113 Best Numb Quotes (with Commentary)

Numbness can be a tricky emotional state, often being used as a defense mechanism to protect yourself from pain and overwhelming feelings.

Quotes about numbness can provide knowledge and reflection, offering a peek into the silent struggles you may face when emotions become too severe to handle.

Whether through loss, heartbreak, or personal ordeals, these quotes reflects on those moments when you emotional detachment is at an all-time high, helping you feel less alone in your experiences.

Top Numb Quotes

“I numb my pain with distractions.” – Maya Angelou

“Feeling numb helps me cope with the chaos.” – Eckhart Tolle

“When you can’t feel pain, you also start losing the ability to feel joy.” – Brené Brown

“Numbness is not an absence of feelings; it’s a coping mechanism.” – J.K. Rowling

“Sometimes, feeling numb is the only way to get through the day.” – Oprah Winfrey

“I used to feel too much, now I feel too little.” – Toni Morrison

“Numbness is a silent scream for help.” – Stephen King

“Feeling numb is a sign that healing might be needed.” – Deepak Chopra

“Numbness is my armor against the sharp edges of reality.” – Carl Jung

“In the realm of numbness, nothing hurts, but nothing heals.” – Sylvia Plath

Also Read: One Tree Hill Quotes (with Related Verses)

Numb Quotes on Emotional Detachment

“Detachment isn’t about not caring; it’s about being unaffected by the swings of life.” – Dalai Lama

“I detach emotionally to protect myself from being too vulnerable.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

“Emotional detachment is not the absence of emotion, but the moment when nothing seems to matter.” – Virginia Woolf

“Sometimes detachment is the only form of self-defense.” – Marcus Aurelius

“Emotional detachment helps me navigate complex feelings without getting hurt.” – Susan Sontag

“The art of detachment is isolating oneself from the chaos, not the love.” – Rumi

“When emotions are overwhelming, detachment provides a safe haven.” – Plato

“Detaching doesn’t mean you’re not empathetic; it means you choose not to drown alongside others.” – Audre Lorde

“True detachment is being close to someone who hurts you without letting it affect your peace.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

“Detachment is sometimes the painful step we must take to heal from unseen wounds.” – Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Numb Quotes for Coping with Loss

“Loss leaves us empty – but learn not to close your heart and mind in grief. Allow life to replenish you. New joys wait to fill the void.” – Pierre Jeanty

“The day you lose someone isn’t the worst – at least you’ve got something to do – it’s all the days they stay dead.” – Steven Moffat

“Grief makes one hour ten, but it does not numb the loss; it only tames it slightly to make it bearable.” – Shannon L. Alder

“Sometimes, when one person is absent, the whole world seems depopulated.” – Lamartine

“It’s hard to forget someone who gave you so much to remember.” – Sujish Kandampully

“When you lose what you love, remember to stay strong. Look out the window and remember life goes on.” – Drew Chadwick

“The pain I feel now is the happiness I had before. That’s the deal.” – C.S. Lewis

“What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.” – Helen Keller

“Grief is just love with no place to go.” – Jamie Anderson

“The numbness that follows a significant loss reflects the shield you unconsciously build around your heart to protect it from further damage.” – Richelle E. Goodrich

Numb Quotes from Music and Lyrics

“I’ve become so numb, I can’t feel you there.” – Linkin Park

“I’m not dead but I’m not alive. I’m just alone inside my misery.” – Eminem

“Sometimes I feel like I can’t feel anything at all.” – Ed Sheeran

“Numb the pain ’til I am made of stone.” – Taylor Swift

“I feel numb, under your influence.” – Calvin Harris

“Woke up an optimist, sun was shining, I’m positive. Then I heard you were talkin’ trash, hold me back, I’m bout’ to spaz.” – Kanye West

“It’s easier to numb the pain than face it.” – Halsey

“The more I try to feel, the more I disappear.” – Radiohead

“You can’t feel the heat until you hold your hand over the flame. You have to cross the line just to remember where it lays.” – Rise Against

“I numb my brain with the refrain from a song that’s driving me insane.” – The Rolling Stones

Numb Quotes on Overcoming Trauma

“Healing doesn’t mean the damage never existed. It means the damage no longer controls our lives.” – Akshay Dubey

“Through my history of trauma, I became so numb. Reclaiming the ability to feel was a long, but the most essential part of my journey.” – Bessel van der Kolk

“The trauma said, ‘Don’t write these poems. Nobody wants to hear you cry about the grief inside your bones.’ But the bones said, ‘Tyler Clementi jumped from the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson River convinced he was entirely alone.’” – Andrea Gibson

“Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws.” – Barbara Kingsolver

“Trauma creates changes you don’t choose. Healing is about creating change that you do choose.” – Michelle Rosenthall

“It’s when we start working together that the real healing takes place… it’s when we start spilling our sweat, and not our blood.” – David Hume

“Numb the dark and you numb the light.” – Brené Brown

“Overcoming trauma makes you realize that you can endure more than you ever thought possible.” – Amanda Lindhout

“Feeling numb is your psyche’s way of saying there’s more than you can process at one time.” – Cynthia Occelli

“In the end, some of your greatest pains become your greatest strengths.” – Drew Barrymore

Philosophical Numb Quotes

“The point is not to pay back kindness but to pass it on.” – Julia Alvarez

“To spare oneself from grief at all cost can be achieved only at the price of total detachment, which excludes the ability to experience happiness.” – Erich Fromm

“We numb our minds and heart so as not one ache too much at the sound of the world or the touch of it.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

“A certain degree of numbness is essential for survival. It helps us to avoid unnecessary emotional despair.” – Seneca

“Being numb is the moment when, faced with profound sorrow, you find you can live in it.” – Simone de Beauvoir

“Experiencing numbness periodically is normal; it becomes a problem when we become stuck in that phase.” – Socrates

“I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.” – Vincent Van Gogh

“Emotions are what make us human. Make us real. The word ’emotion’ stands for energy in motion. Be truthful about your emotions, and use your mind and emotions in your favor, not against yourself.” – Robert T. Kiyosaki

“Numbness is not always a sign of escape; sometimes it is a phase of processing.” – Plato

“The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.” – William Ellery Channing

Numb Quotes on Feeling Disconnected

“Sometimes, the world feels like a lot. Sometimes, feeling nothing is the only way to cope.” – Jenni Schaefer

“Feeling disconnected is often the mind’s way of protecting us from too much emotional input at once.” – Lisa Olivera

“There’s an odd comfort in knowing that you are capable of feeling nothing at all.” – Leah Raeder

“The disconnect from self and others is often a symptom of deeper unresolved grief.” – Natalie Lue

“Numbness is not a sign of being broken, but a temporary refuge for a weary soul.” – Susan Anderson

“It’s strange how the absence of feeling can hurt as much as the most intense emotion.” – Christina Ricci

“Disconnection from the world around us often starts with disconnection from ourselves.” – Eckhart Tolle

“The deepest pain I ever felt was denying my own feelings to make everyone else comfortable.” – Nicole Lyons

“Feeling numb is an emotional defense mechanism that helps you survive during tough times.” – Guy Winch

“I felt a numbness, an absence of feeling that was slowly replaced by something that felt chillingly like resignation.” – Lisa Unger

Inspirational Numb Quotes for Healing

“The cure for the pain is in the pain, so it’s okay to feel numb until you heal.” – Rumi

“Healing might not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn’t you – all of the expectations, all of the beliefs – and becoming who you are.” – Rachel Naomi Remen

“Sometimes the part of you that is trying to heal needs to numb before it can heal.” – Iyanla Vanzant

“We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.” – Kenji Miyazawa

“Healing doesn’t mean the damage never existed. It means it no longer controls our lives.” – Akshay Dubey

“Allow yourself to feel numb. It’s a step on the path to healing.” – Jaeda DeWalt

“Sometimes your heart needs more time to accept what your mind already knows.” – Paulo Coelho

“You cannot heal a lifetime of pain overnight, be patient with yourself, it takes as long as it takes to rebuild yourself.” – Nikita Gill

“Numbness can be a place of safety while you heal. It’s not a permanent destination, but a resting stop.” – Sue Fitzmaurice

“Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn’t you and becoming who you are.” – Rachel Naomi Remen

Numb Quotes on Love and Heartbreak

“Sometimes you don’t realize how much you care for someone until they stop caring for you.” – Laurell K. Hamilton

“The hardest thing about being broken, isn’t the love you don’t receive, it’s the love you long to give that nobody wants.” – D.M. Drake

“When your heart is broken, you plant seeds in the cracks and you pray for rain.” – Andrea Gibson

“Love is hard to find, hard to keep, and hard to forget.” – Alysha Speer

“I wish I could give you my pain just for one moment. Not to hurt you but so that you could finally understand how much you hurt me.” – Meredith Grey

“It hurts to breathe because every breath I take proves I can’t live without you.” – Unknown

“The heart was made to be broken.” – Oscar Wilde

“There is an ocean of silence between us… and I am drowning in it.” – Ranata Suzuki

“Sometimes, the only reason why you won’t let go of what’s making you sad is because it was the only thing that made you happy.” – Wolfgang Riebe

“It’s amazing how someone can break your heart and you can still love them with all the little pieces.” – Ella Harper