Be inspired and get the courage to push forward through these Grey’s Anatomy quotes!
Grey’s Anatomy is a medical TV drama that follows the life of Meredith Grey and how she grows in her profession, love life, and more. Apart from the thrill we get from following her and her friends through their residency and practice, we also get tidbits of their personal life here and there.
As viewers who follow the show through each of its seasons, we can’t help but grow along with Meredith Grey and her colleagues. After all, they all learn about life, love, pain, and more together.
Through Grey’s Anatomy, we understand how fleeting life is, how love can make us both happy and sad, and how we must grieve and move on from our losses in life. Indeed, this show is more than just about hospitals’ operating rooms or emergency rooms.
If this is one of your favorite series, these Grey’s Anatomy quotes will be right up your alley! Learn from Meredith, Cristina, Derek, and more when you read the list below.
And don’t forget to check out these Cristina Yang quotes and Meredith Grey quotes.
Best Grey’s Anatomy Quotes
1. “It turns out that sometimes, you have to do the wrong thing. Sometimes you have to make a big mistake to figure out how to make things right. Mistakes are painful, but they’re the only way to find out who we really are.” – Denny Duquette, Jr.
2. “I gotta go. You stay here. You are a gifted surgeon with an extraordinary mind. Don’t let what he wants eclipse what you need. He’s very dreamy, but he’s not the sun; you are.” – Cristina Yang
3. “Being aware of your crap and actually overcoming your crap are two very different things.” – Cristina Yang
4. “We have to learn our own lessons. We have to sweep today’s possibility under tomorrow’s rug until we can’t anymore. Until we finally understand for ourselves what Benjamin Franklin meant. That knowing is better than wondering. That waking is better than sleeping. And that even the biggest failure, even the worst, most intractable mistake, beats the hell out of never trying.” – Meredith Grey
5. “You never know if the biggest day of your life is going to be the biggest. The days you think are going to be the big ones, they are never as big as you make them out to be in your head. It’s the regular days, the ones that start out normal. Those are the days that end up being the biggest.” – Izzie Stevens
6. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that it only takes one person, one patient, one moment to change your life forever, to change your perspective, color your thinking.” – Cristina Yang
Famous Grey’s Anatomy Quotes
7. “Everybody wants their place in history. No one wants to be the astronaut that nobody remembers.” – Meredith Grey
8. “Not everyone has to be happy all the time. That isn’t mental health. That’s crap.” – Meredith Grey
9. “Sometimes it’s good to be scared. It means you still have something to lose.” – Richard Webber
10. “If you aren’t willing to keep looking for light in the darkest of places without stopping, even when it seems impossible, you will never succeed.” – Amelia Shepherd
11. “All you can do is be brave enough to get out there. You fought. You loved. You lost. Walk tall.” – Mark Sloan
12. “Each of you comes here today hopeful. Wanting in on the game. A month ago, you were in med school being taught by doctors. Today, you are the doctors. The seven years you spend here as surgical residents will be the best and worst of your life. You will be pushed to the breaking point. Look around you. Say hello to your competition. Eight of you will switch to an easier specialty. Five of you will crack under the pressure, and two of you will be asked to leave. This is your starting line. This is your arena. How well you play? That’s up to you.” – Richard Webber
Inspirational Grey’s Anatomy Quotes That You Should Live By
13. “Have some fire. Be unstoppable. Be a force of nature. Be better than anyone here, and don’t give a damn what anyone thinks. There are no teams here, no buddies. You’re on your own. Be on your own.” – Cristina Yang
14. “Don’t let fear keep you quiet. You have a voice, so use it. Speak up. Raise your hands. Shout your answers. Make yourself heard. Whatever it takes, just find your voice, and when you do, fill the damn silence.” – Meredith Grey
15. “You can have the worst crap in the world happen to you, and you can get over it. All you gotta do is survive.” – Alex Karev
16. “We lose those battles as often as we succeed. The key, though, win or lose, is to never fail. And the only way to fail is not to fight. So fight until you can’t fight anymore. Never let go. Never give up. Never run. Never surrender. Fight the good fight—you fight even when it seems inevitable you’re about to go down swinging.” – Amelia Shepherd
17. “You can build a house out of anything. Make it as strong as you want. But a home—a home is more fragile than that. A home is made of the people you fill it with. And people can be broken, sure, but any surgeon knows, what’s broken can be mended. What’s hurt can be healed. That no matter how dark it gets, the sun’s going to rise again.” – Meredith Grey
Grey’s Anatomy Quotes About Life
18. “The human life is made up of choices. Yes or no. In or out. Up or down. And then there are the choices that matter. Love or hate. To be a hero or to be a coward. To fight, not to give in. To live or die. Live or die. That’s the important choice. And it’s not always in our hands.” – Derek Shepherd
19. “Bad things happen, but you have to move past it. Leave it behind. The sooner, the better. Or it’ll eat away at you and stop you from moving forward.” – Miranda Bailey
20. “We spend our whole lives worrying about the future, planning for the future, trying to predict the future, as if figuring it out will cushion the blow. But the future is always changing. The future is the home of our deepest fears and wildest hopes. But one thing is certain when it finally reveals itself. The future is never the way we imagined it.” – Meredith Grey
21. “Just when we think we figured things out, the universe throws us a curveball. So, we have to improvise. We find happiness in unexpected places. We find ourselves back to the things that matter the most. The universe is funny that way. Sometimes it just has a way of making sure we wind up exactly where we belong.” – Meredith Grey
22. “Ask most people what they want out of life, and the answer is simple—to be happy. Maybe it’s this expectation of wanting to be happy that just keeps us from ever getting there.” – Meredith Grey
Grey’s Anatomy Quotes on Love
23. “Okay, here it is. Your choice, it’s simple: her or me. And I’m sure she’s really great. But Derek, I love you, in a really, really big ‘pretend to like your taste in music, let you eat the last piece of cheesecake, hold a radio over my head outside your window,’ unfortunate way that makes me hate you—love you. So pick me. Choose me. Love me.” – Meredith Grey
24. “Did you say it? ‘I love you.’ ‘I don’t ever want to live without you.’ ‘You changed my life.’ Did you say it? Make a plan. Set a goal. Work toward it, but every now and then, look around; Drink it in ’cause this is it. It might all be gone tomorrow.” – Meredith Grey
25. “If you love someone, you tell them. Even if you’re scared that it’s not the right thing. Even if you’re scared that it’ll cause problems. Even if you’re scared that it will burn your life to the ground, you say it, and you say it loud, and you go from there.” – Mark Sloan
26. “I think it’s important to take the time to tell the people you love how much you love them while they can hear you.” – Meredith Grey
27. “I want to marry you. I want to have kids with you. I want to build us a house. I want to settle down and grow old with you. I want to die when I’m 110 years old in your arms. I don’t want 48 uninterrupted hours. I want a lifetime.” – Derek Shepherd
Short Grey’s Anatomy Quotes
28. “You have to go back to the beginning to understand the end.” – Teddy Altman
29. “I’m a human being. I make mistakes. I’m flawed. We all are.” – Derek Shepherd
30. “It’s a beautiful day to save lives. Let’s have some fun.” – Derek Shepherd
Grey’s Anatomy Quotes to Give Insights Into Friendship
31. “She’s my person. If I murdered someone, she’s the person I’d call to help me drag the corpse across the living room floor. She’s my person.” – Cristina Yang
32. “We’re friends—real friends. And that means no matter how long it takes, when you finally decide to look back, I’ll still be here.” – Meredith Grey
33. “If there’s an upside to free-falling, it’s the chance you give your friends to catch you.” – Meredith Grey
34. “At the end of the day, the fact that we show up for each other, in spite of our differences, no matter what we believe, is reason enough to keep believing.” – Miranda Bailey
Grey’s Anatomy Quotes on Facing Change and Challenges
35. “Change. We don’t like it; we fear it. But we can’t stop it from coming. We either adapt to change or we get left behind. It hurts to grow. Anybody who tells you it doesn’t is lying. But here’s the truth. Sometimes the more things change, the more they stay the same. And sometimes, oh, sometimes, change is good. Sometimes change is everything.” – Meredith Grey
36. “The body is a slave to its impulses. But the thing that makes us human is what we can control. After the storm, after the rush, after the heat of the moment has passed, we can cool off and clean up the messes we made. We can try to let go of what was.” – Meredith Grey
37. “We don’t get unlimited chances to have the things that we want, and this I know. Nothing is worse than missing an opportunity that could have changed your life.” – Addison Montgomery
38. “You got to wonder why we cling to our expectations because the expected is just what keeps us steady. The expected’s just the beginning, the unexpected is what changes our lives.” – Meredith Grey
Wisdom-Packed Quotes From Grey’s Anatomy on Pain and Perseverance
39. “Pain comes in all forms. The small twinge, a bit of soreness, the random pain, the normal pains we live with every day. Then there is the kind of pain you can’t ignore. A level of pain so great that it blocks out everything else. Makes the rest of the world fade away. Until all we can think about is how much we hurt. How we manage our pain is up to us. We anesthetize, ride it out, embrace it, ignore it, and for some of us, the best way to manage pain is to just push through it.” – Meredith Grey
40. “It doesn’t matter how tough we are. Trauma always leaves a scar. It follows us home. It changes our lives. Trauma messes everybody up. But maybe that’s the point. All the pain and the fear and the crap. Maybe going through all that is what keeps us moving forward. It’s what pushes us. Maybe we have to get a little messed up before we can step up.” – Meredith Grey
41. “Breakthroughs don’t happen because of the medicine. Real breakthroughs happen because someone is scared to death to stop trying.” – Derek Shepherd
42. “You never think that the last time is the last time. You think there will be more. You think you have forever, but you don’t.” – Meredith Grey
Funny Grey’s Anatomy Quotes to Make You Smile
43. “Intimacy is a four-letter syllable for, ‘here’s my heart and soul, please grind them into a hamburger and enjoy.’ It’s both desired and feared. Difficult to live with, impossible to live without.” – Meredith Grey
44. “Being an adult: totally overrated. I mean, seriously, don’t be fooled by the hot shoes and great sex and no parents anywhere telling you what to do. Being an adult is a responsibility. Responsibility really does suck. Adults have to be places and do things and earn a living and pay the rent.” – Meredith Grey
45. “Should I sleep, or should I shower? I could sleep in the shower, but I’m also starving.” – Cristina Yang
What’s a Life-Changing Lesson You Got From Grey’s Anatomy?
Medical-based dramas are exciting because, apart from learning about life and love, we get more acquainted with different illnesses, medical terms, and more. Through series like Grey’s Anatomy, we better understand the ins and outs of being a medical professional.
However, though that’s great, Grey’s Anatomy is a timeless piece because of the steps it takes to make itself relevant to viewers. They do this by showing just how human each character is.
No matter how amazing the character is, they are still human. They make mistakes, have off days, are lazy, and want to quit because of all the pressure.
At the same time, as humans, they love with all their hearts and build friendships that stand the test of time. Grey’s Anatomy could relate to its audiences on a deeper level through these subtle hints of humanity.
Yes, it’s entertaining because the characters bring us into the world of medicine. Yet, more than that, each one teaches us morals in life, love, and more that we could always live by.
We hope we were able to help you build your list of your favorite Grey’s Anatomy quotes through the collection above. Keep this post in your bookmarks to easily reflect on the series’ most inspiring quotes!