broke, allowing His own Son to die a broken death on a cross for us. God brings beauty in the broken. God loves the broken. God uses the broken.” – Elisa Morgan

“He will heal you my friend. I pray he heals you instantly. He may choose to heal you gradually. But this much is sure: Jesus will heal us all ultimately. Wheelchairs, ointments, treatments, and bandages are confiscated at the gateway to heaven. God’s children will once again be whole.” ~ Max Lucado in Before Amen

“Healing does not mean going back to the way things were before, but rather allowing what is now to move us closer to God.” – Ram Dass

“Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn’t you – all of the expectations, all of the beliefs – and becoming who you are.” – Rachel Naomi Remen

“If Jesus heals you instantly, praise Him. If you are still waiting for healing, trust Him. Your suffering is your sermon.” ~ Max Lucado

“If there’s no breaking then there’s no healing, and if there’s no healing then there’s no learning.” – One Tree Hill

“I want to share my story, and I want to know yours. I believe with all my heart that sharing our stories, the real, ugly, broken ones, is one of the most powerful things in the world, because to share our story we must first accept it. We must own it. We must stop running from it or shoving it into the corner when company comes over. To share our story is to admit that we’ve been changed.”
~ Anna White in Mended: Thoughts on Life, Love, and Leaps of Faith

“In a futile attempt to erase our past, we deprive the community of our healing gift. If we conceal our wounds out of fear and shame, our inner darkness can neither be illuminated nor become a light for others.” – Brennan Manning, Abba’s Child

“In my deepest wound, I see Your glory and it dazzles me.” ~ Augustine

“In order to show the world that we believe in a God who fixes the broken things, we need to bare our scars in our art and in our lives.” – Rachel Haltiwanger

“Live your life from your heart. Share from your heart. And your story will touch and heal people’s souls.” – Melody Beattie

“Nothing heals us like letting people know our scariest parts: When people listen to you cry and lament, and look at you with love, it’s like they are holding the baby of you.” – Anne Lamott

“Often feelings of shame, powerlessness, and self-hate are bottled up with the memories, and as the memories come through, these feelings do, too. Yet healing isn’t just about pain. It’s about learning to love yourself.” – Laura Davis, The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse

“The only way to be real… is to reveal. The only way to heal… is to be honest… Because our story is who we are, and if we deny it, we deny not only our own selves – we deny the very Author Who’s writing this redemptive epic.” Ann Voskamp

“We can trust that our Painter is exposing us, lifting us onto His brush, placing us in the intense pressure between the bristles and the canvas for something more beautiful that we can imagine (Ephesians 3:20-21).” – Becky Elie 

“When Jesus took on the weight of your sin and carried it to the cross, He also carried the sins committed against you. When you insist on holding on to the hurts inflicted on you, you deny the power of His crucifixion.” – Jennifer Kennedy Dean in He Leads Me Beside the Still Waters

“When we tell our stories, the truth about our lives – the broken parts, the secret parts, the beautiful parts – then the gospel comes to life, an actual story about redemption.” – Shauna Niequist

“Whether you were threatened, experienced further abuse, or shamed into silence; it is common for survivors to suppress their experiences. You may have perceived that talking about the problem brings danger and more fear. In reality, talking about your abuse in the presence of safe others helps to validate your feelings and release years of pain.”– Dan Hitz

“Who I am does not change who God is; yet my knowing who I am, in God, changes me. It changes me from a false identity to a true one, from a life of slavery to one of freedom.” – Jennifer Camp at Gather Ministries

Hope

“A brook would lose its song if it had no rocks.” ~ Amish Proverb

“An infinite God can give all of Himself to each of His children.
 He does not distribute Himself that each may have a part,
 but to each one He gives all of Himself as fully as if there were no others.” 
- A. W. Tozer

“Before you knew you needed adopting, He’d already filed the papers and selected the wallpaper for your room.” ~ Max Lucado

“Carve a tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of disappointment.” – Martin Luther King Jr

“Christ beside me, Christ before me,
 Christ behind me, Christ within me,
 Christ beneath me, Christ above me.” – St. Patrick

“Darkness comes. In the middle of it, the future looks blank. The temptation to quit is huge. Don’t. You are in good company…You will argue with yourself that there is no way forward. But with God, nothing is impossible. He has more ropes and ladders and tunnels out of pits than you can conceive. Wait. Pray without ceasing. Hope.” – John Piper

“Everything that is done in this world is done by hope.” – Martin Luther

“Flowers fade. Hearts break. But, there in the darkness, through all the storms, hope is sure. Even when life doesn’t turn up the way we plan, our hope is secure in the One who died, was buried and rose again.” ~ Rebekah Hughes

“God brings fullness of joy not just despite but through suffering, just as Jesus saved us not in spite of but because of what He suffered on the cross.” – Timothy Keller

“God isn’t done writing your life (if you’ve given God the pen), so don’t put a period where God has placed a comma.” – Dolly from SoulStops

“God is too good to be unkind; He is too wise to be mistaken. When you cannot trace His hand, you can always trust His heart.” ~ Charles Spurgeon

“Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark.” – George Iles

“Hope is that thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops… at all.” – Emily Dickinson

“Hope is the silver shaft of sun breaking through the storm-darkened sky, words of comfort in the intensive care unit, the first spring bird perched on a snow-covered twig, and the finish line in sight. It is a rainbow, a song, a loving touch. Hope is knowing God and resting in His love.” ~ NLT Life Application Study Bible: Zephaniah introduction

“I believe in the sun, even when it’s not shining. I believe in love, even when I don’t feel it. I believe in God, even when He is silent.” – These words were found scrawled on a cellar wall where Jews had hidden in World War II in Cologne, Germany.

 “I don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.” – Anne Frank

“I place no hope in my strength, nor in my works: but all my confidence is in God my protector, who never abandons those who have put all their hope and thought in Him.“ ~ Francois Rabelais

“If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed. If you look within, you’ll be depressed. If you look at God you’ll be at rest.” – Corrie ten Boom

“Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over…it became a butterfly.” – Unknown

“One touch of Christ is worth a lifetime of struggling.“ ~ A.B. Simpson

“Only in the darkness can you see the stars.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

“There is no pit so deep that He is not deeper still.” ~ Betsie ten Boom

“There is far-reaching fruit that blossoms from the seeds of pain.” ~ Tiffany Parry

“Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light;
I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.” – Sarah Williams

“We are not called to be perfectly awesome. We are called to be imperfectly faithful, because we have been perfectly loved, liberated, and highly esteemed by the Most High.” ~ Scott Sauls

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“What oxygen is to the lungs, hope is to our survival in this world.” ~ Dr. Billy Graham

“When tragedy makes its unwelcome appearance and we are deaf to everything but the shriek of our own agony—when courage flies out the window and the world seems to be a hostile, menacing place—it is the hour of our Gethsemane. No word, however sincere, offers any comfort or consolation… and yet it may happen in these most desperate trials of our human existence that beyond any rational explanation, we may feel a nail-scarred hand clutching ours.” – Brennan Manning

“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe

Love

“Be careful if you make a women cry, because God counts her tears. The woman came out of a man’s ribs. Not from his feet to be walked on, not from his head to be superior, but from his side to be equal, under the arm to be protected, and next to the heart to be loved.” – Matthew Henry

“Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.” – Mother Teresa

“God loves every person as if there were no one else to love.” – Augustine

“I think that love is when your name is safe in someone’s mouth.” – Anonymous child when asked what love is

“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” – Mother Teresa

“It is love alone that gives worth to all things.” ~ Mother Teresa

“Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.” ~ Mother Teresa

“Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do… but how much love we put in that action.” ~ Mother Teresa

“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Love one another and help others to rise to the higher levels, simply by pouring out love. Love is infectious and the greatest healing energy.” – Sai Baba

“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” – Mother Teresa

“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt

“Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.” – Francis of Assisi when showing LOVE is the best sermon

“The Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them; there ought to be as many for love.” – Margaret Atwood

“The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.” – Mother Teresa

“Truly charity has no limit; for the love of God has been poured into our hearts by His Spirit dwelling in each one of us, calling us to a life of devotion and inviting us to bloom in the garden where He has planted and directing us to radiate the beauty and spread the fragrance of His Providence.” – St. Francis de Sales

“What I do you cannot do; but what you do, I cannot do. The needs are great, and none of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.” – Mother Teresa

“Where there is great love, there are always miracles.” ~ Willa Cather

“Your Heavenly Daddy loves to be with you. Not because you are doing anything for Him, but simply because you are His.” Renee Swope

Self-Worth

“A conviction that you are a daughter of God gives you a feeling of comfort in your self-worth. It means that you can find strength in the balm of Christ. It will help you meet the heartaches and challenges with faith and serenity.” ~ James E. Faust

“Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion.” ~ Brennan Manning

“He longs to use you but not abuse you, so don’t abuse yourself.” ~ Patsy Clairmont

“If someone criticizes me I am not any less because of that. It is not a criticism of me but a critical thinking from him. He is expressing his thoughts and his feelings, not my being.” Hugh Prather

“Real freedom is freedom from the opinion of others. Above all, freedom from your own opinions about yourself.” ~ Brennan Manning

“There will always be someone willing to hurt you, put you down, gossip about you, belittle your accomplishments and judge your soul. It is a fact that we all must face. However, if you realize that God is a best friend that stands beside you when others cast stones you will never be afraid, never feel worthless and never feel alone.” ~ Shannon L. Alder

“To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.” – E.E. Cummings

“To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

“When we view ourselves through the lens of God’s Word, we better understand God’s love for us and the worth we have in His eyes.” ~ Elizabeth George

Suffering

“A saint’s life is in the hands of God as a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the saint cannot see; He stretches and strains, and every now and again the saint says, I cannot stand any more. But God does not heed; He goes on stretching until His purpose is in sight, then He lets fly.” – Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest

“A tried Christian grows rich by his losses, he rises by his falls, he lives by dying, and he becomes full by being emptied.” – C. H. Spurgeon

“Above all, don’t equate your suffering with how God feels about you.” – From “What It Takes to Struggle with Something Hard” – Rachel Olsen

“All this trouble has crowded me to Christ. It’s simply mud around the gold.” ~ Margie Hamilton

“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” ~ Helen Keller

“And then the day came, when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anais Nin, Danish diarist

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” 
- Helen Keller

“Circumstances may appear to wreck our lives and God’s plans, but God is not helpless among the ruins.” ~ Eric Liddell

“Death leaves a heartache, no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.” – An Irish headstone

“God changes caterpillars into butterflies, sand into pearls and coal into diamonds using time and pressure. He’s working on you, too.” ~ Rick Warren

“God is God. He sees and hears all our troubles, all our tears. Soul, forget not, in your pains, God over all forever reigns.” ~ Charles Spurgeon

“[God] used my weakness to glorify Himself.”
 – Brandon Heath

“God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume. It is Peter, weeping bitterly, who returns to greater power than ever.” – Vance Havner

“Hearts are broken in ten thousand ways, for this is a heart-breaking world; and Christ is good at healing all manner of heart-breaks.” – Charles Spurgeon

“I know now, Lord, why You utter no answer. You are Yourself the answer. Before Your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?” – C.S. Lewis

“If God sends us on stony paths, He always provides strong shoes.” – Corrie Ten Boom

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.” – Anne Bradstreet

“My brokenness is a better bridge for people than my pretend wholeness ever was.” ~ Sheila Walsh

“Our circumstances are not an accurate reflection of God’s goodness. Whether life is good or bad, God’s goodness, rooted in His character, is the same.” – Helen Grace Lescheid

“Our sufferings may be rough and hard to bear, but they teach us lessons that in turn equip and enable us to help others.” ~ Billy Graham

“Pain, sorrow, and suffering are but the kiss of Jesus.” – Mother Teresa

“Sometimes I compare the troubles which we have to undergo in the course of the year to a great bundle of fagots [sticks gathered for firewood], far too large for us to lift. But God does not require us to carry the whole at once; He mercifully unties the bundle, and gives us first one stick, which we are to carry today, and then another which we are to carry tomorrow, and so on. This we might easily manage, if we would only take the burden appointed for us each day; but we chose to increase our troubles by carrying yesterday’s stick over again today, and adding tomorrow’s burden to our load, before we are required to bear it.” – John Newton

“Suffering can refine us rather than destroy us because God Himself walks with us in the fire.” ~ Timothy Keller

“Suffering, failure, loneliness, sorrow, discouragement, and death will be part of your journey, but the Kingdom of God will conquer all these horrors. No evil can resist grace forever.” – Brennan Manning

“Suffering isn’t a mistake and isn’t the absence of God’s goodness — because He’s present in pain.” ~ Kara Tippetts who won the battle of cancer when she went to Jesus

“The flower that blooms in adversity is the rarest and most beautiful of all.” ~ Walt Disney Company, Mulan

“The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty — it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There’s a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.” – Mother Teresa

“The goldsmith loves his gold when it is in the furnace, and so does God love His children when He places them in the crucible of affliction. It is only to separate the dross, not to consume the gold. ‘Whom He loves, He loves to the end.'” ~ Thomas Watson

“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 people 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.” – Elizabeth Kubler Ross

“The world breaks everyone, and those who are broken are strongest in the broken places.” – Ernest Hemingway

“There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers.” – St Teresa

“To endure the cross is not tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” – Maya Angelou

“What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.” ~ Oscar Wilde

“When Christians stay focused on the cross, their suffering becomes a ‘megaphone of hope’ to the world.” ~ Louie Giglio

“When the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold. They believe that when something’s suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful.” – Barbara Bloom

“You can be upset because rosebushes have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.” – Unknown

“Your Savior knows your breaking point. The bruising and crushing and melting process is designed to reshape you, not ruin you. Your value is increasing the longer He lingers over you.” ~ Charles R. Swindoll

Truth

“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” – Charles Spurgeon

“Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. It’s about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let our true selves be seen.” ~ Brene Brown

“Honesty is more than not lying. It is truth telling, truth speaking, truth living, and truth loving.” – James E. Faust

“If truth is not undergirded by love, it makes the possessor of that truth obnoxious and the truth repulsive.” ~ Ravi Zacharias

“In darkness God’s truth shines most clear.” ~ Corrie Ten Boom

“Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth.” ~ Benjamin Disraeli

“Perception is reality, but it’s not always the truth.” ~ Unknown

“The only way to speak the truth is to speak lovingly. – Henry David Thoreau

“The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself.” – Augustine

“Where I found truth, there found I my God, who is the truth itself. – Augustine

“You never find yourself until you face the truth.” ~ Pearl Bailey

“You were only meant, created, commanded to be who you are.” – Shauna Niequist

These are just some of the quotes I’ve gathered. I’ll gradually be adding more. If you know of any that fit these categories, please let me know.