Inspiring Words: A Collection of Life-Changing Quotes

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

- Frank Herbert

"Not all those who wander are lost."

- J.R.R. Tolkien

"UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not."

- Dr. Seuss

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

- Winston Churchill

"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

"Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times when one only remembers to turn on the light."

- J.K. Rowling

"“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”"

- Charlotte Brontë

"That's the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet."

- Jhumpa Lahiri

"“Women, they have minds, and they have souls, as well as just hearts. And they’ve got ambition, and they’ve got talent, as well as just beauty. I’m so sick of people saying that love is all a woman is fit for.”"

- Louisa May Alcott

"“The only way we will survive is by being kind. The only way we can get by in this world is through the help we receive from others. No one can do it alone, no matter how great the machines are.”"

- Amy Poehler

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."

- Maya Angelou

"“My life is my message.”"

- Mahatma Gandhi

"As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once."

- John Green

"“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”"

- Maya Angelou

"“The real courage is in living and suffering for what you believe.”"

- Christopher Paolini

"“We who have means and a voice must use them to help those who have neither.”"

- Jennifer Donnelly

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

- Paulo Coelho

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present."

- Bill Keane

"“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”"

- Harper Lee

"“Human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere.”"

- Elie Wiesel

"“Becoming fearless isn’t the point. That’s impossible. It’s learning how to control your fear, and how to be free from it.”"

- Veronica Roth

"“When Harry thought about Winnie and the voyage across the ocean, his head said, ‘I shouldn’t.’ His head said, ‘I can’t.’ But his heart made up his mind.”"

- Lindsay Mattick

"And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

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

- Paulo Coelho

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

- Thomas A. Edison

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

- Marianne Williamson

"“All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost.”"

- J.R.R. Tolkien

"How we spend our days is of course, how we spend our lives."

- Annie Dillard

"“It’s very hard to have ideas. It’s very hard to put yourself out there, it’s very hard to be vulnerable, but those people who do that are the dreamers, the thinkers and the creators. They are the magic people of the world.”"

- Amy Poehler

"Face your fears, or they will climb over your back."

- Frank Herbert

"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."

- Oscar Wilde

"I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship."

- Louisa May Alcott

"“All we can know is that we know nothing. And that’s the height of human wisdom.”"

- Leo Tolstoy

"It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting."

- Paulo Coelho

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go..."

- Dr. Seuss

"What's the point of having a voice if you're gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn't be?"

- Angie Thomas

"Be the change that you wish to see in the world."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"This life is what you make it. No matter what, you're going to mess up sometimes, it's a universal truth. But the good part is you get to decide how you're going to mess it up. Girls will be your friends - they'll act like it anyway. But just remember, some come, some go. The ones that stay with you through everything - they're your true best friends. Don't let go of them. Also remember, sisters make the best friends in the world. As for lovers, well, they'll come and go too. And baby, I hate to say it, most of them - actually pretty much all of them are going to break your heart, but you can't give up because if you give up, you'll never find your soulmate. You'll never find that half who makes you whole and that goes for everything. Just because you fail once, doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything. Keep trying, hold on, and always, always, always believe in yourself, because if you don't, then who will, sweetie? So keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life's a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about."

- Marilyn Monroe

"I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart: I am, I am, I am."

- Sylvia Plath

"“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places.”"

- Ernest Hemingway

"Now that I knew fear, I also knew it was not permanent. As powerful as it was, its grip on me would loosen. It would pass."

- Louise Erdrich

"When I discover who I am, I'll be free."

- Ralph Ellison

"Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful."

- Mary Shelley

"“People are their most beautiful when they are laughing, crying, dancing, playing, telling the truth, and being chased in a fun way.”"

- Amy Poehler

"The real things haven’t changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures, and have courage when things go wrong."

- Laura Ingalls Wilder

"Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers."

- Charles W. Eliot

"You never really know how far a smile can go. When one comes your way, it may have traveled thousands of miles and cheered millions of people before it reached you."

- Patrice Karst

"The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it."

- J.M. Barrie

"The willow submits to the wind and prospers until one day it is many willows - a wall against the wind."

- Frank Herbert

"Thank you for the sun above, thank you for my friends I love, thank you for the earth and air, thank you for the food to share."

- Dallas Clayton

"Love is or it ain't. Thin love ain't love at all."

- Toni Morrison

"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

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

- Mahatma Gandhi

"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

"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

"It is never too late to be what you might have been."

- George Eliot

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

- George Bernard Shaw

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

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be."

- Shel Silverstein

"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

"That which yields is not always weak."

- Jacqueline Carey

"There is always something left to love."

- Gabriel García Márquez

"They say nothing lasts forever but they're just scared it will last longer than they can love it."

- Ocean Vuong

"Anything worth dying for is certainly worth living for."

- Joseph Heller

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

"Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same."

- Emily Brontë

"Nolite te bastardes carborundorum."

- Margaret Atwood

"We accept the love we think we deserve."

- Stephen Chbosky

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go."

- Dr. Seuss

"You’re great no matter what! You are worthwhile simply because you’re alive. Never forget this, and you’re sure to thrive."

- Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

"Never hurry and never worry!"

- E.B. White

"A little drop of paint lets your imagination run wild. A smudge and a smear can make magic appear."

- Barney Saltzberg

"Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labelled ‘This could change your life.'"

- Helen Exley

"You can steer yourself any direction you choose."

- Dr. Seuss

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose."

- Dr. Seuss

"“Listen to the MUSTN’TS, child. Listen to the DON’TS. Listen to the SHOULDN’TS, the IMPOSSIBLES, the WONT’S. Listen to the NEVER HAVES. Then listen close to me—Anything can happen, child, ANYTHING can be.”"

- Shel Silverstein

"“That’s the thing about pain. It demands to be felt.”"

- John Green

"“Life changes in the instant. The ordinary instant.”"

- Joan Didion

"“The world may be mean, but people don’t have to be, not if they refuse.”"

- Colson Whitehead

"“You may be born into a family, but you walk into friendships. Some you’ll discover you should put behind you. Others are worth every risk.”"

- Adam Silvera

"“Books are easily destroyed. But words will live as long as people can remember them.”"

- Tahereh Mafi

"“I am coming to terms with the fact that loving someone requires a leap of faith, and that a soft landing is never guaranteed.”"

- Sarah Dessen

"“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts.”"

- William Shakespeare

"“I love her and that’s the beginning and end of everything.”"

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

"“If he loved with all the powers of his puny being, he couldn’t love as much in eighty years as I could in a day.”"

- Emily Brontë

"“One day I will find the right words, and they all will be simple.”"

- Jack Kerouac

"“Anything worth dying for is certainly worth living for.”"

- Joseph Heller

"“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”"

- Zora Neale Hurston

"“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.”"

- Charles Dickens

"“You can’t pick out the pieces and leave the rest. Being part of the whole thing, that’s the blessing.”"

- Natalie Babbitt

"“Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.”"

- William Golding

"“Don’t waste your energy trying to change opinions. … Do your thing, and don’t care if they like it.”"

- Tina Fey

"“What’s so wrong with effort, anyway? It means you care.”"

- Mindy Kaling

"The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us."

- Ray Bradbury

"So many things are possible just as long as you don’t know they’re impossible."

- Norton Juster

"Inside all of us is Hope. Inside all of us is Fear. Inside all of us is Adventure. Inside all of us is … A Wild Thing."

- Maurice Sendak

"Setting out on an adventure is thrilling, but coming home is even better."

- Maurice Sendak

"“There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.”"

- J.R.R. Tolkien

"“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”"

- George Orwell

"The best moments in reading are when you come across something–a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things–which you had thought special and particular to you."

- Alan Bennett

"Too much sanity may be madness — and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be!"

- Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

"Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring."

- Marilyn Monroe

"Everything you can imagine is real."

- Pablo Picasso

"It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then."

- Lewis Carroll

"Time moves slowly, but passes quickly."

- Alice Walker

"So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I'm still trying to figure out how that could be."

- Stephen Chbosky

"Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt."

- Kurt Vonnegut

"“You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you’ll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present.”"

- John Green

"Books have to be heavy because the whole world’s inside them."

- Cornelia Funke

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."

- Oscar Wilde

"“It’s funny. All one has to do is say something nobody understands and they’ll do practically anything you want them to.”"

- J.D. Salinger

"“I think that maybe forgiveness is like change—it comes in small steps.”"

- Mary E. Pearson

"“It is dreadful that one cannot tear out the past by the roots. We cannot tear it out but we can hide the memory of it.”"

- Leo Tolstoy

"Who knows, my friend? Maybe the sword does have some magic. Personally, I think it’s the warrior who wields it."

- Brian Jacques

"The story is truly finished–and meaning is made–not when the author adds the last period, but when the reader enters."

- Celeste Ng

"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

"Books should go where they will be most appreciated, and not sit unread, gathering dust on a forgotten shelf, don’t you agree?"

- Christopher Paolini

"The teacher taught me the word in school. I wrote it in my book. B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L. Beautiful! I think it means something that when you have it, your heart is happy."

- Sharon Dennis Wyeth

"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me."

- C.S. Lewis

"Normal is whatever you are."

- Stephen Cosgrove

"You can’t expect everyone to have the same dedication as you."

- Jeff Kinney

"Today was a difficult day. Tomorrow will be better."

"Find your own way, you don’t have to follow the crowd. There’s only one you in this great big world."