Inspiring Life Quotes to Ignite Your Spirit

"One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth doing is what we do for others."

- Lewis Carroll

"Dream big and dare to fail."

- Norman Vaughan

"I’m not going to continue knocking on that old door that doesn’t open for me. I’m going to create my own door and walk through that."

- W.P. Kinsella

"Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game."

- Babe Ruth

"Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself."

- George Bernard Shaw

"We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that self may prove to be."

- May Sarton

"The great courageous act that we must all do is to have the courage to step out of our history and past so that we can live our dreams."

- Oprah Winfrey

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."

- Winston Churchill

"Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in."

- Bill Bradley

"The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"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

"Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success."

- Henry Ford

"The new dawn blooms as we free it. 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

"And when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it."

- Paulo Coelho

"My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness."

- Maya Angelou

"Living might mean taking chances, but they’re worth taking."

- Lee Ann Womack

"I didn’t get there by wishing for it or hoping for it, but by working for it."

- Estée Lauder

"Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’"

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul - and sings the tunes without the words - and never stops at all."

- Emily Dickinson

"Hope begins in the dark. The stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up."

- Anne Lamott

"It isn’t normal to know what we want. It is a rare and difficult psychological achievement."

- Abraham Maslow

"If you want to do this, if you want to play big, if you want to really impact lives, you’ve got to face yourself. You’ve got to be courageous and willing to go all in and address everything about you that is uncomfortable."

- Harry Lopez

"The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof."

- Barbara Kingsolver

"Self-discipline is doing what’s right instead of doing what you feel like doing. That’s the meaning of self-disciple."

- Eliud Kipchoge

"Be Impeccable with your Word: Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean."

- Miguel Ruiz

"The Seven Cs of Success: A clear CONCEPTION of what we want, a strong CONFIDENCE that we can attain the goal, a focus CONCENTRATION on what it takes to reach the goal, a stubborn CONSISTENCY in pursuing our vision, and emotional COMMITMENT to the importance of what we are doing."

- Tom Morris

"To be successful in life you must have a PLAN: PREPARE for the journey – LAUNCH into action – ADJUST as you go – NETWORK with those who know."

- Tom Morris

"The difference between average and top people can be explained in three words: and then some. The top people do what is expected of them…and then some. They are thoughtful of others; they are considerate and kind…and then some. They meet their responsibilities and their obligations fairly and squarely…and then some. They are good friends to their friends, and they can be counted on in an emergency…and then some."

- Mary Kay Ash

"Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power."

- Laozi

"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.'"

- Mister Rogers

"Anxiety is just repeatedly experiencing failure in advance."

- Seth Godin

"There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning."

- Jiddu Krishnamurti

"If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it."

- Margaret Fuller

"Don’t worry about failure, you only have to be right once."

- Drew Houston

"Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm."

- Abraham Lincoln

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

- Vincent van Gogh

"In every life we have some trouble, but when you worry you make it double. Don’t worry. Be happy."

- Bobby McFerrin

"The sanest thing in this world is love."

- Anne Sexton

"The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread."

- Mother Teresa

"Love means protection, adoration, mutual growth, & respect above all other things. Without this, love is an illusion, a confused attachment."

- Dena Botbyl

"There is only love; there is nothing else."

- Dena Botbyl

"When I work fourteen hours a day, seven days a week, I get lucky."

- Armand Hammer

"The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying."

- Steven Pressfield

"It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently."

- Anthony Robbins

"Everyone wants to be strong and self-sufficient, but few are willing to put in the work necessary to achieve worthy goals."

- Gandhi

"Do what you can, where you are, with what you have."

- Teddy Roosevelt

"If people only knew how hard I work to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all."

- Michelangelo

"If you’re bored with life, if you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things – you don’t have enough goals."

- Lou Holtz

"Ask not what the world needs; ask what makes you come alive, and then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

- Howard Thurman

"We are not here merely to make a living. We are here to enrich the world."

- Woodrow Wilson

"Whether you KNOW it or not, ACCEPT it or not, with each moment that passes, you get closer to fulfilling your life’s purpose."

- Dena Botbyl

"Remember that when you truly want something, the entire Universe conspires to make it happen."

- The Alchemist

"Act, & God will act."

- Joan of Arc

"When you let go of the need for any and all outcomes life becomes a creative magical adventure."

- Deepak Chopra

"Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly."

- Langston Hughes

"The present moment is the still point around which the universe arises and subsides, only to be reborn again, fresh as a new born child."

- Deepak Chopra

"With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

- Seneca

"Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back."

- Harvey Mackay

"Whatever I fight weakens me. Whatever I cooperate with strengthens me."

- Wayne Dyer

"There is one grand lie: that we are limited. The only limits we have are the limits we believe."

- Wayne Dyer

"I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self."

- Aristotle

"The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure."

- Joseph Campbell

"As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence actually liberates others."

- Marianne Williamson

"Many people have gone a lot farther than they thought they could because someone else thought they could."

- Zig Ziglar

"Nature goes to the same place to create a galaxy of stars: a cluster of nebulas, a rain forest, a human body, or a thought. That place is Spirit."

- Deepak Chopra

"Life begets life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich."

- Sarah Bernhardt

"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “Thank You,” that would suffice."

- Meister Eckhart

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

- Albert Einstein

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there."

- Rumi

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."

- Ian Maclaren

"Your own soul is nourished when you are kind; it is destroyed when you are cruel."

- King Solomon

"Don’t allow your wounds to turn you into a person you are not."

- Paulo Coelho

"My every thought has the power either to wound or heal. I will use my thoughts wisely and respect their power."

- Deepak Chopra

"The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend."

- Henry David Thoreau

"You must give up the life you planned in order to have the life that is waiting for you."

- Joseph Campbell

"Every human is an artist. And this is the main art that we have: the creation of our story."

- Don Miguel Ruiz

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

- Albert Einstein

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

- Gandhi

"The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way."

- Dale Carnegie

"A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him."

- David Brinkley

"You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction."

- George Lorimer

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

- Nelson Mandela

"Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it."

- Steve Jobs

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

- Albert Einstein

"Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is a quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’"

- Mary Anne Radmacher

"The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes."

- William James

"When you arise in the morning, think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love."

- Marcus Aurelius

"Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice."

- Wayne Dyer

"You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want."

- Zig Ziglar

"Inspiration does exist, but it must find you working."

- Pablo Picasso

"Don’t settle for average. Bring your best to the moment. Then, whether it fails or succeeds, at least you know you gave all you had."

- Angela Bassett

"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any."

- Alice Walker

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

- Theodore Roosevelt

"You have power over your mind —not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength."

- Marcus Aurelius

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up."

- Vince Lombardi

"If you can dream it, you can do it."

- Walt Disney

"Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible.'"

- Audrey Hepburn

"We need to accept that we won’t always make the right decisions, that we’ll screw up royally sometimes—understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success."

- Arianna Huffington

"When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it."

- Henry Ford

"You cannot always control what goes on outside. But you can always control what goes on inside."

- Wayne Dyer

"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can."

- Arthur Ashe

"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway."

- Earl Nightingale

"When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too."

- Paulo Coelho

"Just one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day."

- Dalai Lama

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one."

- Mark Twain

"You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win."

- Zig Ziglar

"If you live long enough, you’ll make mistakes. But if you learn from them, you’ll be a better person."

- Bill Clinton

"Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: This is the ideal life."

- Mark Twain

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

- Mae West

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

- William Osler

"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

"Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become."

- James Clear

"Forgiveness is choosing to love. It is the first skill of self-giving love."

- Gandhi

"Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it."

- Mark Twain

"An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind."

- Gandhi

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy."

- Thich Nhat Hanh

"The only reason you are happy is because you choose to be happy. Happiness is a choice, and so is suffering."

- Don Miguel Ruiz

"The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails."

- William Arthur Ward

"The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities."

- Stephen Covey

"Do or do not. There is no try."

- Yoda

"A year from now you may wish you had started today."

- Karen Lamb

"Hope can be a powerful force. Maybe there’s no actual magic in it, but when you know what you hope for most and hold it like a light within you, you can make things happen, almost like magic."

- Laini Taylor

"Don't watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going."

- Sam Levenson

"Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it’s less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you’ve lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that’s good."

- Elizabeth Edwards

"Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live."

- Norman Cousins

"You cannot do kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"We spend precious hours fearing the inevitable. It would be wise to use that time adoring our families, cherishing our friends and living our lives."

- Maya Angelou

"So when you feel like hope is gone, look inside you and be strong, and you'll finally see the truth, that a hero lies in you."

- Mariah Carey

"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer."

- Albert Camus

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

- R. A. Heinlein

"You don’t have to become something you’re not to be better than you were."

- Sidney Poitier

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

- Mark Twain

"Everything in nature invites us constantly to be what we are."

- Gretel Ehrlich

"Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny."

- C.S. Lewis

"Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently."

- Henry Ford

"Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken."

- Warren Buffett

"To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it."

- Kurt Vonnegut

"Creativity involves breaking out of expected patterns in order to look at things in a different way."

- Edward de Bono

"The human capacity for burden is like bamboo – far more flexible than you’d ever believe at first glance."

- Jodi Picoult

"The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived."

- Robert Jordan

"Focus on being productive instead of busy."

- Tim Ferriss

"Always Do Your Best: Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick."

- Miguel Ruiz

"Don’t Take Anything Personally: Nothing others do is because of you."

- Miguel Ruiz

"No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you are still way ahead of everyone who isn’t trying."

- Tony Robbins

"It’s not the will to win that matters —everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters."

- Paul Bryant

"In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary."

- Aaron Rose

"Every great mistake has a halfway moment, a split second when it can be recalled and perhaps remedied."

- Pearl S. Buck

"Learning to unlearn is the highest form of learning."

- Buddhist Proverb

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

- William Hazlitt

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."

- Aldous Huxley

"Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered – either by themselves or by others."

- Mark Twain

"There are no regrets in life. Just lessons."

- Jennifer Aniston

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."

- Douglas Adams

"The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven."

- John Milton

"Opportunities multiply as they are seized."

- Sun Tzu

"We only get to play this game one time, one life."

- Gary Vaynerchuk

"When the lion is chasing the antelope, he doesn’t look back. He has to eat."

- Robert Cheruiyot

"Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail."

- Bruce Lee

"The most difficult thing is the decision to act; the rest is merely tenacity."

- Amelia Earhart

"The truth is that productivity is often more about regulating stress than it is about living a thoughtful, responsible life."

- Kathleen Smith

"To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone, and a funnybone."

- Reba McEntire

"Be where you are; otherwise you will miss your life."

- Buddha

"It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation."

- Herman Melville

"There’s love enough in this world for everybody, if people will just look."

- Kurt Vonnegut

"Never grow a wishbone, daughter, where your backbone ought to be."

- Clementine Paddleford

"To me faith means not worrying."

- John Dewey

"As a rule, men worry more about what they can’t see than about what they can."

- Julius Caesar

"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

"Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly."

- Stephen R. Covey

"Make sure your worst enemy doesn’t live between your own two ears."

- Laird Hamilton

"The people you have to lie to, own you. The things you have to lie about, own you."

- Michael Ventura

"Having the fewest wants, I am nearest to the gods."

- Socrates

"The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them."

- Paulo Coelho

"A man who has committed a mistake and doesn’t correct it is committing another mistake."

- Confucius Kongzi

"There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning."

- Louis L'Amour

"All the pain of a human life is caused by words, as is all the joy."

- Yogic sages

"God long ago drew a circle in the sand exactly around the spot where you are standing right now. You were never not coming here."

- Sufi poem

"Identify your problems but give your power and energy to solutions."

- Tony Robbins

"A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song."

- Maya Angelou

"You must choose between your attachments and happiness."

- Adyashanti

"We are never so much disposed to quarrel with others as when we are dissatisfied with ourselves."

- William Hazlitt

"It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness."

- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

"What we feel is not based on our experience, but on our INTERPRETATION of experiences."

- Anthony Robbins

"If we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves."

- Maria Edgeworth

"I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than regret the things I haven’t done."

- Lucille Ball

"When two people fall in love, past and future disappear."

- The Alchemist

"We also have people dying longer, we are able to keep people alive without much quality of life in many cases."

- Ken Dychtwald, Ph.D.

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

- Robert Louis Stevenson

"You are not responsible for your first thought, but you are responsible for your second thought."

- Raquel Smith

"One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from a horse master. He told me to go slow to go fast. I think that applies to everything in life. We live as though there aren't enough hours in the day but if we do each thing calmly and carefully we will get it done quicker and with much less stress."

- Viggo Mortensen

"Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all."

- Peter Drucker

"Too many people spend money they earned to buy things they don’t want to impress people that they don’t like."

- Will Rogers

"A nail is driven out by another nail. Habit is overcome by habit."

- Erasmus

"If you don't pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, it will take more of your attention than it deserves."

- David Allen

"What looks like multitasking is really switching back and forth between multiple tasks, which reduces productivity and increases mistakes by up to 50 percent."

- Susan Cain

"Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together."

- Marilyn Monroe

"A wind that blows aimlessly is no good to anyone."

- Rick Riordan

"If a window of opportunity appears, don’t pull down the shade."

- Tom Peters

"It is amazing how much can be accomplished if no one cares who gets the credit."

- John Wooden

"The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Things turn out best for people who make the best out of the way things turn out."

- Art Linkletter

"Whatever is… is best."

- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

"There is no perfection, only life."

- Milan Kundera

"It is no good getting furious if you get stuck. What I do is keep thinking about the problem but work on something else."

- Stephen Hawking

"We pass through this world but once."

- Stephen Jay Gould

"The only people with whom you should try to get even are those who have helped you."

- John E. Southard

"The Pearl Principle – no inner irritation, no pearl."

- Lama Surya Das

"Reflect on what you do in a day. You may have never realized how some simple, harmless activities rob you of precious time."

- Vivek Naik

"If you don’t manage your life, your life will manage you."

- St. C

"If you don’t have any shadows, you’re not in the light."

- Lady Gaga

"If you’re going through hell, keep going."

- Winston Churchill

"Sometimes magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect."

- Raymond Joseph Teller

"Love is the beginning of the journey, its end, and the journey itself."

- Deepak Chopra

"Happiness is not determined by what’s happening around you, but rather what’s happening inside you."

"Making one person smile can change the world – maybe not the whole world, but their world."

"Life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you react to it."

"Remember: everyone you meet is fighting a mighty battle. Be kind. Be understanding."

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

"Successful people willingly do what unsuccessful people are unwilling to do."

"If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it."

"You will never become who you want to be if you keep blaming everyone else for who you are now."

"You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading your last one."

"Giving up doesn’t always mean you’re weak, sometimes it means you are strong enough and smart enough to let go and move on."

"In life, if you don’t risk anything, you risk everything."

"Every single thing that has ever happened in your life is preparing you for a moment that is yet to come."

"You cannot change what you refuse to confront."

"There isn’t anything noble about being superior to another person. True nobility is in being superior to the person you once were."

"You become what you focus on and like the people you spend time with."

"When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you."

"Sometimes you need to distance yourself to see things clearly."

"Hope is NOT a strategy."

"The minute you stop expecting life to be simple, fair and easy… it becomes simple, fair and easy."

"Don’t think of cost. Think of value."

"Sometimes people don’t notice the things others do for them until they stop doing them."

"Sometimes, it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine."

"It’s better to be alone than to be in bad company."

"Commitment means staying loyal to what you said you were going to do long after the mood you said it in has left you."

"True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less."

"Resilience is when you address uncertainty with flexibility."

"Before you speak, ask yourself: is it kind, is it necessary, is it true, does it improve on the silence?"

"Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true."

"Positive people don’t need an outside push; they seemingly have a natural internal push that continually pulls them forward."

"Let go and let God."

"There are three ways to lead: 1. By example 2. By example 3. By example."

"Be willing to say to those in your charge, “I don’t know.”"

"When I choose to imagine someone’s pain/perspective I lose my appetite for anger."

"By acting bravely we become brave; not the other way round."

"What gets measured gets done, what gets measured and fed back gets done well, what gets rewarded gets repeated."

"Detachment is not indifference. Detachment is love without expecting anything in return."

"Discipline is an exercise of repetition. Not once or twice but until. Until completed."

"Giving up is not failing — it’s the chance to begin again."

"A bird in a cage is safe but God didn’t create birds for that."

"Not only is the kingdom of heaven within, but the kingdom of Hell is within as well – it’s your choice."

"You are the average of your five closest associates."

"The happiest people don’t have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything."

"What you do today determines who you will be tomorrow."

"If you want more time, freedom, and energy, start saying no."

"Your life is your message for the world…"

"People are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves."

"We see the world not as it is, but as we are."

"All that you achieve and all that you fail to achieve are the direct results of your thoughts."

"The best way to find your self is to lose yourself in the service of others."