90 Self Harm Quotes That Will Help Move You to A Calm Moment

By Danielle Dahl

Writer, Ph.D Candidate and Inspirational quote curator

Published November 24, 2022

Feeling lost or like self-harm is your only option?

Read the self-harm quotes below for some hope and inspiration.

Can you imagine being in so much pain that the only way you can think of to block it out, is to cause yourself pain that you can control?

Self-harm lets you decide how deep the cut should be.

You can make the decision to take drugs and risk addiction and death because it is better than living with pain you didn’t choose.

If you are feeling lost or like this is your only option please reach out: Text CONNECT to 741741!

These self-harm quotes will try to provide some hope and inspiration if you came here searching for that.

We also have a few self-harm quotes that can try and shed some light on what might be going on with a loved one.

This can be a frightening time for everyone involved and hopefully, these quotes will provide you with some comfort.

Also, check out these hope quotes celebrating a bright future.

Also, check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily wisdom.

See the rest of our quote database for even more inspirational ideas and thoughts.

Self-harm quotes about the scars of self-harm

1. “This pain is comfort. It is the solace of physicality, like a touch.” ― Johnny Rich

You will also enjoy our article on self care quotes.

2. “Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it.” ― J.K. Rowling

3. “Stars are the scars of the universe.” ― Ricky Maye

You will also enjoy our article on quotes on addiction.

4. “The scars you can’t see are the ones that hurt the most.”― Michelle Hodkin

You will also enjoy our article on scars quotes.

5. “In all of your living, don’t forget to live.” ― Ricky Maye

6. “Throughout it all, you are still, always, you: beautiful and bruised, known and unknowable.” ― Leila Sales

7. “Your scars are battle wounds, but you don’t see them that way. Yet.” ― Tammara Webber

8. “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” – Rumi

9. “Scar tissue is stronger than regular tissue. Realize the strength, move on.” – Henry Rollins

10. “Scars don’t matter, little one. They are the marks of the battles we have won.” – Helen Dunmore

You will also enjoy our article on naughty quotes.

Self-harm quotes about cutting

11. “Self-harm – the world will come at you with knives anyway. You do not need to beat them to it.” ― Caitlin Moran

12. “People say things meant to rip you in half but you hold the power to not turn their words into a knife and cut yourself.” ― Rupi Kaur

13. “My hand no longer trembled out of fear, but out of anticipation. I knew I was addicted to the rush it provided, to the release it provided from the emotional mess I had become, but I didn’t care. It wasn’t drugs. It was just a few cuts on my arm.” ― S.M. Koz

14. “That’s when I wanted to cut. I cut to quiet the cacophony. I cut to end this abstracted agony, to reel myself back to one present and physical whole, whose blood was the proof of her tangibility.” ― Caroline Kettlewell

15. “Hush little baby, Don’t you cry, Don’t cut your arms, Don’t say goodbye. Put down that razor, Put down that light, It may be hard but, You’ll win this fight.”― Emily Giffin

16. “… it’s remembering what it’s like to cut and cut hard. The way you have to dig the glass in, deeply, right away, to break the skin and then drag, and drag fiercely, to make a river worth drowning in.” ― Kathleen Glasgow

17. “Night after night I inflict abuse on myself, even drawing blood. It’s strangely calming. I know the pain will stop whenever I want. I was the one who decided when it should start; I will be the one to decide when it stops. However much it hurts, I draw some comfort from the idea that I’m in control.” ― Maude Julien

18. “I am so angry all the time, and so sad, and it screams inside me and never stops. Cutting is the only thing that eases me.” ― Zoë Marriott

You might also like these passive aggressive quotes that you would find interesting.

Self-harm quotes about pain

19. “When you have a persistent sense of heartbreak and gut-wrench, the physical sensations become intolerable and we will do anything to make those feelings disappear. And that is really the origin of what happens in human pathology. People take drugs to make it disappear, and they cut themselves to make it disappear, and they starve themselves to make it disappear, and they have sex with anyone who comes along to make it disappear and once you have these horrible sensations in your body, you’ll do anything to make it go away.” ― Bessel A. van der Kolk

If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of drug quotes on how drug use can affect your mind, body, and spirit.

20. “I can feel the hurt. There’s something good about it. Mostly it makes me stop remembering.” ― Albert Borris

21. “…when I look at my arms, I don’t think revolutionary. I think sad, and pain, but not revolutionary.” ― Kathleen Glasgow

22. “She felt so much emotionally, she would say, that a physical outlet – physical pain – was the only way to make her internal pain go away. It was the only way she could control it.” ― Richelle Mead

23. “I no longer have any fear of pain because I’m the one inflicting it and can decide when it stops.” ― Maude Julien

24. “Self-mutilation is a very different issue to suicide. It is a controlled pain personal to you, allowing you to live/exist to some degree.” ― Richy Edwards
If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of suicide quotes that can bring you insight and comfort during difficult times.

25. “Unspeakable feelings need to find expression in words. However… verbalization of very intense feelings may be a difficult task.” ― James A. Chu

26. “Other times, I look at my scars and see something else: a girl who was trying to cope with something horrible that she should never have had to live through at all. My scars show pain and suffering, but they also show my will to survive. They’re part of my history that’ll always be there.” ― Cheryl Rainfield

27. “If you want to help people, ask why they are in so much pain that they are driven (there’s that word again) to escape from it through ultimately self-harming habits or substances.” ― Timothy Ferriss

28. “A pattern of raised crisscrossed scars, some old and white, others more recent in various shades of pink and red. Exposing the stress of the structure underneath its paint” ― Amy Efaw

29. “I moved in front of the medicine cabinet. If I looked in the mirror while I did it, it would be like watching somebody else, in a book or a play.” ― Sylvia Plath

30. “Rehashing thoughts of painful events from the past or imagining negative events of the future is self-abuse and can be more destructive than physical harm.” ― Maddy Malhotra

You will also enjoy our article on domestic violence quotes.

Self-harm quotes to remind you there is hope

31. “But the fucked-up part is once you start self-harming, you can never not be a creepy freak, because your whole body is now a scarred and charred battlefield and nobody likes that on a girl, nobody will love that, and so all of us, everyone, is screwed, inside and out. Wash, rinse, fucking repeat.” ― Kathleen Glasgow

32. “To me, I see scars of courage. Inflicting them gave him the strength to survive the pain that’s plagued him all his life. I’m grateful to every one of them because he’s still here with me.” ― Nicola Haken

33. “The past does not define me, it ignites me. The past is not a piece of me, it has placed me” ― Ricky Maye

34. “Don’t ever forget you are beautiful, although your life, your past and your present situation may be ugly. You are beautiful.” ― Ricky Maye

35. “This might surprise you, but one of the best ways to manage your emotions is simply to experience that emotion and let it run its course.” ― Kim L. Gratz

36. “Never feel this bad again. Never come back to this place, where only a knife will do. Live a gentle and kind life. Don’t do things that make you want to hurt yourself. Whatever you do, every day, remember this – then steer away from here.” ― Caitlin Moran

37. “Stop looking back when your future is ahead of you”― Ricky Maye

38. “Take control of your emotions before your emotions take control of you.” ― Scott Dye

39. “I found out to wait it out that it gets better. I wrote music instead of going to the blade.” ― Vic Fuentes

40. “When you feel at sea in an abyss of emotions, reconnecting to the beauty of your soul can be difficult, but it is never impossible.” ― Lorraine Nilon

You will also enjoy our article on hurt quotes.

Self-harm quotes to help you understand

41. “And wishes, truly wishes, that she could say the same herself. Because hurting herself would be so much easier.” ― Amy Efaw

42. “I can’t stop.” ― Shane Koyczan

43. “What possesses them, these young girls with a talent for self-immolation?” ― Margaret Atwood

44. “We both knew what it was to hurt our bodies. It’s a strange reason to bond with someone, but I think we both needed to feel understood, and, even though we couldn’t love ourselves, we could love each other.” ― Melissa C. Water

45. “I was thinking about stabbing myself in the face—not actually considering stabbing myself in the face, but thinking that it would be a physical expression of how I felt.” ― Catherine Lacey

46. “Having a strong urge is like having a child throw a temper tantrum inside you, screaming “Hurt yourself!” But if you repeatedly ignore the urge’s request and don’t harm yourself, your brain will learn that urges don’t work, just as a child learns that throwing a tantrum won’t work.” ― Kim L. Gratz

47. “It’s important to keep in mind that most people have no idea how to respond effectively to someone who self-harms.” ― Kim L. Gratz

48. “When clients self-harm, for example, these days, we understand their actions to be instinctive, rather than thought out—an effort to regulate or relieve, rather than punish.” ― Janina Fisher

49. “Self-injury is a sign of distress, not madness.” ― Corey Anderson

50. “You don’t feel like you’re hurting yourself when you’re cutting. You feel like this is the only way to take care of yourself.” ― Marilee Strong

Self-harm Quotes that will Uplift You

51. “Turn your wounds into wisdom.” – Oprah Winfrey

52. “[Those] that cut or use anything to do with self-harm, promise me tonight that you will throw away all the blades and go to what you love instead of the blade. I believe you can do it. I will be here if you feel like giving in. I love you guys so so much.” – Vic Fuentes

53. “I cut myself because you wouldn’t let me cry. I cried because you wouldn’t let me speak. I spoke because you wouldn’t let me shine. I shone because I thought you loved me…” ― Emilie Autumn

54. “We need to start treating ourselves how we deserve to be treated, even if you feel that no one else does. Prove to the world you ARE worth something by treating yourself with the utmost respect and hope that other people will follow your example. And even if they don’t, at least one person in the world is treating you well: YOU.” – Carrie Hope Fletcher

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

56. “My scars remind me that I did indeed survive my deepest wounds. That in itself is an accomplishment. And they bring to mind something else, too. They remind me that the damage life has inflicted on me has, in many places, left me stronger and more resilient. What hurt me in the past has actually made me better equipped to face the present.” – Steve Goodier

57. “If you can sit with your pain, listen to your pain and respect your pain — in time you will move through your pain.” – Bryant McGill

58. “Facing it, always facing it, that’s the way to get through. Face it.” – Conrad Joseph

59. “The depth of the feeling continued to surprise and threaten me, but each time it hit again and I bore it…I would discover that it hadn’t washed me away.” – Anne Lamott

60. “I will no longer mutilate and destroy myself in order to find a secret behind the ruins.” – Hermann Hesse

Self-Harm Quotes to make You Feel Better

61. “We all have scars; both inside and out. Use your experience to support those who are going down the same road of destruction you once went down. Know that your past is worth more than the pain you once carried, because it can now be used to comfort and give strength to another soul who is suffering. Cherish your trials and tribulations as gifts; embrace these opportunities to share the grace you have been given.” – Katie Maslin

62. “Being cut off from our own natural self-compassion is one of the greatest impairments we can suffer. Along with our ability to feel our own pain go our best hopes for healing, dignity, and love. What seems nonadaptive and self-harming in the present was, at some point in our lives, an adaptation to help us endure what we then had to go through. If people are addicted to self-soothing behaviors, it’s only because in their formative years they did not receive the soothing they needed. Such understanding helps delete toxic self-judgment on the past and supports responsibility for the now. Hence the need for compassionate self-inquiry.” – Gabor Maté

63. “Self-harm is an addiction and it’s serious whether it’s 5 cuts or 100. I myself have dealt with self-harm. I was young and alone and got beat up on all the time, and I cut to ease the pain.” – Vic Fuentes

64. “Remember, it is not enough to be hit or insulted to be harmed, you must believe that you are being harmed. If someone succeeds in provoking you, realize that your mind is complicit in the provocation. Which is why it is essential that we do not respond impulsively to impressions; take a moment before reacting, and you will find it easier to maintain control.” – Epictetus

65. “I stopped. She was bleeding after all. Perfect lines crossed her wrists, not near any crucial veins, but enough to leave wet red tracks across her skin. She hadn’t hit her veins when she did this; death hadn’t been her goal.” ― Richelle Mead

66. “As we begin to see that people who self-harm can be found in nearly every neighborhood, school, college, house of worship, or school group, we must become better informed so that we can better understand their language of pain and help them find a way out of their suffering.” – Marilee Strong

67. “You might imagine that a person would resort to self-mutilation only under extremes of duress, but once I’d crossed that line the first time, taken that fateful step off the precipice, then almost any reason was a good enough reason, almost any provocation was provocation enough. Cutting was my all-purpose solution.” ― Caroline Kettlewell

68. “The tests we face in life’s journey are not to reveal our weaknesses but to help us discover our inner strengths. We can only know how strong we are when we strive and thrive beyond the challenges we face.” – Kemi Sogunle

69. “Somehow however just knowing that I could fully expect unhappiness to return – if not predictably then nevertheless reliably – was strangely liberating. The point was that even chaos had a structure a beginning and eventually an end. It was possible to live through it. I’d been doing as much for twenty years.” – Caroline Kettlewell

70. “To overcome difficulties is to experience the full delight of existence.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

Self Harm Quotes You Need To Cope With The Feeling

71. “Wounds turn into scars, and scars make you tough.” — Aisha Tyler

72. “Loving the wrong person is self-harm” — R.H. Sin

73. “He’s seen it before, on other girls around her age. Sometimes on boys, but mostly it’s the girls. Cutting. Self-harm. A physical release to anesthetize mental pain.” — Alex A. King

74. “Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t.” — Rikki Rogers

75. “A lot is being done to cure physical self-harm, and yet it’s a by-product of mental self-harm!” — Maddy Malhotra

76. “I asked her if she believed in love, and she smiled and said it was her most elaborate method of self-harm.” — Benedict Smith

77. “Every action that you take – that your disorder tells you to take – is self-harming in the short and long term.” — Priyavrat Thareja

78. “As convincing as it may seem, physical pain often arises merely to distract us from emotional pain.” — Charles F. Glassman

79. “Self-harm is not an uncommon experience, nor is it a shameful defect or personal failure, it happened to me because I wasn’t able to manage intense emotional distress.” — Ruby Elliot

80. “I told her once I wasn’t good at anything. She told me survival is a talent.” — Susanna Kaysen

Self-Harm Quotes to Embrace Your Scars

81. “We all bear scars,… Mine just happen to be more visible than most.” — Sarah J. Maas

82. “It’s so hard to forget pain, but it’s even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace.” — Chuck Palahniuk

83. “Why bother inflicting enormous pain on yourself when sooner or later Life would certainly get around to doing it for you?” — Jeff Lindsay

84. “Self-harm or substance abuse being common ways in which BPD sufferers tend to block their unwanted emotions; this is not weakness but simply that the condition makes it so difficult to regulate your reactions.” — Emily Laven

85. “Self-harm is not an uncommon experience, nor is it a shameful defect or personal failure, it happened to me because I wasn’t able to manage intense emotional distress.” — Ruby Elliot

86. “The courage to live brings its own rewards.” — Rachel L. Schade

87. “In most cases, the more you search for a physical cause of your pain, the further away you get from the true origins.” — Charles F. Glassman

88. “I wear my self-harm scars proudly. They represent the battles through which I have gone, and I am proud because those battles I have won.” — Aly

89. “Wounds turn into scars and scars make you tough.” — Aisha Tyler

90. “Emotional suffering comes as a result of trying to control the uncontrollable.” — Matt Purcell

Which of these self harm quotes resonated with you best?

Sometimes just surviving the day can be a challenge, and if it took every ounce of courage you had to do that today, then I am proud of you.

Please know that there is help out there and that hotline is a good place to start (Text CONNECT to 741741).

Their job is to “help you move from a hot moment to a cool moment.”

There is also no shame in going to therapy.

Therapists, while not only helpful to talk through, can offer other ways to help get through the pain.

You are loved and important to this world, and I hope that you can find a way to heal.

Katherine Schreiber MFA, LMSW, suggests several things, including listening to music, cleaning your room, and writing about your feelings.