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  5. 14 Self-Care Quotes to Help With Depression and Anxiety

14 Self-Care Quotes to Help With Depression and Anxiety

Lauren Phillips, former SEO Editor at Real Simple
By Lauren Phillips Updated April 10, 2020
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Depression and anxiety quotes: self-care quotes and sayings to help with anxiety and depression (sad woman)
Credit: Getty Images

On darker days, it's helpful to have mantras (or meditation apps) that can bring you up from a spell of low mood. Fortunately, the following editor-approved depression and anxiety quotes might ease just a little bit of the burden you're facing. But, trust us, we (and the writers on the slides to follow) know it's hard. 

Learning how to deal with anxiety or fight depression takes daily effort, particularly if outside factors exacerbate your anxiety or depression (or both). However, with a slight change of perspective, these sayings could quiet your mind or remind you that what you're feeling is normal and not permanent.

These quotes can be used for yourself, shared on social media, sent to a friend, or used on a letterboard as a more permanent reminder that managing your thoughts can help manage your mood. So pick your favorites and keep them handy the next time you need a little mental boost. 

Remember, if your anxiety or depression feels unmanageable, it's important to first turn to family, friends, or professionals for help: The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's National Helpline—1-800-662-HELP (4357)—is available 24/7, 365 days a year for treatment referral and information, if you need it.

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"Worrying is carrying tomorrow's load with today's strength—carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worrying doesn't empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength."

Depression and anxiety quotes - Corrie Ten Boom
Credit: Eric Jeon

– Corrie Ten Boom

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"You're like a grey sky. You're beautiful, even though you don't want to be."

Depression and anxiety quotes - Jasmine Warga
Credit: Eric Jeon

– Jasmine Warga, My Heart and Other Black Holes

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"Even for me life had its gleams of sunshine."

Depression and anxiety quotes - Charlotte Brontë
Credit: Eric Jeon

– Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

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"You must hold your quiet center, where you do what only you can do."

Depression and anxiety quotes - Ha Jin
Credit: Eric Jeon

– Ha Jin, "A Center"

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5 of 14

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"Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad."

Depression and anxiety quotes - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Credit: Eric Jeon

– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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"Anxiety's like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you very far."

Depression and anxiety quotes - Jodi Picoult
Credit: Eric Jeon

– Jodi Picoult, Sing You Home

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"You are allowed to feel messed up and inside out. It doesn't mean you're defective—it just means you're human."

Depression and anxiety quotes - David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
Credit: Eric Jeon

– David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

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"Sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness, to put a hand on its brow of the flower and retell it in words and in touch it is lovely until it flowers again from within."

Depression and anxiety quotes - Galway Kinnell
Credit: Eric Jeon

– Galway Kinnell, "Saint Francis and the Sow"

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"'Hope' is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all - "

Depression and anxiety quotes - Emily Dickinson
Credit: Eric Jeon

– Emily Dickinson, "'Hope' is the thing with feathers – (314)"

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"Dance until your bones clatter. What a prize you are. What a lucky sack of stars."

Depression and anxiety quotes - Gabrielle Calvocoressi
Credit: Eric Jeon

– Gabrielle Calvocoressi, "At Last the New Arriving"

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"Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems."

Depression and anxiety quotes - Epictetus
Credit: Eric Jeon

– Epictetus

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"If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath."

Depression and anxiety quotes - Amit Ray, Om Chanting and Meditation
Credit: Eric Jeon

– Amit Ray, Om Chanting and Meditation

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"Life is 10 percent what you experience and 90 percent how you respond to it."

Depression and anxiety quotes - Dorothy M. Neddermeyer
Credit: Eric Jeon

– Dorothy M. Neddermeyer

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"Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom."

Depression and anxiety quotes - Søren Kierkegaard
Credit: Eric Jeon

– Søren Kierkegaard, The Concept of Anxiety: A Simple Psychologically Orienting Deliberation on the Dogmatic Issue of Hereditary Sin

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    1 of 14 "Worrying is carrying tomorrow's load with today's strength—carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worrying doesn't empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength."
    2 of 14 "You're like a grey sky. You're beautiful, even though you don't want to be."
    3 of 14 "Even for me life had its gleams of sunshine."
    4 of 14 "You must hold your quiet center, where you do what only you can do."
    5 of 14 "Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad."
    6 of 14 "Anxiety's like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you very far."
    7 of 14 "You are allowed to feel messed up and inside out. It doesn't mean you're defective—it just means you're human."
    8 of 14 "Sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness, to put a hand on its brow of the flower and retell it in words and in touch it is lovely until it flowers again from within."
    9 of 14 "'Hope' is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all - "
    10 of 14 "Dance until your bones clatter. What a prize you are. What a lucky sack of stars."
    11 of 14 "Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems."
    12 of 14 "If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath."
    13 of 14 "Life is 10 percent what you experience and 90 percent how you respond to it."
    14 of 14 "Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom."

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