50 Inspirational Quotes of Encouragement to Uplift Your Spirit

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

- Anaïs Nin

"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

"Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud."

- Maya Angelou

"If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one."

- Dolly Parton

"Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts."

- Winston Churchill

"All dreams are within reach. All you have to do is keep moving towards them."

- Viola Davis

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

- George Eliot

"When you put love out in the world it travels, and it can touch people and reach people in ways that we never even expected."

- Laverne Cox

"Give light and people will find the way."

- Ella Baker

"It always seems impossible until it’s done."

- Nelson Mandela

"Don’t count the days, make the days count."

- Muhammad Ali

"If you risk nothing, then you risk everything."

- Geena Davis

"Stay afraid, but do it anyway. What's important is the action. You don’t have to wait to be confident. Just do it and eventually the confidence will follow."

- Carrie Fisher

"When you have a dream, you’ve got to grab it and never let go."

- Carol Burnett

"Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn’t have the power to say yes."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"If you’re having fun, that’s when the best memories are built."

- Simone Biles

"We cannot solve problems with the kind of thinking we employed when we came up with them."

- Albert Einstein

"Hard things will happen to us. We will recover. We will learn from it. We will grow more resilient because of it."

- Taylor Swift

"Your story is what you have, what you will always have. It is something to own."

- Michelle Obama

"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist."

- Oscar Wilde

"You define beauty yourself, society doesn’t define your beauty."

- Lady Gaga

"Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you."

- Mary Lou Retton

"You just gotta keep going and fighting for everything, and one day you’ll get to where you want."

- Naomi Osaka

"No matter how far away from yourself you may have strayed, there is always a path back. You already know who you are and how to fulfill your destiny."

- Oprah Winfrey

"Surround yourself with those who believe in you. Your life is too important for anything less."

- Steve Goodier

"Learn as if you will live forever, live like you will die tomorrow."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"I never dreamed about success. I worked for it."

- Estée Lauder

"I just want you to know that if you are out there and you are being really hard on yourself right now for something that has happened ... it's normal. That is what is going to happen to you in life. No one gets through unscathed. We are all going to have a few scratches on us. Please be kind to yourselves and stand up for yourself, please."

- Taylor Swift

"The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty."

- Winston Churchill

"Stay away from those people who try to disparage your ambitions. Small minds will always do that, but great minds will give you a feeling that you can become great too."

- Mark Twain

"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. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it."

- Steve Jobs

"When you have a dream, you've got to grab it and never let go."

- Carol Burnett

"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

"If you are working on something that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you."

- Steve Jobs

"Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness."

- Oprah Winfrey

"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

"You define your own life. Don't let other people write your script."

- Oprah Winfrey

"If you prioritize yourself, you are going to save yourself."

- Gabrielle Union

"A problem is a chance for you to do your best."

- Duke Ellington

"You can’t turn back the clock. But you can wind it up again."

- Bonnie Prudden

"When you can’t find someone to follow, you have to find a way to lead by example."

- Roxane Gay

"There is no better compass than compassion."

- Amanda Gorman

"Stand before the people you fear and speak your mind – even if your voice shakes."

- Maggie Kuhn

"It’s a toxic desire to try to be perfect. I realized later in life that the challenge is not to be perfect. It’s to be whole."

- Jane Fonda

"Vitality shows not only in the ability to persist but in the ability to start over."

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

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

- Alice Walker

"Love yourself first and everything else falls into line."

- Lucille Ball

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

- Robert Frost

"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."

- E.E. Cummings

"Your self-worth is determined by you. You don't have to depend on someone telling you who you are."

- Beyoncé

"Nothing is impossible. The word itself says 'I'm possible!'"

- Audrey Hepburn

"Keep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you."

- Walt Whitman

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

- Dr. Seuss

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

- Winston Churchill

"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 our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them."

- Walt Disney

"Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them."

- Madam C.J. Walker

"Champions keep playing until they get it right."

- Billie Jean King

"I am lucky that whatever fear I have inside me, my desire to win is always stronger."

- Serena Williams

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."

- C.S. Lewis

"Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."

- Calvin Coolidge

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

- Theodore Roosevelt

"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."

- Richard Branson

"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

"Spread love everywhere you go."

- Mother Teresa

"What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"It always seems impossible until it's done."

- Nelson Mandela

"I am experienced enough to do this. I am knowledgeable enough to do this. I am prepared enough to do this. I am mature enough to do this. I am brave enough to do this."

- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

"No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world."

- Robin Williams

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

- Ava DuVernay

"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

"I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

- Michael Jordan

"Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!"

- Anne Frank

"Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud."

- Maya Angelou

"Find out who you are and be that person. That's what your soul was put on this earth to be. Find that truth, live that truth, and everything else will come."

- Ellen DeGeneres

"Wake up determined, go to bed satisfied."

- Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

"Nobody built like you, you design yourself."

- Jay-Z

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"I tell myself, 'You've been through so much, you've endured so much, time will allow me to heal, and soon this will be just another memory that made me the strong woman, athlete, and mother I am today.'"

- Serena Williams

"Our lives are stories in which we write, direct and star in the leading role. Some chapters are happy while others bring lessons to learn, but we always have the power to be the heroes of our own adventures."

- Joelle Speranza

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

- Albert Einstein

"Don't try to lessen yourself for the world; let the world catch up to you."

- Beyoncé

"If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one!"

- Dolly Parton

"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

"Dreams don’t have to just be dreams. You can make it a reality; if you just keep pushing and keep trying, then eventually you'll reach your goal. And if that takes a few years, then that's great, but if it takes 10 or 20, then that's part of the process."

- Naomi Osaka

"We’ve been making our own opportunities, and as you prove your worth and value to people, they can’t put you in a box. You hustle it into happening, right?"

- Jennifer Lopez

"Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals."

- Zig Ziglar

"I'm realizing how much I've diminished my own power. I'm not doing that no more."

- Alicia Keys

"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

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts today."

- Franklin Delano Roosevelt

"You do not find the happy life. You make it."

- Camilla Eyring Kimball

"You don’t have to be defined or confined by your environment, by your family circumstances, and certainly not by your race or gender."

- Mariah Carey

"When we let fear be our master, we cannot be happy and free as a butterfly. But when we choose to trust the journey and embrace love and joy, we are free to fly."

- Annicken R. Day

"It ain't about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward."

- Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa

"I will not let anyone scare me out of my full potential."

- Nicki Minaj

"We have to be better. We have to love more, hate less. We've gotta listen more and talk less. We've gotta know that this is everybody's responsibility."

- Megan Rapinoe

"Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye."

- Helen Keller

"If my mind can conceive it, if my heart can believe it, then I can achieve it."

- Muhammad Ali

"If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does."

- William James

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

- Mahatma Gandhi

"You have to choose to do it."

- Simone Biles

"Try to be a rainbow in someone else's cloud."

- Maya Angelou

"If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else."

- Booker T. Washington

"Tough times never last, but tough people do."

- Robert Schuller

"One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals."

- Michelle Obama

"You define your own life. Don’t let other people write your script."

- Oprah Winfrey

"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

"Keep your face always toward the sunshine — and shadows will fall behind you."

- Walt Whitman

"There is always light. If only we're brave enough to see it. If only we're brave enough to be it."

- Amanda Gorman

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

- Nelson Mandela

"My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive."

- Maya Angelou

"Happiness is not by chance, but by choice."

- Jim Rohn

"You are enough just as you are."

- Meghan Markle

"You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will."

- Stephen King

"I believe great people do things before they are ready."

- Amy Poehler

"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

"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."

- Mia Hamm

"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

"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

"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

"You are your best thing."

- Toni Morrison

"We have to let go of who we think we should be and embrace what is."

- Achea Redd

"Do not allow people to dim your shine because they are blinded. Tell them to put some sunglasses on."

- Lady Gaga

"If you make your internal life a priority, then everything else you need on the outside will be given to you and it will be extremely clear what the next step is."

- Gabrielle Bernstein

"You don't always need a plan. Sometimes you just need to breathe, trust, let go and see what happens."

- Mandy Hale

"I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination."

- Jimmy Dean

"The moral of my story is the sun always comes out after the storm. Being optimistic and surrounding yourself with positive loving people is for me, living life on the sunny side of the street."

- Janice Dean

"We generate fears while we sit. We overcome them by action."

- Dr. Henry Link

"We are not our best intentions. We are what we do."

- Amy Dickinson

"I've noticed when I fear something, if I just end up doing it, I'm grateful in the end."

- Colleen Hoover

"It is often the small steps, not the giant leaps, that bring about the most lasting change."

- Queen Elizabeth II

"If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done."

- Bruce Lee

"A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do."

- Bob Dylan

"The simple act of listening to someone and making them feel as if they have truly been heard is a most treasured gift."

- L. A. Villafane

"Don't be afraid. Because you're going to be afraid. But remember when you become afraid, just don't be afraid."

- Joan Jett

"We need to take risks. We need to go broke. We need to prove them wrong, simply by not giving up."

- Awkwafina

"The best revenge is massive success."

- Frank Sinatra

"Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment, until it becomes a memory."

- Dr. Seuss

"We all have problems. But it's not what happens to us, [it 's] the choices we make after."

- Elizabeth Smart

"You rarely win, but sometimes you do."

- Harper Lee

"We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone."

- Ronald Reagan

"You must find the place inside yourself where nothing is impossible."

- Deepak Chopra

"Whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you are withholding from the world."

- Eckhart Tolle

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

- Vince Lombardi

"Being vulnerable is a strength, not a weakness."

- Selena Gomez

"I'm going to be gone one day, and I have to accept that tomorrow isn't promised. Am I OK with how I’m living today? It's the only thing I can help. If I didn't have another one, what have I done with all my todays? Am I doing a good job?"

- Hayley Williams

"Belief creates the actual fact."

- William James

"You can't rely on how you look to sustain you, what sustains us, what is fundamentally beautiful is compassion; for yourself and your those around you."

- Lupita Nyong'o

"Not having the best situation, but seeing the best in your situation is the key to happiness."

- Marie Forleo

"It isn't where you came from. It's where you're going that counts."

- Ella Fitzgerald

"In a gentle way, you can shake the world."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"Let love rule."

- Lenny Kravitz

"All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination."

- Earl Nightingale

"I care about decency and humanity and kindness. Kindness today is an act of rebellion."

- Pink

"If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely."

- Roald Dahl

"We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us."

- Joseph Campbell

"The only journey is the one within."

- Rainer Maria Rilke

"No matter what you're going through, there's a light at the end of the tunnel."

- Demi Lovato

"Embrace the glorious mess that you are."

- Elizabeth Gilbert

"At the end of the day, whether or not those people are comfortable with how you're living your life doesn't matter. What matters is whether you're comfortable with it."

- Dr. Phil

"Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around."

- Henry David Thoreau

"People tell you the world looks a certain way. Parents tell you how to think. Schools tell you how to think. TV. Religion. And then at a certain point, if you're lucky, you realize you can make up your own mind. Nobody sets the rules but you. You can design your own life."

- Carrie Ann Moss

"The most wasted of days is one without laughter."

- E.E. Cummings

"Life changes very quickly, in a very positive way, if you let it."

- Lindsey Vonn

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

- Amelia Earhart

"Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor."

- Truman Capote

"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

"When you change your thoughts, remember to also change your world."

- Norman Vincent Peale

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

- Herman Melville

"The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same."

- Colin R. Davis

"Success usually comes to those who are too busy looking for it."

- Henry David Thoreau

"Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success."

- Dale Carnegie

"There are three ways to ultimate success: The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind."

- Mister Rogers

"Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable."

- John Wooden

"Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today."

- Will Rogers

"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards."

- Vernon Sanders Law

"To know how much there is to know is the beginning of learning to live."

- Dorothy West

"Goal setting is the secret to a compelling future."

- Tony Robbins

"Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work in hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus."

- Alexander Graham Bell

"Either you run the day or the day runs you."

- Jim Rohn

"I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it."

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Paulo Coelho

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."

- Thomas Edison

"Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible."

- Tony Robbins

"We don’t just sit around and wait for other people. We just make, and we do."

- Arlan Hamilton

"Women challenge the status quo because we are never it."

- Cindy Gallop

"When it comes to luck, you make your own."

- Bruce Springsteen

"Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference."

- Winston Churchill

"It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light."

- Aristotle

"Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time."

- Ruth Bader Ginsburg

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

- Thomas A. Edison

"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

"You can’t make decisions based on fear and the possibility of what might happen."

- Michelle Obama

"There is nothing impossible to they who will try."

- Alexander the Great

"The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot."

- Michael Altshuler

"You make a choice: continue living your life feeling muddled in this abyss of self-misunderstanding, or you find your identity independent of it. You draw your own box."

- Meghan Markle

"Don't stop when you're tired, stop when you're done."

- David Goggins

"Even if I don’t reach all my goals, I’ve gone higher than I would have if I hadn’t set any."

- Danielle Fotopoulis

"It’s not about better time management. It’s about better life management."

- Alexandra of The Productivity Zone

"Success is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get."

- Ingrid Bergman

"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

"Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined."

- Toni Morrison

"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

"It is only when we take chances, when our lives improve. The initial and the most difficult risk that we need to take is to become honest."

- Walter Anderson

"Life has got all those twists and turns. You've got to hold on tight and off you go."

- Nicole Kidman

"You can be everything. You can be the infinite amount of things that people are."

- Kesha

"In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present."

- Francis Bacon

"Work hard, know your s—t, show your s—t, and then feel entitled."

- Mindy Kaling

"There's nothing more powerful than not giving a f—k."

- Amy Schumer

"The power of imagination makes us infinite."

- John Muir

"It has always been easy to hate and destroy. To build and to cherish is much more difficult."

- Queen Elizabeth II

"When you've seen beyond yourself, then you may find, peace of mind is waiting there."

- George Harrison

"If what you have done yesterday still looks big to you, you haven't done much today."

- Mikhail Gorbachev

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

- Lewis Carroll

"In the long run, you make your own luck — good, bad, or indifferent."

- Loretta Lynn

"Weaknesses are just strengths in the wrong environment."

- Marianne Cantwell

"Trying to grow up is hurting. You make mistakes. You try to learn from them, and when you don't, it hurts even more."

- Aretha Franklin

"Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky."

- Rabindranath Tagore

"You get what you give."

- Jennifer Lopez

"Learning how to be still, to really be still and let life happen—that stillness becomes a radiance."

- Morgan Freeman

"A lot of people are afraid to say what they want. That's why they don't get what they want."

- Madonna

"You have to be where you are to get where you need to go."

- Amy Poehler

"I don't look ahead. I'm right here with you. It's a good way to be."

- Danny DeVito

"How wild it was, to let it be."

- Cheryl Strayed

"Faith is love taking the form of aspiration."

- William Ellery Channing

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

- Marilyn Monroe

"Just believe in yourself. Even if you don’t, pretend that you do and, at some point, you will."

"You learn more from failure than from success. Don’t let it stop you. Failure builds character."

"The strongest actions for a woman is to love herself, be herself and shine amongst those who never believed she could."