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Glennon Doyle quotes are tremendous to read, because they come packed with humor, bravery, kindness, and an epic amount of wisdom. For this reason, I’ve aggregated 107 of my favorite Glennon quotes to improve your day, and more accurately, your life.
Because of her extensive experience with addiction, depression, an unexpected pregnancy and marital problems, among other issues, Glennon experienced “rock bottom” moments that caused her to embark onto paths of self exploration that very few people undertake during their lifetime.
As a result, she has acquired an astounding amount of wisdom in her 44 years of life.
Who is Glennon Doyle?
Glennon Doyle is a blogger, author, speaker and activist. She has authored three books, the first two which were the New York Times best-sellers: Love Warrior and Carry On, Warrior.
On March 10, 2020, she released her latest book, Untamed, which rapidly ascended to best-seller status as well, despite a global pandemic that was creating worldwide lockdowns.
Glennon also founded the nonprofit Together Rising, and runs the wildly popular blog, Momastery.com which she launched in 2009.
In her writing, Glennon has had the courage to reveal all about her life, including the dark, gritty parts nearly everyone would hide. She shares her struggles with bulimia, alcohol, drugs, mental health, sex, and relationships, including her ex-husband’s infidelity and a porn addiction that dated back to his early childhood.
She has also been forthright about her May 14, 2017 marriage to former U.S. Soccer Player, Abby Wambach and their process of creating a new beautiful, blended, modern family.
It is this honesty and transparency that has allowed Glennon to create a zealous community of followers, including 609K on Instagram and 755K on Facebook. It is also why I have enormous respect for her art, her wisdom, and her activism.
I value reflecting on these quotes, because they are reminders of how each of us can live a more present life, by embracing and being honest about what it really means to be human.
Enjoy the Glennon Doyle quotes below, because they are 107 of my favorites.
107 of the Best Glennon Doyle Quotes of All-Time
1. “The only meaningful thing we can offer one another is love. Not advice, not questions about our choices, not suggestions for the future, just love.”
2. “You are not supposed to be happy all the time. Life hurts and it’s hard. Not because you’re doing it wrong, but because it hurts for everybody. Don’t avoid the pain. You need it. It’s meant for you. Be still with it, let it come, let it go, let it leave you with the fuel you’ll burn to get your work done on this earth.”
3. “When her pain is fresh and new, let her have it. Don’t try to take it away. Forgive yourself for not having that power. Grief and pain are like joy and peace; they are not things we should try to snatch from each other. They’re sacred. They are part of each person’s journey. All we can do is offer relief from this fear: I am all alone. That’s the one fear you can alleviate.”
4. “The journey is learning that pain, like love, is simply something to surrender to. It’s a holy space we can enter with people only if we promise not to tidy up.”
5. “We know what the world wants from us. We know we must decide whether to stay small, quiet, and uncomplicated or allow ourselves to grow as big, loud, and complex as we were made to be. Every girl must decide whether to be true to herself or true to the world. Every girl must decide whether to settle for adoration or fight for love.”
6. “Addiction is a hiding place where sensitive people go. I was a super sensitive kid—addiction is where I went to hide from risk, to hide from pain, to hide from love
7. “If our goal is to be tolerant of people who are different than we are, then we really are aiming quite low. Traffic jams are to be tolerated. People are to be celebrated.”
8. “People who are hurting don’t need Avoiders, Protectors, or Fixers. What we need are patient, loving witness. People to sit quietly and hold space for us. People to stand in helpful vigil to our pain.”
9. “I understand now that I’m not a mess, but a deeply feeling person in a messy world. I explain that now, when someone asks me why I cry so often: “For the same reason I laugh so often – because I’m paying attention.”
10. “We can choose to be perfect and admired or to be real and loved. We must decide.”
11. “People who need help sometimes look a lot like people who don’t need help.”
12. “What if pain – like love – is just a place where brave people visit?”
13. “What I Know: 1. What you don’t know, you’re not supposed to know yet. 2. More will be revealed. 3 Crisis means to sift. Let it all fall away and you’ll be left with what matters. 4. What matters most cannot be taken away. 5. Just do the next right thing one thing at a time. That’ll take you all the way home.”
14. “If you feel something calling you to dance or write or paint or sing, please refuse to worry about whether you’re good enough. Just do it. Be generous. Offer a gift to the world that no one else can offer: yourself.”
15. “In all my close friendships, words are the bricks I use to build bridges. To know someone I need to hear her, and to feel known, I need to be heard by her. The process of knowing and loving another person happens for me through conversation. I reveal something to help my friend understand me, she responds in a way that assures me she values my revelation, and then she adds something to help me understand her. This back-and-forth is repeated again and again as we go deeper into each other’s hearts, minds, pasts, and dreams. Eventually, a friendship is built – a solid, sheltering structure that exists in the space between us – a space outside of ourselves that we can climb deep into. There is her, there is me, and then there is our friendship – this bridge we’ve built together.”
16. “What if in skipping the pain, I was missing my lessons?”
17. “The sun shows up every morning, no matter how bad you’ve been the night before. It shines without judgment. It never withholds. It warms the sinners, the saints, the druggies, the cheerleaders—the saved and the heathens alike. You can hide from the sun, but it won’t take you personally. It’ll never, ever punish you for hiding. You can stay in the dark for years or decades, and when you finally step outside, it’ll be there.”
18. “We think our job as humans is to avoid pain, our job as parents is to protect our children from pain, and our job as friends is to fix each other’s pain. Maybe that’s why we all feel like failures so often – because we all have the wrong job description for love.”
19. “Life is hard—not because we’re doing it wrong, just because it’s hard.”
20. “You have been offered ‘the gift of crisis’. As Kathleen Norris reminds us, the Greek root of the word crisis is “to sift”, as in, to shake out the excesses and leave only what’s important. That’s what crises do. They shake things up until we are forced to hold on to only what matters most. The rest falls away.”
21. “Our culture was built upon and benefits from the control of women. The way power justifies controlling a group is by conditioning the masses to believe that the group cannot be trusted. So the campaign to convince us to mistrust women begins early and comes from everywhere.”
22. “Wherever you go, there you are. Your emptiness goes with you. Maddening. Things that help: writing, reading, water, walks, forgiving myself every other minute, practicing easy yoga, taking deep breaths, and petting my dogs. These things don’t fill me completely, but they remind me that it is not my job to fill myself. It’s just my job to notice my emptiness and find graceful ways to live as a broken, unfilled human.
If there’s a silver lining to the emptiness, here it is: the unfillable is what brings people together. I’ve never made a friend by bragging about my strengths, but I’ve made countless by sharing my weakness and my emptiness.”
23. “I have met my self and I am going to care for her fiercely.”
24. “It’s ok to feel too much and know too little.”
25. “Reading is my inhale and writing is my exhale.”
26. “Grief and pain are like joy and peace; they are not things we should try to snatch from each other. They’re sacred.”
27. “Kind people are brave people. Brave is not something you should wait to feel. Brave is a decision. It is a decision that compassion is more important than fear, than fitting in, than following the crowd.”
28. “I think one of the keys to happiness is accepting that I am never going to be perfectly happy. Life is uncomfortable. So I might as well get busy loving the people around me. I’m going to stop trying so hard to decide whether they are the “right people” for me and just take deep breaths and love my neighbors. I’m going to take care of my friends. I’m going to find peace in the ‘burbs. I’m going to quit chasing happiness long enough to notice it smiling right at me.”
29. “The only meaningful thing we can offer one another is love. Not advice, not questions about our choices, not suggestions for the future, just love.”
30. “The journey is learning that pain, like love, is simply something to surrender to. It’s a holy space we can enter with people only if we promise not to tidy up.”
31. “Life is brutal, but it’s also beautiful. Life is Brutiful.”
32. “Since brokenness is the way of folks, the only way to live peacefully is to forgive everyone constantly, including yourself.”
33. “Because love is not something for which to search or wait or hope or dream. Its simply something to do.”
34. “We weren’t born distrusting and fearing ourselves. That was part of our taming. We were taught to believe that who we are in our natural state is bad and dangerous.”
35. “That’s how you can tell that you’re filling yourself with the wrong things. You use a lot of energy, and in the end, you feel emptier and less comfortable than ever.”
36. “My courage will come from knowing I can handle whatever I encounter there — because I was designed by my creator to not only survive pain and love but also to become whole inside it. I was born to do this. I am a Warrior.”
37. “God approaches us in the disguise of other people.”
38. “Bring all of yourself to life. And if you’re told you’re ‘too much’ – smile and think: Maybe. Or maybe their capacity is too small?”
39. “You can never get enough of what you don’t need.”
40. “Stop making parenthood harder by pretending its not hard.”
41. “The secret of life is not about knowing what to say or do. It’s not about doing love or loss right. Life cannot be handled. The secret is simply to show up. It’s about witnessing it all, even the pain, and letting it touch you and make you not harder, but more tender. Showing up, feeling it all—this is my new kind of prayer. I call it praying attention, and it’s how, for me, everything turns holy.”
42. “When people express opinions that differ from yours, take it as a chance to grow. Seek to understand over being understood. Be curious, not defensive. The only way to disarm another human being is by listening.”
43. “Sometimes the rewards of risk don’t leave us wrecked. Sometimes we find our passion, our purpose, courage, connection, and comfort. Every good thing in our lives is a direct result of risk.”
44. “My purpose is clearer today than it has been in years: Love, Courage, Truth.”
45. “Grief is love’s souvenir. It’s our proof that we once loved. Grief is the receipt we wave in the air that says to the world: Look! Love was once mine. I love well. Here is my proof that I paid the price.”
46. “Rock bottom is the end of what wasn’t true enough. Begin again and build something Truer. Love, G”
47. “Be messy and complicated and afraid and show up anyway.”
48. “I used to numb my feelings and hide. Now I feel my feelings and share.”
49. “That’s how you can tell that you’re filling yourself with the wrong things. You use a lot of energy, and in the end, you feel emptier and less comfortable than ever.”
50. “We have to get back into our own bodies and figure out what the hell we want to do. And then the next step is doing it without explaining ourselves.”
51. “The only meaningful thing we can offer one another is love. Not advice, not questions about our choices, not suggestions for the future, just love.”
52.”Maybe the yes comes before the readiness. Maybe you say yes and then you become equipped to handle whatever is about to happen.”
53. I notice we are envious of people who are already doing what we are made to do. If we use our envy as a sort of an arrow pointing us toward our destiny, that is a beautiful thing.
54. “If there’s a silver lining to the emptiness, here it is: the unfillable is what brings people together. I’ve never made a friend by bragging about my strengths, but I’ve made countless by sharing my weakness and my emptiness.”
55. “I just think there are as many different versions of feminism as there are women. Feminism has to be defined as freedom.”
56. “Being a mother is a little like ‘Groundhog’s Day.’ It’s getting out of bed and doing the exact same things again and again and yet again – and it’s watching it all get undone again and again and yet again. It’s humbling, monotonous, mind-numbing, and solitary.”
57. “Teachers: you are doing the holiest, hardest work on earth. Nobody is more important than the ones who hold our babies in their hands and hearts all day.”
58. “Your river is strong. Let it flow.”
59. “If you feel something calling you to dance or write or paint or sing, please refuse to worry about whether you’re good enough. Just do it. Be generous. Offer a gift to the world that no one else can offer: yourself.”
60. Life has valleys and mountains and the people who won’t let themselves experience the agony of being in the valley also don’t get to experience the ecstasy of the mountains.
61. “Progress through something traumatic, it’s not linear. It’s not like we go from unhealthy to healthy, failure to success. I think it’s all circular. You just come back around to the same pain, and the same loneliness. But each time you come around, you’re stronger from the climb.
62. “If no pain, then no love. If no darkness, no light. If no risk, then no reward. It’s all or nothing. In this damn world, it’s all or nothing.
63. “The opposite of sensitive is not brave. It’s not brave to refuse to pay attention, to refuse to notice, to refuse to feel and know and imagine. The opposite of sensitive is insensitive, and that’s no badge of honor.”
64. “Self-love means that I have a relationship with myself built on trust and loyalty. I trust myself to have my own back, so my allegiance is to the voice within.”
65. Nobody is more ready to show up than anybody else. It’s just that some people show up before they’re perfect and before they’re ready.
66. Since the day I decided to become sober and a mother, I’ve been trying to become who I am supposed to be.
67. “Your not a mess. You’re a deeply feeling person in a messy world.”
68. “I’ll abandon everyone else’s expectations of me before I’ll abandon myself. I’ll disappoint everyone else before I’ll disappoint myself. I’ll forsake all others before I’ll forsake myself. Me and myself: We are till death do us part.”
69. “Don’t let yourself become so concerned with raising a good kid that you forget you already have one.”
70. There is always more on its way – more opportunities, more ideas, more love. Know that there is enough. Know that you are enough. Know that you have enough.”
71. “I learned that I need to move toward the pain. Pain doesn’t go away. If you don’t embrace it, it will be passed onto someone else, usually those around you.”
72. “Loves, listen to me: The wounded become the healers. Your pain will not be wasted. Trust it. Be brave enough to be still in it and you’ll learn that your pain will NOT consume you. It will become the fire you burn to light and warm the world.”
73. “I feel like I numbed my feelings for so long because I felt like I couldn’t handle them. I left like the pain would be too much and the beauty would be too much. I learned to be fully present with the areas of my life that are brutal and the areas that are beautiful. It feels like, I am doing this human thing.”
74. “The culture depends on the sensitivity of a few, because nothing can be healed if it’s not sensed first.”
75. “Sister each other, because sistering is the best part of life.”
76. “Can you imagine? The epitome of womanhood is to lose one’s self completely. That is the end goal of every patriarchal culture. Because a very effective way to control women is to convince women to control themselves.”
77. “These things will be hard, but you can do hard things.”
78. “Love is the opposite of control. Love demands trust.”
79. “I had been deceived. The only thing that was ever wrong with me was my belief that there was something wrong with me.”
80. “I think the way to get to any place worth going and any person worth knowing is love. Keep it simple today. I love you.”
81. “We can either control our selves or love our selves, but we can’t do both.”
82. “I see your pain and it is difficult and it is hard, but it was made just for you and I also see that your courage is greater than your fear.”
83. “If you are standing with other women in a circle and there is a woman standing alone in your circles vicinity – the thing to do is notice her, smile at her, move over a bit and say, ‘Hi, come join us!’ Even if she decides to not join your circle, or looks at you like you are crazy – inviting her is still the thing to do. This advice is meant for both literal and figurative circles. Widen your circle. All the times. Always leave space.”
84. “Service and art are the two things that have saved me.”
85. “You are not supposed to be happy all the time. Life hurts and it’s hard. Not because you’re doing it wrong, but because it hurts for everybody. Don’t avoid the pain. You need it. It’s meant for you. Be still with it, let it come, let it go, let it leave you with the fuel you’ll burn to get your work done on this earth.”
86. “Loving fiercely and grieving deeply are often two halves of the same whole.”
87. “There isn’t anyone who isn’t recovering from something. Alcohol, drugs, over-eating, perfectionism, anxiety, unkindness, something.”
88. “The journey is learning that pain, like love, is simply something to surrender to. It’s a holy space we can enter with people only if we promise not to tidy up.”
89. “As a recovering addict, I know that shame is the kiss of death. It’s not the pain that takes us out of the game, it’s the shame that takes us out of the game. Part of the shame killing for me is actually pulling out what is true and secret and scary and dark on the inside and pulling out into the light, so that other people can see it. Inevitably, enough people will say, ‘Me too.'”
90. “Life is a conversation. Make it a good one.”
91. “In response to the world’s problems, it is easy to choose silence. Anger. I get it, but it’s not the right way. The third way is to create, to create a better invitation.”
92. “What I want to be, girls, is beautiful. Beautiful means ‘full of beauty.’ Beautiful is not about how you look on the outside. Beautiful is about what you’re made of. Beautiful people spend time discovering what their idea of beauty on this earth is. They know themselves well enough to know what they love, and they love themselves enough to fill up with a little of their particular kind of beauty each day.”
93. “One day we will finally see that when we reject any person or group of people, we reject a part of our very selves. All are one. All are in. All are God’s beloved children with a place at the table.”
94. “I hated writing ‘Love Warrior.’ It’s the hardest thing I’ve every written. I cried so much.”
95. “Just show up, be brave, be kind, rest, try again.”
96. “Love is kind, right? It’s not about calling someone out on every little thing you feel.”
97. “The amazing thing about love and attention and encouragement and grace and success and joy is that these things are infinite. We get a new supply every single morning, and so we can give it away all day. We never, ever have to monitor the supply of others or grab or hoard.”
98. “I understand myself differently now. I was just a caged girl made for wide-open skies.”
99. “Be still and breathe and wait for the clouds and fear to pass. Rock bottom is the beginning of any honest life, any spiritual journey.Truth is grace and grace makes no exceptions. Grace and worthiness are yours for the taking. Just as I am, I’m loved just as I am.”
100. “Just do the next right thing one thing at a time. That’ll take you all the way home.”
101. “Keep your head down and keep Love Working. Love without ‘feeling it’ or ‘meaning it.'”
102. “I’ve done my research and learned this: Ten is when we learn how to be good girls and real boys. Ten is when children begin to hide who they are in order to become what the world expects them to be. Right around ten is when we begin to internalize our formal taming. Ten is when the world sat me down, told me to be quiet, and pointed toward my cages.”
103. “Change the narrative of what it means to be a family.”
104. “I’m nothing if not a tangled, colorful ball of contradictions.”
105. “I think of love and marriage, in the same way, I do plants: We have perennials and annuals. The perennial plant blooms go away and come back. The annual blooms for just a season, and then winter arrives and takes it out for good. But it’s still enriched the soil for the next flower to bloom. In the same way, no love is wasted.”
106. “What the world needs is more women who have quit fearing themselves and started trusting themselves. What the world needs is masses of women who are entirely out of control.”
107. “My courage comes from knowing I can handle whatever I encounter. I was born to do this.”
Glennon’s Wittiest and Wisest Remarks
While the Glennon Doyle quotes above capture much of her wisdom, they are even better in context. If you want to be wiser, kinder and braver, I encourage you to follow Glennon Doyle’s work.
Get 107 of Glennon’s life-changing quotes in a PDF that you can download, print, or share with a friend.