The disease of addiction does not discriminate – substance dependency is blind to gender, age, social status, and race. It does not avoid successful businessmen nor favor the less fortunate. In fact many of the great minds we as a society admire have been afflicted themselves. I have compiled a list of several famous quotes pertaining to addiction, as well as brief recounts of the personal grapples of those who spoke them.

Mark Twain Quotes

“Quitting smoking is easy, I’ve done it hundreds of times.” – Mark Twain

While Mark Twain’s less favorable habits predominantly revolved around smoking in absolute excess, he was also widely known as a steady moderate drinker, and while he may not have been an alcoholic by most definitions, he preached much to the negative effects of his unrestrained and somewhat abundant lifestyle. Twain has come up with many quotes to live by over the years, and I have listed several more of his more memorable below.

“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”

“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who fully lives is prepared to die at any time.”

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

Carl Jung Quotes

Carl Jung was a Swiss psychotherapist who played a major role in founding analytical psychiatry. While he himself was not known to have suffered from addiction, he played a major role in early exploration of addiction as a psychological disorder.

“You are what you’ll do, not what you say you’ll do.” – Carl Jung

“Every type of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism.” – Carl Jung

Here are several other addiction and recovery-related quotes that may also be of interest.

“We may think there is willpower involved,
but more likely… change is due to want power.
Wanting the new addiction more than the old one.
Wanting the new me in preference to the person I am now.” – George Sheehan

“No one is immune from addiction; it afflicts people of all ages, classes, races, and professions.” – Patrick J. Kennedy

“I wanted to write about the moment
when your addictions no longer hide the truth from you.
When your whole life breaks down.
That’s the moment when you have to somehow choose
what your life is going to be about.” – Chuck Palahniuk