165 Suicide Quotes That Offer A New Perspective

These profound suicide quotes can bring you insight and comfort during difficult times.

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, getting professional help is the first and most important step.

Here is the hotline website where someone can help you right now.

What are the benefits of reading suicide quotes?

These quotes about suicide may help you understand the complexities of the situation.

Reading this collection of quotes:

• Will offer strength and guidance during the darkest times when all hope seems lost
• Help raise awareness and inspire prevention
• Give you some perspective of what someone you love might be feeling

Even if you are not feeling suicidal, these quotes may help you navigate obstacles in your life by offering a new perspective.

What drives people to consider suicide?

Mental illness, environmental factors, and other variables can all drive people to consider suicide.

The following insights into suicide come from the minds of survivors, experts, and other individuals who have been affected firsthand.

It is vitally important to spread awareness and prevent suicides globally.

If you or someone you know has suicidal thoughts, seek help from a mental healthcare professional immediately.

Remember, things can get better, and healing is possible.

If you like this article, we suggest you explore our most popular quotes article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily encouragement. 

Read more related content on our inspirational quotes category page.

Suicide quotes for strength and guidance

1. “Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.” – Phil Donahue

2. “Hope is a necessity for normal life and the major weapon against the suicide impulse.” – Karl A. Menninger

3. “The bravest thing I ever did was continuing my life when I wanted to die.” – Juliette Lewis

4. “Never never never give up.” – Winston Churchill

5. “Suicide is not a blot on anyone’s name; it is a tragedy.” – Kay Redfield Jamison

6. “Drunkenness is temporary suicide.” – Bertrand Russell

7. “We cannot tear out a single page of our life, but we can throw the whole book in the fire.” – George Sand

8. “Suicide doesn’t solve your problems. It only makes them infinitely, un-countably worse.” – Sinead O’Connor

9. “But in the end one needs more courage to live than to kill himself.” – Albert Camus

10. “All things are difficult before they are easy.” – Thomas Fuller

Suicide quotes that bring insight and comfort during difficult times

11. “The thought that I might kill myself formed in my mind coolly as a tree or a flower.” – Sylvia Plath

12. “Suicide is not an answer, it’s destruction.” – Al Green

13. “Suicide leaves everyone feeling guilty.” – Robert Harris

14. “A suicide kills two people, Maggie, that’s what it’s for!” – Arthur Miller

15. “A book is a suicide postponed.” – Emil Cioran

16. “There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t.” — John Green

17. “When it is darkest, we can see the stars.”— Ralph Waldo Emerson

18. “One of the secrets of life is to make stepping stones out of stumbling blocks.” — Jack Penn

19. “Suicide is the last attempt of re-emergence of the will of life.” ― Lamine Pearlheart

20. “If your heart is still beating, God is not done with you yet.” — Dillion Burroughs

Suicide quotes to help you understand the complexities of the situation

21. “Suicide is not a remedy.” – James A. Garfield

22. “It is not worth the bother of killing yourself, since you always kill yourself too late.” – Emil Cioran

23. “Soak up the views. Take in the bad weather and the good weather. You are not the storm.” – Matt Haig

24. “There are far, far better things ahead than anything we leave behind.” – C. S. Lewis

25. “It is always consoling to think of suicide: in that way one gets through many a bad night.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

26. “The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.” – Voltaire

27. “There are many who dare not kill themselves for fear of what the neighbors will say.” – Cyril Connolly

28. “The literal meaning of life is whatever you’re doing that prevents you from killing yourself.” – Albert Camus

29. “If you ever think about giving up, remember why you held on for so long.” – Hayley Williams

30. “Write something, even if it’s just a suicide note.”—Gore Vidal

Suicide quotes to raise awareness and inspire prevention

31. “Gay teenagers are four times as likely to attempt suicide as straight ones. I wish they knew that there’s nothing wrong with them; that they are just a different shade of normal.” – Jodi Picoult

32. “To anyone out there who’s hurting — it’s not a sign of weakness to ask for help. It’s a sign of strength.” – Barack Obama

33. “On average, since the urge to kill myself isn’t so strong that I actually kill myself, the world is worth living in.” – Tao Lin

34. “Its so hard to talk when you want to kill yourself. That’s above and beyond everything else, and it’s not a mental complaint – it’s a physical thing, like it’s physically hard to open your mouth and make the words come out.” – Ned Vizzini

35. “Suicide. A sideways word, a word that people whisper and mutter and cough: a word that must be squeezed out behind cupped palms or murmured behind closed doors. It was only in dreams that I heard the word shouted, screamed.” – Lauren Oliver

36. “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

37. “Yeah, because you’ll really be showing them, won’t you. Talk about cutting up your wrists to spite your fate.” – Alexander Gordon Smith

38. “Suicide does not end the chances of life getting worse, suicide eliminates the possibility of it ever getting better.” – Kat Calhoun

39. “The person who completes suicide, dies once. Those left behind die a thousand deaths, trying to relive those terrible moments and understand… why?” – Clark

40. “I wonder if it will rain after we die. When you kill yourself, you don’t know what happens next, afterward.” – Albert Borris

Suicide quotes to bring comfort and understanding

41. “Suicide creates a monstrous emotional upsurge of shame and guilt. Everyone participates in feeling responsible and even shamed at knowing the suicidal candidate.” – Linda Lee Landon

42. “Would Hamlet have felt the delicious fascination of suicide if he hadn’t had an audience, and lines to speak?” – Jean Genet

43. “All suicides have the responsibility of fighting against the temptation of suicide. Every one of them knows very well in some corner of his soul that suicide, though a way out, is rather a mean and shabby one, and that it is nobler and finer to be conquered by life than to fall by one’s own hand.” – Hermann Hesse

44. “To run away from trouble is a form of cowardice and, while it is true that the suicide braves death, he does it not for some noble object but to escape some ill.” – Aristotle

45. “No one ever committed suicide while reading a good book, but many have tried while trying to write one.” – Robert Byrne

46. “In most cases, suicide is a solitary event and yet it has often far-reaching repercussions for many others. It is rather like throwing a stone into a pond; the ripples spread and spread.” – Alison Wertheimer

47. “I think suicide is sort of like cancer was 50 years ago. People don’t want to talk about it, they don’t want to know about it. People are frightened of it, and they don’t understand, when actually these issues are medically treatable.” – Judy Collins

48. “If someone listens, or stretches out a hand, or whispers a word of encouragement, or attempts to understand a lonely person, extraordinary things begin to happen.” – Loretta Girzartis

49. “Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle.” – Christian D. Larson

50. “Death is easy. To live is the most painful thing I could imagine and I’m weak and no longer willing to fight.” – Hannah Wright

Suicide quotes that will make you think twice

51. “I think many people kill themselves simply to stop the debate about whether they will or they won’t.” – Susanna Kaysen

52. “Suicide only really frightens those who are never tempted by it and never will be, for its darkness only welcomes those who are predestined to it.” – Georges Bernanos

53. “I could never kill myself. I approve of suicide if you have horrible health. Otherwise, it’s the ultimate hissy fit.” – John Waters

54. “The suicide passes a judgment. Society does not care to examine the judgment, but in defense of itself as is, condemns the suicide.” – Robert E. Neale

55. “It’s better to have a gay life of it than to commit suicide.” – Vincent Willem van Gogh

56. “Suicide may be a choice, but not as much as it is expected when everything else fails.” – Mark Brightlife

57. “Life is short enough, there is nothing worth here to take your life, and those things we do gain can never be taken to our grave.” – Anthony Liccione

58. “One, who suicides, is itself a killer and itself a victim. To trigger that has its decision, and own will, no one else.” – Ehsan Sehgal

59. “Every bad institution of this world ends by suicide.” – Victor Hugo

60. “People, don’t commit suicide because they’re weak. They commit suicide because they have no reason to be strong.” – Cave Man

61. “No one ever lacks a good reason for suicide.” —Cesare Pavese

62. “They tell us that Suicide is the greatest piece of Cowardice… That Suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in this world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person.”—Arthur Schopenhauer

63. “There is something great and terrible about suicide.”—Honore de Balzac

64. “Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder.”—Arnold J. Toynbee

65. “The suicide arrives at the conclusion that what he is seeking does not exist; the seeker concludes that what he has not yet looked in the right place.”—Paul Watzlawick

Suicide prevention quotes

66. “When you are tempted to give up, your breakthrough is probably just around the corner.” — Joyce Meyer

67. “Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start now and make a brand new ending.” — Carl Bard

68. “Killing myself was a matter of such indifference to me that I felt like waiting for a moment when it would make some difference.” – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

69. “The great thing about suicide is that it’s not one of those things you have to do now or you lose your chance. I mean, you can always do it later.” – Harvey Fierstein

70. “When people kill themselves, they think they’re ending the pain, but all they’re doing is passing it on to those they leave behind.” – Jeannette Walls

71. “That’s the thing about suicide. Try as you might to remember how a person lived his life, you always end up thinking about how he ended it.” – Anderson Cooper

72. “Nothing in my life has ever made me want to commit suicide more than people’s reaction to my trying to commit suicide.” – Emilie Autumn

73. “The harder the journey the more glorious the victory.” — Melissa Dohme

74. “There was a moment in my life when I really wanted to kill myself. And there was one other moment when I was close to that… But even in my most jaded times, I had some hope.” — Gerard Way

75. “When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt

More suicide quotes and sayings

76. “Living each day is one of the most extraordinary acts of courage” – Jennifer Betts

77. “Perhaps the saddest irony of depression is that suicide happens when the patient gets a little better and can again function sufficiently.” – Dick Cavett

78. “We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.” — Carlos Castaneda

79. “Often it feels like I am breathing today only because a few years back I had no idea which nerve to cut…”—Sanhita Baruah

80. “Everybody goes through difficult times, but it is those who push through those difficult times who will eventually become successful in life. Don’t give up, because this too shall pass.”— Jeanette Coron

81. “No one commits suicide because they want to die. Then why do they do it?” Because they want to stop the pain.” – Tiffanie DeBartolo

82. “There is beauty in the journey, regardless of the outcome. Let’s grieve and hope and fight together.” — Marie White

83. “No man ever threw away life while it was worth keeping.”—David Hume

84. “They would rather have you messy and alive than not there at all.”— Jazz Thornton

85. “I am constantly torn between killing myself and killing everyone around me.”—David Levithan

Suicide quotes to give you hope and a reminder you matter

86. “Don’t give up. Don’t give in. Wake up, release your warrior and tell your demons, ‘Not today!’” – Helen Edwards

87. “It’s not about battling your past, but fighting for your future.” – Jazz Thornton

88. “Create an environment where getting help and discussing suicide is something we do before a life is lost and not after.” – Dexter A. Daniels

89. “By suicide, you can only hurt the people who love you.” – Sandesh Hukpachongbang

90. “You’re bigger than the sea you’re sinking in…” – Katie Beth

91. “When the devil creeps in with suicidal thoughts, don’t creep out rather flee to your pastor or a counselor before he overwhelms your soul.”  – Ikechukwu Izuakor

92. “My own failed suicide attempt, led me to profession of helping others. Reach out. You are never alone.” – David Essel

93. “Don’t forget who you are and where you came from. Don’t get too emotional over little things. Don’t quit until you win the grand prize.” – Robert Randle

94. “This life. This night. Your story. Your pain. Your hope. It matters. All of it matters.” — Jamie Tworkowski

95. “Suicide is a serious thing. And if you know anyone who is suicidal, you need to get them help. No one should be in pain. Everyone should love themselves” – Gerard Way

Quotes about losing someone to suicide

96. “A person never truly gets over a suicide loss. You get through it. Day by day. Sometimes it’s moment by moment.” – Holly Kohler

97. “One day, you’ll wake up and things won’t hurt as bad. You’ll be able to remember the good things about your friend and not just the end. For me, that’s when I knew I was finally able to move on.” – Kristin Svinth

98. “Grief is like a long valley, a winding valley where any bend may reveal a totally new landscape.” – C. S. Lewis

99. “Talk about them. Be proud of them. Losing a courageous battle doesn’t make you weak.” – Jennifer Betts

100. “Sometimes only one person is missing, and the whole world feels depopulated.” – Alphonse de Lamartine

101. “Know it wasn’t your fault. Know someday you may take comfort in educating people about suicide.” – Sue Mahlburg

102. “It’s so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone.” – John Steinbeck

103. “One thing I learned is however I decided to grieve is the right way for me. Everyone’s different.” – Ron Prickett

104. “Grief is like the ocean; it comes on waves ebbing and flowing. Sometimes the water is calm, and sometimes it is overwhelming. All we can do is learn to swim.” – Vicki Harrison

105. “If you’ve lost a loved one to suicide—even if you, yourself, have dealt with depression and suicidal ideation—you may often wonder why. And that’s okay. Allow yourself that space.” – Karen Espenshade

Positive quotes for suicide prevention

106. “In the middle of winter I at last discovered that there was in me an invincible summer.” –
Albert Camus

107. “The way you deal with life’s situations changes when you start to think more positively.” – Alex Uwajeh

108. “We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

109. “Only strong people can find happiness from the sadness surrounding them.” – Sahaj Oberoi

110. “The scars we sustain, the weaknesses we attain, are temporary.” – Mo Gawdat

111. “The new dawn blooms as we free it. For there is always light if only we’re brave enough to see it, if only we’re brave enough to be it.” — Laureate Amanda Gorman

112. “We will always have seasons of struggles and testing. There are times when everything we attempt to do will seem to go wrong.” – T. D. Jakes

113. “There is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.” —J.R.R. Tolkien

114. “Happiness would not be fully appreciated without an experience of its opposite, sadness.” – Richard Daly

115. “But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.” —Martin Luther King, Jr.

Suicide Quotes To Help Create Awareness

116. “Suicide doesn’t end the pain. It only lays it on the broken shoulders of the survivors.” ― Billy Graham

117. “There is but one true philosophical problem and that is suicide.” ― Albert Camus

118. “No neurotic harbors thoughts of suicide which are not murderous impulses against others redirected upon himself.” ― Sigmund Freud

119. “The world is full of ‘friends’ of suicide victims thinking ‘if I had only made that drive over there, I could have done something.” ― Darnell Lamont Walker

120. “But suicide isn’t selfish. I’ve seen why suicide can feel like not just a choice, but the only choice.” ― Paul McGregor

121. “Imagine how many suicide victims would still be with us if only the right person said the right thing at the right time.” ― Wayne Gerard Trotman

122. “When one realizes that his life is worthless he either commits suicide or travels.” ― Edward Dahlberg

123. “If you are troubled by thoughts of suicide, speak up. Asking for help is an act of bravery that will change your life for the better.” ― Caitlyn Miller

124. “Most of the time, people who die by suicide don’t want to actually die. They just don’t want to be alive, and there is a huge difference.” ― Roxanne Macdonald

125. “We need to change the culture of this topic and make it okay to speak about mental health and suicide.” ― Luke Richardson

Suicide Quotes That Make You Powerless

126. “[I] have fantasies of killing myself and thus being the powerful one not the powerless one.” — Anne Sexton

127. “The real reason for not committing suicide is because you always know how swell life gets again after the hell is over.” — Ernest Hemingway

128.  “Reviewing has one advantage over suicide: in suicide you take it out on yourself; in reviewing you take it out on other people.” — George Bernard Shaw

129. “People commit suicide for only one reason – to escape torment.” — Li Ang

130. “If you must commit suicide … always contrive to do it as decorously as possible; the decencies, whether of life or of death, should never be lost sight of.” — George Henry Borrow

131. “Well, darkness with humor… I’m not an extremely suicidal or sad person.” — Peter Steele

132. The most sincere form of self-criticism is suicide.” — Tom Hopkins

133. “If you’re looking for the suspect in a suicide bombing, here’s a clue: Look for the dead guy.” — Norm Macdonald

134. Writing poems is my way of celebrating with the world that I have not committed suicide the evening before.” — Alice Walker

135. “I think it will be a miracle if I don’t someday end up killing myself.” — Anne Sexton

Thought Provoking Suicide Quotes 

136. “Suicide is man’s way of telling God, ‘You can’t fire me – I quit.'” ― Bill Maher

137. I think one of the most destructive things about suicide is the way it affects other people.” ― Robin Williams

138.”I have never killed myself, because the concept of suicide is foreign to me.” ― Jack Kevorkian

139. “Suicide is not a solution, it’s just a way out. And it’s not even a good way out.” ― Tony Robbins

140. The thing that hurts the most is being left behind and feeling like you never mattered at all.” ― Elton John

141. “The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.” ― Ursula K. Le Guin

142. “I think that the only thing that can save the world is the reclaiming of the awareness of the world. That’s what poetry does.” ― Allen Ginsberg

143. “I’m not trying to be a hero or anything like that. I just don’t want to be a burden on anyone.” ― Princess Diana

144. “You can forgive yourself, and the light of that love can dispel the darkness of your despair.” ― Ken Stifler

145. I’m not going to commit suicide or anything, but I’m just not going to be here.” ― Kurt Cobain

Suicide Quotes to Avoid Self Murder Thoughts

146. “All my life I have had the utmost admiration for suicides. I have always considered them superior to me in every way.” ― Thomas Bernhard

147. “People rarely bring flowers to a suicide.” ― Jennifer Niven

148. “Suicide is part murder, revenge on those who hurt you, just as murder is part suicide, for a murderer knows he risks losing his life.” ― Lucy Freeman

149. “Suicide is a real threat to health.” ― Virginia Bottomley

150. “The society that destroys its children is eating its own tail, committing suicide in the most perverse way.” ― Jennifer Stone

151. “Suicides aren’t heroic in my opinion. And I don’t think anybody ever really knows why somebody commits suicide.” ― Alex Gibney

152. “Someone bent on suicide won’t have much sense of humor left.” ― Chuck Palahniuk

153. “The statistics of suicide show that, for non-combatants at least, life is more interesting in war than in peace.” ― William Ralph Inge

154. “Multiculturalism is social poison. Toleration of intolerance isn’t sophistication. It’s suicide.” ― Jack Kelly

155. “Incarcerating people for their [drug] consumption choices has the consistency of arresting a survivor of suicide for attempted murder.” ― Ilana Mercer

156. “Suicide is very contagious.” ― Chuck Palahniuk

157. “Suicide is the utmost sincere and candid apology to the ones you hurt most” ― Christopher J Marshall

158. “suicide is not just killing yourself, but the world outside” ― Mayank Sharma

159. “Suicide is nothing, but an act of depriving the soul from it’s very right to liberation.” ― Aniruddha Sastikar

160. “dead people commit suicide!!” ― Twinkle (Sugandha) Varshney

161. “To make yourself something less than you can be – that too is a form of suicide.” ― Benjamin Lichtenberg

162. “How much can you really trust the promise of a suicidal father?” ― Ruth Ozeki

163. “The atheist suicide bomber is unfaithfully committed to his mission” ― Dean Cavanagh

164. “We’re all suicides. The tragedy is every day that we don’t die.” ― Thomm Quackenbush

165. “SUICIDE can be considered an act of MURDER committed on ONESELF” ― Kamil Ali

Which of these inspirational quotes about suicide has the most profound effect on you?

Being suicidal is an incredibly difficult feeling to cope with, but there is hope.

If you or someone you know has suicidal thoughts, reach out to a mental health professional for help.

This collection of suicide quotes may bring you comfort and understanding.

Read these words whenever you struggle with pain to help shift your perspective.

It’s possible to transform your life and begin a journey of healing.

If you’ve been struggling with suicidal thoughts, use these words and mantras as a guiding light.

Remember that you don’t have to face this on your own and that help is available.

Reaching out to trusted experts and friends is the most important step to take on your journey.

Share these quotes with your loved ones today to raise suicide awareness and increase prevention.

What are your favorite inspiring quotes about suicide prevention and awareness?

Let us know in the comment section below.