100+ Inspirational Quotes to Reflect and Inspire at the End of the Year

As the year draws to a close, it's the perfect time to pause, reflect, and find inspiration for the journey ahead. This carefully curated collection of over 100 inspirational quotes captures the essence of endings and new beginnings, offering wisdom from renowned thinkers, writers, and leaders. From Alfred Lord Tennyson's hopeful whispers about the coming year to Martin Luther King Jr.'s powerful call to keep moving forward, these quotes encourage us to embrace change, persevere through challenges, and celebrate growth. Whether you're seeking motivation to finish the year strong or inspiration to start fresh, these words will resonate deeply. Dive into reflections on life, perseverance, hope, and transformation. Let these timeless quotes guide you to appreciate the past, live fully in the present, and look forward to the future with optimism. Perfect for personal reflection, sharing with loved ones, or setting intentions for the new year, this collection is a treasure trove of encouragement and insight.

Wisdom from the Masters

"You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it."

- Maya Angelou

Resilience

"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.

Resilience

"I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance."

- Steve Jobs

Perseverance

"Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, Whispering ‘it will be happier’."

- Alfred Lord Tennyson

Hope

"Stopping at third adds no more to the score than striking out. It doesn’t matter how well you start if you fail to finish."

- Billy Sunday

Perseverance

"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

Perseverance

"Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th."

- Julie Andrews

Perseverance

"The only guarantee for failure is to stop trying."

- John C. Maxwell

Motivation

"For last year’s words belong to last year’s language and next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning."

- T.S. Eliot

New Beginnings

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

Aspirations

"Whenever you have taken up work in hand, you must see it to the finish. That is the ultimate secret of success. Never, never, never give up!"

- Dada Vaswani

Perseverance

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

- Winston Churchill

Courage

"You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Taking Risks

"Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right."

- Oprah Winfrey

New Beginnings

"Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use."

- Earl Nightingale

Motivation

"The beginning is the most important part of the work."

- Plato

New Beginnings

"New Year’s Day is a good time to fix one’s eyes on the only true goal: to be better human beings."

- G.K. Chesterton

Self-improvement

"Your life does not get better by chance. It gets better by change."

- Jim Rohn

Change

"If you love life do not waste time, for time is what life is made up of"

- Bruce Lee

Time Management

"The magic in new beginnings is truly the most powerful of them all."

- Josiyah Martin

New Beginnings

"The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written."

- Melody Beattie

New Beginnings

"With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

New Beginnings

"Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, ‘It will be happier.'"

- Alfred Lord Tennyson

Hope

"Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, do it. Make your mistakes, next year and forever."

- Neil Gaiman

Taking Risks

"The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year, but that we should have a new soul."

- G.K. Chesterton

Transformation

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

- William James

Contribution

"You’ll never get bored when you try something new. There’s really no limit to what you can do."

- Dr. Seuss

New Beginnings

"And suddenly you know: It’s time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings."

- Meister Eckhart

New Beginnings

"Take a jump, even if you can’t see where you will land."

- David Cameron

Taking Risks

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

- George Eliot

New Beginnings

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

- Michael Altshuler

Time Management

"Each year’s regrets are envelopes in which messages of hope are found for the new year."

- John R. Dallas Jr.

Hope

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

- Robin S. Sharma

Inspiration

"Take a leap of faith and begin this wondrous new year by believing."

- Sarah Ban Breathnach

Belief

"And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been."

- Rainer Maria Rilke

New Beginnings

"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Positivity

"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day."

- Edith Lovejoy Pierce

New Beginnings

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

- C.S. Lewis

Aspirations

"Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start."

- Nibo Qubein

Personal Growth

"Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful."

- Margaret J. Wheatley

Reflection

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

- Thomas Edison

Resilience

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow."

- Albert Einstein

Wisdom

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

- Søren Kierkegaard

Reflection

"It is always important to know when something has reached its end. Closing circles, shutting doors, finishing chapters, it doesn’t matter what we call it; what matters is to leave in the past those moments in life that are over."

- Paulo Coelho

New Beginnings

"Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us."

- Hal Borland

Wisdom

"Every task, goal, race and year comes to an end…therefore, make it a habit to FINISH STRONG."

- Gary Ryan Blair

Determination

"Time passes: yesterday has gone for ever but tomorrow never comes. Let’s make the most of today."

- Robert Ashby

Presence

"Every ending is a beginning. We just don’t know it at the time."

- Mitch Albom

New Beginnings

"Maybe this year, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives not looking for flaws, but looking for potential."

- Ellen Goodman

Optimism

"As the year comes to a close, it is a time for reflection – a time to release old thoughts and beliefs and forgive old hurts. Whatever has happened in the past year, the New Year brings fresh beginnings. Exciting new experiences and relationships await. Let us be thankful for the blessings of the past and the promise of the future."

- Peggy Toney Horton

Reflection

"Before you act, listen. Before you react, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you criticize, wait. Before you quit, try."

- William Arthur Ward

Wisdom

"Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action."

- Peter F. Drucker

Reflection

"It’s never too late to become who you want to be. I hope you live a life that you’re proud of, and if you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start over."

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

New Beginnings

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

- Mahatma Gandhi

Learning

"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."

- Albert Einstein

Creativity

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

Love

"Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely."

- Karen Kaiser Clark

Growth

"Wherever you go, go with all your heart."

- Confucius

Courage

"Well, we have a whole new year ahead of us. And wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could all be a little more gentle with each other, a little more loving, and have a little more empathy, and maybe, next year at this time we’d like each other a little more."

- Judy Garland

Compassion

"Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go. They merely determine where you start."

- Nido Qubein

Personal Growth

"Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear."

- George Addair

Facing Fears

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

- Steve Jobs

Independence

"Life’s not about expecting, hoping and wishing, it’s about doing, being and becoming."

- Mike Dooley

Motivation

"Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365-page book. Write a good one."

- Brad Paisley

Goals

"What we call the beginning is often the end And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from."

- T.S. Eliot

New Beginnings

"You can’t go back and make a new start, but you can start right now and make a brand-new ending."

- James P. Sherman

New Beginnings

"Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every New Year find you a better man."

- Benjamin Franklin

Self-improvement

"Nothing builds self-esteem and self-confidence like accomplishment."

- Thomas Carlyle

Self-confidence

"The woods are lovely dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep."

- Robert Frost

Perseverance

"Starting strong is good. Finishing strong is epic."

- Robin Sharma

Perseverance

"What the new year brings to you will depend a great deal on what you bring to the new year."

- Vern McLellan

Responsibility

"The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time."

- Abraham Lincoln

Hope

"For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice."

- T.S. Eliot

New Beginnings

"An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves."

- Bill Vaughan

Optimism

"When life is sweet, say thank you and celebrate. When life is bitter, say thank you and grow."

- Shauna Niequist

Gratitude

"Past and Present I know well; each is a friend and sometimes an enemy to me. But it is the quiet, beckoning Future, an absolute stranger, with whom I have fallen madly in love."

- Richelle E. Goodrich

Future

"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest."

- Confucius

Wisdom

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

- Tony Robbins

Empowerment

"You don’t have to make something that people call art. Living is an artistic activity, there is an art to getting through the day."

- Viggo Mortensen

Creativity

"Don’t tell me how hard you work. Tell me how much you get done."

- James Ling

Productivity

"Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get."

- Dale Carnegie

Happiness

"Closing time, every new beginning Comes from some other beginning’s end"

- Semisonic

New Beginnings

"We shall have our day, my dear. Where, unwilling, dies the rose Buds the new, another year."

- Dorothy Parker

New Beginnings

"I’ve become fascinated by the idea that it’s really achievable to make two or three small improvements in a week and by the end of the year, it’s 150 improvements."

- Darrell Hammond

Personal Growth

"At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us."

- Albert Schweitzer

Gratitude

"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished"

- Lao Tzu

Balance

"Ring out the false, ring in the true."

- Alfred Lord Tennyson

Change

"New Year’s Day is every man’s birthday."

- Charles Lamb

New Beginnings

"Celebrate what you want to see more of."

- Tom Peters

Positivity

"This is a new year. A new beginning. And things will change."

- Taylor Swift

New Beginnings

"Begin anywhere."

- John Cage

Taking Risks

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

- Henry David Thoreau

Success

"Every new year of my life brings a new happiness and a new kind of freedom; ageing is a gift."

- Carmen Maria Machado

Gratitude

"I never look back, darling. It distracts from the now."

- Edna Mode

Presence

"I heard a bird sing in the dark of December. A magical thing. And sweet to remember. We are nearer to Spring than we were in September. I heard a bird sing in the dark of December."

- Oliver Herford

Hope

"Can you remember who you were, before the world told you who you should be?"

- Charles Bukowski

Self-awareness

"I think if there’s something one needs to change with oneself, it doesn’t have to happen in the New Year. You can do that any time you please —not that it’s not a good inspirational tactic for the people that it works for."

- Brittany Murphy

Change

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."

- J.R.R. Tolkien

Joy

"I enjoy life when things are happening. I don’t care if it’s good things or bad things. That means you’re alive. Things are happening."

- Joan Rivers

Awareness

"I made no resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and molding my life, is too much of a daily event for me."

- Anaïs Nin

Self-awareness

"Done is better than perfect."

- Sheryl Sandberg

Productivity

"The only way to spend New Year’s Eve is either quietly with friends or in a brothel. Otherwise, it’s not worth the trouble."

- W.H. Auden

Reflection

"Youth is when you’re allowed to stay up late on New Year’s Eve. Middle age is when you’re forced to."

- Bill Vaughan

Reflection

Bite-sized Inspirational Quotes

"What feels like the end is often the beginning."

New Beginnings

"Time is spent where your priorities lie."

Reflection