At Good Good Good, we’re all about finding good news, while acknowledging the realities of the injustices of the world.
In our work, we come across beautiful “light in the darkness” quotes all the time. As a team, we slowly started collecting our favorite light and darkness-themed quotes and are publicly sharing the comprehensive collection for the first time.
We’ve also created separate collections of the best quotes about light and the best quotes about darkness.
May these quotes help you to always seek the light — and to be the light. (And we’ll be here to help you along your journey, by continuing to share hope-filled good news stories every day and every month.)
Quotes About Dark and Light
Famous Quotes
“It is better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt
“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”
— Archbishop Desmond Tutu
“Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.”
— Brené Brown
“It’s so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone.”
— John Steinbeck
“Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to change racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice ring out for all of God's children.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.
“Gotta have opposites, light and dark and dark and light, in painting. It’s like in life. Gotta have a little sadness once in awhile so you know when the good times come. I'm waiting on the good times now.”
― Bob Ross
On Light and Dark
“However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.”
— Stanley Kubrick
“Maybe you have to know the darkness before you can appreciate the light.”
— Madeline L’Engle
“In the midst of darkness, light persists.”
— Mahatma Gandhi
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.
“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”
— Plato
“I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.”
— Og Mandino
“Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.”
— Walt Whitman
“Your path is illuminated by the light, yet darkness lets the stars shine bright.”
— J.L.W. Brooks
“It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.”
— Aristotle
“Why blame the dark for being dark? It is far more helpful to ask why the light isn't as bright as it could be. ”
— Rob Bell
“People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within.”
— Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
“Don’t let this darkness fool you. All lights turned off can be turned on.”
— Noah Kahan
Light in the Darkness Quotes
“It is often in the darkest skies that we see the brightest stars.”
— Richard Evans
“Light must come from inside. You cannot ask the darkness to leave; you must turn on the light.”
— Sogyal Rinpoche
“In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.”
— Sir Francis Bacon
“Don’t fight darkness — bring the light, and darkness will disappear.”
— Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
“You may be the only person left who believes in you, but it’s enough. It takes just one star to pierce a universe of darkness. Never give up.”
— Richelle E. Goodrich
About Candles
“To see a candle’s light one must take it into a dark place.”
— Ursula K. Le Guin
“We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us through that darkness to a safe and sane future.”
— John F. Kennedy
“Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle.”
— Benjamin Franklin
“You can curse the darkness or light a candle. The choice is yours.”
— Patrick Kane
“Know that darkness is merely the absence of light. You can be the small candle that defeats the vast darkness.”
— Jonathan Lockwood Huie
“How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
“All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.”
— St. Francis of Assisi
Related: Check out these incredible eco-friendly candles
Light Quotes
“Your existence brings a light into this world like no other. Please keep that light shining.”
— TWLOHA
“There is always light. If only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.”
— Amanda Gorman
“There are two ways of spreading light; to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”
— Edith Wharton
“As we work to create light for others, we naturally light our own way.”
— Mary Anne Radmacher
“Nothing can dim the light that shines from within.”
— Maya Angelou
“Is there anything more loyal than the sun?”
— Mary Oliver
“As we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence actually liberates others.”
— Marianne Williamson
“Just as one candle lights another and can light thousands of other candles, so one heart illuminates another heart and can illuminate thousands of other hearts”
— Leo Tolstoy
“A candle loses nothing when it lights another candle.”
— Thomas Jefferson
“There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.”
— Leonard Cohen
"A day without sunshine is like, you know, night."
— Steve Martin
“Shining a light on someone else doesn’t diminish mine. Take time here to encourage people and lift them up.”
— Bernice King
Darkness Quotes
“Be loved. Be known. Love people and know people. Be so brave as to raise a hand for help when you need it. Make friends and make sure they know they matter. Be loyal to them and fight for them. Remind them what’s true and invite them to do the same when you forget. If you do some losing or you walk with someone else in their defeat, live with dignity and grace. It is a middle finger to the darkness.”
— Jamie Tworkowski, If You Feel Too Much: Thoughts on Things Found and Lost and Hoped For
“Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.”
— Anne Frank
“To all who walk the dark path, and to those who walk in the sunshine but hold out a hand in the darkness to travel beside us: Brighter days are coming. Clearer sight will arrive. And you will arrive too. No, it might not be forever. The bright moments might be for a few days at a time, but hold on for those days. Those days are worth the dark.”
— Jenny Lawson, Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things
“The presence of fear and darkness does not mean that the hopeful parts of me cease to exist.”
— Erin Frye, on an article for TWLOHA.
“Why not dare yourself to become a shining positive light where darkness is the only thing known?”
— Edmond Mbiaka
“Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.”
— Helen Keller
“Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.”
— Mary Oliver
Short Quotes on Dark vs. Light
“The darkness declares the glory of light.”
— T. S. Eliot
“Whenever you see darkness, there is extraordinary opportunity for the light to burn brighter.”
— Bono
“I think we all have light and dark inside us.”
— Sean Penn
“It is as if the smallest amount of light is infinitely more powerful than massive amounts of dark.”
— Rob Bell
→ Read more short quotes
On Shadows
“The shadow is the greatest teacher for how to come to the light.”
— Ram Dass
“Light and shadow are opposite sides of the same coin. We can illuminate our paths or darken our way. It is a matter of choice.”
— Maya Angelou
“Never fear shadows. They simply mean there’s a light shining somewhere nearby.”
— Ruth E. Renkel
“Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.”
— Walt Whitman.
“I think that light and shadow have exactly the same duality that exists between life and death.”
— Manuel Alvarez Bravo
“There are no shadows in the dark. Shadows are the servants of light, the children of fire. The brightest flame casts the darkest shadows.”
— George R. R. Martin
More Darkness and Light Quotes
“I have learned things in the dark that I could never have learned in the light, things that have saved my life over and over again, so that there is really only one logical conclusion. I need darkness as much as I need light.”
— Barbara Brown Taylor
“Your mind is a galaxy. More dark than light. But the light makes it worthwhile. Which is to say, don't kill yourself. Even when the darkness is total. Always know that life is not still. Time is space. You are moving through that galaxy. Wait for the stars.”
— Matt Haig, Reasons to Stay Alive
“A visionary is one who can find his way by moonlight and see the dawn before the rest of the world.”
— Oscar Wilde
“It is the responsibility, yet the individual choice, of each of us to use the light we have to dispel the work of darkness, because if we do not, then the power of falsehood rises.”
— John Lewis, Across That Bridge
“Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”
— J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
“Light is to darkness what love is to fear; in the presence of one the other disappears.”
— Marianne Williamson
“Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.”
— Carl Jung
“Listen, the obvious thing to remember is without dark, there is no light, and without light, there is no dark.”
— Jessica Capshaw
“I have to interweave my poetry with purpose. For me, that purpose is to help people, and to shed a light on issues that have far too long been in the darkness.”
— Amanda Gorman
“No situation is so dark that there is not a ray of light!”
— Norman Vincent Peale
