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The 300 Best Quotes About Life That Will Actually Inspire You

Explore 300 of the most powerful quotes about life to find inspiration, motivation, and even some laughter as you learn about life and connect with yourself.

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For millennia, poets, speakers, authors, artists, filmmakers, and musicians have tried to capture the essence of life. From the blissful excitement of new love to the challenges of unexpected setbacks, something as simple as a quote can encapsulate profound truths about the human experience. 

Whether you’re looking for inspiration, motivation, comfort, or a good chuckle, these snippets of wisdom are perfect for jotting down in your journal or posting on social media. Here are 151 quotes about life that will make you pause and reflect. 

Do you believe that life quotes can positively impact a person’s mindset and outlook on life?

• Yes, life quotes can have a significant positive impact.
• They can be helpful, but their impact varies from person to person.
• No, I think their impact is limited.
• I’m not sure.

Best Quotes About Life

In her bestselling book, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying , palliative care nurse Bronnie Ware documents the biggest regrets of patients in the last 3 months of their lives. She found the most common themes were related to unfulfilled dreams, overworking, and wishing they’d spent more time with loved ones. 

Interestingly, these quotes from thought leaders of the past and present carry the same essence. They remind us to prioritize what matters most so we don’t regret our life’s decisions when we reach the end. 

• “Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.” —Dalai Lama
• “Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them—that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward however they like.” —Lao Tzu.
• “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” —Friedrich Nietzsche
• “Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well.” —Josh Billings
• “The best gift anyone can give, I believe, is the gift of sharing themselves.” —Oprah
• “The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.” —Oprah
• “Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.” —Harvey Fierstein

• “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” —Albert Einstein
• “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” —Maya Angelou
• “Nature loves courage. You commit, and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream, and the world will not grind you under; it will lift you. This is the trick. This is what all these teachers and philosophers who counted and touched the alchemical gold understood. This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering it’s a feather bed.” —Terrence McKenna
• “You must not ever stop being whimsical. And you must not, ever, give anyone else the responsibility for your life.” ―Mary Oliver
• “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” —Nelson Mandela
• “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” —Confucius
• “Nothing in life is to be feared, only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” —Marie Curie
• “You have succeeded in life when all you want is only what you need.” —Vernon Howard
• “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” —Henry David Thoreau
• “Beware the barrenness of a busy life.” —Socrates
• “We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” —E. M. Forster
• “Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it.” —Ernest Holmes
• “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” —Martin Luther King, Jr.
• “Throughout life, people will make you mad, disrespect you and treat you bad. Let God deal with the things they do, cause hate in your heart will consume you too.” —Will Smith
• “If life were predictable, it would cease to be life and be without flavor.” —Eleanor Roosevelt
• “Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough.” —Emily Dickinson
• “All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on.” —Havelock Ellis
• “When I hear somebody sigh, ‘Life is hard,’ I am always tempted to ask, ‘Compared to what?’” —Sydney J. Harris
• “To me, if life boils down to one thing, it’s movement. To live is to keep moving.” —Jerry Seinfeld
• “The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.” —Henry Miller
• “If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.” —Bruce Lee
• “People skills are the social lubricant of life.” —Vanessa Van Edwards

Famous Quotes About Life

Call them cliche or honor their glory. These quotes have been repeated for decades yet still hold true. 

• “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” —Walt Disney
• “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” —John Lennon
• “If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.” —Albert Einstein
• “Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.” —Babe Ruth
•  “Money and success don’t change people; they merely amplify what is already there.” —Will Smith
• “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.” —Steve Jobs
• “The whole secret of a successful life is to find out what is one’s destiny to do, and then do it.” —Henry Ford
• “Learn as if you will live forever, live like you will die tomorrow.” —Mahatma Gandhi
• “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” —Thomas Edison

• “Tell me, and I forget. Teach me, and I remember. Involve me, and I learn.” —Benjamin Franklin
• “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” —Robert Louis Stevenson
• “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined.” —Henry David Thoreau

Positive Quotes About Life

Did you know that a positive attitude links to higher wages 1 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S016748700900097X and greater happiness? Maintaining a positive outlook doesn’t require constant optimism or toxic positivity . Instead, these quotes reflect on ways to incorporate positivity into your daily life. 

• “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” —Maya Angelou 
• “The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.” —Winston Churchill
• “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” —Mahatma Gandhi
• “Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.” —Lou Holtz
• “Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to what you can create.”―Roy T. Bennett
• “You are where you are in life because of what you believe is possible for yourself.” —Oprah
• “The best of times is now.” —Oprah
• “I have found that if you love life, life will love you back.” —Arthur Rubinstein
• “You’re only here for a short visit. Don’t hurry, don’t worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.” —Walter Hagen

Motivational Quotes About Life

The secret to success isn’t linked to your IQ, background, or even the people you know. According to these quotes, some of the most successful people in history seem to agree becoming successful is more about overcoming defeats and discouragement, practicing discipline, and putting in the hard work.

• “There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.” —Aldous Huxley 
• “Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Don’t fight them. Just find a new way to stand.” —Oprah
• “When you undervalue what you do, the world will undervalue who you are.” —Oprah
• “Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” —Winston S. Churchill
• “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” —Confucius 
• “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” —Arthur Ashe 
• “Success is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get.” ―W. P. Kinsella
• “Either you run the day or the day runs you.” —Jim Rohn
•  “Don’t settle for what life gives you; make life better and build something.” —Ashton Kutcher

• Faith is risking it all on something unseen. Most people say, “I’ll believe it when I see it,” but the truth of the matter is that you’ll see it when you believe it. —David DeNotaris
• “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” —Thomas A. Edison
• “When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.” —Elon Musk
• “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” —Charles R. Swindoll
• “Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” —Lao Tzu
• “If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.” —H. G. Wells
• “Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay.” —Simone de Beauvoir
• “The only thing that’s keeping you from getting what you want is the story you keep telling yourself.” —Tony Robbins
• “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” —Steve Jobs
• “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” —Unknokwn
• “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” —Franklin D. Roosevelt
• “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” —Theodore Roosevelt
• “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” —Jimmy Dean
• “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” —Zig Ziglar
• “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” —Wayne Gretzky
• “I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” —Stephen Covey
• “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” —Henry Ford
• “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” —Alice Walker
• “The best revenge is massive success.” —Frank Sinatra
• “Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” —Steve Jobs
• “I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear.” —Rosa Parks
• “The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” —Abraham Lincoln
• “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” —C.S. Lewis
• “The mind is everything. What you think you become.” —Buddha
• “An unexamined life is not worth living.” —Socrates
• “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.” —Steve Jobs
• “The only person you should try to be better than is the person you were yesterday.” —Unknown
• “Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” —George Addair
• “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” —Albert Einstein
• “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” —George Eliot
• “I was smart enough to go through any door that opened.” —Joan Rivers
• “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.” —Eleanor Roosevelt
• “Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.” —Mother Teresa
• “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” —Amelia Earhart
• “You can never leave footprints that last if you are always walking on tiptoe.” —Leymah Gbowee
• “The question isn’t who’s going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” —Ayn Rand
• “Step out of the history that is holding you back. Step into the new story you are willing to create.” —Oprah Winfrey
• “If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.” —Dolly Parton
• “I choose to make the rest of my life the best of my life.” —Louise Hay

Motivational quotes like these can certainly help give you that extra boost you need. If you want more tools to find success, you might enjoy this free training that uses science-backed techniques to help you set the right goals.

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Deep Quotes About Life

Finding the purpose of our lives and creating your version of a successful life is a highly personalized journey. Often, it requires digging more profound than the materialism or trivial pursuits we often see portrayed in the media. These quotes can help you dive below the surface to contemplate life’s deeper truths through the perspectives of famous thought leaders. 

• “The adventure of life is to learn. The purpose of life is to grow. The nature of life is to change. The challenge of life is to overcome. The essence of life is to care. The opportunity of like is to serve. The secret of life is to dare. The spice of life is to befriend. The beauty of life is to give.” —William Arthur Ward
• “The average men consume. The wise create.” —Maxime Lagacé
• “Take time like the river that never grows stale. Keep going and steady. No hurry, no rush.” —Rumi

• “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).” —Mark Twain
• “To do two things at once is to do neither.” —Publilius Syrus
• “I’ve come to believe that each of us has a personal calling that’s as unique as a fingerprint—and that the best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, working hard, and also allowing the energy of the universe to lead you.” —Oprah
• “Battle not with monsters, lest you become one and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.” —Friedrich Nietzsche
• “Question everything. Learn something. Answer nothing.” —Euripides
• “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” —Mahatma Gandhi
• “Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.” —Viktor E. Frankl
• “True happiness… is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.” —Helen Keller
• “One’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation, and compassion.” —Simone de Beauvoir
• “Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” —Dolly Parton
• “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” —Pablo Picasso
• “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” —Maya Angelou
• “What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.” —Albert Pine
• “You were put on this earth to achieve your greatest self, to live out your purpose, and to do it courageously.” —Steve Maraboli
• “The purpose of life after all is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” —Eleanor Roosevelt

Quotes About Life and Love

Whether you’re recovering from a breakup or seeking that special someone , love is undoubtedly one of the greatest joys of life. Nonetheless, we all know how badly heartbreak and rejection can hurt . Here are some sweet, romantic, and sad quotes for love in all its forms.  

• “When you give joy to other people, you get more joy in return. You should give a good thought to happiness that you can give out.” —Eleanor Roosevelt
• “I love being married. It’s so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.” —Rita Rudner
• “The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too.” ―Ernest Hemingway
• “Love someone because their soul inspires you, not because you’re interested in the relief from loneliness and companionship they can provide. Anybody can do that. Not just anybody can show you to yourself.” ―Brianna Wiest
• “The only way love can last a lifetime is if it’s unconditional. The truth is this: love is not determined by the one being loved but rather by the one choosing to love.” —Stephen Kendrick

• “People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that’s what everyone wants, but a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that’s holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention.” —Elizabeth Gilbert
• “You deserve someone who would make you so happy that you forget that you had ever been sad; someone who would love you so much that you forget that you once wondered if you are worthy of love. You deserve someone who would make you realize that you deserve to be loved; but not just with any kind of love.” —Nica Rodriguez
• “The story of human intimacy is one of constantly allowing ourselves to see those we love most deeply in a new, more fractured light. Look hard. Risk that.” —Cheryl Strayed
• “You meet thousands of people and none of them really touch you. And then you meet one person and your life is changed… forever.” —Jake Gyllenhaal
• “I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you.” -Paulo Coelho 
• “I am nothing special; just a common man with common thoughts, and I’ve led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me, and my name will soon be forgotten. But in one respect, I have succeeded as gloriously as anyone who’s ever lived: I’ve loved another with all my heart and soul; and to me, this has always been enough.” —Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook
• “Love is not about possession, it’s all about appreciation.” —Chinese Proverb 
• “To love at all is to be vulnerable.” —C.S. Lewis 
• “There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.” —Friedrich Nietzsche 
• “The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.” —Audrey Hepburn 
• “Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.” —Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 
• “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.” —Nat King Cole 
• “Love is not a matter of counting the years, but making the years count.” —Michelle St. Amand 
• “The best proof of love is trust.” —Joyce Brothers 
• “We are most alive when we’re in love.” —John Updike 
• “Love is something eternal; the aspect may change, but not the essence.” —Vincent Van Gogh 
• “A loving heart is the truest wisdom.” —Charles Dickens 
• “Love is like the wind, you can’t see it but you can feel it.” —Nicholas Sparks 
• “The heart has its reasons which reason knows not.” —Blaise Pascal 
• “Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit.” —Peter Ustinov 
• “Love is when you meet someone who tells you something new about yourself.” —Andre Breton 
• “In love, one and one are one.” —Jean-Paul Sartre 
• “Love is the expansion of two natures in such fashion that each includes the other, each is enriched by the other.” —Felix Adler 
• “Love is not about how much you say ‘I love you,’ but how much you prove that it’s true.” —Unknown
• “Love is an untamed force. When we try to control it, it destroys us. When we try to imprison it, it enslaves us. When we try to understand it, it leaves us feeling lost and confused.” —Paulo Coelho
• “Perhaps we are in this world to search for love, find it and lose it, again and again. With each love, we are reborn, and with each love that ends, we gather a new wound. I am covered with proud scars.” —Isabel Allende
• “There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.” —Washington Irving
• “The heart is the toughest part of the body. Tenderness is in the hands.” —Carolyn Forché
• “To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow – this is a human offering that can border on miraculous.” —Elizabeth Gilbert
• “A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge.” —Thomas Carlyle
• “Intimacy is the capacity to be rather weird with someone – and finding that that’s ok with them.” —Alain de Botton

Melancholy Quotes About Life

These quotes can help you feel a little less alone in life’s darkest moments. 

• “We must understand that sadness is an ocean, and sometimes we drown, while other days we are forced to swim.” ―R.M. Drake
• “Tears are words that need to be written.” ―Paulo Coelho
• “Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not, and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.” ―Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

• “The walls we build around us to keep sadness out also keep out the joy.” —Jim Rohn
• “Behind every sweet smile, there is a bitter sadness that no one can ever see and feel.” —Tupac Shakur
• “Every human walks around with a certain kind of sadness. They may not wear it on their sleeves, but it’s there if you look deep.” —Taraji P. Henson
• “The good times of today are the sad thoughts of tomorrow.” —Bob Marley
• “It’s sad when someone you know becomes someone you knew.” —Henry Rollins
• “I have learned now that while those who speak about one’s miseries usually hurt, those who keep silence hurt more.” ―S. Lewis
• “Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.” —Rumi
• “Sometimes, life will kick you around, but sooner or later, you realize you’re not just a survivor. You’re a warrior, and you’re stronger than anything life throws your way.” —Brooke Davis
• “The night is the hardest time to be alive and 4 am knows all my secrets.” —Poppy Z. Brite
• “Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.” —Seneca
• “Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it.” —J.K. Rowling
• “The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.” —Isaac Asimov
• “The heart was made to be broken.” —Oscar Wilde
• “There is a certain strength in being alone.” —Heather Duffy Stone
• “Sometimes you laugh because you’ve got no more room for crying.” —Terry Pratchett
• “Melancholy is the happiness of being sad.” —Victor Hugo
• “The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.” —Kahlil Gibran
• “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” —Khalil Gibran
• “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” —Haruki Murakami
• “Heavy hearts, like heavy clouds in the sky, are best relieved by the letting of a little water.” —Christopher Morley
• “Sometimes our light goes out, but is blown again into instant flame by an encounter with another human being.” —Albert Schweitzer
• “One thing you can’t hide — is when you’re crippled inside.” —John Lennon
• “It is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.” —Alfred Lord Tennyson
• “The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.” —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• “In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” —Albert Camus

Spiritual Quotes About Life

Whether you prefer meditation , religion, or personal development , spirituality brings meaning and hope to the human experience. These quotes from spiritual leaders remind us of ways we can become better people and forge connections with something greater than ourselves. 

• “Awakening is not changing who you are, but discarding who you are not.” —Deepak Chopra
• “It does not matter how long you are spending on the earth, how much money you have gathered, or how much attention you have received. It is the amount of positive vibration you have radiated in life that matters.” —Amit Ray
• “Let what comes come. Let what goes go. Find out what remains.” —Ramana Maharshi
• “Spirituality is recognizing and celebrating that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us and that our connection to that power and to one another is grounded in love and compassion. Practicing spirituality brings a sense of perspective, meaning, and purpose to our lives.” —Brené Brown
• “Nature has given us all the pieces required to achieve exceptional wellness and health, but has left it to us to put these pieces together.” —Diane McLaren
• “When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.” —Paulo Coelho
• “You don’t know about real loss because it only occurs when you’ve loved something more than you love yourself. I doubt you’ve ever dared to love anybody that much.” —Robin Williams
• “The key to finding happiness in this life is realizing that the only way to overcome is to transcend; to find happiness in the simple pleasures, to master the art of just being.”― Brianna Wiest

• “When will you begin that long journey into yourself?” —Rumi
• “You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean, in a drop.” —Rumi
• “The soul always knows what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind.” —Caroline Myss
• “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” —Socrates
• “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” —Buddha
• “Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.” —Buddha
• “The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” —Carl Jung
• “You have within you more love than you could ever understand.” —Rumi
• “To understand everything is to forgive everything.” —Buddha
• “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” —Rumi
• “The only journey is the one within.” —Rainer Maria Rilke
• “He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.” —Lao Tzu
• “The real spiritual progress of the aspirant is measured by the extent to which he achieves inner tranquility.” —Swami Sivananda
• “Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn, or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.” —Denis Waitley
• “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” —Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
• “Everything that is made beautiful and fair and lovely is made for the eye of one who sees.” —Rumi
• “The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.” —Joseph Campbell
• “In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.” —Deepak Chopra
• “What you seek is seeking you.” —Rumi
• “Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.” —Dalai Lama

Funny Quotes About Life

We’ve all heard how laughter is medicine. Research shows that, even through trauma or tragedy, people who can find humor in their lives have better mental health outcomes and coping mechanisms than those who don’t. The quotes will hit your funny bone and a joyful twist to life lessons .

• “Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.” —Jack Handey
• Before you marry a person, you should first make them use a computer with slow Internet to see who they really are.”—Will Ferrell
• “Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.” —Charlie Chaplin
• “Never follow anyone else’s path. Unless you’re in the woods and you’re lost and you see a path. Then, by all means, follow that path.”—Ellen DeGeneres
• “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.” —Dolly Parton
• “I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.” — Lily Tomlin
• “I find television very educational. Every time someone turns it on, I go in the other room and read a book.” —Groucho Marx
• “All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.” —Mark Twain
• “I’m writing a book. I’ve got the page numbers done.” —Steven Wright
• “I intend to live forever. So far, so good.” —Steven Wright
• “My therapist says I have a preoccupation with vengeance. We’ll see about that.” —Stewart Francis
• “I used to think I was indecisive, but now I’m not too sure.” —Unknown
• “Doing nothing is hard, you never know when you’re done.” —Unknown
• “I am an early bird and a night owl… so I am wise and I have worms.” —Michael Scott, The Office

• “If at first you don’t succeed, then skydiving definitely isn’t for you.” —Steven Wright
• “I have a lot of growing up to do. I realized that the other day inside my fort.” —Zach Galifianakis
• “If you think nobody cares if you’re alive, try missing a couple of car payments.” —Earl Wilson
• “Life is like a sewer… what you get out of it depends on what you put into it.” —Tom Lehrer
• “The only mystery in life is why the kamikaze pilots wore helmets.” —Al McGuire
• “Age is of no importance unless you’re a cheese.” —Billie Burke
• “I don’t believe in astrology; I’m a Sagittarius and we’re skeptical.” —Arthur C. Clarke
• “My ability to remember song lyrics from the ’80s far exceeds my ability to remember why I walked into the kitchen.” —Unknown
• “The best way to teach your kids about taxes is by eating 30 percent of their ice cream.” —Bill Murray

Cute Quotes About Life

Sometimes, you just need a little pick-me-up to jot down on a Post-it note and stick on your mirror. You can also use these cute quotes for greeting cards, social media posts, or wall art. 

• “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” —George Bernard Shaw
• “Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.” —Winnie the Pooh
•  “If you live to be a hundred, I hope I live to be a hundred minus one day so that I never have to live a day without you.” —Winnie the Pooh
• “People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie the Pooh
• “Life is a ride. Strap in, hang on, and keep your eyes open.” —Michael J. Fox
• “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” —Dr. Seuss

• “You’re off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, So… get on your way!” ―Dr. Seuss
• “If ‘Plan A’ didn’t work, the alphabet has 25 more letters!” —Unknown
• “You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching. Love like you’ll never be hurt. Sing like there’s nobody listening. And live like it’s heaven on earth.” —William W. Purkey 
• “Here is a test to find out whether your mission in life is complete. If you’re alive, it isn’t.” —Richard Bach
• “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about dancing in the rain.” —Vivian Greene
• “Life is like an ice cream. Enjoy it before it melts.” —Unknown
• “If you love someone, let them go. If they come back with coffee it was meant to be.” —Unknown 

Movie Quotes About Life

Screenwriters have brought forth some profound reflections on life expressed through the voices of actors and actresses. These excerpts from the famous movie characters are sure to make you ponder. 

• “Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” — Forrest Gump
• “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.” — The Godfather Part II
• “Great men are not born great, they grow great.” —Mario Puzo, The Godfather
• “Just because someone stumbles and loses their path doesn’t mean they’re lost forever.” —Professor X, X-Men
• “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” — Ferris Bueller
• “Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.” — Dead Poets Society
• “Just keep swimming” — Finding Nemo
• “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” —Gone With the Wind
• “My mother always used to say: The older you get, the better you get, unless you’re a banana.” —Rose (Betty White), The Golden Girls
• “Why should I kill myself worrying when I’ll end up just as dead?” — The Bicycle Thieves

• “Any fool can be happy. It takes a man with real heart to make beauty out of the stuff that makes us weep.” —Clive Barker, Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War
• “Do, or do not. There is no ‘try’.” —Yoda, Star Wars
• “A wise man can learn more from his enemies than a fool from his friends.” —Niki Lauda, Rush
• “Every man dies, but not every man really lives.” —William Wallace, Braveheart  
• “Nobody is gonna hit as hard as life, but it ain’t how hard you can hit. It’s how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. It’s how much you can take, and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done.” —Rocky Balboa, Rocky
• “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” – Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption
• “There is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.” – Samwise Gamgee, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
• “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” – Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
• “After a while, you learn to ignore the names people call you and just trust who you are.” – Shrek, Shrek
• “Why do we fall, sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.” – Alfred, Batman Begins
• “No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.” – John Keating, Dead Poets Society
• “You mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.” – Eames, Inception
• “Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” – Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” – Chief Brody, Jaws
• “With great power comes great responsibility.” – Uncle Ben, Spider-Man
• “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” – Edmund Burke (quoted in The Boondock Saints )

Disney Quotes About Life

Walt Disney is famous for its classic films that have captivated hearts for nearly a century. While their movies were initially aimed at children, they still pack a philosophical punch in these quotes about life. 

• “Even miracles take a little time.” —Fairy Godmother, Cinderella
• “The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all.” —The Emperor, Mulan
• “Venture outside your comfort zone. The rewards are worth it.” — Rapunzel
• “The very things that hold you down are going to lift you up.” —Timothy Mouse, The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• “The things that make me different are the things that make me.” —Piglet, Winnie the Pooh
• “You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” — Winnie the Pooh
• “If you don’t know where you want to go, then it doesn’t matter which path you take.” —The Cheshire Cat, Alice in Wonderland
• “Oh yes, the past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it.” —Rafiki, The Lion King
• “Remember you’re the one who can fill the world with sunshine.” — Snow White
• “To infinity and beyond!” – Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story
• “Remember, you’re the one who can fill the world with sunshine.” – Snow White, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
• “All it takes is faith, trust, and a little bit of pixie dust.” – Peter Pan, Peter Pan
• “Today is a good day to try.” – Quasimodo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• “Always let your conscience be your guide.” – Jiminy Cricket, Pinocchio
• “If you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true.” – Cinderella, Cinderella
• “A true hero isn’t measured by the size of his strength, but by the strength of his heart.” – Zeus, Hercules
• “Sometimes the right path is not the easiest one.” – Grandmother Willow, Pocahontas
• “Our fate lives within us; you only have to be brave enough to see it.” – Merida, Brave
• “You control your destiny — you don’t need magic to do it. And there are no magical shortcuts to solving your problems.” – Merida, Brave
• “When you find out who you are, you find out what you need.” – Mama Odie, The Princess and the Frog
• “The only thing predictable about life is its unpredictability.” – Remy, Ratatouille
• “You must not let anyone define your limits because of where you come from. Your only limit is your soul.” – Gusteau, Ratatouille
• “Admit defeat, and defeat will surely admit you into permanent custody.” – Beret Girl, An Extremely Goofy Movie
• “The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem.” – Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean
• “Life’s not a spectator sport. If watchin’ is all you’re gonna do, then you’re gonna watch your life go by without ya.” – Laverne, The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• “Believe in yourself and there will come a day when others will have no choice but to believe with you.” – Mufasa, The Lion King
• “The most important thing a girl wears is her confidence.” – Cinderella, Cinderella

How to Use Life Quotes for Daily Inspiration 

You can use these quotes about life as snippets of inspiration to keep you going through life’s peaks and valleys. Here are a few ways to incorporate quotes into your daily routine: 

• Daily Reminders: Jot down a quote on a sticky note and put it on your mirror or in your car where you can see it daily. 
• Wall Art: Print out your favorite quotes or use a design service like Canva to create attractive posters for decorating your home. 
• Social Media: Paste a quote into your story on Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok to inspire people with a thought for the day. You can also use inspirational quotes in photo captions (tag the author if they have an account!)
• Thoughtful Messages: An inspirational quote is the perfect morning motivational text to your partner or a comforting message to your friend who is going through a tough time. You can always add something like “saw this and thought of you.” 
• Meeting Starter: A life or work quote is a great way to start work meetings on a positive note. Add them to the slideshow’s beginning or write on a whiteboard to help inspire your team. 
• Positive Affirmations: Don’t forget to speak the quotes aloud. Let the words roll around in your mouth. Taste their essence and feel their power. After all, words are things. They become our thoughts, which become our beliefs, which become our actions. 

If you’re looking for more ways to incorporate positive affirmations and daily inspiration into your life, here are 120 Positive Daily Affirmations for Happiness (w/ Science!)

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150 Life Quotes: Hope, Inspiration, & Positivity

Life is an intricate mix of experiences and emotions — a journey that constantly evolves and surprises us. 

It’s filled with challenges that test our resilience, moments that take our breath away, and opportunities that push us toward growth. 

Philosophers, writers, and thinkers throughout history have tried to capture the essence of this journey. Their quotes about life shed light on the complexities, joys, and inevitable struggles we all face — providing wisdom that can guide us, comfort us, or simply make us think.

In this article, we’ve curated a selection of life quotes that reflect the human experience. Whether you’re seeking guidance, inspiration, or a moment of reflection — may these quotes remind you of the shared human condition.

The Best Quotes About Life

Famous life quotes.

“Life is very short and what we have to do must be done in the now.” — Audre Lorde

“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” — Marie Curie

“What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others.” — Nelson Mandela

“Life is like a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” — Albert Einstein

“No matter what happens in life, be good to people. Being good to people is a wonderful legacy to leave behind.” — Taylor Swift

“When I hear somebody sigh, ‘Life is hard,’ I am always tempted to ask, ‘Compared to what?’” — Sydney J. Harris

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” — John Lennon

“For the great doesn’t happen through impulse alone, and is a succession of little things that are brought together.” — Vincent van Gogh

“Your vocation in life is where your greatest joy meets the world’s greatest need.” — Frederick Buechner

“Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough.” — Emily Dickinson

“Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.” — Dalai Lama

“Life is in ourselves and not in the external.” — Fyodor Dostoevsky

“Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay.” — Simone de Beauvoir

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” — George Bernard Shaw

“You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.” — Oprah Winfrey

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” — Confucius

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” — Anaïs Nin

“The good life is inspired by love and guided by knowledge.” — Bertrand Russell

“Life has got all those twists and turns. You’ve got to hold on tight and off you go.” — Nicole Kidman

Positive Quotes

“I believe we are here on the planet Earth to live, grow up and do what we can to make this world a better place for all people to enjoy freedom.” — Rosa Parks

“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible.’” — Audrey Hepburn 

“Live life to the fullest, and focus on the positive.” — Matt Cameron

“I don’t think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains.” — Anne Frank

“Keep your face always toward the sunshine and shadows will fall behind you.” — Walt Whitman

“My purpose: to lift your spirit and to motivate you.” — Mavis Staples

“Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.” — Willie Nelson

“There’s always something we can do. Whatever you did, your life is still meaningful.” — Bryan Stevenson

“Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.” — Ashley Smith

“Today is life-the only life you are sure of. Make the most of today. Get interested in something. Shake yourself awake. Develop a hobby. Let the winds of enthusiasm sweep through you. Live today with gusto.” — Dale Carnegie

“Positive anything is better than negative nothing.” — Elbert Hubbard

“You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.” — Stephen King

“If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.” — Dolly Parton

“Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you’ll start to see a big difference in your life.” — Yoko Ono

Deep Quotes

“Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.” — Ruth Bader Ginsburg

“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.” — Chief Seattle

“Lead from the heart, not the head.” — Diana, Princess of Wales

“It’s your outlook on life that counts. If you take yourself lightly and don’t take yourself too seriously, pretty soon you can find the humor in our everyday lives. And sometimes it can be a lifesaver.” — Betty White

“You will encounter misguided people from time to time. That’s part of life. The challenge is to educate them when you can, but always to keep your dignity and self-respect and persevere in your personal growth and development.” — Bernice King

“One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn’t pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.” — Lucille Ball

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” — George Bernard Shaw

“Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.” — Albert Camus

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” — Soren Kierkegaard

“Maybe that’s what life is… a wink of the eye and winking stars.” — Jack Kerouac

“Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it.” — Ernest Holmes

“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

“You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world's problems at once but don't ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.” — Michelle Obama

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them — that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” — Lao Tzu

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” — Winston Churchill

“I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I have lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.” — Diane Ackerman

“Let life happen to you. Believe me: life is in the right, always.” — Rainer Maria Rilke

“The events in our lives happen in a sequence in time, but in their significance to ourselves they find their own order the continuous thread of revelation.” — Eudora Welty

“Life is a tide; float on it. Go down with it and go up with it, but be detached. Then it is not difficult.” — Prem Rawat

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” — Alice Walker

“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” — George Bernard Shaw

“Don’t let life discourage you; everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was.” — Richard L. Evans

“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.” — Henry David Thoreau

“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and, above all, confidence in ourselves. We must believe we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.” — Marie Curie

“We do not remember days, we remember moments.” — Cesare Pavese

“Love life. Engage in it. Give it all you’ve got. Love it with a passion because life truly does give back, many times over, what you put into it.” — Maya Angelou

On a Happy Life

“Don’t waste a minute not being happy. If one window closes, run to the next window — or break down a door.” — Brooke Shields

“The most important thing is to enjoy your life — to be happy — it’s all that matters.” — Audrey Hepburn

“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. It is far better take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.” — Carl Jung

“Folks are usually about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” — Abraham Lincoln

“The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

“Happiness is holding someone in your arms and knowing you hold the whole world.” — Orhan Parnuk

“The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts.” — Marcus Aurelius

“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” — Marcel Proust

“Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.” — Omar Khayyam

Funny Quotes

“You know the trouble with real life? There’s no danger music.” — Jim Carrey

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” — Bernard Baruch

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” — Mae West

“It is often said that before you die your life passes before your eyes. It is in fact true. It’s called living.” — Terry Pratchett

“If my life wasn’t funny, it would just be true, and that’s unacceptable.” — Carrie Fisher

“Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome.” — Isaac Asimov

“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” — A. A. Milne

“If I’d have done all the things I was supposed to have done, I’d be really tired.” — Willie Nelson

“Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.” — Elbert Hubbard

“Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope.” — Dr. Seuss

“Don’t waste so much time thinking about how much you weigh. There is no more mind-numbing, boring, idiotic, self-destructive diversion from the fun of living.” — Meryl Streep

“Life would be tragic if it weren’t funny.” — Stephen Hawking

“Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” — Forrest Gump

“I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.” — Lily Tomlin

“Life is like an onion; you peel off a layer at a time and sometimes you weep.” — Carl Sandburg

“I’d like to live like a poor man — only with lots of money.” — Pablo Picasso

“The hardest years in life are those between ten and seventy.” — Helen Hayes

“Love is being stupid together.” — Paul Valery

“To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone.” — Reba McEntire

Life is Too Short

“Life is too short to work so hard.” — Vivien Leigh

“Don’t ever doubt yourselves or waste a second of your life. It’s too short, and you’re too special.” — Ariana Grande

“Life is too short to worry about anything. You had better enjoy it because the next day promises nothing.” — Eric Davis

“That’s the funny thing about life. We’re rarely aware of the bullets we dodge. The just-misses. The almost-never-happeneds. We spend so much time worrying about how the future is going to play out and not nearly enough time admiring the precious perfection of the present.” — Lauren Miller

“Be patient and understanding. Life is too short to be vengeful or malicious.” — Phillips Brooks

“Life is too short not to enjoy it.” — Glen Campbell

“It’s only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth — and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up, we will then begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had.” — Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

“Everyone should be able to express themselves in the way that best suits them — life is too short to spend it unhappy.” — Jinkx Monsoon

Love Quotes

“The greatest pleasure of life is love.” — Euripides

“Believing you are unworthy of love and belonging — that who you are authentically is a sin or is wrong — is deadly. Who you are is beautiful and amazing.” — Laverne Cox

“The heart has its reasons, of which reason knows nothing.” — Blaise Pascal

“We’re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness — and call it love — true love.” — Robert Fulghum

“So long as the memory of certain beloved friends lives in my heart, I shall say that life is good.” — Helen Keller

“To live is like to love — all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct for it.” — Samuel Butler

“It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them.” — Agatha Christie

“To love one another just may be the fight of our lives.” — Amanda Gorman

“Love can change a person the way a parent can change a baby — awkwardly, and often with a great deal of mess.” — Lemony Snicket

“Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.” — Bertrand Russell

“The story of life is quicker than the blink of an eye, the story of love is hello, goodbye.” — Jimi Hendrix

Short Quotes

“Live a life full of humility, gratitude, intellectual curiosity, and never stop learning.” — GZA

“A dead end is just a good place to turn around.” — Naomi Judd

“All of us have to be committed to a life beyond our own aspirations.” — Bernice King

“Remember when life’s path is steep to keep your mind even.” — Horace

“Do one thing every day that scares you.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

“Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.” — John W. Gardner

“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” — Soren Kierkegaard

“The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere.” — Anne Morrow Lindbergh

“To me, if life boils down to one thing, it’s movement. To live is to keep moving.” — Jerry Seinfeld

“You cannot find peace by avoiding life.” — Virginia Woolf

“The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.” — E. E. Cummings

“The world is what it is. But the world is also what you bring to it, and who you share it with.” — John Green

“Mistakes are part of the dues that one pays for a full life.” — Sophia Loren

“Open your eyes, look within. Are you satisfied with the life you’re living?” — Bob Marley

“‎Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.” — Voltaire

“Success is falling nine times and getting up ten.” — Jon Bon Jovi

“To know nothing is the happiest life.” — Desiderius Erasmus

“One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure.” — William Feather

“Life itself is the proper binge.” — Julia Child

“No one changes the world alone and no one doesn’t change it at all. We are all exceptional, and none of us are.” — Hank Green

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” — Thomas A. Edison

“There is no way to be perfect and no fun in being perfect.” — Alicia Keys

“Life is a work in progress.” — Jeff Rich

“You can’t achieve anything in life without a small amount of sacrifice.” — Shakira

“A little credulity helps one on through life very smoothly.” — Elizabeth Gaskell

“People are like music. Some speak the truth, and others are just noise.” — Bill Murray

“I am an artist… I am here to live out loud.” — Emile Zola

“A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it is not open.” — Frank Zappa

“Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.” — Jack London

“We can’t plan life. All we can do is be available for it.” — Lauryn Hill

“Everything has been figured out, except how to live.” — Jean-Paul Sartre

“The whole point is to live life and be — to use all the colors in the crayon box.” — RuPaul

→ Read more short quotes

Advice on Life

“Here’s my advice: Study broadly and without fear. Learn a language if you can, because that will make your life more interesting. Read a little bit every day. But more importantly, surround yourself with people who you like and make cool stuff with them. In the end, what you do isn’t going to be nearly as interesting or important as who you do it with.” — John Green

“Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.” — Groucho Marx

“My only advice is to stay aware, listen carefully, and yell for help if you need it.” — Judy Blume

“Life is so fresh, life is every day so new if we are fighting, only for the best. Sometimes I think the only real satisfaction in life is failure, failure in your endeavor to do your best.” — Maude Adams

“The truth is you don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow. Life is a crazy ride, and nothing is guaranteed.” — Eminem

“Figure out who are you separate from your family, and the man or woman you’re in a relationship with. Find who you are in this world and what you need to feel good alone. I think that’s the most important thing in life. Find a sense of self. With that, you can do anything else.” — Angelina Jolie

“My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can.” — Cary Grant

“I have a simple philosophy: Fill what’s empty. Empty what’s full. Scratch where it itches.” — Alice Roosevelt Longworth

“I used to think that the worst thing in life was to end up alone. It’s not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel alone.” — Robin Williams

More Life Quotes & Captions

“Life is a series of collisions with the future; it is not the sum of what we have been, but what we yearn to be.” — Jose Ortega y Gasset

“Ah, how mysteriously the everyday things of life brush by us! On the surface, touched by light, of this complex human life, Time, a hesitant smile, blooms on the lips of the Mystery! How modern all this sounds, yet deep down it is so ancient, so hidden, so different from the meaning that shines out from all of this.” — Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

“Children — and adults — who have a growth mindset are much more successful than those who have a fixed mindset about themselves and the world.” — Jane Goodall , The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times

“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” — Winston Churchill

“If you live long enough, you’ll make mistakes. But if you learn from them, you’ll be a better person. It’s how you handle adversity, not how it affects you. The main thing is never quit, never quit, never quit. ” — Bill Clinton

“I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back.” — Maya Angelou

“When life hands you a difficult situation where you feel undervalued and disrespected, be bold and brave enough to know your worth.” — Yai Vargas

“Life ought to be a struggle of desire toward adventures whose nobility will fertilize the soul.” — Rebecca West

“The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?” — Edgar Allan Poe

“Empathy begins with understanding life from another person’s perspective. Nobody has an objective experience of reality. It’s all through our own individual prisms.” — Sterling K. Brown

“When you have balance in your life, work becomes an entirely different experience. There is a passion that moves you to a whole new level of fulfillment and gratitude, and that’s when you can do your best… for yourself and for others.” — Cara Delevingne

“Throughout life people will make you mad, disrespect you and treat you bad. Let God deal with the things they do, cause hate in your heart will consume you too.” — Will Smith

“The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us, and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.” — George Eliot

“We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” — E. M. Forster

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152 Life Quotes to Bring Inspiration and Positivity to Your Day

Refocus and recharge with these short, deep and powerful sayings.

With all of its ups and downs, the journey of life is one that is not easily summed up in words. But luckily for you, our list of inspirational life quotes is filled with powerful sayings and musings from famous people from all walks of life who have found a way to whittle down the unique lived experiences that make us who we are into a few sentences and phrases.

On this list you will find beautiful and short quotes that reflect on the things that mean most in life, including sayings about family and incredible messages about friendships . You’ll also find deep and even sometimes sad quotes that will help you to put life into perspective. Happy quotes that will encourage you to find the beauty in life's most mundane moments are also included. Whether you’re looking for positive quotes to inspire you to move forward, quotes that give you peace or wise words that will help you navigate a significant life change or transition, we have it all spelled out right here.

So, go ahead and dive right into these notable quotes about life. You may even uncover your next Monday motivation or self-care mantra .

"Life comes from the earth and life returns to the earth."

William Osler

"We are here to add what we can to life, not to get what we can from life."

William Hazlitt

"The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure very much."

"If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."

Vincent Van Gogh

"For the great doesn't happen through impulse alone, and is a succession of little things that are brought together."

Vince Lombardi

"Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection we can catch excellence."

Vernon Howard

"You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need."

Theodore Roosevelt

"Believe you can and you're halfway there."

"To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man's life."

Sydney J. Harris

"When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard,' I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?'"

Stephen Jay Gould

"We pass through this world but once."

Stephen Covey

"Live out of your imagination, not your history."

Søren Kierkegaard

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."

"Life is a song - sing it. Life is a game - play it. Life is a challenge - meet it. Life is a dream - realize it. Life is a sacrifice - offer it. Life is love - enjoy."

Roy T. Bennett

"Accept yourself, love yourself, and keep moving forward. If you want to fly, you have to give up what weighs you down."

Roy. T. Bennett

"Don't waste your time in anger, regrets, worries, and grudges. Life is too short to be unhappy."

Rose Kennedy

"Life isn't a matter of milestones, but of moments."

Robert Louis Stevenson

"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant."

Robert Frost

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on."

Rick Riordan

"If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself."

Caroline is a writer and editor with almost a decade of experience. From 2015 to 2019, she held various editorial positions at Good Housekeeping , including as health editor, covering nutrition, fitness, wellness, and other lifestyle news. She's a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism and dreams of the day Northwestern will go back to the Rose Bowl.  

Cameron (she/her) is a staff writer for Good Housekeeping , where she covers everything from holidays to food. She is a graduate of Syracuse University, where she received a B.A. in magazine journalism. In her spare-time she can be found scrolling TikTok for the latest cleaning hacks and restaurant openings, binge-watching seasons of Project Runway or online shopping.

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Home › Life Quotes

Life Quotes and Sayings

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Are you living a good life? These meaningful life quotes will give you perspective on your life so you can make it a good one.

Life is all around us and life itself has always been an important topic to humanity. From philosophers and poets to musicians and religious leaders, life is a fascinating thing.

We’ve all heard sayings like “life’s not fair” and “that’s life,” but living and being alive are more special than that. After all, life’s too short not to enjoy it!

Challenges in life present us with questions, and blessings give us times to reflect. So whichever you’re feeling now, enjoy these deep life quotes and sayings and live your best life today.

Page Contents

Top 10 Life Quotes

Life is a lively process of becoming. Gen. Douglas MacArthur

Life has no limitations, except the ones you make. Les Brown

Life is not an exact science, it is an art. Samuel Butler

You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind. Joyce Meyer

Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. Neale Donald Walsch

There is just one life for each of us: our own. Euripides

If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor. Eleanor Roosevelt

In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on. Robert Frost

Short Life Quotes

I am all for the short and merry life. Edward Fitzgerald

Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet. Sarah Louise Delany

While there’s life, there’s hope. Marcus Tullius Cicero

True life is lived when tiny changes occur. Leo Tolstoy

Life is a long lesson in humility. James M. Barrie

The shortness of life, so often lamented, may be the best thing about it. Arthur Schopenhauer

Life is not a dress rehearsal. Rose Tremain

Life should be great rather than long. B.R. Ambedkar

Life is trying things to see if they work. Ray Bradbury

Keep looking up… that’s the secret of life. Charlie Brown

Life would be tragic if it weren’t funny. Stephen Hawking

The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The greatest pleasure of life is love. Euripides

Life’s too mysterious to take too serious. Mary Engelbreit

Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued. Socrates

It is not length of life, but depth of life. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life is too important to be taken seriously. Oscar Wilde

Quotes about Life

You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough. Mae West

Life is a game and true love is a trophy. Rufus Wainwright

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain. Vivian Greene

Life is like a coin. You can spend it any way you wish, but you only spend it once. Lillian Dickson

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. Mahatma Gandhi

Life is about how much you can take and keep fighting, how much you can suffer and keep moving forward. Anderson Silva

Life isn’t about finding yourself . Life is about creating yourself. George Bernard Shaw

Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it. Ernest Holmes

Life is a succession of moments, to live each one is to succeed. Corita Kent

Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood. Ralph Waldo Emerson

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. Winston Churchill

Life is a journey that must be traveled no matter how bad the roads and accommodations. Oliver Goldsmith

The most important thing is to enjoy your life – to be happy – it’s all that matters. Audrey Hepburn

The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself. Thales

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. Helen Keller

We can’t plan life. All we can do is be available for it. Lauryn Hill

Life was always a matter of waiting for the right moment to act. Paolo Coelho

A happy life is one spent in learning, earning, and yearning. Lilian Gish

Don’t settle for what life gives you; make life better and build something. Ashton Kutcher

I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine. Neil Armstrong

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life. Omar Khayyam

Three things in life – your health, your mission, and the people you love. Naval Ravikant

Don’t go through life, grow through life. Eric Butterworth

The greatest mistake you can make in life is continually fearing that you’ll make one. Elbert Hubbard

Good Quotes on Living Life

The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do. Walter Bagehot

Do not let making a living prevent you from making a life. John Wooden

The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. Bertrand Russell

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Steve Jobs

Most people have never learned that one of the main aims in life is to enjoy it. Samuel Butler

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all. Oscar Wilde

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well. Jack London

Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people. Leo Burnett

What is important in life is life, and not the result of life. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Life is a great big canvas; throw all the paint you can at it. Danny Kaye

Life is like a dogsled team. If you ain’t the lead dog, the scenery never changes. Lewis Grizzard

You get in life what you have the courage to ask for. Oprah Winfrey

Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it. Charles Swindoll

Life leaps like a geyser for those who drill through the rock of inertia. Alexis Carrel

Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose. Tennessee Williams

It’s better to be a lion for a day than a sheep all your life. Elizabeth Kenny

The true currency of life is time, not money, and we’ve all got a limited stock of that. Robert Harris

Good health and good sense are two of life’s greatest blessings. Publilius Syrus

The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination. Carl Rogers

Beautiful Words on Life

The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes. Frank Lloyd Wright

Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale. Hans Christian Andersen

The healthiest response to life is joy. Deepak Chopra

Love the life you live. Live the life you love. Bob Marley

Life is never easy for those who dream. Robert Waller

Life is a lot like jazz… it’s best when you improvise. George Gershwin

Lighten up, just enjoy life, smile more, laugh more, and don’t get so worked up about things. Kenneth Branagh

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. Albert Einstein

Life is like the ocean, it goes up and down. Vannessa Paradis

When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around. Willie Nelson

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking. Marcus Aurelius

The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate. Oprah Winfrey

Life is a flower of which love is the honey. Victor Hugo

Life isn’t a matter of milestones, but of moments. Rose Kennedy

I have found that if you love life, life will love you back. Arthur Rubinstein

Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen. Mark Twain

God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well. Voltaire

Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact. William James

Thoughts on Life

An aim in life is the only fortune worth finding. Robert Louis Stevenson

In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. Abraham Lincoln

If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much. Jim Rohn

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how. Friedrich Nietzsche

If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things. Albert Einstein

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined. Henry David Thoreau

In order to write about life first you must live it. Ernest Hemingway

Life all comes down to a few moments. This is one of them. Charlie Sheen, Wall Street

The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference. Elie Wiesel

Life isn’t as serious as the mind makes it out to be. Eckhart Tolle

All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on. Havelock Ellis

Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises. Samuel Butler

Execute every act of thy life as though it were thy last. Marcus Aurelius

Life is like a wheel. Sooner or later, it always come around to where you started again. Stephen King

Life consists in what a man is thinking of all day. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom. Arthur Schopenhauer

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming ‘Wow! What a Ride!’ Hunter S. Thompson

In between goals is a thing called life, that has to be lived and enjoyed. Sid Caesar

Look at the sparrows; they do not know what they will do in the next moment. Let us literally live from moment to moment. Mahatma Gandhi

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. E.M. Forster

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of. Benjamin Franklin

Not how long, but how well you have lived is the main thing. Seneca

If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of. Bruce Lee

Life imposes things on you that you can’t control, but you still have the choice of how you’re going to live through this. Celine Dion

Unique Perspectives on Life

Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans. John Lennon

You only pass through this life once, you don’t come back for an encore. Elvis Presley

Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not. Oscar Wilde

A man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life. James Allen

Cease trying to work everything out with your minds. It will get you nowhere. Live by intuition and inspiration and let your whole life be Revelation. Eileen Caddy

Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced. Søren Kierkegaard

Face your life, its pain , its pleasure, leave no path untaken. Neil Gaiman

Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor. Sholom Aleichem

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. Søren Kierkegaard

The big lesson in life, baby, is never be scared of anyone or anything. Frank Sinatra

The hardest thing in life to learn is which bridge to cross and which to burn. David Russell

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage. Anais Nin

Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be. Grandma Moses

The chief danger in life is that you may take too many precautions. Alfred Adler

Life is a series of commas, not periods. Matthew McConaughey

The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are. Joseph Campbell

Just when I think I have learned the way to live, life changes. Hugh Prathner

Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late. Benjamin Franklin

Purpose of Life Quotes

The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. Mark Twain

The purpose of life is to believe, to hope, and to strive. Indira Gandhi

Life doesn’t require that we be the best, only that we try our best. H. Jackson Brown Jr.

A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives. Jackie Robinson

The whole secret of a successful life is to find out what is one’s destiny to do, and then do it. Henry Ford

The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit. Nelson Henderson

Life has no meaning unless one lives it with a will, at least to the limit of one’s will. Paul Gauguin

The first half of life is devoted to forming a healthy ego, the second half is going inward and letting go of it. Carl Jung

People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive. Joseph Campbell

If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself. Rick Riordan

Don’t live the same year 75 times and call it a life. Robin Sharma

Life does not owe you anything because life has already given you everything. Ralph Marston

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me’. Erma Bombeck

We are here to add what we can to life, not to get what we can from life. William Osler

You can never have enough power . If my life has a meaning – that’s the meaning. Christopher Walken, Batman Returns

The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well. Horace Walpole

Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself. John Dewey

The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others. Albert Schweitzer

Life is a question and how we live it is our answer. Gary Keller

The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made. Groucho Marx

Sayings about Life

Life is the art of drawing without an eraser. John W. Gardner

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. Confucius

We design our lives through the power of choices. Richard Bach

Life is about making an impact, not making an income. Kevin Kruse

There are three constants in life… change , choice and principles. Stephen Covey

Life is 10 percent what you make it, and 90 percent how you take it. Irving Berlin

Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears. Les Brown

Life is like a landscape. You live in the midst of it but can describe it only from the vantage point of distance. Charles Lindbergh

The trick in life is learning how to deal with it. Helen Mirren

Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life. Eleanor Roosevelt

Every man dies. Not every man really lives. William Wallace

Life will always be to a large extent what we ourselves make it. Samuel Smiles

I would rather die a meaningful death than to live a meaningless life. Corazon Aquino

Life’s for the living, so live it – or you’re better off dead. Passenger, Life’s for the Living

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. Dolly Parton

Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life. Dolly Parton

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving. Albert Einstein

If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm, you’ll never enjoy the sunshine. Morris West

Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify. Henry David Thoreau

In every life, we have some trouble, but when you worry you make it double. Bobby McFerrin

Life is pain. Anyone who says otherwise is selling something. William Goldman

Let life happen to you. Believe me: life is in the right, always. Rainer Maria Rilke

Begin at once to live and count each day as a separate life. Seneca

Life is half spent before we know what it is. George Herbert

Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get. Tom Hanks, Forrest Gump

The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That’s the day we truly grow up. John C. Maxwell

Life is like riding a bicycle: you don’t fall off unless you stop pedaling. Claude Pepper

Life is a perplexing and wonderful experience. Hopefully, these sayings about life gave you a newfound appreciation for your life and everything in it.

We only get one life so it pays to make the most of it, even if we have a few bumps along the way. A little reflection on our lives and how we’re living them is a great way to expand our understanding and enjoyment.

It’s never too late to find ways to live life to the fullest and make your experiences better. So get out there and start living bigger today!

Quincy Seale

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77 Deep Quotes About Life From Mankind’s Greatest Minds And Personalities

Read these deep quotes about life that make you think to get a better understanding of your world..

From love to leadership to philosophy to achieving your ambitions, read and contemplate these deep quotes about life from some of the most prolific thinkers, authors, and innovators in human history:

Thank you to Goodreads , Brainy Quote , and us for the some of the powerful, deep quotes above. And if you enjoyed these fantastic quotes about life, check out All That Is Interesting's other posts on inspirational quotes and Bruce Lee quotes that will change your outlook on life ! Then, check out some of history's most interesting quotes .

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180 inspirational quotes to motivate you every morning

The path to success isn't always smooth.

When you come across inevitable bumps in the road, it's easy to lose sight of your destination. Luckily, you're far from the first person to experience those tough moments in which you struggle to see a clear path forward.

From poets to presidents, every successful person has endured their share of challenges, and many of these luminaries continue to inspire others to persevere during the toughest of times.

Whether you need a few words of affirmation, a boost to keep going, or a nudge to cherish the little things in life, these quotes from great leaders, thinkers, and artists will uplift you on your journey.

Here is a list of inspirational quotes that serve as powerful reminders to keep on keeping on.

Best inspiring quotes

• “Be the best of whatever you are.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
• “Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” — A. A. Milne
• “I don’t like to gamble, but if there’s one thing I’m willing to bet on, it’s myself.” — Beyoncé
• “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”— Walt Disney
• “Do anything, but let it produce joy.” — Henry Miller
• “A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong it is until it’s in hot water.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt

• “We need to take risks. We need to go broke. We need to prove them wrong, simply by not giving up.” — Awkwafina
• “Be courageous. Challenge orthodoxy. Stand up for what you believe in. When you are in your rocking chair talking to your grandchildren many years from now, be sure you have a good story to tell.” — Amal Clooney
• “It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent.” — Madeleine Albright
• “Stay close to anything that makes you glad you are alive.” — Hafez
• “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” ― Unknown
• “The soul is stronger than its surroundings.” — William James

• “I really think a champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall.” — Serena Williams
• “Your worth consists in what you are, and not in what you have. What you are will show in what you do.” —Thomas Davidson
• “How wild it was, to let it be.” — Cheryl Strayed, “Wild”
• “You have to be where you are to get where you need to go.” ― Amy Poehler, “Yes Please”
• “Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.” ― Ella Fitzgerald
• “Forever is composed of nows.” — Emily Dickinson

• “So many things are possible just as long as you don’t know they’re impossible.” — Norton Juster, “The Phantom Tollbooth”
• “You define your own life. Don’t let other people write your script.” — Oprah Winfrey
• “It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.” — Paulo Coehlo
• “I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow; but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.” ― Agatha Christie
• “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” ― Albert Einstein
• “To bring about change, you must not be afraid to take the first step. We will fail when we fail to try.” — Rosa Parks

• “All serious daring starts from within.” — Eudora Welty
• “You do not find the happy life. You make it.” — Camilla Eyring Kimball
• “With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
• “The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” ― Michael Altshuler
• “If you own this story you get to write the ending.” — Brené Brown
• “With each passing day, I didn’t lose hope. I fought to have more.” — Amy Tan

Inspiring quotes about change

• “One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world.” — Malala Yousafzai
• “We need not wait to see what others do.” — Mahatma Gandhi
• “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.” ― Unknown
• “They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” ― Andy Warhol, “The Philosophy of Andy Warhol”
• “I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed.” — Booker T Washington
• “I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.” ― Angela Y. Davis

• “Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Don’t fight them. Just find a new way to stand.” ― Oprah Winfrey
• “Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.” — Ruth Bader Ginsburg
• “One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.” — André Gide
• “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” — Barack Obama
• “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” — Maya Angelou
• “One must be something to do something.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

• “It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.” ― Lewis Carroll, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”
• “For me, becoming isn’t about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self. The journey doesn’t end.” — Michelle Obama
• “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” ― Unknown
• “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” — Steve Jobs
• “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt
• “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” — Maya Angelou

• “It’s not about standing still and becoming safe. If anybody wants to keep creating they have to be about change.” ― Miles Davis
• “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” — Franklin Delano Roosevelt
• “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” ― Alan Wilson Watts
• “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.” ― Helen Keller
• “I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.” — Rosa Parks
• “In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or step back into safety.” — Abraham Maslow

• ​​“To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.” ― Henri Bergson
• “No matter who you are, no matter what you did, no matter where you’ve come from, you can always change, become a better version of yourself.” — Madonna
• “We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” — Walt Disney.
• “You never change your life until you step out of your comfort zone; change begins at the end of your comfort zone.” ― Roy T. Bennett
• “Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.” ― Unknown
• “Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it and to work for it and to fight for it.” — Barack Obama

• “We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.” — Joseph Campbell
• “If you don’t know what your passion is, realize that one reason for your existence on earth is to find it.” — Oprah Winfrey
• “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” ― Margaret Mead
• “Optimism is essential to achievement and it is also the foundation of courage and true progress.” — Nicholas Murray Butler
• “Bravery is acknowledging your fear and doing it anyway.” — Cheryl Strayed
• “There is only one road to human greatness: through the school of hard knocks.” — Albert Einstein
• “The future depends entirely on what each of us does every day. After all, a movement is only people moving.” — Gloria Steinem

• “Running water never grows stale. So you just have to keep on flowing.” — Bruce Lee
• “The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” ― Unknown
• “I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship.” — Louisa May Alcott, “Little Women”
• “Things are always different than what they might be. If you wait for them to change, you will never do anything.” — Henry James
• “Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.” — Arnold Bennett
• “I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy.” — Marie Curie

Inspiring quotes about ambition

• “Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.” ― Mark Twain
• “High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.” — Charles Kettering
• “I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious effort.” — Henry David Thoreau
• “It requires a better type of mind to seek out and to support or to create the new than to follow the worn paths of accepted success.” — John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
• “All dreams are within reach. All you have to do is keep moving towards them.” — Viola Davis
• “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” ― Robert Louis Stevenson

• “If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself.” ― Rick Riordan, “The Lightning Thief”
• “I want to be in the arena. I want to be brave with my life. And when we make the choice to dare greatly, we sign up to get our asses kicked. We can choose courage or we can choose comfort, but we can’t have both. Not at the same time.” — Brené Brown, “Rising Strong”
• “One day in retrospect the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.” — Sigmund Freud
• “Everyone who’s ever taken a shower has an idea. It’s the person who gets out of the shower, dries off and does something about it who makes a difference.” — Nolan Bushnell
• “I believe that if you’ll just stand up and go, life will open up for you. Something just motivates you to keep moving.” — Tina Turner
• “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” ― Neil Gaiman, “Coraline”

• “I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.” — Esteé Lauder
• “If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” — Booker T. Washington
• “Every morning you have two choices: continue to sleep with your dreams or wake up and chase them.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger
• “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.” — Muhammad Ali
• “The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics, whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were, and ask why not.” — John F. Kennedy
• “Action is the foundational key to all success.” — Pablo Picasso

• “You must find the place inside yourself where nothing is impossible.” ― Deepak Chopra
• “If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.” — Dolly Parton
• “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible!’” ― Audrey Hepburn
• “We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.” — Ray Bradbury
• “Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.” — Maya Angelou
• “Always work hard and have fun in what you do because I think that’s when you’re more successful. You have to choose to do it.” — Simone Biles

• “I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” — Henry David Thoreau
• “Once you face your fear, nothing is ever as hard as you think.” — Olivia Newton-John 
• “Everyone’s dream can come true if you just stick to it and work hard.” — Serena Williams
• “Thinking always ahead, thinking always of trying to do more, brings a state of mind in which nothing is impossible.” — Henry Ford
• “If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it — then I can achieve it.” ― Muhammad Ali, “The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life’s Journey”
• “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us. And the world will live as one.” ― John Lennon

• “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” ― Thomas Edison
• “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” — Walt Disney
• “If something stands between you and your success, move it.” —Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
• I scorched the earth with my talent and I let my light shine.” — André Leon Talley
• “When you have a dream, you’ve got to grab it and never let go.” — Carol Burnett
• “Every twist and turn in life is an opportunity to learn something new about yourself, your interests, your talents, and how to set and then achieve goals.” — Jameela Jamil

• “I have been seriously afraid at times but have used my fear as a stimulating factor rather than allowing it to paralyse me. My abilities have not been outstanding, but I have had sufficient strength and determination to meet my challenges and have usually managed to succeed with them.” — Sir Edmund Hillary
• “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” — Unknown
• “All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination.” ― Earl Nightingale
• “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” — Zig Ziglar
• “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• “People respond well to those that are sure of what they want.” — Anna Wintour

• “Believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well-worn path and that will make all the difference.” — Steve Jobs
• “Dreams do not come true just because you dream them. It’s hard work that makes things happen. It’s hard work that creates change.” — Shonda Rhimes
• “Fear is an illusion. You think something is standing in your way, but nothing is really there. What is there is an opportunity to do your best and gain some success.” — Michael Jordan
• “The aim of life is self-development. To realize one’s nature perfectly — that is what each of us is here for.” — Oscar Wilde
• “I have to live in the richest, deepest, most productive way I can.” — Oliver Sacks
• “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition aspired, and success achieved.” — Helen Keller

Inspirational quotes about life and love

• “For the secret of human existence lies not only in living but in knowing what to live for.”— Fyodor Dostoevsky
• You change the world by being yourself.” ― Yoko Ono
• “You can only become accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you.” — Maya Angelou
• “The purpose of life is a life of purpose.” — Robert Byrne
• “When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.” — George Washington Carver
• “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” — William Shakespeare, “All’s Well That Ends Well”

• “Keep your face always toward the sunshine — and shadows will fall behind you.”―Unknown
• “There are two types of people: The ones who give you 50 reasons it can’t be done ... and the ones who just do it.”― Hoda Kotb
• “True nobility is being superior to your former self.” ― W.L. Sheldon
• “I’ve learned it’s important not to limit yourself. You can do whatever you really love to do, no matter what it is.” — Ryan Gosling
• “Let us make our future now, and let us make our dreams tomorrow’s reality.” — Malala Yousafzai
• “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” ― Dale Carnegie

• “Difficulties increase the nearer we come to our aim.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” — Unknown
• “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” —​ Maya Angelou
• “You must do the things you think you cannot do.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
• “No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.” ― Robin Williams, “Dead Poets Society”
• “A #2 pencil and a dream can take you anywhere.” — Joyce Meyer

• “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” — Anne Frank
• “Just believe in yourself. Even if you don’t, pretend that you do and, at some point, you will.” — Venus Williams
• “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” ― Unknown
• “You only live once. You don’t want your tombstone to read: played it safe.” ― Rosario Dawson
• “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”― Martin Luther King, Jr.
• “There is no failure except failure to serve one’s purpose.” — Henry Ford

• “Turn your wounds into wisdom.”― Oprah Winfrey
• "Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
• “Even if we don’t have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there.” — Stephen Chbosky
• “None but ourselves can free our minds.”― Bob Marley, "Redemption Song"
• “One person can make a difference, and everyone should try.” ― John F. Kennedy
• “I’d rather regret the risks that didn’t work out than the chances I didn’t take at all.” — Simone Biles

• “If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.” ― Barack Obama
• “There is always light. If only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.” — Amanda Gorman
• “The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.” — Arthur C. Clarke
• “I had to make my own living and my own opportunity. But I made it! Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them.” ― Madam C.J. Walker
• “A strong and wise people will study its own failures no less than its triumphs, for there is wisdom to be learned from the study of both, of the mistake as well as of the success.” — Theodore Roosevelt
• “Perfect is boring. Human is beautiful.” — Tyra Banks

• “Life is very interesting … In the end, some of your greatest pains become your greatest strengths.” — Drew Barrymore
• “It’s the choice. You have to wake up every day and say, 'There’s no reason today can’t be the best day of my life.’” — Blake Lively
• “Life is tough my darling, but so are you.” — ​Stephanie Bennett Henry
• “Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined.” — Toni Morrison, “Beloved”
• “Passion first and everything will fall into place.” — Holly Holm
• “Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?” — L.M. Montgomery

• “Do not ignore your intuition. There is an infinite intelligence within you; let it be your guiding light.” — Cleo Wade, “Heart Talk: Poetic Wisdom for a Better Life”
• “May you always be the one / Who notices the little things / That make the light pour through / And may they always remind you/ There is more to life and there is more to you.” — Morgan Harper Nichols
• “I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.” — Abraham Lincoln
• “To me, fearless doesn’t mean you’re completely unafraid, and it doesn’t mean that you’re bulletproof. It means that you have a lot of fears, but you jump anyway.” — Taylor Swift
• “As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.” — Carl Jung
• “One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth the doing, is what we do for others.” — Lewis Carroll

• “There isn’t time—so brief is life—for bickerings, apologies, heartburnings, callings to account. There is only time for loving—and but an instant, so to speak, for that.” — Mark Twain
• “There’s love enough in this world for everybody, if people will just look.” — Kurt Vonnegut, “Cat’s Cradle”
• “Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all, confidence in ourselves.” — Marie Curie
• “Life shrinks or expands according to one’s courage.” — Anaïs Nin
• “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” — J. R. R. Tolkien

• “Let us think only of the good days that are to come.” — Agatha Christie
• “I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life — and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.” — Georgia O’Keeffe
• “Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough.” — Emily Dickinson
• “I have learned not to worry about love; but to honor its coming with all my heart.” — Alice Walker
• “Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.” — Henry James

Even more inspiring quotes

• Best short quotes of all time
• Quotes that celebrate women's strength
• Success quotes that'll motivate you to keep going

Annalise Anderson is an NBC Page and a contributing writer for TODAY.com. She has covered news, life and the arts for various publications. When she’s not writing, she enjoys getting outdoors, visiting art museums and exploring New York City’s restaurants.

Sarah Fielding , MS, is an acclaimed journalist focusing on mental health, gender rights, and social issues. She's also the co-founder of  Empire Coven , a space for highlighting trailblazing women across New York. She has written for The Washington Post, The New York Times, Insider, Verywell, The Guardian and more. 

Associate Lifestyle Reporter

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77 Life Lessons Quotes (To Learn And Grow)

By Maxime Lagacé

Maxime is the founder of WisdomQuotes. He has been collecting quotes since 2004. His goal? To help you develop a calm and peaceful mind. Learn more about him on his about page .

Me in 2004:

• Didn’t know who I was
• More peaceful than ever

Yet, my life is not perfect.

But I’ve learned many life lessons.

What’s the goal of this page?

To share my own life lessons and many more from the best minds that ever lived.

I made mistakes.

But you don’t have to do them.

Life taught me love is risky. Death taught me to love even more. Maxime Lagacé

Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner. Lao Tzu

The biggest lesson I learned this year is to not force anything; conversations, friendships, relationships, attention, love. Anything forced is just not worth fighting for, whatever flows flows, what crashes crashes. Amanda Rose

My whole teaching consists of two words, meditation and love. Meditate so that you can feel immense silence, and love so that your life can become a song, a dance, a celebration. Osho

My greatest life lesson has been that life can change in a second . This is why it’s important to always live your best possible life and to do what you can for others. Niki Taylor

You’re never wrong if you love and help people. Maxime Lagacé

The Universe is one great kindergarten for man. Everything that exists has brought with it its own peculiar lesson. Orison Swett Marden

I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow. Maya Angelou

You can build your own things that other people can use. And once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again. Steve Jobs

Don’t wait for a Guru. Your life is your Guru. Krishna Das

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. Albert Einstein

It’s never too late to reinvent yourself. Marc Russell Scarioni

When you want something in life, you just gotta reach out and grab it. Christopher McCandless ( Into The Wild movie )

Our crisis is no longer material; it’s existential, it’s spiritual . We have so much fucking stuff and so many opportunities that we don’t even know what to give a fuck about anymore. Mark Manson

Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule. Charles Dickens

Try to accomplish things you have always dreamt of while you can. I know it sounds cliche, but the biggest lesson I have learned is that life is precious; enjoy it while it lasts. Lisa Ling

The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that hurt people hurt people, and kindness is just as contagious. So if you can focus your efforts on engineering kindness, it will prevail. Whitney Wolfe Herd

The biggest lesson I learned from my dad is to support children even if they’re doing something that is unorthodox. Tony Hawk

Learning to appreciate those things that aren’t related to success has proved the biggest lesson. Chet Faker

Life’s too mysterious to take too serious. Mary Engelbreit

• 73 Life Is Short Quotes To Help You Live To The Fullest
• 83 Simplicity Quotes For More Simplicity In Your Life
• 79 Positive Quotes To Uplift Yourself

The biggest lesson we have to give our children is truth. Goldie Hawn

You learn more in 1 hour of doing than 10 hours of listening. Maxime Lagacé

My biggest lesson in becoming a woman is to really love what I’ve been given. Lyndsy Fonseca

When you share your story and become vulnerable, the ripple effect and the people that you can help along the way is a life lesson. Sophie Gregoire Trudeau

I have no projects on the horizon. I don’t feel frustrated. It’s a great life lesson for me. Christine Taylor

It’s not a loss, it’s a lesson . Unknown

Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood. Helen Keller

To live a good life: We have the potential for it. If we can learn to be indifferent to what makes no difference. Marcus Aurelius

Patience is a virtue, and I’m learning patience. It’s a tough lesson. Elon Musk

In every success story, you will find someone who has made a courageous decision. Peter F. Drucker

There’s beauty in pain, and everyone experiences it – and it’s a lesson. Wynter Gordon

Your life improves once you realizes no one cares . Dan Go ( Source )

I am what I am. I don’t worry about anything that I can’t control. That’s a really good lesson in life. Tom Watson

Education has failed in a very serious way to convey the most important lesson science can teach: skepticism. David Suzuki

Related : 30 life lessons I learned before turning 30 (nesslabs.com)

The one thing that I keep learning over and over again is that I don’t know nothing. I mean, that’s my life lesson. Dwayne Johnson

The one lesson I have learned is that there is no substitute for paying attention. Diane Sawyer

Happiness is fleeting – I think that’s the main lesson I have learned. Cate Blanchett

The only game worth playing is the one where you take nothing for granted. Maxime Lagacé

I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig . You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it. George Bernard Shaw

Success is a process that continues, not a status that you reach. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned. Denis Waitley

The chief danger in life is that you may take too many precautions. Alfred Adler

He has not learned the first lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear. John Dryden

The only beautiful path is the one you create. Maxime Lagacé

If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all possibility of life is destroyed. Christopher McCandless (Into The Wild movie)

A lesson learned from suffering is not easily forgotten. Unknown

The biggest lesson is to keep going and almost never look back . Maxime Lagacé

If there’s a single lesson that life teaches us, it’s that wishing doesn’t make it so. Lev Grossman

Most of life is about searching, it’s not about doing. People spend too much time doing and not thinking about what they should be doing. Naval Ravikant

We are addicted to our thoughts. We cannot change anything if we cannot change our thinking. Santosh Kalwar

Time heals almost everything. Give time time. Regina Brett

Nothing you do is going to matter that much in the long run. Don’t take yourself so seriously. Naval Ravikant

A fear-oriented man is always calculating, planning, arranging, safeguarding. His whole life is lost in this way. Osho (Rajneesh) (wikipedia.org)

Everyone has a lesson to teach you. Lex Fridman

A man’s most urgent necessity is neither happiness or money. It is wisdom. For it is wisdom that he will need to navigate the turbulent waters of his day to day existence without succumbing to the ocean of turmoils or to the empty road of prescriptions. Kapil Gupta

Do what is right, not what is easy nor what is popular . Roy T. Bennett

Hard lessons are hard to forget. Let hardship be a source of knowledge, not bitterness. Wisdom is hard-won. The Stoic Emperor ( Source )

Timeless : Science, math, philosophy, rhetoric, first principles, creating art and business, family and lifelong friends, habits to calm mind and body. Temporary : Politics, news, entertainment, memorizing facts, hourly work, transactional relationships, drugs and doctors for mind and body. Naval Ravikant

Doubt is wisdom. People are dangerous when they are certain that their cause is just and their facts are right. Paulo Coelho

Life is a long lesson in humility. James M. Barrie

The big lesson in life is never be scared of anyone or anything. Unknown

The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which bridge to burn. David Russell

A little foolishness, enough to enjoy life, and a little wisdom to avoid the errors, that will do . Osho

Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment. Rita Mae Brown

People tend to complicate their own lives, as if living weren’t already complicated enough. Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Acquiring wisdom is a moral duty as well as a practical one. Shane Parrish

One of my biggest lessons in life is, we heal at the speed of our forgiveness. Romany Malco

Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed. Alexander Pope

Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to what you can create. Roy T. Bennett

Life changes for the better when we realize that we don’t have to know everything and we don’t have to pretend that we do. Simon Sinek

All you have to do is pay attention: lessons always arrive when you are ready . Paulo Coelho

You can’t find peace if you expect life to be easy. Maxime Lagacé

When it hurts – observe. Life is trying to teach you something. Anita Krizzan

Biggest lesson in life: don’t ever think it can’t happen to you. Aaron Will ( Source )

Some thoughts on life lessons…

Unpopular opinion:

we should be grateful for hard times

Because this is the exact moment we can reflect, learn, struggle, and eventually grow in life.

When things are easy, we keep going without changing anything.

Now, when things are going bad, it’s the perfect time to adjust and change something.

Back in 2004, I lost my girlfriend in a car accident.

Fortunately, a few years later, I can say it was probably the thing I needed to become who I am today.

I became stronger, more grounded, more resilient, more respectful, less cocky, and less entitled.

It’s because times were hard that I had the opportunity to learn and become a more humble human being.

Further Readings

• Topic: Life
• 100 Short Quotes That Will Inspire You (Fast)
• 57 Life Goes On Quotes That Will Move You
• 71 Life Is Precious Quotes (Enjoy It Now)
• 75 Words of Wisdom From The Best Minds (Ever)
• 91 Of The Best Stoic Quotes (For A Better Life)
• 115 Philosophy Quotes From The Best Philosophers
• 89 Time Quotes (Profound, Important, Inspiring)
• 155 Freedom Quotes To Inspire Liberty And Independence
• 100 Decision Quotes For Better Decision Making (And Life)
• 73 Life Tips To Live Your Best Life
• 21 Life-Changing Questions To Ask Yourself Today

Hope you enjoyed these beautiful life lessons quotes. If you did, please share them with a friend today!

Which life lesson did YOU learn? What’s your favorite life lesson quote? And remember: words can transform your life, if you find the right ones.

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157 Short Quotes & Sayings to Inspire Your Life

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“And still, I rise.”

Short, yet very powerful, this quote is from Maya Angelou, one of the most iconic authors and activists of all time. In fact, many of the influential quotes you will find online (and even offline) are from Angelou.

Quotes aren’t just a bunch of words combined together to impress. They come from people who have succeeded in life, or worked their way through remarkable experiences.

Short quotes are no different from the lengthy ones. They possess the same level of profundity and enlightenment, and in some ways their brevity makes them even more powerful, as they are easier to remember.

In this article, we share with you 157 of the best short quotes of all time . We have quotes about happiness and love, sayings about life and struggles, messages about relationships, and a lot more. These quotes can literally change the way you look at life.

Let’s start with some inspirational, short quotes about life.

Table of Contents

Short Inspirational Quotes About Life

• “Only a life lived for others is a life lived worthwhile.” – Albert Einstein
• “There is more to life than increasing its speed.” – Mahatma Gandhi
• “Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.” – Amelia Burr
• “We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” – Joseph Campbell
• “Life is a process. We are a process. The universe is a process.” – Anne Wilson Schaef
• “I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” – Jimmy Dean
• “The good life is inspired by love and guided by knowledge.” – Bertrand Russell
• “Breathe. It’s just a bad day, not a bad life.” – Johnny Depp

• “Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.” – James Dean
• “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius
• “I don’t need it to be easy, I need it to be worth it.” – Lil Wayne
• “Life becomes easier when you learn to accept the apology you never got.” – R. Brault
• “Broken crayons still color.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “Leave no stone unturned.” – Euripides
• “It is more fitting for a man to laugh at life than to lament over it.” – Seneca
• “Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the face.” – Helen Keller
• “Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” – Marthe Troly-Curtin
• “My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can.” – Cary Grant

My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can.” – Cary Grant

• “Maybe that's what life is, a wink of the eye and winking stars.” – Jack Kerouac
• “Living is the art of getting used to what we didn’t expect.” – Eleanor C. Wood
• “Growth is the only evidence of life.” – John Henry Newman
• “The middle is messy, but it is also where the magic happens.” – Brené Brown
• “We can't plan life. All we can do is be available for it.” – Lauryn Hill
• “The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.” – Oprah Winfrey
• “Life is a lot like jazz … it's best when you improvise.” – George Gershwin
• “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” – Mae West
• “I have a simple philosophy: Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. Scratch where it itches.” – Alice Roosevelt-Longworth

Life can be tough, but it is not impossible. It may cause you stress and worries , yet at the same time it will always be a wonderful experience.

We hope that these quotes will help you stay motivated to be strong and keep getting stronger. You are destined for a meaningful life.

Next, we have a set of short quotes about love.

Short Quotes About Love

• “If you judge people you have no time to love them.” – Mother Teresa
• “One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love.” – Sophocles
• “Love is great when you find someone to give it to.” – Unknown
• “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
• “Where there is love there is life.” – Mahatma Gandhi
• “'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson
• “Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit.” – Peter Ustinov
• “The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved.” – Victor Hugo
• “Hate comes from intimidation, love comes from appreciation.” – Tyga
• “Love will find a way through paths where wolves fear to prey.” – Lord Byron

• “Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.” – Zora Neale Hurston
• “Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit.” – Khalil Gibran
• “Love’s greatest gift is its ability to make everything it touches sacred.” – Barbara de Angelis
• “You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.” – Buddha
• “True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations: it is seen with white hairs and is always young in the heart.” — Honore de Balzac
• “Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupery
• “To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow—this is a human offering that can border on miraculous.” — Elizabeth Gilbert
• “Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.” — Socrates

Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.” — Socrates

• “The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.” — Victor Hugo
• “You know you're in love when you don't want to fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” — Dr. Seuss
• “A heart worth loving is one you understand, even in silence.” ― Shannon Alder
• “Don't ever think I fell for you, or fell over you. I didn't fall in love; I rose in it.” — Toni Morrison
• “Loving yourself isn’t vanity. It’s sanity.” – Katrina Mayer
• “Better to have lost and loved than never to have loved at all.” – Ernest Hemingway
• “Love is when he gives you a piece of your soul, that you never knew was missing.” — Torquato Tasso
• “Love is of all passions the strongest, for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart, and the senses.” — Lao Tzu

The Beatles didn’t sing “All You Need is Love” for nothing. They wanted to teach people that love can make the world go round, and that everything is possible if we just learn how to love ourselves and others.

Our third set of quotes is for those whose motto in life is to “never say never.” Strive and work hard, and you’ll be surprised at how victory can come to you easily.

Short Success Quotes

• “Nothing will work unless you do.” – Maya Angelou
• “The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones that do.” – Steve Jobs
• “Success is dependent upon the glands – sweat glands.” – Zig Ziglar
• “I never dreamed about success, I worked for it.” – Estee Lauder
• “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela
• “If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.” – Steve Jobs
• “Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.” – Bill Bradley
• “Die with memories, not dreams.” – Unknown
• “The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same.” – Colin R. Davis
• “Victory is sweetest when you've known defeat.” – Malcolm S. Forbes

• “Whatever you do, do it well.” – Walt Disney
• “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
• “Tough times never last but tough people do.” – Robert H. Schuller
• “Whatever you do, do with all your might.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero
• “Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” – Samuel Beckett
• “Success is not the absence of failure; it’s the persistence through failure.” – Aisha Tyler
• “Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” – Alexander Graham Bell
• “Our best successes often come after our greatest disappointments.” – Henry Ward Beecher

Our best successes often come after our greatest disappointments.” – Henry Ward Beecher

• “Action is the foundational key to all success.” – Pablo Picasso
• “Impossible is for the unwilling.” – John Keats
• “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” – Babe Ruth
• “Success comes when people act together; failure tends to happen alone.” – Deepak Chopra
• “The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” – Bruce Lee
• “Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John R. Wooden
• “Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
• “Growth begins when we start to accept our own weakness.” – Jean Vanier

Success is so much sweeter when you’ve worked hard to arrive at it. With the proper combination of grit , resilience , and introspection , there is no reason for failure.

Use these motivational quotes about success to reach your highest potential . Keep pushing—otherwise, you will never know what waits for you at the finish.

Next, we have a list of simple, short happiness quotes that can change the way you perceive life and all it has to offer.

Short Quotes About Happiness

• “If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.” – Katherine Hepburn
• “Learn to let go. That is the key to happiness.” – Buddha
• “There is only one happiness in life—to love and to be loved.” – George Sand
• “Happy he who learns to bear what he cannot change.” – Friedrich Schiller
• “Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.” – Dalai Lama
• “Be happy. It’s one way of being wise.” – Colette
• “Happy people plan actions, they don’t plan results.” – Dennis Waitley
• “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” – Ludwig Jacobowski
• “A happy soul is the best shield for a cruel world.” – Atticus
• “No medicine cures what happiness cannot.” – Gabriel García Márquez

• “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” – Mahatma Gandhi
• “Let your tears water the seeds of your future happiness.” – Steve Maraboli
• “To fall in love with yourself is the first secret to happiness.” – Robert Morley
• “Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn't know you left open.” – John Barrymore
• “You do not find the happy life. You make it.” – Camilla Erying Kimball
• “Stay close to anything that makes you glad you are alive.” – Hafez
• “Tension is who you think you should be, relaxation is who you are.” – Chinese Proverb
• “It’s a helluva start, being able to recognize what makes you happy.” – Lucille Ball
• “Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.” – Oscar Wilde
• “Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.” – Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.” – Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

• “I’d far rather be happy than right any day.” – Douglas Adams
• “Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.” – Albert Schweitzer
• “The first recipe for happiness is: avoid too lengthy meditation on the past.” – Andre Maurois
• “If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.” – Andrew Carnegie
• “Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” – Buddha
• “There's nothing like deep breaths after laughing that hard. Nothing in the world like a sore stomach for the right reasons.” – Stephen Chbosky

Happiness is a feeling of satisfaction and contentment . It does not come from getting the things you want; rather, it comes from being focused on the journey and content with what you have.

It may be a challenge to find happiness at times, but the best things always take work. Focus on the good, let things flow and fall into their places, and you’ll eventually discover where happiness lies.

Moving on to our fifth set, we have quotes about finding meaning in life. What is your purpose? How do you determine what you are destined to do?

Quotes About Finding the Meaning of Life

• “No one has ever become poor by giving.” – Anne Frank
• “Be a lover of the world, it is the only way to survive in it.” – Janosch
• “Embrace the glorious mess that you are.” – Elizabeth Gilbert
• “Sometimes, the simple things are more fun and meaningful than all the banquets in the world.” – E.A. Bucchianeri
• “Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.” – Benjamin Spock
• “Realize that if a door closed, it’s because what was behind it wasn’t meant for you.” – Mandy Hale
• “The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself.” – Maya Angelou
• “The secret to life is meaningless unless you discover it yourself.” – W. Somerset Maugham
• “You discarded most of the lies along the way but held on to the one that said life mattered.” – Stephen King
• “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” – George Bernard Shaw

• “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” – George Eliot
• “Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it.” – Buddha
• “It’s not enough to have lived. We should be determined to live for something.” – Winston S. Churchill
• “He who has a why to live for can bear almost anyhow.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
• “Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement.” – W. Clement Stone
• “The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.” – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• “Finding meaning in your life is not a difficult thing, but it is harder than living a numb, fast-paced superficial life.” – Juanita Gomez
• “You are not one type, nor belong to one category. You are a unique blend of personality needs. Live your needs for total fulfillment.” – Diana Detinger
• “Life is without meaning. You bring meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.” – Joseph Campbell
• “Whatever we are, whatever we make of ourselves, is all we will ever have – and that, in its profound simplicity, is the meaning of life.” – Philip Appleman
• “Life takes on meaning when you become motivated, set goals and charge after them in an unstoppable manner.” – Les Brown

Life takes on meaning when you become motivated, set goals and charge after them in an unstoppable manner.” – Les Brown

• “Everything in life is most fundamentally a gift. And you receive it best and you live it best by holding it with very open hands.” – Leo O’Donovan
• “The meaning of life is not only to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger
• “If you don’t follow your heart, you might spend the rest of your life wishing you had.” – Brigitte Nicole
• “You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” – Anonymous
•  “Keep your eyes in the stars and your feet on the ground.” – Theodore Roosevelt

Many people are taken aback when they are asked about their purpose in life. If you are one of these people and you do not know what to do with your life , it’s time to take action.

There are a lot of things to be passionate about , and there are so many ways to discover your real purpose.

No, it won’t be easy. In fact, you may need to exert a great deal of effort to find that purpose. But once you do find it, happiness and life satisfaction shall follow.

Last but definitely not least, we share with you relationship quotes that can help you keep your relationships with other people brimming with love and sincerity.

Relationship Quotes

• “Treasure your relationships, not your possessions.” – Anthony J. D'Angelo
• “They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” – Carl W. Buechner
• “If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships – the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
• “Don't smother each other. No one can grow in the shade.” – Leo Buscaglia
• “The most important ingredient we put into any relationship is not what we say or what we do, but what we are.” – Stephen R. Covey
• “People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges.” – Joseph F. Newton Men
• “Truth is everybody is going to hurt you: you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.” – Bob Marley
• “I think it matters whether someone has a good heart.” – Elon Musk
• “A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.” – Walter Winchell

• “Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.” – Tennessee Williams
• “What love we've given, we'll have forever. What love we fail to give, will be lost for all eternity.” – Leo Buscaglia
• “True friendship comes when the silence between two people is comfortable.” – David Tyson Gentry
• “When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are.” – Donald Miller
• “Assumptions are the termites of relationships.” – Henry Winkler
• “To know when to go away and when to come closer is the key to any lasting relationship.” – Doménico Cieri Estrada
• “Someone to tell it to is one of the fundamental needs of human beings.” – Miles Franklin
• “Relationships based on obligation lack dignity.” – Wayne Dyer
• “We can improve our relationships with others by leaps and bounds if we become encouragers instead of critics.” – Joyce Meyer

We can improve our relationships with others by leaps and bounds if we become encouragers instead of critics.” – Joyce Meyer

• “The ultimate test of a relationship is to disagree but to hold hands.” – Alexandra Penney
• “Your relationship with yourself sets the tone for every other relationship you have.” – Robert Holden
• “The purpose of a relationship is not to have another who might complete you, but to have another with whom you might share your completeness.” – Neale Donald Walsch
• “Far too many people are looking for the right person, instead of trying to be the right person.” – Gloria Steinem
• “In the end there doesn’t have to be anyone who understands you. There just has to be someone who wants to.” – Robert Brault
• “We’re often afraid of being vulnerable, but vulnerability creates genuine connection.” – Gabby Bernstein
• “Be honest, brutally honest. That is what’s going to maintain relationships.” – Lauryn Hill
• “It is only when we no longer compulsively need someone that we can have a real relationship with them.” – Anthony Storr

Final Thoughts on Short Quotes

Quotes are very powerful—they can be a great inspiration to help you live your life to the fullest, full of gratitude, strength, and happiness.

When times get rough and you feel like giving up, revisit this post and read the quotes we have shared above. We hope that they were able to inspire you to live a happier, more satisfactory life.

Did any of them resonate with you? If so, we’d love to know which ones. Feel free to share your thoughts and comments in the fields below.

And if you happened to like any of the images we featured, a share through your favorite social media platform would be greatly appreciated.

And if you want more inspirational quotes, be sure to check out these blog posts:

• 91 Quotes About Perseverance Through Hard Times
• 63 Inspiring Walt Whitman Quotes About Life
• 67 Self-Reflection Quotes to Help You Grow as a Person

Finally, if you want to use these quotes to make a lasting change to your life, then check out and recite these 57 affirmations for success .

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Biographies Quotes

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We do not learn much from learned books, but from true, sincere, human books, from frank and honest biographies.

Biography is the only true history.

I believe that people should write biographies only about people they love, or understand, or both. Novels, on the other hand, are often better if they're about people the writer doesn't like very much.

People think that because a novel's invented, it isn't true. Exactly the reverse is the case. Biography and memoirs can never be wholly true, since they cannot include every conceivable circumstance of what happened. The novel can do that.

It can be a long gap between the emergence of fully researched historical biographies.

The secret of biography resides in finding the link between talent and achievement. A biography seems irrelevant if it doesnt discover the overlap between what the individual did and the life that made this possible. Without discovering that, you have shapeless happenings and gossip.

The immense majority of human biographies are a gray transit between domestic spasm and oblivion.

Biography can be the most middle-class of all forms, the judgment of little people avenging themselves on the great.

Perfect objectivity is always impossible, no matter who writes a person's biography.

Biography is one of the new terrors of death.

I realize that I had always in my heart of hearts planned to write a biography of Marie Antoinette.

I like contemporary American literature and I like biographies and I like jazz and I like baseball and I like writers who write about the human condition and sci-fi is just something that I happened into.

If those gentlemen would let me alone I should be much obliged to them. I would say, as Shakespeare would say... Sweet Friend, for Jesus sake forbear.

All good biography, as all good fiction, comes down to the study of original sin, of our inherent disposition to choose death when we ought to choose life.

I hate biographies which say, I was called to such and such an office, and he offered me so and so, and I got so and so money. I find that very tedious. The best biographies are written by other people.

I have not much interest in anyone's personal history after the tenth year, not even my own. Whatever one was going to be was all prepared before that.

My songs form a kind of biography or diary of my life as they are about people I have loved and people I only knew in my heart, places I have seen only for a moment and places I have lived all my life.

For one who reads, there is no limit to the number of lives that may be lived, for fiction, biography, and history offer an inexhaustible number of lives in many parts of the world, in all periods of time.

The biography of a writer - or even the autobiography - will always have this incompleteness.

What use is there for a biography of myself? I'm just a movie actor.

There is properly no history, only biography.

Biography is a very definite region bounded on the north by history, on the south by fiction, on the east by obituary, and on the west by tedium.

It is also one of the pleasures of oral biography, in that the reader, rather than editor, is jury.

One good anecdote is worth a volume of biography.

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224 Short Quotes and Sayings about Life

Sometimes you don’t have to use many words to get your point across.

In fact, keeping it short and simple can make what you’re saying extra powerful and memorable.

This is of course nothing new.

It’s something that’s many of the wisest people in history have kept in mind over thousands of years.

And today I want to share some of that sharp and quick wisdom.

This is 224 short and inspirational quotes about life and on how to make it a good, happy , loving and successful one from the past 2400 years.

I hope these quotes will give you a boost when you need it the most.

Short and Meaningful Quotes about Happiness

“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.” — Epictetus

“What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.” — Confucius

“The only joy in the world is to begin.” — Cesare Pavese

“To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others.” — Albert Camus

“Happiness depends upon ourselves.” — Aristotle

“Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.” — Dalai Lama

“It’s a helluva start, being able to recognize what makes you happy.” — Lucille Ball

“Happy people plan actions, they don’t plan results.” — Dennis Waitley

“It is more fitting for a man to laugh at life than to lament over it.” — Seneca

“The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.” — Arthur Schopenhauer

“For many men, the acquisition of wealth does not end their troubles, it only changes them.” — Seneca

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” — Mahatma Gandhi

“Most people would rather be certain they’re miserable, than risk being happy.” — Dr. Robert Anthony

“Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” — Marthe Troly-Curtin

“Happiness is a state of activity.” — Aristotle

“The pleasure which we most rarely experience gives us greatest delight.” — Epictetus

“There are more things to alarm us than to harm us, and we suffer more often in apprehension than reality.” — Seneca

“Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

“The unhappy derive comfort from the misfortunes of others.” — Aesop

“It’s been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.” — L.M. Montgomery

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” — Confucius

“The best thing in life aren’t things.” — John Ruskin

 “Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon.” — Winnie the Pooh

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” — Mahatma Gandhi

“Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.” — Benjamin Disraeli

“Two roads diverged in a wood and I—I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” — Robert Frost

“Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.” — Albert Schweitzer

“Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.” — Heraclitus

Short and Inspiring Quotes about Love

 “Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” — James Baldwin

“When we are in love we seem to ourselves quite different from what we were before.” — Blaise Pascal

“Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit.” — Khalil Gibran

“I love you not because of who you are, but because of who I am when I am with you.” — Roy Croft

“A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.” — Elbert Hubbard

“Friends show their love in times of trouble, not in happiness.” — Euripides

“Love is a friendship set to music.” — Joseph Campbell

“The more one judges, the less one loves.” — Honore de Balzac

“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you… I could walk through my garden forever.” — Alfred Tennyson

“Love is when you meet someone who tells you something new about yourself.” — Andre Breton

“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.” — Morrie Schwartz

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” – Buddha

“If you would be loved, love, and be loveable.” — Benjamin Franklin

“Love will find a way through paths where wolves fear to prey.” — Lord Byron

“If I know what love is, it is because of you.” — Herman Hesse

“The giving of love is an education in itself.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

“No matter what happens in life, never lose sight of who you are.” — Yanni

“Better to have lost and loved than never to have loved at all.” — Ernest Hemingway

“If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.” — Bruce Lee

“The best proof of love is trust.” — Joyce Brothers

“Don’t brood. Get on with living and loving. You don’t have forever.” — Leo Buscaglia

“Love is a better teacher than duty.” — Albert Einstein

“Love does not dominate; it cultivates.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Immature love says: ‘I love you because I need you.’ Mature love says ‘I need you because I love you.’” — Erich Fromm

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” – Anais Nin

“Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

 “Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” — Robert A. Heinlein

“The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.” — Gilbert K. Chesterton

 “A woman knows the face of the man she loves as a sailor knows the open sea.” — Honore de Balzac

Short and Motivational Quotes about Success

 “Action is the foundational key to all success.” – Pablo Picasso

“Victory is sweetest when you’ve known defeat.” – Malcolm S. Forbes

“For success, attitude is equally as important as ability.” – Harry F. Banks

“I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse.” – Florence Nightingale

“Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.” – Oprah Winfrey

“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” – Abraham Lincoln

“Not he who has much is rich, but he who gives much.” – Erich Fromm

“The whole secret of a successful life is to find out what is one’s destiny to do, and then do it.” – Henry Ford

“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” – Bruce Lee

“If you can’t do great things, do small things in a great way.” – Napoleon Hill

“The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.” – Benjamin Disraeli

“Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.” – Richard Branson

“What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise .” – Oscar Wilde

“Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John R. Wooden

“Don’t let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning.” – Robert Kiyosaki

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.” – Steve Jobs

“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” – Henry Ford

“Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.” – Dalai Lama

“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work .” – Stephen King

“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” – Samuel Beckett

“To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence.” – Mark Twain

“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” – Neale Donald Walsch

“The road to success is always under construction.” – Lily Tomlin

“Stay hungry, stay foolish.” – Steve Jobs

“Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill

“Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.” – Napoleon Hill

“Good things happen to those who hustle.” – Chuck Noll

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” Thomas A. Edison

“Success is largely a matter of holding on after others have let go.” – Unknown

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” – George Bernard Shaw

“Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value.” – Albert Einstein

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” – Arthur Ashe

“You define your own life. Don’t let other people write your script.” — Oprah Winfrey

“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day-in and day-out.” – Robert Collier

Short Self-Esteem Quotes to Help You to Feel Good About Yourself

 “ Low self-esteem is like driving through life with your hand-break on.” – Maxwell Maltz

“Why should we worry about what others think of us, do we have more confidence in their opinions than we do our own?” – Brigham Young

“Loving yourself isn’t vanity. It’s sanity.” – Katrina Mayer

“It ain’t what they call you, it’s what you answer to.” – W.C. Fields

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The better you feel about yourself, the less you feel the need to show off.” – Robert Hand

“A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.” – Mark Twain

“Lighten up on yourself. No one is perfect. Gently accept your humanness.” – Deborah Day

“Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.” – Benjamin Spock

“One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself.” – Shannon L. Alder

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

“If you have the ability to love, love yourself first.” – Charles Bukowski

“To fall in love with yourself is the first secret to happiness.” – Robert Morley

“Beauty begins the moment you decided to be yourself.” – Coco Chanel

“Why fit in when you were born to stand out?” ? Dr. Seuss

“People who want the most approval get the least and the people who need approval the least get the most.” – Wayne Dyer

“Be faithful to that which exists within yourself.” – André Gide

“Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the face.” – Helen Keller

“The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself.” – Maya Angelou

“Your problem is you’re… too busy holding onto your unworthiness.” – Ram Dass

“Growth begins when we start to accept our own weakness.” – Jean Vanier

“Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.” – Malcolm S. Forbes

“There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anaïs Nin

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.” – George Eliot

Short Funny Quotes (When You Need a Quick Laugh)

“Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example.” – Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“I have never been hurt by what I have not said.” – Calvin Coolidge

“I may be a living legend, but that sure don’t help when I’ve got to change a flat tire.” – Roy Orbison

“If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.” – Abraham Lincoln

“The most ineffective workers are systematically moved to the place where they can do the least damage: management.” – Scott Adams

“I intend to live forever. So far, so good.” – Steven Wright

“The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one.” – Oscar Wilde

“I haven’t spoken to my wife in years. I didn’t want to interrupt her.” – Rodney Dangerfield

“Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.” – Abraham Lincoln

“You grow up the day you have your first real laugh at yourself.” – Ethel Barrymore

“If you think nobody cares about you, try missing a couple of payments.” – Steven Wright

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.” – Albert Einstein

“You can always tell when a man’s well informed. His views are pretty much like your own.” – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

“Here’s something to think about: How come you never see a headline like ‘Psychic Wins Lottery’?” – Jay Leno

“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” – Winston Churchill

“Never miss a good chance to shut up.” – Will Rogers

“If you want your children to listen, try talking softly to someone else.” – Ann Landers

“Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.” – George Carlin

“Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died.” – Erma Bombeck

“I have a lot of growing up to do. I realized that the other day inside my fort.” – Zach Galifianakis

“The best way to teach your kids about taxes is by eating 30 percent of their ice cream.” – Bill Murray

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.” – Albert Einstein

“The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.” – Tom Clancy

“Trouble knocked at the door, but, hearing laughter, hurried away.” – Benjamin Franklin

“A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere.” – Groucho Marx

“Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them so much.” – Oscar Wilde

“Don’t sweat the petty things and don’t pet the sweaty things.” – George Carlin

“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.” – Dalai Lama

“Flattery is like cologne water, to be smelt, not swallowed.” – Josh Billings

“Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia.” – Charles M. Schulz

Short Quotes about Staying Strong During Tough Times

“Love does not dominate; it cultivates.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“I like criticism. It makes you strong.” – LeBron James

“We acquire the strength we have overcome.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“Sometimes you don’t realize your own strength until you come face to face with your greatest weakness.” – Susan Gale

“Tough times never last, but tough people do.” – Robert H. Schuller

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” – Henry Ford

“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

“The more one judges, the less one loves.” – Honore de Balzac

“Where there is no struggle, there is no strength” – Oprah

“You can’t really be strong until you can see a funny side to things.” – Ken Kesey

“We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.” – J.K. Rowling

“Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.” – John Wooden

“Concentration is the secret of strength.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.” – Og Mandino

”Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.” – Richard Branson

“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.” – Louisa May Alcott

“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” – Margaret Thatcher

“Stress is caused by being ‘here’ but wanting to be ‘there.’ – Eckhart Tolle

“Anyone can hide. Facing up to things, working through them, that’s what makes you strong.” – Sarah Dessen

“The greatest test of courage on the earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.” – R. G. Ingersoll

“The only way out is in.” — Junot Díaz

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“Our strength grows out of our weaknesses” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines.” – Robert Schuller

“Don’t brood. Get on with living and loving. You don’t have forever.” – Leo Buscaglia

Short and Inspiring Friendship Quotes

“Friends are people who know you really well and like you anyway.” – Greg Tamblyn

“True friendship comes when the silence between two people is comfortable.” – David Tyson

“Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.”’ – Socrates

“A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down.” – Arnold H. Glasgow

“There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.” – Linda Grayson

“A true friend is someone who is there for you when he’d rather be anywhere else.” – Len Wein

“What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.” – Confucius

“Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and to have her nonsense respected.” – Charles Lamb

“Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.” – Tennessee Williams

“There’s not a word yet for old friends who’ve just met.” – Jim Henson

“A single rose can be my garden… a single friend, my world.” – Leo Buscaglia

“The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend.” – Henry David Thoreau

“No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.” – Alice Walker

“If you make friends with yourself you will never be alone.” – Maxwell Maltz

“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?” – Abraham Lincoln

“A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same.” – Elbert Hubbard

“It is not so much our friends’ help that helps us, as the confidence of their help.” – Epicurus

“Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together.” – Woodrow T. Wilson

“The best time to make friends is before you need them.” – Ethel Barrymore

“One’s friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human.” – George Santayana

“A man’s friendships are one of the best measures of his worth.” – Charles Darwin

“Someone to tell it to is one of the fundamental needs of human beings.” — Miles Franklin

“A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.” – Walter Winchell

“A friend knows the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails.” – Donna Roberts

“Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer.” – Ed Cunningham

“It is the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter.” – Marlene Dietrich

Short Inspirational Quotes for Work (to Help You Work Hard and Smart)

“Either you run the day or the day runs you.” – Jim Rohn

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

“The future depends on what you do today.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.” – Dale Carnegie

“Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.” – Seneca

“Don’t wish it were easier. Wish you were better.” – Jim Rohn

“You will never plough a field if you only turn it over in your mind.” – Irish Proverb

“It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop.” – Confucius

“The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.” – B. B. King

“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” – Stephen Covey

“Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.” – Napoleon Hill

“To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.” – Eva Young

“If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six hours sharpening my ax.” – Abraham Lincoln

“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” – Confucius

“Just one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day.” – Dalai Lama

“Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.” – Dale Carnegie

“The fool wonders, the wise man asks.” – Benjamin Disraeli

“Happiness is the real sense of fulfillment that comes from hard work.” – Joseph Barbara

“When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” – Paulo Coelho

“The best way out is always through.” – Robert Frost

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right.” – Henry Ford

“Think of many things; do one.” – Portuguese proverb

What’s your favorite among these short quotes about life? Feel free to share the best one(s) you have found in this article or in your own life’s journey in the comments section below.

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+1 for the value of hard work.

Apart from knowing the right people and being able to network well, hard work and a strong work ethic makes success a lot more likely to happen.

Keep grinding!

Great thoughts! These quotes are really motivational and inspire us to live a happy life.

Next post: High Self-Esteem: 15 Habits for a Positive Self-Image

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55 Powerful Short Quotes & Sayings About Life

Quotes are VERY powerful. On the surface, they are just a bunch of words, but when you ponder over them,  they reveal powerful ideas that resonate with your core . I mean, someone did “quote” these words for a reason :).

Personally, one of the biggest reasons why I love quotes is because of how relatable they can be . Quotes tend to be simplistic and easy to remember and echo what is in our hearts. Plus, I think quotes are very effective in bettering yourself because they help your mind focus on particular topics at a time. Unlike other literary tools, quotes and short quotes, in particular, give you the ability to concentrate on one idea with no outside distractions.

So whether it’s for self-motivation, your next t-shirt design, or simply for your Instagram bio, this collection of short quotes is full of powerful ideas packed into tiny little packages of words. They have made a profound positive impact on my life, and I’m sure they will make one in yours as well!

Here are 55 of my favorite short quotes for you to read, remember and retell:

• Love For All, Hatred For None. –   Khalifatul Masih III
• Change the world by being yourself. – Amy Poehler
• Every moment is a fresh beginning. – T.S Eliot
• Never regret anything that made you smile. – Mark Twain
• Die with memories, not dreams. – Unknown
• Aspire to inspire before we expire. – Unknown
• Everything you can imagine is real. – Pablo Picasso
• Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. – Leonardo da Vinci
• Whatever you do, do it well. – Walt Disney
• What we think, we become. – Buddha
• All limitations are self-imposed. – Oliver Wendell Holmes
• Tough times never last but tough people do. – Robert H. Schiuller
• Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines. – Robert H. Schiuller
• One day the people that don’t even believe in you will tell everyone how they met you. – Johnny Depp
• If I’m gonna tell a real story, I’m gonna start with my name. – Kendrick Lamar
• If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything. – Mark Twain
• Have enough courage to start and enough heart to finish. – Jessica N. S. Yourko
• Hate comes from intimidation, love comes from appreciation. – Tyga
• I could agree with you but then we’d both be wrong. – Harvey Specter
• Oh, the things you can find, if you don’t stay behind. – Dr. Seuss
• Determine your priorities and focus on them. – Eileen McDargh
• Be so good they can’t ignore you. – Steve Martin
• Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today. – James Dean
• Yesterday you said tomorrow. Just do it. – Nike
• I don’t need it to be easy, I need it to be worth it. – Lil Wayne

• Never let your emotions overpower your intelligence. – Drake
• Nothing lasts forever but at least we got these memories. – J. Cole
• Don’t you know your imperfections is a blessing? – Kendrick Lamar
• Reality is wrong, dreams are for real. – Tupac
• To live will be an awfully big adventure. – Peter Pan
• Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud. – Maya Angelou
• There is no substitute for hard work. – Thomas Edison
• What consumes your mind controls your life- Unknown
• Strive for greatness. – Lebron James
• Wanting to be someone else is a waste of who you are. – Kurt Cobain
• And still, I rise. – Maya Angelou
• The time is always right to do what is right. – Martin Luther King Jr.
• Let the beauty of what you love be what you do. – Rumi
• May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears. – Nelson Mandela
• A happy soul is the best shield for a cruel world. – Atticus
• White is not always light and black is not always dark. – Habeeb Akande
• Life becomes easier when you learn to accept the apology you never got. – R. Brault
• Happiness depends upon ourselves. – Aristotle
• Turn your wounds into wisdom. – Oprah Winfrey
• Change the game , don’t let the game change you. – Macklemore
• It hurt because it mattered. – John Green
• If the world was blind how many people would you impress? – Boonaa Mohammed
• I will remember and recover, not forgive and forget. – Unknown
• The meaning of life is to give life meaning. – Ken Hudgins
• The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit. – Nelson Henderson
• When words fail, music speaks. – Shakespeare
• Embrace the glorious mess that you are. – Elizabeth Gilbert
• Normality is a paved road: it’s comfortable to walk but no flowers grow. – Vincent van Gogh
• I have nothing to lose but something to gain. – Eminem 

Share your favorite short quotes I might have missed in the comments:

I hope you enjoyed my collection of short quotes and captions! I’m confident you found something you liked, but in case there is a really awesome short quote I missed, please make sure to share it below in the comments! Let’s try to make this post the ultimate collection of short quotes on the Internet. So far, we have 400+ submissions of the best short quotes shared below in the comments by readers like yourself.

Add your favorite quote below now! 🙂

Sundus is the current Editor-In-Chief for CodeofLiving. She is a big advocate for personal development, self-improvement, and learning how the human mind works. She started as one of the first freelance authors to ever write for CodeofLiving.com and continues today to contribute articles on topics she is passionate about.

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99 Of The Best Short Quotes Of All Time

We all experience a wide variety of situations in our everyday lives.

Some life experiences are simple, and some are so difficult that it is hard to move on.

During these tough times, it's nice to turn to short life quotes to keep you on track.

Short powerful quotes can provide you with a quick boost of morale and help you make the right decision about anything that is troubling you.

Sometimes, all it takes is reading some pithy short sayings to put your life in perspective and change your attitude about the situation.

These short phrases from experts, authors, and thought leaders can often be applied to so many challenges and used as motivational tools to support you through any of life's hardships.

I've put together a big list of great short quotes and sayings to spark a positive attitude about life and keep you moving through the tough situations.

Some of these famous quotes may be familiar to you, but others may surprise you with a new perspective that you haven't considered before.

Short Inspirational Quotes

Famous short quotes, short quotes about love, short sayings about happiness, what is the greatest quote of all time, 99 of the best short quotes of all time.

Reading inspirational quotes about life can help you get through the ups and downs that are bound to happen as the years go by. Use these simple quotes to help find the extra push that you may need to get where you are going.

1. “How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.” – Coco Chanel

2. “Imitation is suicide.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

3. “Flatter yourself critically.” – Willis Goth Regier

4. “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” – Mark Twain

.ugb-af186a6 .ugb-blockquote__item{background-color:#328b63 !important;border-radius:50px !important}.ugb-af186a6 .ugb-blockquote__item:before{background-color:#328b63 !important}.ugb-af186a6 .ugb-blockquote__quote{fill:#8ed1fc !important;width:70px !important;height:70px !important}.ugb-af186a6 .ugb-blockquote__text{font-size:18px !important;color:#ffffff}.ugb-af186a6 .ugb-inner-block{text-align:center} 5. “Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.” – Cyril Connolly

6. “Don’t look for society to give you permission to be yourself.” – Steve Maraboli

7. “If things go wrong, don’t go with them.” – Roger Babson

8. “There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anaïs Nin

9. “Be there for others, but never leave yourself behind.” – Dodinsky

10. “Don’t take life too seriously. You’ll never get out of it alive.” – Elbert Hubbard

11. “Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you respond to it.” – Lou Holtz

12. “You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.” – Albert Camus

13. “He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.” – Marcus Aurelius

14. “My life is my message.” – Mahatma Gandhi

15. “There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” – Nelson Mandela

16. “Go forth on your path, as it exists only through your walking.” – Augustine of Hippo

17. “Life is the first gift, love is the second, and understanding the third.” – Marge Piercy

18. “I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees.” -Euripides

19. “It is better to live one day as a lion, than a thousand days as a lamb.” – Roman Proverb

20. “Whatever you are, be a good one.” – Abraham Lincoln

.ugb-af67655 .ugb-blockquote__item{background-color:#e09b51 !important;border-radius:50px !important}.ugb-af67655 .ugb-blockquote__item:before{background-color:#e09b51 !important}.ugb-af67655 .ugb-blockquote__quote{fill:#0693e3 !important;width:70px !important;height:70px !important}.ugb-af67655 .ugb-blockquote__text{font-size:18px !important;color:#ffffff}.ugb-af67655 .ugb-inner-block{text-align:center} 21. “Lighten up, just enjoy life, smile more, laugh more, and don’t get so worked up about things.” – Kenneth Branagh

22. “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln

23. “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill

24. “Life is fragile. We’re not guaranteed a tomorrow so give it everything you’ve got.” – Tim Cook

Famous quotes about life are always helpful because they have stood the test of time and many have been passed down for generations.

25. “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” – Dr. Seuss

26. “Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you’ll be criticized anyway.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

27. “I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.” – Mahatma Gandhi

28. “We must not allow other people’s limited perceptions to define us.” – Virginia Satir

29. “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” – Theodore Roosevelt

30. “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” – Oscar Wilde

31. “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” – Ludwig Jacobowski

.ugb-3cd8586 .ugb-blockquote__item{background-color:#38a17a !important;border-radius:50px !important}.ugb-3cd8586 .ugb-blockquote__item:before{background-color:#38a17a !important}.ugb-3cd8586 .ugb-blockquote__quote{fill:#fcb900 !important;width:70px !important;height:70px !important}.ugb-3cd8586 .ugb-blockquote__text{font-size:18px !important;color:#ffffff}.ugb-3cd8586 .ugb-inner-block{text-align:center} 32. “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” – Maya Angelou

33. “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.

34. “A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” – David Brinkley

35. “I’m a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn’t have the heart to let him down.” – Abraham Lincoln

36. “Our greatest fear should not be of failure … but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.” – Francis Chin

37. “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas A. Edison

38. “In heaven, all the interesting people are missing.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

39. “Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else.” – Will Rogers

40. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.” – Steve Jobs

41. “The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.” – Thomas A. Edison

42. “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.” – Bil Keane

43. “In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life. It goes on.” – Robert Frost

44. “Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

45. “The person who reads too much and uses his brain too little will fall into lazy habits of thinking.” – Albert Einstein

46. “Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last, you create what you will.” – George Bernard Shaw

47. “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Gandhi

48. “You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching, love like you’ll never be hurt, sing like there’s nobody listening, and live like it’s heaven on earth.” – William W. Purkey

49. “Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.” – Maya Angelou

Whether you are newly in love, have been married for decades, or are looking for love, short quotes to live by can help you keep that light alive in your heart that is always seeking to be loved or have someone to love.

50. “We must be our own before we can be another’s.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

51. “Love must be as much a light as it is a flame.” – Henry David Thoreau

.ugb-b70d50f .ugb-blockquote__item{background-color:#8360a4 !important;border-radius:50px !important}.ugb-b70d50f .ugb-blockquote__item:before{background-color:#8360a4 !important}.ugb-b70d50f .ugb-blockquote__quote{fill:#e49156 !important;width:70px !important;height:70px !important}.ugb-b70d50f .ugb-blockquote__text{font-size:18px !important;color:#ffffff}.ugb-b70d50f .ugb-inner-block{text-align:center} 52. “Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.” – James Baldwin

53. “Each time you love, love as deeply as if it were forever – only, nothing is eternal.” – Audre Lorde

54. “Love is the expansion of two natures in such fashion that each include the other, each is enriched by the other.” – Felix Adler

55. “Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

56. “Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you. Love me and I may be forced to love you.” – William Arthur Ward

57. “We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace.” – William E. Gladstone

58. “Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart.” – Washington Irving

59. “You never lose by loving. You always lose by holding back.” – Barbara De Angelis

60. “I know of no greater happiness than to be with you all the time, without interruption, without end.” – Franz Kafka

61. “The more I think it over, the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.” – Vincent van Gogh

62. “Better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all.” – St. Augustine

63. “Those who love deeply never grow old; they may die of old age, but they die young.” – Sir Arthur Pinero

64. “Love cures people – both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.” – Karl Menninger

65. “The minute I heard my first love story – I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere – they’re in each other all along.” – Rumi

66. “To love unconditionally requires no contracts, bargains, or agreements. Love exists in the moment-to-moment flux of life.” – Marion Woodman

67. “I think we dream so we don’t have to be apart so long. If we’re in each others dreams, we can be together all the time.” – Hobbes

68. “Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. They bless the one who receives them, and they bless you, the giver.” – Barbara De Angelis

69. “Love is the strange bewilderment which overtakes one person on account of another person.” – James Thurber

70. “Love is a choice you make from moment to moment.” – Barbara De Angelis

71. “I would rather spend one lifetime with you, than face all the ages of this world alone.” – J.R.R. Tolkien

.ugb-3a91f1c .ugb-blockquote__item{background-color:#39a19d !important;border-radius:50px !important}.ugb-3a91f1c .ugb-blockquote__item:before{background-color:#39a19d !important}.ugb-3a91f1c .ugb-blockquote__quote{fill:#84d345 !important;width:70px !important;height:70px !important}.ugb-3a91f1c .ugb-blockquote__text{font-size:18px !important;color:#ffffff}.ugb-3a91f1c .ugb-inner-block{text-align:center} 72. “I saw that you were perfect, and so I loved you. Then I saw that you were not perfect and I loved you even more.” – Angelita Lim

73. “You don’t love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or for their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear.” – Oscar Wilde

74. “You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” – Dr. Seuss

Sometimes, getting a little bit of perspective on life is only a quote away. When things in life are not going so great, everyone can use a reminder of the things that matter in life and that bring you happiness.

75. “Do your own thing on your own terms and get what you came here for.” – Oliver James

76. “Wanting to be someone else is a waste of who you are.” – Kurt Cobain

77. “We don’t laugh because we’re happy – we’re happy because we laugh.” – William James

78. “Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.” – Guillaume Apollinaire

79. “When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.” – Helen Keller

80. “Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.” – Joseph Addison

81. “It’s the moments that I stopped just to be, rather than do, that have given me true happiness.” – Richard Branson

82. “I am very happy because I have conquered myself and not the world. I am very happy because I have loved the world and not myself.” – Sri Chinmoy

83. “Our greatest happiness. . . is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.” Thomas Jefferson

84. “If you aren’t grateful for what you already have, what makes you think you would be happy with more.” – Roy T. Bennett

85. “The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up.” – Mark Twain

86. “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” – Mahatma Gandhi

87. “In our lives, change is unavoidable, loss is unavoidable. In the adaptability and ease with which we experience change, lies our happiness and freedom.” – Buddha

88. “The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.” – James Oppenheim

89. “Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?” – Hunter S. Thompson

.ugb-b18fdd9 .ugb-blockquote__item{background-color:#a84444 !important;border-radius:50px !important}.ugb-b18fdd9 .ugb-blockquote__item:before{background-color:#a84444 !important}.ugb-b18fdd9 .ugb-blockquote__quote{fill:#f78da7 !important;width:70px !important;height:70px !important}.ugb-b18fdd9 .ugb-blockquote__text{font-size:18px !important;color:#ffffff}.ugb-b18fdd9 .ugb-inner-block{text-align:center} 90. “People are unhappy when they get something too easily. You have to sweat – that’s the only moral they know.” – Dany Laferrière

91. “If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.” – Andrew Carnegie

92. “The greatest happiness you can have is knowing that you do not necessarily require happiness.” – William Saroyan

93. “Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn’t stop to enjoy it.” – William Feather

94. “The hardest thing to find in life is happiness – money is only hard to find because it gets wasted trying to find happiness.” – Unknown

95. “You cannot prevent the birds of sadness from passing over your head, but you can prevent their making a nest in your hair.” – Chinese proverb

96. “If we would just slow down, happiness would catch up to us.” – Richard Carlson

97. “On the whole, the happiest people seem to be those who have no particular cause for being happy except that they are so.” – William R. Inge

98. “Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought. Our brightest blazes are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.” – Samuel Johnson

99. “Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” – Buddha

Short inspirational quotes about life, love, and happiness are a great thing to read to start your day or give you a boost when you're feeling down. The benefit of reading short quotes is that they are easy to remember and can make a quick but powerful impact on your life.

More Related Articles:

13 Endearing Traits Of Someone With A Warm Personality

30 Love Quotes to Light Your Flame

101 of the Best Deep and Meaningful Quotes

What's the greatest quote of all time? It's an impossible question to answer definitively. For starters, there are just too many that qualify. Plus, everyone's taste varies. What works for Harry may be anathema for Larry. 

Despite the logistical hurdles, we've come up with five short witticisms that qualify as contenders for the greatest quote of all time.

• “Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone.” : This Dorothy Parker gem is a reminder that behaving like a pignut is never a good look. 
• “There is no better teacher than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance next time.” These motivating words from Malcolm X apply to everyone, from every walk of life, who is navigating a challenging time.
• “Don't look at me in that tone of voice.”: Another whopper of a witticism by Dorothy Parker, this quote works so well because it mixes metaphors and speaks of something to which everyone over the age of 12 can probably relate. 
• “To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.”: Oscar Wilde had it right: loving oneself is a precious gift with the power to shower you with decades of sustained contentment.
•  “ Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people. “: Towering intellect Elenor Roosevelt — the Catherine the Great of the 20th Century and former First Lady of the United States — got right to the point with this quote. Adopt it as a guiding principle, and you may find that your life changes for the better in countless ways.

[Helpful Tip] Write down the short quotes that are amazing to you and keep them in a place that you can see every day.

Hopefully, these quotes will bring you a positive perspective and motivate you to live a better life.

Did you find any value from these short quotes?

I hope you enjoyed these motivational quotes. I hope you'll use these short sayings to help you to start your day with inspiration or when you're having a challenging day. Which of these short words of wisdom were the most uplifting for you?

Would you like to help others?

It would be really great if you could help me spread these short quotes about life to others. Would you be willing to send out some love to your friends and family? Please share these life quotes on your preferred social media platform.

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Forgot password, resend verification email, biography sayings and quotes.

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old biography quotes, biography sayings, and biography proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

There is properly no history; only biography. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Live your life as if you are writing your Biography. Keshia Chante

Biography is the mesh through which real life escapes. Tom Stoppard

When you read a biography remember that the truth is never fit for publication. George Bernard Shaw

The immense appetite we have for biography comes from a deep-seated sense of equality. Charles Baudelaire

No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men. Thomas Carlyle

Writing a biography is not a love affair. It's not a marriage. It's a job, it's a piece of work. Hermione Lee

Biography can be the most middle-class of all forms, the judgment of little people avenging themselves on the great. Edmund White

A biography is considered complete if it merely accounts for six or seven selves, whereas a person may well have as many as a thousand. Virginia Woolf

Biography is a very definite region bounded on the north by history, on the south by fiction, on the east by obituary, and on the west by tedium. Philip Guedalla

All good biography, as all good fiction, comes down to the study of original sin, of our inherent disposition to choose death when we ought to choose life. Rebecca West

Life is a biography, not a series of disconnected moments, more or less pleasurable but increasingly tedious and unsatisfying unless one imposes a purposive pattern upon them. Anthony Daniels

All history is biography. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Biography is the only true history. Thomas Carlyle

Our theology must become biography. Tim Hansel

Your biography becomes your biology. Caroline Myss

A photograph is a biography of a moment. Art Shay

Someone calls biography the home aspect of history. Henry Ward Beecher

Your biography is not your destiny, your decisions are. Tony Robbins

Biography is history seen through the prism of a person. Louis Fischer

History is neither more nor less than biography on a large scale. Alphonse De Lamartine

There is no psychology; there is only biography and autobiography. Thomas Szasz

Once the implicit aim of biography was to uplift now it is to unveil. Mark Feeney

Biography is the most universally pleasant and profitable of all reading. Thomas Carlyle

Biography is: a system in which the contradictions of a human life are unified. Jose Ortega Y Gasset

You can use a biography to examine political power, but only if you pick the right guy. Robert Caro

The biography of a writer - or even the autobiography - will always have this incompleteness. V. S. Naipaul

For me the fascination with biography is the life of the individual in the context of history. Rachel Holmes

The art of biography is different from geography. Geography is about maps, but biography is about chaps. Edmund Clerihew Bentley

A biography should be a dissection and demonstration of how a particular human being was made and worked. H. G. Wells

Biography is essentially a collaborative art, the latest biographer collaborating with all those who wrote earlier. Erica Jong

Behind each biography there should always be a rich treasury of unformulated knowledge, a tapestry that has not been unrolled. Iris Origo

Biography cannot be separated from autobiography: that is, the life written about is inextricably entangled with the life of the biographer. Linda Simon

The great lesson of biography is to show what man can be and do at his best. A noble life put fairly on record acts like an inspiration to others. Samuel Smiles

The most uninteresting part of the biography of a composer is his childhood. All those preludes are the same and the reader hurries on to the fugue. Dmitri Shostakovich

A biography is never a biography of one person, of course, but the individual life of your protagonist will never conform. It will always bang up against history. Rachel Holmes

If you read the biography of any great man, you will always notice two things: His mother's contribution in his progress and his teacher's contribution in his growth and development. Narendra Modi

History – a biography of a few stout and earnest persons. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let us make sure that future generations write our biography. Amit Kalantri

The art of biography is more difficult than is generally supposed. Thornton Wilder

Art cannot be subordinate to its subject, otherwise it is not art but biography. Tom Stoppard

Almost any biography will have its useful suggestions for making life a success, but none better or more unfailing than the biography of Christ. Robert Baden-Powell

In writing biography, fact and fiction shouldn't be mixed. And if they are, the fictional points should be printed in red ink, the facts printed in black ink. Catherine Drinker Bowen

A typical biography relying upon individuals' notorious memories and the anecdotes they've invented contains a high degree of fiction, yet is considered 'nonfiction.' Joyce Carol Oates

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76 Positive Quotes to Brighten Your Day

In case you're in need of a little optimism right now.

Lauren is a former editor at Real Simple and currently serves as a senior digital editor for Better Homes & Gardens.

Positive quotes are just one tool we can use to improve our mood and mental health . These succinct sayings might increase your productivity at work, help you feel more optimistic about your life, or make a seemingly dark day a little brighter. However, it's true that some quotes resonate more than others.

We chose the following positive quotes because they represent the most inspirational and uplifting quotes we could find. Sometimes all we need to feel better is a little perspective from another person who has been there and thrived. Nevertheless, if you find these quotes don't motivate you, don't fret. Sometimes it's better to lean into your negative moods, instead of trying to force toxic positivity .

Whether you share them in a text, as a social media post caption, or as a spoken mantra, these uplifting, motivating words and sayings are sure to bring good vibes to any situation.

“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible.’”

Corinne Mucha/RS

—Audrey Hepburn

“I cannot express how important it is to believe that taking one tiny—and possibly very uncomfortable—step at a time can ultimately add up to a great distance.”

RS/Corinne Mucha

—Tig Notaro

“Here comes the sun. And I say, it’s all right."

—The Beatles, "Here Comes the Sun"

“Do your thing and don't care if they like it.”

—Tina Fey, Bossypants

“I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than the things I haven’t done."

—Lucille Ball

“Try to be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.”

—Maya Angelou

“Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.”

—Ruth Bader Ginsberg

"A dead end is just a good place to turn around."

—Naomi Judd

"Choose to be optimistic, it feels better."

RS/Corinne Much

"Just say yes and you’ll figure it out afterwards."

"you can’t make a cloudy day a sunny day, but you can embrace it and decide it’s going to be a good day after all.".

—Jane Lynch

"Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life."

—Amy Poehler

"You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will."

—Stephen King

"In your life expect some trouble. But when you worry, you make it double. But don't worry, be happy, be happy now."

—Bobby McFerrin

"You’re in the same boat with a lotta your friends. Waitin’ for the day your ship’ll come in, and the tide's gonna turn and it’s all gonna roll your way."

—Dolly Parton, "9 to 5"

"Keep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you."

—Walt Whitman

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."

– C.S. Lewis

"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving."

– Albert Einstein

"It is never too late to be what you might have been."

– George Eliot

"Some people look for a beautiful place. Others make a place beautiful."

– Hazrat Inayat Khan

"We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us."

– Joseph Campbell

"Happiness is not by chance, but by choice."

"if i cannot do great things, i can do small things in a great way.".

– Martin Luther King, Jr.

"My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive."

– Maya Angelou

"You are enough just as you are."

– Meghan Markle

"The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot."

– Michael Altshuler

"You make a life out of what you have, not what you're missing."

– Kate Morton, The Forgotten Garden

"There are years that ask questions and years that answer."

– Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

– J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

"At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be done—then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago."

– Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

"Each of us is more than the worst thing we've ever done."

– Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy

"That is one good thing about this world ... there are always sure to be more springs."

– L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea

"These things are good things."

– Dr. Seuss, The Cat in the Hat

"Pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it."

– Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."

– Oscar Wilde

"Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring."

– Marilyn Monroe

"You cannot change what you are, only what you do."

– Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass

"Thou must gather thine own sunshine."

– Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

"It is not enough to have a good mind; the important thing is to use it well."

– Rene Descartes

"People begin to become successful the minute they decide to be."

– Harvey Mackay

"Walk to your goal firmly and with bold steps."

– Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

"Every strike brings me closer to the next home run."

– Babe Ruth

"Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work in hand. The Sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus."

– Alexander Graham Bell

"Lay plans for something big by starting with it when small."

"no exact recipe for today. gather all available ingredients and whip yourself up something delicious.".

– Lin-Manuel Miranda, Gmorning/Gnight

"One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things."

– Henry Miller

"It's how you deal with failure that determines how you achieve success."

– David Feherty

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

– Thomas A. Edison

"It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan."

– Eleanor Roosevelt

"Do anything, but let it produce joy."

– Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

"Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world."

– Desmond Tutu

"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another."

– Charles Dickens

"As we work to create light for others, we naturally light our own way."

– Mary Anne Radmacher

"Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them."

– Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

"That's what I consider true generosity: You give your all, and yet you always feel as if it costs you nothing."

– Simone de Beauvoir

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose."

– Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You'll Go!

"You rarely win, but sometimes you do."

– Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird

"I've got nothing to do today but smile."

– Simon and Garfunkel

"I believe great people do things before they are ready."

– Amy Poehler, Yes Please

"I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go."

– Langston Hughes

"If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done."

– Bruce Lee

"For me, becoming isn't about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self. The journey doesn't end."

– Michelle Obama, Becoming

"Anything is possible with sunshine and a little pink."

– Lilly Pulitzer

"Imagine this: What would happen if we were all brave enough to believe in our own ability, to be a little more ambitious? I think the world would change."

– Reese Witherspoon

"You are the one that possesses the keys to your being. You carry the passport to your own happiness."

– Diane von Furstenberg

"Take your victories, whatever they may be, cherish them, use them, but don't settle for them."

"we do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.".

– J.K. Rowling

“Just believe in yourself. Even if you don’t, pretend that you do and, at some point, you will.”

– Venus Williams

"Believe you can and you're halfway there."

– Theodore Roosevelt

“You are imperfect, you are wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging.”

– Brené Brown

“If you see someone without a smile, give 'em yours!”

– Dolly Parton

“You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.”

– Oprah Winfrey

"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does."

– William James

“For there is always light. If only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.”

– Amanda Gorman, The Hill We Climb

“You are your best thing.”

– Toni Morrison, Beloved

“There is no greater thing you can do with your life and your work than follow your passions–in a way that serves the world and you.”

– Sir Richard Branson

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We already know that positive thinking can help decrease stress and anxiety—scientists have proven it . And the power of positivity doesn't always have to originate with you—it can also come from what you hear . A 2021 study found that verbal encouragement can help students to perform better in school and on tests. Praise and positive attention have also been linked to better behavior in kids.

Still, it can be hard to come up with the right words, especially on the spot. But the positive quotes listed below are powerful enough to fill in any blank you may be stuck on. Read on for some inspiring messages you can repeat during your next big heart-to-heart with someone who needs to hear something good.

RELATED:  170 Love Messages for Her to Show How Much You Care .

Positive Quotes About Life

• "The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
• "As we work to create light for others, we naturally light our own way." — Mary Anne Radmacher
• “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” — Oscar Wilde
• "Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow." — Helen Keller
• "In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." — Robert Frost
• "If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one." — Dolly Parton
• "Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring." — Marilyn Monroe
• "Great things happen to those who don't stop believing, trying, learning, and being grateful." ― Roy T. Bennett
• “When the sun is shining I can do anything; no mountain is too high, no trouble too difficult to overcome.” — Wilma Rudolph
• "Be fanatically positive and militantly optimistic. If something is not to your liking, change your liking." — Rick Steves
• "Confidence isn't optimism or pessimism, and it's not a character attribute. It's the expectation of a positive outcome." — Rosabeth Moss Kanter
• “Only when we're drowning do we understand how fierce our feet can kick.” — Amanda Gorman
• "To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “The most important step a man can take. It's not the first one, is it? It's the next one. Always the next step.” ― Brandon Sanderson
• "We all have two lives. The second one starts when we realize we only have one." — Confucius
• "It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light." — Aristotle
• “Optimism is a huge asset. We can always use more of it. But optimism isn’t a belief that things will automatically get better; it’s a conviction that we can make things better.” — Melinda French Gates
• "If you look at what you have in life, you'll always have more. If you look at what you don't have in life, you'll never have enough." — Oprah Winfrey
• “And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.” — John Steinbeck
• "For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
• "All your dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them." — Walt Disney
• "Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not." — Oscar Wilde

RELATED: 70+ Amazing Life Quotes That Will Instantly Inspire You .

Short But Inspiring Quotes

• "You cannot change what you are, only what you do." — Philip Pullman
• "An unexamined life is not worth living." — Socrates
• "Say something positive, and you’ll see something positive.” — Jim Thompson
• "Every strike brings me closer to the next home run." — Babe Ruth
• "The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts." — Marcus Aurelius
• "Before anything else, preparation is the key to success." — Alexander Graham Bell
• "Be yourself; everyone else is already taken." — Oscar Wilde
• "I dwell in possibility.” — Emily Dickinson
• "Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life." — Omar Khayyam
• “The power of imagination makes us infinite.” — John Muir
• "The next choice is the most important choice." — George Wells
• "Make your life matter and have fun doing it." — Aaron Hurst
• "Anything is possible with sunshine and a little pink." — Lilly Pulitzer
• "Those who don't believe in magic will never find it." — Roald Dahl
• “Light tomorrow with today.” — Elizabeth Barrett Browning
• "Happiness is not by chance but by choice." — Jim Rohn
• "Do good and good will come to you." — Adam Lowy
• "You do not find the happy life. You make it." — Thomas S. Monson
• "The most wasted of days is one without laughter." — E. E. Cummings
• "You will face many defeats in life, but never let yourself be defeated." — Maya Angelou
• "Hope is the most exciting thing there is in life." — Mandy Moore
• "No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted." — Aesop
• "Lead from the heart, not the head." — Princess Diana

RELATED: 100 Funny Quotes About Work, Family, & Getting Old .

Positive Thinking Quotes to Motivate You At Work

• "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people's thinking." — Steve Jobs
• "The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary." — Vidal Sassoon
• "If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done." — Bruce Lee
• "The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity." — Amelia Earhart
• "The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do." — Kobe Bryant
• "Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value." — Albert Einstein
• "Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him." — Booker T. Washington
• “Someday is not a day of the week.” — Janet Dailey
• "Pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it." — Paulo Coelho
• “Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.” — Earl Nightingale
• "If you want to make your dreams come true, the first thing you have to do is wake up." — J.M. Power
• “Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald
• “When someone tells me ‘no,’ it doesn’t mean I can’t do it, it simply means I can’t do it with them.” — Karen E. Quinones Miller
• “A year from now you may wish you had started today.” — Karen Lamb
• "Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity." — Khalil Gibran
• "Be passionate and move forward with gusto every single hour of every single day until you reach your goal." — Ava DuVernay
• "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now." — Chinese Proverb
• "To win big, you sometimes have to take big risks." — Bill Gates
• "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined." — Henry David Thoreau
• "I believe great people do things before they are ready." — Amy Poehler
• "You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose." — Theodor Seuss Geisel
• "The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot." — Michael Altshuler

RELATED: 102 Brother Quotes & Captions for That Special Sibling in Your Life .

Motivational Quotes From World Leaders

• "Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." — Martin Luther King Jr.
• "The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." — Nelson Mandela
• "Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier." — Colin Powell
• "The real test is not whether you avoid this failure because you won't. It's whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere." —   Barack Obama
• “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.” — John Quincy Adams
• "The beauty of empowering others is that your own power is not diminished in the process." — Andrew Carnegie
• “Do not let anyone ever tell you who you are.” — Kamala Harris
• “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” — Theodore Roosevelt
• "Choose to be optimistic, it feels better." — Dalai Lama
• “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” — Winston Churchill
• "There can be hope only for a society which acts as one big family, not as many separate ones.” — Anwar Sadat
• “Don’t follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you.” — Margaret Thatcher
• "In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." — Abraham Lincoln
• "A winner is a dreamer who never gave up." — Nelson Mandela
• “A leader is a dealer in hope.” — Napoleon Bonaparte
• "Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose." — Lyndon B. Johnson
• "If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way." — Martin Luther King Jr.
• "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." — Mahatma Gandhi
• "A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on." — John F. Kennedy
• "I didn't fail the test. I just found 100 ways to do it wrong." — Benjamin Franklin
• “In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” — Mahatma Gandhi
• "Do one thing every day that scares you." — Eleanor Roosevelt

RELATED: 104 Friendship Quotes to Celebrate Your Best Friend .

Inspirational Quotes About Relationships

• "Always find opportunities to make someone smile, and to offer random acts of kindness in everyday life." — Roy T. Bennett
• “Things are never quite as scary when you’ve got a best friend.” — Bill Watterson
• "Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile." — Albert Einstein
• Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate." — Albert Schweitzer
• "If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary." — Jim Rohn
• "Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength while loving someone deeply gives you courage." — Laozi
• “The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” — Nelson Henderson
• "My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful, and optimistic. And we'll change the world." — Jack Layton
• "If you see someone without a smile, give 'em yours." — Dolly Parton
• "Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others." — Rosa Parks
• "Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible." — Tony Robbins
• "Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom." — Marcel Proust
• "Nobody has ever measured—not even poets—how much love the human heart can hold." — Zelda Fitzgerald
• "Life is made of ever so many partings welded together." — Charles Dickens
• "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." — Maya Angelou
• "The person who can bring the spirit of laughter into a room is indeed blessed." — Bennett Cerf
• "Deep in your wounds are seeds, waiting to grow beautiful flowers." — Niti Majethia
• "Whoever is happy will make others happy too." — Anne Frank

Wrapping Up

That's it for our list of positive quotes, but be sure to check back in with us soon for even more wise words. You can also sign up for our newsletter to enjoy similar content, as well as the latest in wellness, entertainment, and travel.

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Here Are 75 First Born Quotes to Share With Your Eldest Child

Here’s to you, no. 1.

Like most oldest siblings, I was the guinea pig. Through rearing me, wisdom was acquired, lessons were learned and certain models of thought (i.e. anxious hovering) were abandoned with haste.  After me, my parents adjusted by the learning curve. So, you’re welcome, Terry! Because being the first-born means that you have to pave the way for your siblings, set the standard, learn how to be responsible in case sh*t hits the fan and help your parents out when things get tough. First-borns are resilient, strong, intuitive and hardworking. And what better way to celebrate the eldest siblings with some solid first-born quotes. From the likes of famous oldest siblings like Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Kate Middleton to quotes honing in on first-born traits like leadership, maturity and success, here are 75 first-born quotes to send to your eldest.

Oldest? Youngest? Middle? Here’s What Your Birth Order Says About Your Personality

Inspiring Quotes By Famous First Borns

1. “My parents taught me about the importance of qualities like kindness, respect, and honesty, and I realize how central values like these have been to me throughout my life.” — Kate Middleton

2. “When you start to develop your powers of empathy and imagination, the whole world opens up to you.” — Susan Sarandon

3. “I don't think I'm tough but I do think I'm quite a strong character.” — Queen Camilla

4. “Life is too short to blend in.” — Paris Hilton

5. “Beauty, to me, is about being comfortable in your own skin.” — Gwyneth Paltrow

6. “We only have one life, and it is very precious, and there's a lot we can do, and there's a lot we should do.” — Selena Gomez

7. “I believe there's an inner power that makes winners or losers. And the winners are the ones who really listen to the truth of their hearts.” —  Sylvester Stallone

8. “The simple act of paying attention can take you a long way.” — Keanu Reeves

9. “If you truly pour your heart into what you believe in, even if it makes you vulnerable, amazing things can and will happen.” — Emma Watson

10. “Being alone and actually sitting with our own thoughts can lead to such growth and realizations that are rare in our everyday busy lives.” —  Kourtney Kardashian

11. “Life is definitely always about expanding. That's how we grow.” — Jessica Simpson

Quotes about responsibility and resiliency.

12. “To me, Fearless is not the absence of fear. It's not being completely unafraid. To me, Fearless is having fears. Fearless is having doubts. Lots of them. To me, Fearless is living in spite of those things that scare you to death.” ― Taylor Swift

13. “Showing up is not all of life - but it counts for a lot.” — Hillary Clinton

14. “There's a way of dealing with hardships that are healthier than going out. That's what I've learned.” — Lindsay Lohan

15. “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

16. “It is often when night looks darkest, it is often before the fever breaks that one senses the gathering momentum for change, when one feels that resurrection of hope in the midst of despair and apathy.” — Hillary Clinton

17. “You have to laugh at yourself because if you can't, you may as well give up!” — Queen Camilla

18. “If you get tired, learn to rest, not to quit.” — Banksy

19. “One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn't pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore faith in yourself.” — Lucille Ball

Quotes about leadership.

20. “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

21. “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” — Steve Jobs

22. “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.” — Bill Gates

23. “If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.” — Maya Angelou

24. “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

25. “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” — Theodore Roosevelt

26. “The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionable integrity.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower

Quotes about caring for yourself and others.

27.  “I’ve had this extraordinary feeling, for years and years, ever since I can remember really, of wanting to heal and make things better.” — King Charles

28. “Be healthy and take care of yourself, but be happy with the beautiful things that make you, you.” — Beyoncé

29. “No matter what happens in life, be good to people. Being good to people is a wonderful legacy to leave behind.” — Taylor Swift

30. “Everyone of us needs to show how much we care for each other and, in the process, care for ourselves.” — Princess Diana

31. “My guiding principles in life are to be honest, genuine, thoughtful and caring.” — Prince William

32. “Everyone has highs and lows that they have to learn from, but every morning I start off with a good head on my shoulders, saying to myself, 'It's going to be a good day!'.” — Lindsay Lohan

33. “Let’s not wait to be prompted. Let us go out today, tomorrow and the days that follow and let us demonstrate our humanity.” — Princess Diana

Quotes about success.

34. “I don’t like to gamble, but if there’s one thing I’m willing to bet on, it’s myself.” — Beyoncé

35. “Champions keep playing until they get it right.” — Billie Jean King

36. “I never dreamt of success. I worked for it.” — Estée Lauder

37. “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence." — Helen Keller

38. “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” — Thomas Edison

39. “I believe any success in life is made by going into an area with a blind, furious optimism.” — Sylvester Stallone

40. “Never let success go to your head, never let failure get to your heart.” — Beyoncé

41. “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” — Isaac Newton

Quotes about working hard.

42. “I think I know I've been working very hard for the family business, sometimes those days are long days and I think if I know I'm working hard and pulling my weight, both working and playing hard at the same time, I think everyone who I work with can see I am there pulling my weight.” — Kate Middleton

43. “Dreams are lovely. But they are dreams. Fleeting, ephemeral, pretty. But dreams do not come true just because you dream them. It's hard work that makes things happen. It's hard work that makes things happen.” — Shonda Rhimes

44. “I don’t feel like I have to please anyone. I feel free. I feel like I’m an adult. I’m grown. I can do what I want. I can say what I want. I can retire if I want. That’s why I’ve worked hard.” —  Beyoncé

45.  “Success isn't always about greatness. It's about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.” — Dwayne Johnson

46. “I’ve come to believe that each of us has a personal calling that's as unique as a fingerprint and that the best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, working hard and also allowing the energy of the universe to lead you.” — Oprah Winfrey

47. “People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.” — George Bernard Shaw

48. “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” — Thomas Jefferson

49. “The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it.” — Epicurus

Quotes about being independent.

50. “What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero

51. “Independence? That's middle class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.” — George Bernard Shaw

52. “My mother told me to be a lady. And for her, that meant be your own person, be independent.” — Ruth Bader Ginsburg

53. “Originality is independence, not rebellion; it is sincerity, not antagonism.” — George Henry Lewes

54. “The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.” — Aung San Suu Kyi

55. “You must do what you believe you are incapable of doing. Above all, be the heroine, not the victim, of your own story.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

56. “A true and strong woman is graceful, talented, fearless, brave, and modest, and she embraces the war she went through and is deified by her scars.” — Sonia Sotomayor

57. “Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.” — Kahlil Gibran

58. “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will.” — Charlotte Brontë from Jane Eyre

Quotes about persistence.

59. “Persistence is the twin sister of excellence. One is a matter of quality; the other, a matter of time.” — Marabel Morgan

60. “Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goals: my strength lies solely in my tenacity.” — Louis Pasteur

61. “A little more persistence, a little more effort and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.” — Elbert Hubbard

62. “Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.” — Og Mandino

63. “It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.” — Confucius

64. “People are either glass-half-empty or glass-half-full. I always think hopefully.” — Queen Camilla

Quotes about paving your own path.

65. “I'd rather take risks than make something that's cookie cutter.” — Sandra Bullock

66. “There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.” — Aldous Huxley

67. “Nothing in life is to be feared; it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more so that we may fear less.”  — Marie Curie

68. “I always say, the greatest cost of leading is the cost of paving the way.” — Kathy Giusti

69. “Normality is a paved road: it’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it.” — Vincent Van Gogh

70. “Never be limited by other people’s limited imaginations.” — Dr. Mae Jemison

71. “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” — Wayne Dyer

72. “This is the thing: I know I'm paving the way for the next generation of girls, and they're not going to have to do this. That's what I hope. I'll take the brunt work and just handle it, and then you guys can just sail right on through.” —  Ashley Graham

73. “Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. It’s about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let our true selves be seen.” — Brene Brown

74. “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.” — Muhammad Ali

75. “If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one.” — Dolly Parton

4 Phrases a Therapist Wants You to Stop Saying to Your Oldest Child

Assistant Editor

• Covers beauty, fashion, news, entertainment, travel, wellness, money and LGBTQ+ culture
• Has worked in media for the last eight years and has held positions at Boston Magazine, Boston Common Magazine and Northshore Magazine
• Graduated from Emerson College in 2019 with a degree in Writing, Literature and Publishing with a minor in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies